COS Chapter Seven: "Mudbloods and Murmurs"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

 

* Collin’s really acting like an obsessive stalker here. I wonder if that’s how Harry appeared to Draco in HBP?

* Ron’s malfunctioning wand actually sounds quite dangerous, but nobody thinks it might be a good idea to replace it. Although OTOH having a lax attitude towards safety seems to be one of the few things about the WW that seems consistent throughout the books (they’ll show it again when Percy tries to stop people using dangerous cauldrons), so maybe I should be thankful that it isn’t just one of these things that changes whenever the plot demands.

* I assume that JKR’s just forgotten to mention the try-outs that every Quidditch team apparently does each year.

* I’m just going to tune out while Harry recaps the rules of Quidditch for Collin.

* Everyone’s not bothering to pay attention to Wood’s new tactics. Remember kids, teamwork’s for suckers! You just do what you want to do!

* Wood is still upset over Gryffindor losing last year. Serves him right for being too thick to have a reserve Seeker, IMHO.

* Note how Wood’s first reaction upon seeing Collin is to jump to the conclusion that he’s a Slytherin spy. Not that he’s in any way biased against Slytherin, or anything like that.

* Remember chaps, looking like a troll = evil. Part-giant, OTOH, = misunderstood woobie. Even though trolls don’t really seem much worse than giants.

* There are no girls on the Slytherin team, just to remind everyone that they’re sexist, and therefore evil. JKR hates sexism, which is why she took care to include so many liberated, independent-minded women in the novels.

* Wood’s “spitting with rage” now. Christ, Oliver, calm down, it’s not the end of the world. Maybe the Gryffindor and Slytherin teams could just play a friendly, or something.

* “Aren’t you Lucius Malfoy’s son?” says Fred, looking at Draco with dislike. Remember kids, it’s wrong to judge people based on their family.

* Is it possible to smirk so broadly that your eyes are “reduced to slits”, or is Draco actually grinning with happiness here?

* I don’t think that Malfoy did buy his way onto the team. For a start, Seeker is the most (i.e., only) important position in the game, and I don’t think that flying on better brooms would compensate for having an inferior Seeker. Secondly, he’s on the team for at least three years, when the Slytherins could easily have ditched him as soon as they’d got the brooms. They’d even have had a good excuse after losing that Quidditch match in “The Rogue Bludger”.

* Lucius seemed like quite a harsh, demanding father when we saw him in Borgin and Burke’s, IMHO, so the thought that he’s pleased daddy enough to make him buy new brooms for the team is probably making Draco grin even more.

* I bet he looks adorable in this scene.

* Now I can’t stop thinking of Lauren Lopez in A Very Potter Sequel. “Don’t worry, daddy, you’ll love me after this! I’ll catch that Snitch, mark my words!”

* Just thought it interesting to note that Malfoy wasn’t involved in the conversation until Ron brought him in. It’s not like he was strutting up and down, boasting about his new broom, or anything like that.

* Hermione’s the one who starts with the personal insults. Really, I think that the good [sic] guys are acting worse than the baddies here.

* If the theory that Draco’s really just happy because he’s finally made his daddy proud is right, then implying that he’d just bought his way onto the team is probably one of the most offensive things Hermione could say. Unsurprisingly, he responds with one of the most offensive things that he could say.

* Draco calls Hermione a “Mudblood”, despite the fact that she’s a Muggleborn, and therefore cannot be expected to know what it means, suggesting that either she’s upset him so much he’s not thinking straight, or that he wants to keep face in front of his teammates by responding to her insults, but at the same time doesn’t want to upset her. If the latter, it could be evidence for some kind of D/Hr ship.

* JKR seems to be expecting us to go “ZOMG Draco’s an evil racist!” suggesting that she’s forgotten why exactly it is that racism’s considered so wrong. I don’t think it’s just that you’re looking down on people for the way they were born – if it were, then jokes about stupid blondes would be considered as bad as jokes about stupid black people. Rather, it’s wrong because minorities often suffer from discrimination (and in many cases have suffered from it even more in the relatively recent past), and racist language helps to reinforce and normalise the prejudiced attitudes which lead to such discrimination. Because we haven’t really see people suffering from anti-Muggleborn prejudice, it’s hard to think of “Mudblood” as a particularly serious insult.

