COS Chapter Eight: "The Deathday Party"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

* Everyone’s got such a hate-on for Percy that he’s described using negative imagery even when he’s doing something nice. Here he’s “bullying” Ginny into taking some potion for her cold.

* Knowing what will happen in GOF, everybody’s probably going to blame him for thinking that Ginny’s a little bit ill, rather than realising that she was just being possessed by a Horcrux-ified diary which once belonged to a dark wizard who’s been dead for eleven years. Christ, Percy, are you blind or something?

* Although in retrospect it’s obvious that Ginny’s just too awesome to suffer from such petty ailments as the common cold, so maybe he should have noticed.

* Oh no wait, she hasn’t yet become MarySue!Ginny, so she might still suffer illness like the rest of us mere mortals.

* Obviously Harry’s going to be drenched to the skin, but why’s he splattered with mud? The whole point of Quidditch is that they players fly a long way above the ground, so they wouldn’t have much opportunity to get muddy. Unless Harry fell off a lot… Wait, did I just implicitly diss Harry’s SuperQuidditch!Skillz? Ignore that.

* In the last chapter, everybody acted as if Slytherin spying on Gryffindor’s try-outs was a dirty, underhanded thing to do. Fred and George have been spying on Slytherin. Slytherin, as far as we know, never actually spied on Gryffindor (or, indeed, anyone). IOIAGDI, obviously.

* I highly doubt that the Nimbus 2001 is so good as to make all other brooms obsolete.

* Nearly-headless Nick died in 1492, but the clothes he’s wearing seem more Elizabethan in style, i.e., about a century later. Perhaps there’s a ghost clothes shop where spirits can keep up-to-date with the latest fashions, but NHN just likes Elizabethan fashions so much that he stopped going after around 1600.

* Of course, this sort of fanwank wouldn’t be necessary if JKR had actually bothered to think about her setting, and either gave Nick more period-appropriate clothing or made this his four hundredth deathday instead.

* If the purpose of the Headless Hunt is to play ball games with members’ own heads, excluding members who aren’t fully decapitated seems quite reasonable to me.

* Once again, JKR, trying to enforce rules ≠ “endless battle against students”.

* Filch has been cleaning all morning when any of the teachers (and probably quite a few of the pupils) could have done it in an instant with a quick “Scourgify!” No wonder he’s in a bad mood, really.

* Although I do wonder why Dumbledore hired him as caretaker. Perhaps he just enjoys watching him being humiliated.

* So what is this mysterious power that connects Filch and Mrs. Norris? Does the fact that Filch is a Squib rule out magic, or does being a Squib just mean that he can’t do wand magic, but can still be magically connected to his pets?

* Is it wrong that I’ve always totally rooted for Filch against Fred and George?

* By making Filch’s eagerness to hang pupils by their ankles “common knowledge”, i.e., unsubstantiated rumour, Rowling handily manages to turn us against him whilst avoiding having to provide any evidence to back this up.

* I can’t help but wonder why Dumbles keeps Peeves around. Possibly it’s so that he can handily distract Filch when Our Hero is in trouble. Or maybe blackmail’s involved. “Don’t forget, Twinkles, I’ve got your old love-letters from Gellert Grindlewald. So if you even think about getting rid of me…”

* Harry apparently has no qualms about looking through other people’s correspondence. Our hero, ladies and gentlemen!

* One of these days I’m going to write a fic where Harry suffers karmic revenge for being such a jerk. So his schooldays will be made a misery by people reading his private letters, hexing rude words across his face, beating him at Quidditch by buying superior brooms which make every match a foregone conclusion…

* Nice to see that wizards have picked up on the irritating Muggle habit of deliberately misspelling words in their brand names.

* Any guesses on how exactly a warlock differs from a regular wizard?

* Harry put the envelope down two feet away from where it was. D’oh!

* Filch is obviously ashamed of being a Squib, suggesting that they suffer from prejudice from fellow wizards, unlike Muggleborns. “Mudblood” is still a worse insult than “Sneakin’ Squib,” though.

* NHN is prepared to destroy a priceless antique in order to get Harry out of detention. Good to see he’s got his priorities straight.

* NHN seems like a bit of a joke, to be honest. About the only time we see him interacting with Gryffindor students is when they needle him at the feast; the rest of the time, they just seem to ignore him.

* I bet the Slytherins treat their ghost better. They probably hold a big party in their common room every time it’s the Bloody Baron’s deathday, with music, dancing, and various wizarding party games. The highlight of the night is a play (written by and starring Draco Malfoy, of course) about the Baron’s death. It’s absolutely excellent. :)

* Off on a bit of a tangent here, but isn’t the Baron supposed to have been contemporaneous with the Hogwarts Founders? Which would mean that he lived sometime during the Anglo-Saxon period, which would mean that he couldn’t be a baron, as the rank was introduced by the Normans, who didn’t control England until 1066…

* F&G are feeding a firework to a salamander, continuing the long tradition of cruelty to animals in the series.

