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

Re: Stupid train

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

But that just wouldn't be fun, now, would it? :P

If she'd ever said anything about acclimatizing the kids or getting them socialized via the train ride then maybe I could accept it - some sort of school requirement that only applies to the first day - but the way it's set up, it seems that even Hogsmeade kids have to go to London to ride back up on the train, every time they go to school or return from school, for no good reason.

Re: Stupid train

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

Even if it is an acclimation thing, a way for the kids to socialize it still seems a bit silly considering they're going to be living with each other from Sept to June.

Besides, we don't see much evidence of it but don't magical people visit each other?

Well, from the way we see it apparently not. All the magical kids don't seem to even know each other and are meeting practically for the first time at Hogwarts.

You'd think with the idea of the community being smaller all the magical kids would already know each other anyway. I guess magical parents dont' take their kids out for playdates or birthday parties or any kind of stuff like that. outside of just immidiate family.

But you'd think some magical people would stay in touch with each other after they graduated from Hogwarts. Didn't Molly have any female friends who had kids that would be the same age as hers?

It just seems kinda weird, I don't remember Ron or the Twins or any of the weasley kids ever saying hay I've known so-and-so all my life or we used to play together when we were 3 years old, etc. etc.

Re: Stupid train

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

It could just be the Weasleys who don't visit people. We don't get to see other WW families at home. One of the scenes taken out of one of the books (GoF?) had, I think it was, Theodore Knott and family visiting the Malfoys. It seems that Narcissa has visited Snape before the beginning of HBP. Viktor Krumm invited Hermione to visit him in Bulgaria (could just be Bulgarian manners but I think it's universal) and we have Sirius visiting James and then ending up as permanent boarder at the Potters' while in school. The only ones who don't seem to spend time visiting with non-potential mates are the Gryffindors we know best through Harry - the Weasleys and Hermione. I wonder where fanfic got the idea that everyone visits back and forth.

With the community being as small as it is, there's probably a high chance that most of them are related to one degree or another and that the relationship is near enough that they all know about it - second, third cousins, fourth cousins twice removed - so you'd think they would have some joint holidays together or family reunions or gatherings at the birth of a relation or near the death of one.

When I was young, back in the 1960s, my mother insisted that women saw their female friends only when hubby was at work. Once hubby came home, the friend rightly and discreetly left, if not leaving before-hand. Who knows what Molly does with her time when Arthur and the kids are gone? Or does she really "forsake all others" and exist only for the moment when one of her immediate family comes through that door?

Maybe the Weasleys brought their brood by too often and were family non-gratis in most of their friends' houses. They way they eat alone might have people boarding the windows and flooing to safety, not to mention the rowdy behavior multiplied by 7 and the tendency of the twins to turn people into canaries or play other not-so-funny pranks that Molly and Arthur can't stop.

Or, maybe, they're just too good for everyone else, or too selfish to share, now they have The Boy Who Lived. If he met another girl in her home environment he might not hook up with Ginny.

Re: Stupid train

[oryx_leucoryx]

and we have Sirius visiting James and then ending up as permanent boarder at the Potters' while in school.

Yes, but while they may have been as closely related as first cousins once removed (if the Potters on the Black Family Tree are James' parents) they never met before Hogwarts. Maybe the Potters didn't want to associate with Dark Arts enthusiasts.

Amos Diggory didn't know Arthur's children despite the fact that the two families lived within walking distance and the twins were in Cedric's year. It also seems Ginny and Luna only met at Hogwarts.

Re: Stupid train

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

//Yes, but while they may have been as closely related as first cousins once removed (if the Potters on the Black Family Tree are James' parents) they never met before Hogwarts. Maybe the Potters didn't want to associate with Dark Arts enthusiasts.

Amos Diggory didn't know Arthur's children despite the fact that the two families lived within walking distance and the twins were in Cedric's year. It also seems Ginny and Luna only met at Hogwarts.//

Yea, exactly! James and Sirius didn't know each other before Hogwarts.

It's like the magical people don't stay in contact after they have kids?

I mean, don't they have any kinds of festivals or events...whatever. Even my little small town in the middle of nowhereville has festivals. You'd think the magical community would at the very least have something like a Spring Festival or fall/Harvest festival where they would get together?

The only thing I can think of at this moment that came close was the Quidditch world cup.

But what about...I don't know...Anything that seems normal like...hell there is nothing I can think of ever mentioned in the book. It's like those kinds of things don't seem to exist outside of Hogwarts crap and Quidditch crap.

