COS Chapter Five: "The Whomping Willow"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

 

* Harry spends six weeks of the school holidays at the Dursleys’ house, and for the rest of the year he’s a massive celebrity who can basically do whatever he likes because of something that he can’t remember and had nothing to do with. Doesn’t sound to me like he’s got much reason to be jealous of Ron.

* Is the fact that dinner contains all Harry’s favourite things a coincidence, or did Mrs. Weasley deliberately design it that way? If so, is she already trying to snare Harry in order to get her hands on some of his money? *Grins at the thought of MoneyGrubbing!Molly*

* Somehow I can’t imagine the Malfoys being so disorganised.

* “Muggles do know more than we given them credit for, don’t they?” says Mrs. Weasley, the big joke being that they don’t, it’s all magic. Wizards rule!

* The Weasley parents let Fred and George take fireworks to school? Christ, it’s no wonder they’re so badly-behaved.

* Also, couldn’t they just take the kids to the station, then later mail them the things they’ve left behind?

* Still, the foreshadowing of Ginny’s diary is nicely done, though, so I forgive JKR for this minor plot hole.

* Is it really necessary to run into the barrier? Surely standing casually near it and then slipping through when nobody’s looking would be less likely to attract attention.

* Yes, Ron, of course all those grown-up, fully-qualified wizards on Platform 9 ¾ aren’t going to be able to figure a way of getting back. *rolls eyes*

* “The Dursleys haven’t given me pocket money in about six years,” says Harry, implying that they did until he was six years old. I wonder what he bought then that made them decide he couldn’t be trusted with his own money?

* That flying car plan has got to rate as one of the stupidest in the books, and as you can imagine, it’s up against some stiff competition.

* If Harry and Ron had really become invisible, they’d be blind, although to be fair to JKR this little problem with the laws of physics isn’t exactly unique to her.

* The description of the car flying above the clouds is good. Really brings out the wonderment Harry and Ron must be feeling.

* Any guesses as to which city they’re seeing? I was thinking it might be Birmingham or Manchester or somewhere like that, but the “wide, purplish moors” would seem to imply that they’re further north than that.

* Pumpkins aren’t particularly juicy, so it must take a lot to get enough for the whole school to drink. I can’t imagine why wizards drink pumpkin as opposed to, say, orange or apple juice.

* An impact hard enough to raise a golf-ball-sized lump on someone’s head would knock most people out, but Harry is a Gryffindor, and therefore above trivial injuries such as concussion.

* Wonder if there’s meant to be any Freudian symbolism in Ron having a broken wand? :p

* I probably shouldn’t ask why charming a car to make it fly would make it gain sentience.

* Harry looks through the window into the Great Hall, and the reader is treated to a rare sighting of the elusive Hogwarts school hat.

* Now I'm imagining watching a Springwatch-type programme set in Hogwarts, where the presenters set up hidden cameras around the school in the hope of getting a glimpse of one of the school hats.

* “For a few horrible seconds”, Harry had worried that he’d be put in Slytherin. One of the clearest indications in the books that we’re meant to think of being put in Slytherin as a sign of great evil.

* Harry seems to show a remarkable knowledge of colours here. I doubt I’d be able to recognise aquamarine when I saw it.

* The narrative voice pauses to bitch about how “everyone” hates Snape for a few sentences, inexplicably omitting to mention that he saved Harry’s life last year.

* BTW, I highly doubt that Snape was disliked by “everyone outside of his own house (Slytherin)”. In my experience, children tend to quite like the sarcastic teachers.

* Unless by “everyone” Jo means “everyone who matters”, i.e., Harry, Ron and Hermione.

* Snape’s suddenly appearing behind them like that is pretty funny.

* So how is it that the Evening Prophet can interview these Muggles, write the story, print the paper, and send it up to Scotland in less time than it takes Harry and Ron to fly directly from London to Hogwarts? If I were doing Jabootu scores, this would definitely be a case of offscreen teleportation.

* Why would someone travelling from London to Scotland go via Norfolk? Do wizards just like the countryside there?

* Harry hasn’t thought of what effect his stupid actions will have on others. Well, colour me shocked!

* No idea what the “large, slimy something suspended in green liquid” is there for. Probably to add to the atmosphere.

* I’m surprised McGonagall is so angry. One would have thought that, as a Gryffindor, she’d prize reckless action without any thought.

* Harry told the story as if he and Ron just happened to find a flying car, making them look like a pair of criminals as well as a pair of idiots, and continuing in the long tradition of lying to save the arses of adults who really should know better.

* Harry’s being worried about Gryffindor losing points is rather sweet. It’d be interesting to see how the hourglasses in the Great Hall show Gryffindor being on negative points, though.

