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

[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

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Actually, the state of rail transportation here in the states used to be much more akin to that of the UK; there were many tracks and stations in the latter part of the 19th century and first part of the 20th than now exist.

Rail and trolley was basically the only relatively cheap mode of travel in those days, except for people who lived near coastal areas who could take ships from Point A to Point B; here in Connecticut a lot of the prosperity of our coastal towns depended on the stops such boats made in their ports going from NYC to Boston, and vice versa.

But the government (both federal and state/local) made a decision right after WW2 to invest in building our interstate highway system, and subsequently to focus on investing in trucks/buses instead of railways and trolleys. Gas was cheap, and the big petroleum companies encouraged the switch. We are paying the price today for losing the very good mass-transit infrastructure that we once had.

Since the price of petrol was always much more expensive in Europe than in the States, it never developed the "Car Culture" we did, hence the old railway lines didn't get torn up like they did over here...

Re: Stupid train

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

Interstate highway systems are also military and security measures to move troops if necessary and equipment. IIRC, that's the direction the original brainstorming on the highways pointed. Any other benefits, such as cheaper petrol prices here, the large spread of towns especially in the more under-populated areas of the Midwest and plains, made driving more sensible and less costly than a near-empty train making its usual, scheduled run.

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?