* “‘A promise is a promise,’ Hermione reminded Harry bossily.” Because only bossy kill-joys care about such things as keeping your promises. Most normal people are fine with the idea of just breaking them whenever you feel like it.

* Apparently when their bodies died, the ghosts’ musical taste died too.

* Rather careless (some might say rude) of Nick to invite three living people along and then not bother to provide them with any food.

* Rotting food might have a stronger flavour than normal food. Unfortunately, it’s also a not very nice flavour.

* So, the good guys can’t stand Myrtle and make fun of her behind her back; the evil Slytherin Draco Malfoy, OTOH, is able to get past her unpleasant exterior and make friends with her. I’ll just chalk that up as #147 on the “Instances when the bad guys actually seem better than the good guys” board.

* Rather rude of Sir Patrick to interrupt Nick’s speech like that. Makes you wonder why exactly Nick invited him.

* Or why he’s so keen to join the Hunt, for that matter.

* “Time to kill… I smell blood… I SMELL BLOOD”? Do basilisks always speak in such a melodramatic way, or is it just putting it on to amuse Harry? Or did it just pick up the Slytherin theatrical habit from Salazar or Tom?

* Given that all the students are coming up from the same place, why exactly are they coming in from different ends of the corridor?

* I know that people often think of Draco as a bit of a drama queen, but pushing to the front of the crowds and shouting “You’ll be next, Mudbloods!” seems ridiculously over-the-top (not to mention rather stupid), even for him. I literally cannot imagine what his motivation for doing this is meant to be.

* Actually, I think Olivander shows us a spell in GOF to make wine fly out of their wands. Maybe Draco’s just discovered this, and currently drunk off his arse.

* Or maybe Rowling just hooked his testicles up to car batteries and turned up the voltage until he agreed to be one of the book’s red herrings.

* Come to think of it, a lot of the plot/characterisation in the series would make a good deal more sense if we assume that that’s what happened. “Look, Sirius, I don’t care if you’re smart enough to figure a way of staying sane despite being surrounded for twelve years by an army of depression-inducing monsters, before masterminding an escape from an impregnable island fortress and evading the biggest man-hunt in recent wizarding history for almost a year, I need you to be really reckless and immature in this book so that you can get killed at the end and make Harry feel miserable. Quick, Dobby, get the car batteries!”

* Hey, maybe that could be a new acronym, for any time when someone does something inexplicable or otherwise out of character: QGCB (for “Quick, get the car batteries!”).

 

Comments

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

Doesn't Ms. Figg herself *apologize* to Harry in book five about how miserable she made sure he was when she was babysitting him to make sure the Dursleys would keep sending him back to her?

Lol, that reminds me of someone who suggested that Snape should've been sent to collect Harry for Hogwarts! He and Vernon probably would've bonded over the irritating nuisance that boy is and the Dursleys would've been happy to let him take Harry, since they'd assume all the teachers would be equally strict and harsh with him!

Also...this is what makes it hard for me to buy into the 'omg, horrible abusive Dursleys!' thing. Because if a kid was being regularly beaten and starved, I don't see him wanting to be at home with those abusers, as opposed to the safety of a neighbor's house. Sure, it might be boring, but if he were really that down-trodden, wouldn't it be a relief to be somewhere he knew people weren't going to bash him?

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

He also is fine with being a bit cheeky to the Dursleys and with feeling the right to get back at Dudley or struggle with him (he doesn't feel he has to passively submit). Obviously Dudley's bullying of him is not at all ok and is unpleasant for Harry, as is the neglect he's shown by Vernon and Petunia, but never does he behave in a manner that suggest he fears being beaten by them. Canon-Harry is not quite the meek little thing getting raped and chained up in a fanfic near you. Things seem rather to get worse as his years at Hogwarts continue (the bars on the window, for example). Which rather makes me suspect that a very genuine fear of magic and of wizards as wizards is part of what's going on there.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

OMG, UGH. I tried reading a few Severitus (?) fics because I loved the mentor dynamic Snape had with Harry in the awesome The Best Revenge, but none of the other fics I tried worked for me. They all involved Harry from OotP or later years at Hogwarts being beaten and horrifically abused. It was just so OOC. I had a hard time buying arrogant, confident Harry letting himself be repeatedly whipped or whatever without snapping and using his wand or a burst of wandless magic to strike back.

a very genuine fear of magic and of wizards as wizards is part of what's going on there

Considering their first encounter with a wizard ended up with Dudley having a tail and needing painful corrective surgery to get it removed? And another time their living room wall is blown up and their son nearly chokes to death on a ten-foot long tongue? Yeah, I'd say their fear is realistic.