Re: Stupid train

[oryx_leucoryx]

We do see under school age kids at the Twins' shop, so maybe Diagon Alley was a place where kids could meet.

OTOH note that until Bill and Fleur's wedding we never saw any of the Weasley cousins (nor did they get involved in the Order or the battle, despite being descendants of Septimus Weasley, known blood-traitor).

Re: Stupid train

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Okay, personally I think this is just one more thing that Rowling didn't think thru too thoroughly...

But that said, perhaps we can conjecture the following:

Perhaps this isolation came about back in "the burning times", if magikal families gathered together, or even just two magikal families, there was more a risk of being "outed" by their nonmagikal neighbors...

Also, we see in the books that when they DO gather together for a celebration like a wedding, they become easy targets for magikal enemies, so that also could be a reason they tend not to get together.

So perhaps this lack of socialization between magikal families came about as a way of preservation and safety, and just became ingrained and an intrinsic part of the fabric of their society.

Re: Stupid train

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

//Okay, personally I think this is just one more thing that Rowling didn't think thru too thoroughly...//

Well, it sort of like how Ron seems to be just as clueless as Harry in his first year. I just always wondered about Ron and being around all that magic and having 5 brothers before him that went to Hogwarts that he would have a little better grasp of magic.

But then again all that could have been to just show how Brilliant Hermione was with magic and she comes from no magial background and HE comes from and was surrounded by it.


/But that said, perhaps we can conjecture the following:

Perhaps this isolation came about back in "the burning times", if magikal families gathered together, or even just two magikal families, there was more a risk of being "outed" by their nonmagikal neighbors...

Also, we see in the books that when they DO gather together for a celebration like a wedding, they become easy targets for magikal enemies, so that also could be a reason they tend not to get together.

So perhaps this lack of socialization between magikal families came about as a way of preservation and safety, and just became ingrained and an intrinsic part of the fabric of their society./

Yea, I can see how that might be the answer to them all not really knowing each other till they get to school. Plus it also makes more sense because of how easy they are to both take over and manipulate by people like Voldemort. If there is no strong bonds in the community it makes it easier for someone like Voldemort to come in and sew seeds of distrust and woo people into doing things they don't agree with.

Re: Stupid train

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

Like much in HP, it's copied from Victorian, Blyton, etc. school stories. Children would attend primary school with ordinary children, then go to a prep school, after which they'd go to boarding school and few or none of their prep school pals would go to the same boarding school. It makes no sense, of course, if there's only one school in Britain.

Re: Stupid train

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

//Like much in HP, it's copied from Victorian, Blyton, etc. school stories. Children would attend primary school with ordinary children, then go to a prep school, after which they'd go to boarding school and few or none of their prep school pals would go to the same boarding school. It makes no sense, of course, if there's only one school in Britain.//

Haha! We're basicly all arguing flawed logic!!

On the one school in UK thing. I do have to wonder about that. I think I remember JKR stating of a school being in American - Salem something or another.

Which to me is completely rediculous that the USA would only have one magical school, especially compairing the size of UK and the size of USA there has to be more than one school in the USA. I just think the system would probably be a lot different. And it almost seems a bit cheesy to use Salem because on some level thats so commercial and common to think of when thinking of witchcraft.

I'd inclined to believe if there was a magical community in the USA the American system would work very differently from what we see with the boarding school stuff in the Hogwarts version.

Re: Stupid train

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

And it almost seems a bit cheesy to use Salem because on some level thats so commercial and common to think of when thinking of witchcraft.

And to me shows how utterly clueless JKR is regarding American history and culture...

Salem, Massachusetts would be the last place any real magikal folk would build a school to train wizards and witches; I mean, why would they build a school smack in the middle of a community settled by people who were cultist Christian fundamentalists, and who started hanging (and in one case, pressed to death) their nonmagikal neighbors because they suddenly started seeing the Devil under every rock?

Even after the witch trial madness subsided, I still don't see any reason for a wizarding school to have been built there.

As a student of American history, specifically colonial history, if there were any wizarding schools in America (and I agree with you, there would have been more than one), my money would be on schools in the colonial era in: upper New York State, the Philadelphia/Delaware area, and/or the Carolinas/Georgia. I'd also perhaps go with something in northern Maine, by the Canadian border.