* One detention each sounds like a pretty inadequate punishment, TBH.

* Is it possible to conjure up food out of thin air, then? If so, wizards could pretty much solve world hunger without any problems at all. That they don’t makes them look rather selfish and insular.

* “Breaking the law? Cool!” Seems Twinkly’s favouritism has given the Gryffindors something of an entitlement complex when it comes to breaking rules. At least Percy and Hermione have the right idea.

* If there are only five second-year Gryffindor boys, and the same amount of girls, and this number is about right for every House and every year, then there would only be 280 children in Hogwarts in total. Which would seem to contradict slightly the description of Hogwarts as a huge castle, or the dining hall as larger than the Dursleys’ house. Oh dear maths/architecture/consistency/worldbuilding…

* Meanwhile, Draco Malfoy goes to sleep in the Slytherin dorms, muttering, “Stupid Potter with his stupid broomstick and his stupid flying car and his stupid ginger boyfriend, he can do literally anything and get away with just a detention.” Little does he realise that he will be proved right in Year 6, after a certain incident in the bathrooms.

 

Comments

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

You know, it doesn't really make sense to me that you can't conjure food from nothing, but you can multiply it. Either way the matter making up the food has to come from somewhere - whether it's recombining existing molecules in the pattern of the example sandwich, or conjuring brand-new matter (which obviously poses a physics problem) in that same pattern. If you can affect matter either way once you have a single real sandwich, why can't you do the same from just your internal 'pattern' of a sandwich?

I could see not being able to conjure something you're not familiar with, but what's the difference between having a sandwich and having an idea of a sandwich regarding the issue of conjuring food? Acto canon it is a limit to the actual *conjuring* of certain substances, not complexity or unfamiliarity with the object or some other limit inherent to the *caster.*

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

Also it doesn't make sense that you can create birds and snakes from thin air but not then kill and eat them. And if you can't create food, can you transfigure things into food?

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

Good points. What's the difference between conjuring a live canary and a dead chicken? Or the difference between the vegetable matter in edible plants and a piece of wood? (And we'll just politely avert our eyes and pretend that they weren't conjuring food during the Camping Trip From Hell.)

Also, don't the birds and snakes violate Gamp's law regarding creating life? Unless they are merely imported from elsewhere, as-is...so why can't you import a chicken!? And we see students transfigure animals into non-living things and then revert them back to living things. Doesn't that violate Gamp's law? Unless there's some sort of magic way to put that existing life-force in some magic 'life storage' until needed...(yes, I've read "Out of the Bag")...but then why can't you transfigure a lot of animals into bits of wood and use their life-force to resurrect your dead loved one?

Really, I think JKR simply DIDN'T THINK THINGS THROUGH. Yet again. However, my preferred Watsonian explanation, expanding upon Jodel's theory that wizardry is just a domesticated version of magic that was once all wild (i.e. dark), is that Gamp's Law and all those other laws we hear about are just laws of what is possible within WIZARDRY, and that seeming violations of them are really just unacknowledged dark or semi-dark (i.e. less domesticated) magic, which allows for a greater range of things.

Organic chemistry

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Antoine de LeVoisier, the Father of Modern (especially Organic) Chemistry, was a wizard who worked (at the time of Separation) in both worlds, I am convinced.

It's a great pity the Terror killed him when he was merely in his forties; I'm sure his Principles would have elucidated all of C's questions, and many more.

Magically, the difference between a live bird and a dead one is immensely significant; chemically, the difference is much less, amounting to whether certain enzymes are still being actively produced.

However, the difference that matters is that between an apparition which needs to fool one's mind and one which needs to fool one's body. Is one conjuring a REAL bird, or something that seems like one?

If it's only the latter, apparent inconsistencies dissolve. One hasn't made a REAL live bird, only a simulacrum wwhich appears and acts like one. If the simulacrum were "killed," it might even taste like fowl-but not react chemically like fowl. Similarly, transfiguring wood into an apple might affect the surface senses--it might look, feel, and smell like an apple.

But it wouldn't nourish the body as an apple (or dead bird) would, because the original spell didn't create down to the molecular level of complexity.

Levels of conjuration

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Maybe the difference is: who do you have to fool?

If you try to conjure a flock of canaries, I/me/my mind/most minds are convinced by a few key details-- bird-shape, yellow, beaks, right sounds; yes, I register that as canaries.

Going on to persuade my digestive organs that those conjured shapes are legitimate food--I mean, my digestive system deals day in and day out with my shoveling stuff into it. Some of which is edible (dead bird-flesh), much of which isn't exactly (notice that a certain amount of what anyone eats ends up--erm--exiting the other end. In fact, this is SUPPOSED to happen if the system is working right. Fiber, we say discreetly.)

