COS Chapter Three: "The Burrow"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

* Aww, c’mon, Jo, do we have to go with Harry to the Burrow? Couldn’t we go to Malfoy Manor with Theo Nott instead?

* Would Arthur really know about Harry’s reprimand, given that it’s got nothing to do with his department? “He works in the Ministry” often seems to be another way of saying “A wizard did it”.

 * So none of the neighbours noticed a car hovering in mid-air next to Harry’s bedroom?

* Fred’s “We feel they’re skills worth learning” is probably meant to make him sound all tolerant and pro-Muggle. Unfortunately the effect is undermined somewhat by the fact that he only seems to be interested in learning how to steal things.

* BTW, I just think it’s nice that the twins are using their skills here in service of a good cause, rather than to bully the Slytherins or make mischief for the hell of it. It’s a shame they don’t do this more often.

* Given the WW’s rather lax regard for animal rights, Hedwig’s probably lucky that nothing worse has happened to her than almost being left behind.

* I’d have thought that Vernon would be happy to see Harry escaping, given that he seems to hate the boy.

* They let Hedwig out to fly alongside them. Pity they won’t think of this when they have to escape in DH.

* Malfoy doesn’t like Harry. Malfoy’s the sort of person who’d have a house-elf. Therefore, Malfoy’s the one who sent Dobby. QED! Obviously elementary logic isn’t on the Hogwarts curriculum. (Well, we wouldn’t people learning to question old Twinkly, would we?)

* Fred and George seem perfectly happy to repeat everything their dad says about the Malfoys. This shows that they are tireless fighters for Good, as opposed to Draco, whose willingness to repeat everything his dad says about Muggleborns shows that he’s an evil bigot who deserves to get hexed into unconsciousness by Harry and friends.

* Note that the fact that Harry’s always beating Draco, rather than vice versa, in no way alters the fact that Harry’s the underdog in this story.

* Draco, the boy who sometimes makes snotty comments about Hagrid and the Weasleys, makes Dudley, the boy who spent eleven years physically abusing Harry and his friends, look like a kind, thoughtful and sensitive boy. Right.

* If house-elves are set free by being given clothes, how would one be able to help Mrs. Weasley with the ironing? And given all the stuff that wizards can do with magic, I have great difficulty believing that nobody’s invented an ironing spell yet.

* Actually, given that pretty much any household chore can be done using magic in a few seconds, I’m surprised wizards need servants. Still, I suppose we have to have some way of showing how privileged the Malfoys are.

* If the Weasleys’ owl collapses on deliveries, mightn’t it be better to get a new one?

* Percy’s been spending most of his time in his room, polishing his, ahem, Prefect badge. Because obviously, a sixteen-year-old boy wouldn’t spend time in his bedroom for any other reason.

* Come to think of it, though, “I’ve just got to go and polish my Prefect badge” sounds like one of the euphemisms from that Saturday Night Live sketch with Lindsay Lohan as Hermione.

* That’s right, Arthur, wipe their memories! They’re only Muggles, after all, so you can pretty much do anything you want to them.

* The kids’ idea to pretend Harry arrived in the middle of the night has got to be one of the dumbest plans I have ever heard.

* Note how Fred gets all resentful about “perfect Percy”, even though Mrs. Weasley referred to Bill and Charlie, too. Yep, you can tell Percy’s a valued member of this family, alright. I can’t imagine what made him decide to align himself with the Ministry instead of his family.

* For a poor family, the Weasleys seem to have no difficulty in looking after Harry for however many weeks it is that he stays. It seems like they’re only poor when Ron needs to angst about not having enough money; when actually being poor might inconvenience one of the characters in any practical way, they’re fine.

* It might have made sense for the Weasleys to have difficulty looking after seven children (although it would rather call their judgement into question), but now that two have left home, four are at a free boarding school for most of the year, and one is about to start said boarding school, their financial situation really should have improved.

* How exactly is Mr. Weasley too soft with the gnomes? Is it that he insists on just throwing them away, rather than killing them or whatever?