* This, BTW, is why I disagree with people who say things like “Rowling uses the Harry Potter books to teach children not to be racist.” If she were really doing that, she’d show how racism affects people’s lives (cf. To Kill a Mockingbird). What she’s actually doing is taking real racism and using it in lieu of actual worldbuilding and characterisation. We already know that racism is wrong, and we think Draco’s a bad person because his use of the term “Mudblood” is superficially similar to real-life examples of racism; we don’t learn about how racism is bad from its effects on HP characters, because it doesn’t really have any.

* Anyway, back to the actual story…

* Once again, the good guys are the first to use force. Why am I not surprised?

* I think it’s sweet the way Flint dives in front of Malfoy to stop him being attacked. The Slytherins often seem to look out for each other the most (see also Lucius patting Snape on the back when he’s first Sorted). Contrast this with the Gryffindors in PS, who refuse to speak to Harry, Hermione, Ron or Neville after they lose some House Points.

* What’s this, one of the good guys has suffered some negative consequences as a result of attacking someone else? Hold on while I go make a note of this in my diary.

* Again with the clothes! Lockhart’s wearing robes of “palest mauve” today. Harry’s really starting to look rather gay now; given JKR’s fondness for stereotypes (viz. the Finnegans) and inability to write a decent romance (chest monster!), I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find her way of showing homosexuality would be having someone spend all their time looking at their crush’s clothes.

* Note how Hagrid doesn’t remonstrate with Ron for trying to curse Malfoy. Clearly he’s a responsible adult and an excellent candidate for a prestigious teaching position.

* I know Hagrid doesn’t like Lockhart, but he really should know better than to undermine him like that in front of his pupils.

* So the jinx on DADA has been in place for what, forty or so years now? And people are only just starting to twig? I know wizards are slow learners, but really…

* Also, couldn’t Dumbledore find ways to either discover how Riddle jinxed the position and undo it somehow, or to get around it, such as hiring two teachers who each teach on alternate years or getting rid of DADA and replacing it with a class which is functionally indistinguishable but has a different name (“battle magic”, perhaps?).

* I think that this scene was one which the film actually did better than the books. Yes, having Hermione getting all upset may not have been fully logical, but it at least made Draco look like a hurtful bully rather than an eccentric crank. It also suggested that someone might have called Hermione that before, hinting at actual day-to-day anti-Muggleborn prejudice, which is more than the books ever managed to do.

* “Maybe it was a good thing yer wand backfired.” Wait, is Hagrid glad that Ron got to be on the receiving end in the hope that he’ll be less likely to curse people in future? No, of course not, he’s worrying that Ron might otherwise have got in trouble.

* Hagrid comes across as so judgemental when he says “’Spect Lucius Malfoy would’ve come marchin’ up ter school if yeh’d cursed his son.” Clearly, caring about your children being attacked is a sign of great evil. Good guys know that being randomly hexed is what makes a man out of you.

* Although Lucius doesn’t seem to have done much when Draco was hexed into unconsciousness on the train (twice!), which probably foreshadows the Redeemed!Malfoys situation at the end of DH.

* Hagrid’s been breaking the law to make his pumpkins grow faster. Which couldn’t possibly be dangerous in any way, oh no.

* Suddenly, Draco’s gossip about him getting drunk and setting his bed on fire looks awfully plausible.

* Everybody hates Filch, which is entirely understandable, given all the times he complains about having to clean up the mess children make and, erm, gives them detention for breaking the rules. Yep, entirely understandable.

* So how does Parseltongue work, then? ’Cause surely Lockhart ought to have heard it, even if he didn’t understand what it was saying? Or is it a sort of telepathy? But then Ron managed to speak it in DH…

* Awfully convenient the way the basilisk goes around describing its evil plan to itself, isn’t it? Do basilisks just have really bad memories, and need to keep repeating their plans to themselves in case they forget?

* Part of me can’t help but feel pleased that Ron vomited slugs over that trophy. Maybe next time he’ll think twice before hexing someone. Or not.
 