So yeah, the spell required to convince my MIND that some yellow shape is a real canary might well be much easier than one to convince every protease enzyme in my gut that some sequence of molecules ia avian protein.

We have lots of evidence how easy the mind is to fool--and almost equally as much, how hard the gut is.

*

The final trick is, if one has a template one might be able to copy it.

If one doesn't have a template, attempts to reproduce something depend on the copier's memory.

I am absolutely convinced that my personal memory is insuffiecent to copy (on a molecular level) a single grain of wheat. Much less the bread subsequently baked from it. Or the sandwich made from that bread!

I'm trying to imagine it now, and it's all fail. I cannot conjure any food substance on a level of detail that would allow my digestive system to utilize it. My conscious mind simply can't hold the information required for such a spell.

But a simple loaves-and-fishes spell--rearrange other atoms in this EXACT configuration--(including the incipient decay on the third [first caught] fish's bruised tail, and the staleness of the fifth loaf}--well, that's. as they say, a whole different kettle of fish.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

The thing is, according to various websites on the Forest of Dean, food is definitely not a problem:

http://www.visitforestofdean.co.uk/eating/default.aspx

http://www.thebestof.co.uk/local/forest-of-dean/business-guide/popular/food-and-drink

http://www.visitforestofdean.co.uk/


The Hermione or Harry should have been able to accio all manor of sustenance, or at the very least just walk into one of the very many pubs and inns in and around the forest and just ordered something like regular people.

[oryx_leucoryx]

And they only need to get one balanced meal per person and just multiply it as needed. Ron could still complain about the monotony of the food, but the plot won't be so ridiculous.

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

/The Hermione or Harry should have been able to accio all manor of sustenance, or at the very least just walk into one of the very many pubs and inns in and around the forest and just ordered something like regular people./

JKR's DH plot seems to suggest that every muggle place they would go is watched. Which I find hightly troubling for the Death Eaters and even Voldemort - Unless he put a spell on every pub/restaurant and garden in the whole country.

I just don't totally get the whole they can't find food prospect they had going on with the camping trip. I'd almost say JKR must have had a bad camping experience is why that whole endless camping was in the last book.

Okay if it was just Ron...okay maybe he growing up around magic all his life would be hopeless, Hermione and Harry grew up in the muggle world and they can't find food?

Good thing the series wasn't set in American, every corner has a Quickmart or 7-ll or convience store even in my little nowhereville small town. Voldemort would be in a world of hurting in the USA trying to bespell every McDonalds in the country.

Plus the $1 menu all these fast food joints have now would mean harry/Hermione/Ron would have pleanty of places to get in and get out of quickly.

Although, I guess it would suck if your hero got killed waiting on a cheeseburger at the drive thru, so I digress.

And now for some reason that just gives me a scene in my head of the trio placing orders at McDonalds, Ron is holding a bag of french fries while Harry duels a Death Eater.

And now that scene is going even further, Severus is over at the next register trying to order a milk shake but the girl behind the counter said the machine is not working and he's bitching at her because he can see Hermione standing near Ron and she clearly has a milkshake.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Which I find hightly troubling for the Death Eaters and even Voldemort - Unless he put a spell on every pub/restaurant and garden in the whole country.

Which seems highly unlikely, as I imagine there must be hundreds of thousands of pubs, restaurants, inns, B&Bs, carry outs, street vendors and the like in the whole of the UK, not to mention soup kitchens which The Trio could have availed themselves of...


I just don't totally get the whole they can't find food prospect they had going on with the camping trip.

Especially considering one of the Forest of Dean websites I looked at in the past listed a workshop on "Foods of the Forest" which was specifically aimed at hikers and campers and focused on finding food growing in the forest...

Granted, Rowling has The Trio going there in autumn and staying thru the winter, when there wouldn't have been that much growing...but anyone with a decent amount of knowledge of living off the wild could still have found more than Hermione and Harry did, even if it may have been a somewhat monotonous diet...maybe Hermione should have spent her time reading a survivalist's guide rather that The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore...

But really, considering how many places of business there apparantly are in and around the Forest that provide food, it seems really stupid that our heroes had such a bad time of it when it came to eating.


he can see Hermione standing near Ron and she clearly has a milkshake

SNAPE: I drink your milkshake!

;-)

I guess it would suck if your hero got killed waiting on a cheeseburger at the drive thru, so I digr

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

I will now spend the rest of my life watching for violations of the statute of secrecy at fast-food--am I really willing to use the term "restaurants" of those places?

Snerfl!

Re: I guess it would suck if your hero got killed waiting on a cheeseburger at the drive thru, so I

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

/am I really willing to use the term "restaurants" of those places?/

Don't forget, they now have 'healty' options!! Whoohoo!