* Mr. Weasley’s just as prejudiced, in his own way, as the Malfoys are. It sometimes seems as if the only distinguisher between the good guys and the bad guys in these books is whether they talk about Muggles as if they were children, or whether they talk about Muggles as if they were animals.

* Arthur’s been using his position to deliberately make loopholes in the law so that he can continue tinkering with Muggle stuff. Why do I get the impression that, if Lucius did such a thing, it’d be treated as a sign of his irredeemable evilness?

* Silly backwards Muggles, with their theatre and their literature and their television and their films and their opera. Wizards have got The Adventures of Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle, which is obviously far superior in every respect.

* The part about the gnomes sneaking back into the garden made me chuckle.

* I love Ron’s waiting for Harry’s opinion of his room. It’s just so natural and realistic and sweet.
 

Comments

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/Fred and George seem perfectly happy to repeat everything their dad says about the Malfoys. This shows that they are tireless fighters for Good, as opposed to Draco, whose willingness to repeat everything his dad says about Muggleborns shows that he’s an evil bigot who deserves to get hexed into unconsciousness by Harry and friends./

I think that it's the racism factor. By criticizing the Malfoys, Fred and George aren't saying that *all* pureblood families are bad (after all, they're purebloods themselves) or that all wealthy families are bad. The Weasleys' animosity is personal and confined to just one family. It's not motivated by racism or elitism, etc., so it's easier to forgive.

/Draco, the boy who sometimes makes snotty comments about Hagrid and the Weasleys, makes Dudley, the boy who spent eleven years physically abusing Harry and his friends, look like a kind, thoughtful and sensitive boy. Right./

Well, that's just a repetition of what we heard in the last book, namely of the statement, "Harry never thought that he would hate a boy more than Dudley." Again, maybe it's just because Draco is rich and has magic.

Or... (maybe I'm just pulling things out of thin air here) maybe it's because Harry's never seen Privet Drive as his home, which is understandable, given his poor treatment there. Hogwarts, on the other hand, *is* the place that he calls home, where he finally feels accepted. It's the one place that he can escape from the Dursleys, he has friends there, and he feels welcome. It almost seems perfect...

...except it's not. Despite being much better than Privet Drive, Harry still has to contend with a bragging, boastful bully, who reminds him of Dudley. Draco (as well as Snape) ruins the idea of Hogwarts being a perfect, escapist paradise. Harry can deal with Dudley because he expects nothing more from Privet Drive, but for some kid to make his life at Hogwarts difficult, to insult the friends that Harry's so grateful to have, to spoil what would otherwise be an ideal home for him...maybe that's what Harry can't forgive him for.

/Come to think of it, though, “I’ve just got to go and polish my Prefect badge” sounds like one of the euphemisms from that Saturday Night Live sketch with Lindsay Lohan as Hermione./

I remember that sketch! It was awesome. XD

/Note how Fred gets all resentful about “perfect Percy”, even though Mrs. Weasley referred to Bill and Charlie, too. Yep, you can tell Percy’s a valued member of this family, alright./

And again, what's the difference between them being resentful of Percy and sarcastically calling him "Perfect Percy" and Draco being resentful of Harry and sarcastically calling him "Perfect Potter?" True, the former are related while the latter are not, but still.

/Silly backwards Muggles, with their theatre and their literature and their television and their films and their opera. Wizards have got The Adventures of Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle, which is obviously far superior in every respect./

*sighs* Well, I guess that's what fanfiction is for, to fill in the gaps.

/I love Ron’s waiting for Harry’s opinion of his room. It’s just so natural and realistic and sweet./

I liked it too. :)

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

"I think that it's the racism factor. By criticizing the Malfoys, Fred and George aren't saying that *all* pureblood families are bad (after all, they're purebloods themselves) or that all wealthy families are bad. The Weasleys' animosity is personal and confined to just one family. It's not motivated by racism or elitism, etc., so it's easier to forgive."

I suppose the Weasleys' dislike of the Malfoys isn't as harmful as the Malfoys' racism, but the principle is the same, in that both the twins and Draco are accepting what their father tells them, more-or-less blindly.