From 1800-1850 I could see additional schools in the deep south (Mississippi or Alabama), and perhaps the upper peninsula of Michigan. From 1850-1900 I'd then see additional schools in New Mexico or Arizona, in California, and in the pacific northwest. I could also see a school in Hawaii. I think each region would have a different "flavor" of magik to teach, and perhaps even have institutions of higher learning where wizards and witches could learn different specialties.

At least that's my theory for the very nebulous fiction on American magikal history that is tickling the back of my brain... LOL

Re: Stupid train

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

In fairness, we don't know that the Witches' Institute is IN Salem (or that it is actually a school) - maybe it was named in memory of the massacre.

As for American magic, there would also be Native American wizards, vodou practitioners, etc. and maybe few or no wizards in the Muggle regions.

Re: Stupid train

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

As for American magic, there would also be Native American wizards, vodou practitioners, etc.

Oh, most definitely...which I is why I theorize so many regional schools, as each region would have the "flavor" of it's particular geographical area, including the magikal traditions of the native peoples of that region...a school in Mississippi would have a somewhat different curriculum to a school in Oregon, or a school in Hawaii...


and maybe few or no wizards in the Muggle regions.

I actually think that many witches and wizards could have easily "hid in plain sight" in major Muggle communities like New York, Chicago, etc.

Re: Stupid train

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

I snagged this information off the Lexicon cause I was curious if there was much else about USA.

A country located in the center of North America and spanning the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific, the United States is home to the towns of Fitchburg, Salem, and Sweetwater, and is also the natural habitat of the clabbert and the doxy. We also know that Quidditch is not particularly popular there thanks to Quodpot - a game invented by Abraham Peasegood which is played almost exclusively in the U.S. (QA8).

Peasegood, Abraham (1700s)
American wizard who invented the game of Quodpot (QA8).

Fitchburg: With Salem and Sweetwater, Fitchburg is one of the three U.S. towns named by Rowling in the books. It is named as the home of the Fitchburg Finches, who have won the U.S. Quidditch cup seven times (QA8).

Salem: Famous for its seventeenth-century hysteria over witchcraft and witch trials, Salem is today a typical suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. There is still a witches' institute in Salem, though, which we know because Harry walked by their tent at the Quidditch World Cup (GF7).

Sweetwater: The Sweetwater All-Stars are a U.S. Quidditch team that recently gained international notoriety when they defeated the Quiberon Quafflepunchers after a five-day match (QA8). Sweetwater is a small city in central Texas, in the southern United States.

Quodpot (USA) - an American variant of Quidditch invented by Abraham Peasegood. Has eleven players per side and an exploding ball called the Quod. (QA)

Re: Stupid train

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

Is it ever specified that the Salem Witches Institute is a school, or that it predated the witch trials? And for all we know, there was a school there and that was what inspired the hysteria in the Potterverse. The anachronistic witch hunting in 11th century Britain apparently didn't actually get any witches or wizards, so maybe the same thing happened in Salem.

Re: Stupid train

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Even if it is an acclimation thing, a way for the kids to socialize it still seems a bit silly considering they're going to be living with each other from Sept to June.

Well I see it as a way for the First Years to get to know each other, and for the higher grades to get the "How was your summer?" or "How was your holiday?" out of their systems before actually getting to the school. So in that respect I don't have a problem with the train per se.

But to me it would have made more sense if Rowling had shown the train making other stops thruout the UK on its way to northern Scotland; as you said, it doesn't make sense for kids already living in Scotland to have to come all the way down to London just to get on the train.


Besides, we don't see much evidence of it but don't magical people visit each other?

Well Rowling does make it seem like the wizarding community's abodes are few and far between...but in GoF we find out that the Diggory's apparantly live just across the valley from the Weasley's, and in DH we find out that the Lovegood's are also in the general neighborhood, yet none of those families seem to have ever gotten together for the holidays or a picnic or whatever...

No wonder the wizarding world is so distrustful of the nonmagikal world, they don't seem to trust each other as a matter of course.

Re: Stupid train

[oryx_leucoryx]

Why would distances matter to wizards? They can floo anywhere even without Apparition licenses. (Except for the Weasleys for whom floo powder is too much of an expense, apparently.)

Re: Stupid train

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

Didn't the Wesley's use the floo to get into the Dursley's house? I forget which book but wasn't the Dursley's fireplace walled up or something like that?

I forget though if it was hooked up to the floo network or if Mr. Weasley got it hooked up...totally brain fade on that - I just seem to remember everyone being stuck in the chimney.