 

Comments

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

appalling tablemanners are endearing and Molly's fishwife vulgarity is 'nurturing'. Oh, and the Malfoy's refinement is proof of their evilness

Lol, what about the way Molly being passive-aggressively horrible to Ron and ranting and raving at her kids is true maternal love, but the Malfoys sending care packages to Draco, buying his team new brooms and being upset at him getting injured in class is proof of their supreme evil? The way Arthur breaking his own laws to meddle with Muggle artifacts ('but he never intended to fly that car, honest!') is endearing, but Malfoy using his connections to try to remove a lousy teacher is horrible?

Instead, this possible muggleborn or half-blood, this boy whose name they never heard of, dared to tell them that he thought he could get into Slytherin because 'that's where the smart people go to'. That was not to be borne! If he had acted deferentually, they would've accepted him. Noblesse oblige, and all that. But instead he acted as if he was more than equal to them, and that was not to be born.

Ugh. I already hated that scene, but this interpretation is so in-character and so appalling, I hate it even more. >:[

I always thought that if the Marauders and the Golden Trio existed in the same era, the former would've tormented the latter. Especially the know-it-all Hermione.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/Lol, what about the way Molly being passive-aggressively horrible to Ron and ranting and raving at her kids is true maternal love, but the Malfoys sending care packages to Draco, buying his team new brooms and being upset at him getting injured in class is proof of their supreme evil?/

I don't know, maybe it's because Draco is an only child, while Ron is one out of seven that Narcissa seems to be more indulgent of Draco than Molly is of Ron.

I've always detested how Molly treats Ron. At first I thought that it was just an exaggeration of what happens when kids bring their friends over to their homes - their parents are friendly and nice to their friends, because of course they aren't *their* kids, *they* don't have to live with them, and they want to make them feel welcome, so the parents are nicer to their kids' friends.

But when it got to the point where Molly made sure to buy Harry robes that matched his eyes, but bought frilly robes for Ron that would surely embarrass him, then it started to really look like blatant favoritism. And considering that Molly only started to boast about Ron when he became prefect, that doesn't really reflect well on her. I mean, did she ever hear about Ron's triumph over McGonagall's chess game in his first year? Percy certainly told his friends about it, why wouldn't he have told Molly? Or did she just forget about it in favor of waiting for him to become prefect or to do something else as notable? And then we got the insinuation in DH that Molly resents Ron for not being a girl. Which, if true, does not reflect well on her either (especially since she now *has* a daughter).

As for Draco, I think that we're supposed to see all of that as coddling and pampering on his parents' part. Oh, Draco's a snooty rich boy, of *course* his parents will spoil him by sending him sweets in the mail, buying him a new broom, and sacking a teacher for his sake. Never mind that Harry never bought any of his brooms: he got the first one from McGonagall and the second one from Sirius. Never mind that Draco got hurt in class and that other children frequently get hurt in Hagrid's class. And never mind that parents send packages to their children all the time, whether their children are in boarding school or in college. Does that make all of those children spoiled?

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

Good point about Draco being an only child versus one of seven.

But def, the way Molly treats him leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The frilly robes...she's a house-wife who is proficient in household charms and has to make do on a small budget for a large family! I find it incredible that she is more capable of holding her own in a protracted duel against Bellatrix than of using a charm to fix the robes- at least to remove the lace or change the color. It's not that she lacks fashion sense, because Harry's robes suited him perfectly and she went to a lot of trouble over them, so for her not to realize how embarrassingly hideous Ron's were and not do anything about it...

(gee, maybe if the whole family hadn't gone to Egypt in CoS, they might be able to afford necessities like wands and robes)

Poor Ron, he only started to matter to her in OotP, when he got his badge. *shakes head*

then we got the insinuation in DH that Molly resents Ron for not being a girl

Do you remember where this is? Or what context it's revealed? I've heard it so many times I've said it myself in Molly debates, but I don't actually remember the line in DH!

You know, I don't think the Malfoys spoil him as much as people assume. Lucius refuses to buy Draco the new broom he wanted in PS/SS, it's only when he gets onto the team that they splurge on him as a reward for an achivement. He refuses to buy him the thingy in CoS and scolds him about not doing as well at school as they'd hoped. We don't see much parenting in canon, but it does suggest that they don't just give him everything his heart desires, there's some moderation and some standards expected.

Never mind that Harry never bought any of his brooms: he got the first one from McGonagall and the second one from Sirius

So angry about the double-standard. Harry despises Draco for wanting a new broom and a place on the team even though first years aren't allowed, but then he gets both broom and coveted spot on the team and blithely accepts it without even thinking how that was what put him off Draco.

