deathtocapslock | COS Chapter Seven: "Mudbloods and Murmurs"

for-diddled.livejournal.com posting in

* 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.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Location: The Quidditch Pitch

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

The thing with Snape also makes the business of Slytherins being pureblood elitists completely unfounded. If Slytherin was so pureblood-elitist then how did Severus, who had a Muggle father, get into the house in the first place, let alone become its head? But no, only Gryffindors can be progressive and egalitarian and accepting of all people (JKR's as good as admitted it herself-Slytherin's become diluted, huh?).

From:

condwiramurs.livejournal.com

Yes, once again it is a case of JKR and the narrator telling us one thing (repeatedly and very loudly) while showing us something rather different - without the intention to be ironic or make us think the narrator is unreliable. So it falls apart. Slytherin is the house of pureblood elitism, but admits no-name halfbloods (and Tom could have been Muggleborn for all the hat knew) without a fuss, some of whom can go on to wow the Head of the house and set themselves up for great careers (viz: Slughorn on Tommy Riddle) and make friends/followers within the house (Tommy's original DEs) though they would have known he was not from one of their illustrious lines.

It's also the house of ambition, but seems to admit more wealthy, entitled aristocrats than social climbers (Severus being the exception here that we see, although logically he ought to be the rule). It's supposed to be the house of the evil and the totally depraved, but its most prominent representatives (oooh, scary music for the Evil Malfoys) seem to be loving, committed parents who aren't actually that bad at parenting aside from passing on their own less than enlightened views of Muggleborns. Similarly, the DEs are supposed to be ruthless murdering maniacs, but when they are facing a bunch of teenagers on a very important mission from their Lord the only ones to whip out the actual nasty spells (AK, whatever Dolohov used) are the ones who had spent time in crazy-making Azkaban.

From:

borg-princess.livejournal.com

its most prominent representatives (oooh, scary music for the Evil Malfoys) seem to be loving, committed parents who aren't actually that bad at parenting aside from passing on their own less than enlightened views of Muggleborns

See, that's what I believe, I think the Malfoys are good parents- it's little things like the care packages they send him regularly, which I think is sweet, and yet not going OTT and granting him everything his little heart desires and making him work to achieve things before rewarding him. But the popular view is that they are pretty shoddy parents, so IDK. Any thoughts on this?

Except they raised their son to be bigoted, elitist, and racist and to uphold all the worst ideals and values, and then dragged him into Voldemort's inner circle where he witnessed horrific and senseless acts. They also put his life at risk constantly by involving him with a monstrous and insane killer, and then by inadvertently making him a scapegoat and target throughout HBP. Plus their pampering of Draco is no better than the Dursleys pampering Dudley, imo.

I mean...yeah, they were kind of responsible for getting him mixed up with Voldy...though to be fair to the Malfoys, they weren't out there resurrecting him, they were perfectly happy with life as it was! Getting involved with the DEs certainly did their family no favors.

when they are facing a bunch of teenagers on a very important mission from their Lord the only ones to whip out the actual nasty spells (AK, whatever Dolohov used) are the ones who had spent time in crazy-making Azkaban

I'm of two minds here- on one hand, the kids are the ones who instigate any physical altercations. Lucius goes through several 'give me the thingamajig' lines, without using his wand to either 'accio' it or attack Harry. Otoh, there are adult DEs who are clearly all menacing and threatening and even if they weren't hurting them yet, the threat of harm was still implicit.

But I do think it's interesting that these DEs were so reluctant to engage the kids- and as you said, the only ones to hurt them were the Azkaban escapees. (gee, MoM, maybe it's not a good idea to mentally torture prisoners, 'coz it just makes them even more of a menace to society when they inevitably escape?)

From:

oryx_leucoryx

'coz it just makes them even more of a menace to society when they inevitably escape?

But see, nobody escapes from Azkaban, ever!! Except for Sirius. And Barty. And a whole bunch of DEs. Twice.

And anyway, some people get limited sentences - they are scheduled to return to society at some point. How does their stay with dementors influence their behavior once freed?

From:

condwiramurs.livejournal.com

Presumably they go on to commit even more horrific acts (of course they would! nobody can change their essential natures in the Potterverse), landing themselves back in Azkaban at some point, so really no-one does escape in the end, and collateral damage along the way be d*mned.

Or JKR, and/or the ministry, just can't be bothered to *THINK.*

Arg.

From:

karentheunicorn.livejournal.com

'coz it just makes them even more of a menace to society when they inevitably escape?

But see, nobody escapes from Azkaban, ever!! Except for Sirius. And Barty. And a whole bunch of DEs. Twice.

LOL!!

Apparently Lucius got out on good behavior - they realized his character was going to quickly do a epic downfall on being actually evil; This downfall was second only to Voldemort.

From:

borg-princess.livejournal.com

I forgot it wasn't always permanent- after all, Hagrid was in Azkaban once or twice.

Damn. Does that mean I can't hate on him any more 'coz it was Azkaban that caused his spectacular lack of judgment and child-endangering skillz? *pouts*

From:

oryx_leucoryx

No, because he was already endangering children before Azkaban - letting them handle his pet dragon (got Ron into the hospital wing, later endangered the entire school when Harry and Hermione took the pet to the Astronomy Tower) and encouraging Harry and Ron to visit Aragog and family.

