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

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

"Really, Draco, really? You're sixteen years old, reportedly an aristocrat, and you're with your mother. You *really* had to make such a juvenile, immature remark? It was bad the first time when you made that stupid remark about not wanting to touch Hermione's hands in GoF because you didn't want to be contaminated by her Mudblood germs or whatever, but two years later, you still think that that's the height of repartee? Why don't you just complain that Hermione has cooties while you're at it? *eyeroll*"

OTOH, the Trio seem to get pretty worked-up by all his juvenile taunts (isn't there a scene on the train in GOF where Draco basically says "Nyah nyah, Ron's family are so poor", and Ron slams the door with such force that he shatters the glass in it?), so perhaps he's just choosing to stick to what he knows is effective. The Trio aren't exactly the sharpest tools in the shed, so anything more subtle would probably go straight over their heads.

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

True. For that matter, I think that the previous time Draco used a "you smell" insult, it provoked Harry and Fred (or George) to beat him up, it worked so well. (And the other twin only didn't help beat him up because he was being held back by someone.)

I could imagine that Draco/the Slytherins are laughing at the Trio for being so offended by insults like this. But of course, it's really just lousy writing.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/I could imagine that Draco/the Slytherins are laughing at the Trio for being so offended by insults like this./

True, but considering that his confrontations with the Trio usually result in him being hexed or beaten up, I don't know why Draco keeps doing it.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

the Trio seem to get pretty worked-up by all his juvenile taunts

When they're eleven or twelve, okay. But when it gets to OotP, and there are 15-17 year olds beating him up for a 'yo momma' joke... O.o There is something wrong with these kids. And people say Draco's such a racist little bully that he deserves it...'k, then. *shakes head*

Look, I can't really fault Neville for trying to attack Draco (and held back by Harry!) with his crack about mental patients (even though I don't think Draco knew or meant it to hurt him- gee, if Harry, who has been Neville's 'friend' for years doesn't know, I'm not sure that Draco would), but the stupid things the Trio beat him up over is ridic!

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/But when it gets to OotP, and there are 15-17 year olds beating him up for a 'yo momma' joke.../

I know, it was bad enough that Harry got all worked up about it, but Fred and George? I was so surprised when I was reading that scene and I saw that they also got really mad and joined Harry in the fray. *Why* were they taking Draco's remarks seriously? Not only are they older than him, but they're supposed to be a couple of merry pranksters. True, people who are quick to laugh are often also quick to anger, and it's also true that they were really mad when Draco called Hermione "Mudblood" in CoS, but if anything, I'd think that they'd just scoff at Draco or laugh at him. Or they'd retaliate by making a crack about *his* mother, the way that Harry did in GoF.

/Look, I can't really fault Neville for trying to attack Draco (and held back by Harry!) with his crack about mental patients (even though I don't think Draco knew or meant it to hurt him- gee, if Harry, who has been Neville's 'friend' for years doesn't know, I'm not sure that Draco would),/

I'm not saying this because I want to believe it, but considering that Draco's aunt was one of the people who tortured Neville's parents, there is a chance that he may have heard about it. If so, then his remark would definitely be cruel and heartless. But, being biased, I want to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he didn't know.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

You could if you like theorize that the Malfoys - having seen that they're better off without Voldie around Crucio'ing them - don't want to really associate themselves in their son's eyes with crazy Voldemort-fangirl Bella, and so don't really talk about her in detail to Draco.

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

It's been a while since I read OOTP, but I didn't think that Draco actually recognised Neville, did he? So even if he did know about the Longbottoms, I doubt that his loony face was made with them in mind.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

*Why* were they taking Draco's remarks seriously? Not only are they older than him, but they're supposed to be a couple of merry pranksters.

Hypocrites. Look at all the crap they put other people through, and one little remark like this will set them off.

considering that Draco's aunt was one of the people who tortured Neville's parents

She's been in Azkaban all these years, so she wouldn't have told him- and considering that the Malfoys were trying to live down their notorious reputations and present themselves as fine upstanding people, I doubt they'd be telling their kid about some fun torture times with Mad Auntie Bella, y'know? Just my feeling on that.