And the way everyone ignores the fact that Harry has an UNBEATABLE BROOM is just ridic. Fans try to say how Draco's a crappy flyer (though Harry himself notes he's decent) and needed a good broom to get onto the team (BOO HISS, THAT SLIMY CHEATER) but Harry gets the best broom on the market and it's a-okay? Totally fair? You know if Draco had a Firebolt, there would be such an uproar about it.

Never mind that Draco got hurt in class and that other children frequently get hurt in Hagrid's class.

But Draco DELIBERATELY GOT HIMSELF HURT. He hated Hagrid enough that he provoked Buckbeak ON PURPOSE. And...and...Hagrid means well, it's that Draco undermines him and Umbridge makes him nervous later on.

No, seriously, people blame Hagrid's inept teaching and shocking lack of concern for student safety on Draco complaining about him that one time. You'd think that would make him MORE safety-conscious, but learning from your mistakes is for cowards. O.o

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/Do you remember where this is? Or what context it's revealed? I've heard it so many times I've said it myself in Molly debates, but I don't actually remember the line in DH!/

It was during the locket scene in DH. Riddle-Molly appeared and started yelling at Ron about how worthless he was because she'd wanted a girl.

/Fans try to say how Draco's a crappy flyer (though Harry himself notes he's decent) and needed a good broom to get onto the team/

Why do they say that? It was directly stated in the first book that Draco could fly well. Here I thought that it was foreshadowing build-up for Draco and Harry's rivalry in Quidditch, but I guess that I was wrong. Besides, why would Harry be so determined to beat Draco in every Quidditch match they had together if Draco was a lousy flier? Just because Draco never wins any of the matches that he has with Harry doesn't automatically mean that he's awful.

/You know if Draco had a Firebolt, there would be such an uproar about it./

If he's spoiled, I'm surprised that he didn't bug Lucius to buy him one. :P

/But Draco DELIBERATELY GOT HIMSELF HURT. He hated Hagrid enough that he provoked Buckbeak ON PURPOSE./

I think that people say that because 1) Draco insulted Hagrid in class, 2) Draco wasn't paying attention when Hagrid told the class to not insult hippogriffs, 3) Draco was "disdainfully" petting Buckbeak before he was attacked, and 4) Draco called him a "big, ugly brute." So, since Draco didn't listen and was mean, it was an accident waiting to happen.

Except how exactly *do* you insult hippogriffs? Hagrid never actually told the class that they could understand English. Buckbeak isn't part-human like a sphinx or a mermaid, so there's no guarantee that he would understand human speech. I could call my dog as many nasty names as I wanted, as long as I didn't raise my voice or sound angry, she wouldn't care. Besides, I'd imagine that most animals in the wild communicate through body language (along with different types of calls and noises). Draco wasn't screaming at Buckbeak or charging at him or flapping his arms around like an idiot. In the book, he just pets Buckbeak, while in the movie, he swaggers up to him.

As for Draco "deliberately" getting himself hurt, either they think that he just hates Hagrid and Harry that much or he has a death wish. He does constantly insult Harry and Ron even though he knows that he'll probably get hexed or beaten up for it. Does Señor Draco fancy himself a bullfighter with Harry and Ron as the angry bulls? ;)

/No, seriously, people blame Hagrid's inept teaching and shocking lack of concern for student safety on Draco complaining about him that one time. You'd think that would make him MORE safety-conscious, but learning from your mistakes is for cowards./

As Draco and Snape can tell us. *sighs*

I think it's because Hagrid just didn't learn the right lesson. After Draco was hurt, Hagrid didn't think that maybe he was wrong to not provide adequate safety instructions or that he made a mistake in bringing such volatile animals to the class so soon. All he (and Harry, Ron, and Hermione) learned was that he couldn't trust Draco, because that kid would inevitably mess things up for him.

You'd think that Care of Magical Creatures would be an ideal class for Hagrid since he loves wild animals so much. The problem is that it's not enough to love the subject that you're teaching, you have to know *how* to teach it to a class. A chemistry teacher may love chemistry more than anything in the world, but if he or she loves it to the point of failing to give the class vital instructions and ignoring students who get hurt in labs, then that teacher's going to be sacked.