From:

aikaterini.livejournal.com

And he endangered his fellow classmates by raising Aragog in the school to begin with.

From:

for-diddled.livejournal.com

"Except they raised their son to be bigoted, elitist, and racist and to uphold all the worst ideals and values,"

I've already mentioned the supposed racism in the OP; I think that the charge of elitism is pretty hard to sustain, too. At Madam Malkin's, Draco makes an effort to befriend Harry, even though he's still dressed in Dudley's hand-me-downs and probably looks rather ridiculous; certainly, he wouldn't look like somebody from a rich, or even well-off, family. If Draco were so elitist, he probably wouldn't even bother talking to him. Also, Snape is apparently his favourite teacher; Snobbish!Draco would probably feel resentful that Slytherin House was being run by a poor half-blood with no connexions, rather than actually, y'know, liking him.

"and then dragged him into Voldemort's inner circle"

My memory of HBP is a bit hazy, but I was under the impression that Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy weren't too happy about their son being given this dangerous task? At any rate, Narcissa seemed quite upset about it. Hardly sounds like they were "draggin him into Voldemort's inner circle" to me.

From:

karentheunicorn.livejournal.com

Wasn't Lucius in azkaban. I don't think he would have had a say yes or no if Draco became a DE.

It's very possible that Voldie and the DE showed up at the Malfoy's and had a talk with Draco and there wasn't much Narcissa could do about it either way.

I don't know if Draco was given a choice on taking the Dark Mark. I don't think it was Lucius taking his son for a proud initiation into Daddy's favorite elitist group.

It doesn't sound like everything was cool with how it all went down. Narcissa was begging and crying, it just comes across to me as if Lucius was out of the picture and Voldie came'a'callin'

From:

condwiramurs.livejournal.com

Notice as well that the adult Malfoys were not at all eager to go find Voldie once he disappeared. They never seem enthused with the idea of actually being DEs, much though they hold to their prejudices (which, as you point out, don't extend to disdaining Severus). My bet is that they realized that Voldie being gone was really a wonderful thing (after all, no more Crucios). And when he came back, would they really have had much of a choice about whether Draco joined or not? Voldie seems to collect the children of earlier recruits whenever possible, and strategically it makes sense to do so. I think Draco was doomed - I'm with you there. And yeah, Lucius was in Azkaban, but it's not like that would have made much of a difference. Voldie gets what he wants, and Lucius is powerless to keep him from taking over his entire house or taking his wand.

The only people who seem to actually ever want Voldie back are Bellatrix (a zealot to begin with, with a personal obsession with him), Barty Crouch Jr., and the Lestrange brothers. It's not even that clear that Rabastan was that gung-ho either; it's possible (no more, no less) that he got dragged in on the Longbottom affair by Rodolphus but was a bit half-hearted about it all really. And how gung-ho was Roddy? Was Bellatrix the driving force here?

Bellatrix remains the only truly scary villain in the books by the end, IMHO.

From:

condwiramurs.livejournal.com

Oh, and Peter, but only after his comfortable existence with the Weasleys was snatched away and his protective cover blown. Then he went running back to the last powerful person he'd served.

From:

majorjune.livejournal.com

Lucius was in Azkaban in HBP, and I seem to remember Draco's mission as Voldie's way to punish the Malfoys for Lucius' failure at the MoM...

Doesn't Snape actually say something to the effect that Voldie expects Draco to fail in his mission?

From:

condwiramurs.livejournal.com

I believe so.

From:

aikaterini.livejournal.com

/(gee, MoM, maybe it's not a good idea to mentally torture prisoners, 'coz it just makes them even more of a menace to society when they inevitably escape?)/

Who on earth thought that this was a good idea? The wizarding world's solution to dealing with murderers and other wrongdoers is lock them up with soul-draining monsters that will render them insane and thus, even *more* likely to commit murder and whatnot? Was this just the twisted result of a deal made with the dementors in order to confine them and keep them in line? We Muggles have had some horrible prisons ourselves, but I can't think of a real-life example that came close to what the Ministry has as punishment.

I remember seeing canon purists in the HP fandom scold some fanfic writers for making it seem as if Azkaban was the only prison in the wizarding world in their fanfics. But I haven't seen mention of any other wizarding jails in the series. The only other prison that I can think of is Nurmengard and that's not in Britain. And considering that Morfin Gaunt was sent to Azkaban for giving Tom Riddle Sr. *hives,* no less...it really does seem that Azkaban is the only prison, the only method of punishment that the Ministry has. Which is really terrible.

I mean, I know that you're going to have more hurdles dealing with wizards because they have magic, but is Azkaban really the only way to deal with wizarding criminals? The Ministry couldn't have found a way to strip them of their magic and simply toss them in regular jails? Considering how much Squibs and Muggles are reviled in the wizarding world, I'd think that being stripped of magic alone would be considered harsh punishment.

From:

oryx_leucoryx

Azkaban is apparently he only British wizarding prison. As Draco tells 'Goyle' (actually Harry) "Azkaban - the wizard prison, Goyle,".

I don't think there is a way to actually strip a wizard of magic. One can take his wand away, but the innate magic will still be there. Losing magic or having it taken away is a fanon invention.