"...except it's not. Despite being much better than Privet Drive, Harry still has to contend with a bragging, boastful bully, who reminds him of Dudley. Draco (as well as Snape) ruins the idea of Hogwarts being a perfect, escapist paradise. Harry can deal with Dudley because he expects nothing more from Privet Drive, but for some kid to make his life at Hogwarts difficult, to insult the friends that Harry's so grateful to have, to spoil what would otherwise be an ideal home for him...maybe that's what Harry can't forgive him for."

That's actually quite a good idea, although I think it would be better if Rowling had made Malfoy more effective in his attempts to get one over on Harry. As it is, Draco isn't more than a minor inconvenience. Yes, he says nasty things about him and his friends, but nobody seems to care except the Slytherins; yes, his dad buys the Slytherin team new brooms, but Harry gets an even better broom and goes on to beat Draco in every single Quidditch match they play against each other; yes, he and his dad try to get Harry's favourite teacher sacked, but they can't, and end up failing to even get his hippogriff put down... But despite the fact that Harry comes on top in every confrontation they have, he still acts as if Draco's making his life hell. It's like JKR wanted to make Harry the persecuted underdog, but couldn't bear to have him suffer in a way that would actually make him one.

"And again, what's the difference between them being resentful of Percy and sarcastically calling him "Perfect Percy" and Draco being resentful of Harry and sarcastically calling him "Perfect Potter?" True, the former are related while the latter are not, but still."

In Harry's case, he's the only one treated with so much favouritism, so Draco's got a good reason to single him out; Mrs. Weasley, OTOH, also referred to Bill and Charlie, who were by all accounts high-fliers at school just like Percy was.

(Also, Fred and George managed to make Percy's life a misery in POA far more effectively than Draco ever managed to ruin Harry's life. Still, IOIAGDI, I suppose.)

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think that that's the difference, too. I think that Bill and Charlie were kind of like Sirius and James: they were smart and got good grades without coming across as nerds. I think that what George and Fred can't stand about Percy is that he takes everything very seriously. He's proud of his academic career, he's a stickler for the rules, he doesn't hide his enthusiasm for his job, and he has a very formal manner that makes him seem pompous. Such a serious figure is a ripe target for jokes, whereas I doubt that Charlie and Bill were ever that serious, given that Charlie is off raising dragons and Bill wears an earring.

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

Poor little Percy.... Maybe he should join a Martial-Arts academy; I know all my Master Instructors would consider him a model student. Oh, wait, he's a Wizard and Martial Arts isn't magic. Poor guy!

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

They're not exactly the same by any means, but I don't think they're totally different either. Percy, Bill and Charlie are all high fliers; the fact that Fred and George specifically single out him indicates that their problem is with him personally (probably due to his over-seriousness). Harry Potter, OTOH, is (as far as we see) the only wizard to receive so much special treatment, and there's no indication that Draco Malfoy would feel so resentful about him if he wasn't. Essentially, F&G's problem is with Percy personally, not his status in his mother's eyes, whereas Draco's problem is with Harry's status, and probably not him personally.

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

It probably is a bit of both, as you say. In F&G's case, there might be some background annoyance at their older brothers' constant outshining them (especially in their mother's eyes), but the fact that they focus this resentment onto Percy is probably due to his personality, which is the least like the twins' of any of the Weasley children. As for Harry, he's arrogant and jockish, but so are 90% of Gryffindor males, and I doubt Malfoy would think of him as anything more than just another annoying Gryffindor if it weren't for his status as The Boy Who Lived. But yeah, I think we're basically in agreement that it is a bit of both. :)

"Their mother's affection is not for everyone and it probably needs to be deserved first. Just ask Ron. :)"

That's probably how it looks to the twins; to Percy, however, it probably seems that their mother loves him for his achievements, but loves the F&G anyway, without them having to do anything. I think that both parties probably built up quite a bit of resentment towards each other, leading to Percy snapping in OOTP.

[sunnyskywalker]

They even got cool jobs with dragons and cursed tombs while Percy was boringly keeping wizarding international relations going and protecting all of Snape's students and everyone else from faulty cauldrons. Anything with paperwork must be useless and part of an evil, Umbridge-like bureaucratic nightmare, right? *sigh*