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

[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.

Clueless Ron

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

I think we have to cut Ron some slack on this.

Because, in canon, it seems like Ron's real problem is that his family allowed the TWINS to be Ron's teachers in magic pre-Hogwarts.

And (when they weren't bullying ickle Ronniekins), Gred and Forge were deliberately trying to mislead their baby brother.

The bogus spell that didn't turn Scabbers yellow on the train? Source: the twins.

The "information" that Sorting consists of Troll-wrestling? Source: the twins.

The spell that turned Ron's teddy bear into a spider, the nearly-taken Unbreakable Vow, the murder of Ron's pet Puffskein? Source: the twins.

So Ron entered Hogwarts with a whole compendium of information. Much of which he found out to be dead wrong!

At least Hermione trusted her sources. (Even if she shouldn't, always.)