Re: Stupid train

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

Arthur had it hooked up without their consent.

It seems that with the DEs controlling the Ministry in DH, they could have hooked up the houses of every Muggle-born child (at least those with fireplaces) and burst in and killed them, but they don't seem to realise this.

Also, how is a fireplace defined for purposes of Floo powder?

Re: Stupid train

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

Is there anything overt about Hogsmeade kids? Because it seems like they could just find their own transportation if they live so close.

Re: Stupid train

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure JKR said in an interview that those who live in Hogsmeade don't take the train.

Re: Stupid train

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

//I'm pretty sure JKR said in an interview that those who live in Hogsmeade don't take the train.//

It's possible I can't remember that one but I never really gave the train a huge amount of though except that it was just something to entertain the child reader - because trains are so much fun (LOL)

Well, I have a UK friend who doesn't have a drivers license or a car, she takes a train to get to where she wants to go. Sooo, in a way it may just be the normal UK thing, to take the train.

But for someone like me, who does drive and lives in USA, taking the train to get from point a to point b seems...stupid. We dont' even have a train station in my town, I'd have to drive 1 hour and a half to get on a train. That has no logic for me, I can just drive to where I want to go or get on an airplane.

Not that I have a problem with trains, I've road on a train once as an adult, but I still had to drive to the station...but I admit I enjoyed the train ride.

For most folks in bigger cities it's probably a good option, for people that live in a rural area it makes more sense to own a car - I'd think in a lot of cases in the UK have to be the same way.

Though another UK friend of mine was shocked to learn that I have well water at my home and am not on some kinda public water system. In the city yes, out here in the county around the city, no.

So maybe JKR's train is just an example of what she herself was used to doing and it made more sense to her that they'd all gather and get on a train to go to school. Whereas I would be like...I live within 10 miles of Hogwarts, there is no way I'm taking my magical kid all the way to Kings Cross Station when i can drop my kid off at the gate.

Re: Stupid train

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Sooo, in a way it may just be the normal UK thing, to take the train.

My guess is that your friend probably lives in, or close to, a fairly large city.


But for someone like me, who does drive and lives in USA, taking the train to get from point a to point b seems...stupid.

That's because you live in the boonies, girlfriend! LOL

I, OTOH, live in southern Connecticut, and MetroNorth is the mode of transport to get from here to NYC and back...ditto AmTrak to get from here to Boston or down to Washington, DC...


For most folks in bigger cities it's probably a good option, for people that live in a rural area it makes more sense to own a car

Actually, a good many people here in Connecticut who commute either to Stamford or all the way to NYC, they do live in pretty rural areas...but to commute via driving is such a nightmare, it makes more sense to drive to the nearest train station -- and sometimes that's several towns away -- and commute via train, than to try to drive.


Though another UK friend of mine was shocked to learn that I have well water at my home and am not on some kinda public water system.

Until this year I've been on city water all my life, but when I lived in New Haven a couple of years ago I was shocked to find that homeowners were not only charged for the water they used -- IOW, water coming into the residence -- but also charged for water leaving the residence!

This past spring I moved to a rural area, I literally have a farm next door and horses grazing across the street from my driveway, and yes, we too are on well water. Which, I found out, can be a problem when you go thru a period of drought, like we did late this summer... :-P

Re: Stupid train

[parenthesised.livejournal.com]

Most towns in the UK have a train station, although numerous changes are required to get from A to, say, F. But yes, from what you've been saying, it does sound as if it's far more common here, where we're much closer together, than out in the big spaces of America. My family live on the edge of the South West, near Bristol, for example, and when my brother thought he was going to St Andrews (East Coast of Scotland) for uni, he planned to take the train up and buy all he needed on arrival...


...I'm not actually sure where I was going with this, now that I've stopped long enough to think about it. Possibly just - MORE TRAINS!

Re: Stupid train

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

///Is there anything overt about Hogsmeade kids? Because it seems like they could just find their own transportation if they live so close.//

No no, they are just an example.

Lets put it this way. What if you live within a couple miles of hogwarts but you live 150 miles away from the train station. To be fair I have no clue how far it would be from the scottish boarder to where Kings Cross Station.

All I'm saying is, why does it seem like it's manditory for every kid to ride the train? Couldn't some parents just drop their kids off at the gate seeing as it would be a lot further to go to wherever the train station is?