What bugs me is how Harry goes 'Mr Weasley was so polite, even though they were cowering pathetically, he still tried to be polite and make small talk, but those ungrateful jerks were just shivering in fear and refused to be good hosts'. Ass.

I try to tell myself I should have more sympathy for him, having suffered in their house-hold, but...it just never seemed to affect him realistically, so yeah. *shrugs*

[annoni-no.livejournal.com]

I think what it comes down to is that Dursleys were mildly abusive, but it was only to the point where Harry felt consistently unhappy and like an unwelcome outsider. Compared to that, Mrs. Figg's really wasn't a meaningful change in environment, so Harry didn't view it as a safe-haven, at least from the information we have.

There was an interesting thread to explore here on degrees and affects of abuse, had Rowling chosen (had the skills) to pursue it. What if Harry *did* react realistically to the level of abuse he suffered? Maybe he would have been eager to prove himself to his only living relatives, or else to the other authority figures around him, or just to find something to justify his worth to himself, rather than just sulking and snarking. And if that dynamic got worse over the years as Dursleys lashed out in their fear of magic, intensifying Harry's animosity toward them to the point that they feared him more and thus lashed out more harshly.... I think resolving that conflict would have been much more in line with the themes of love, tolerance, etc... that Rowling *claims* she was writing about.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

There was an interesting thread to explore here on degrees and affects of abuse, had Rowling chosen (had the skills) to pursue it. What if Harry *did* react realistically to the level of abuse he suffered? Maybe he would have been eager to prove himself to his only living relatives, or else to the other authority figures around him, or just to find something to justify his worth to himself, rather than just sulking and snarking. And if that dynamic got worse over the years as Dursleys lashed out in their fear of magic, intensifying Harry's animosity toward them to the point that they feared him more and thus lashed out more harshly.... I think resolving that conflict would have been much more in line with the themes of love, tolerance, etc... that Rowling *claims* she was writing about.

It would have been nice if Rowling had done a sort of Jane Eyre dynamic with Harry and the Dursleys.

Even tho her aunt and cousins weren't nice to her, and were somewhat abusive in a similar manner as the Dursleys, Jane like Harry actually stands up to them and talks back.

Jane is then sent off to school; life lessons she learns there change her into a more introspective person. Even tho her inner nature remains quite passionate, she has learned self-control and to hold her tongue.

Years later she receives a letter from one of her cousins informing her that her aunt is ill and has requested to see Jane before dying. Jane goes, hoping to be reconciled with the aunt. She even tells the aunt that she forgives her the injustices the aunt did to her, that she, Jane, realizes that her passionate nature as a child helped contribute to the problem.

Unfortunately, the aunt does not forgive Jane, calling her "oppressive". Jane's passionate nature then resurfaces and she tells her aunt something to the effect that she was more than willing to love her if the aunt had tried even a little to like her, but since the aunt doesn't then she, Jane, is basically washing her hands of the matter.

Rowling could have done something similar, and have had a much more powerful and meaningful dynamic between the Dursleys and Harry. Have Harry become introspective enough to realize what the Dursleys were afraid of, and self-reflective enough to understand how his and his colleagues' own behavior exacerbated the problem.

Then at the end have Harry extend an olive branch to them; perhaps, as in Jane Eyre, the Dursleys would reject the offer. Or perhaps they'd uneasily accept, both sides agreeing to their errors, but the Dursleys preferring to remain in their world and not be bothered by Harry and his.

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

Jane Eyre has always been one of my favorite stories.

The problem I have in DH with Dudley suddenly doing the reversal, I would have much rather seen Harry and Petunia come to terms with each other. I didn't really get Dudley's weird change and the whole strangeness of that situation.

But I really would have rather prefered that JKR focus on Petunia and Harry than do what she did with Dudley and harry.

I wouldn't have minded at some point in the series seeing Snape and Petunia in the same room (especially after what we learned in the Prince's tale); but that never happened either. If it had happened early on in the series, those two interacting in some way, perhaps even saying things that harry wouldn't understand at the time - I think it would have given all the readers something to reflect on later, we would have got a chance to go OH yes, now I see why that happened.

But there is such a huge avoidance she did in the plot to keep people from connecting Lily/Snape - to the point it makes you question the plot more. Lots of people figured it out, I think I kind of guessed there was something. I didn't guess they were 'friends' before Hogwarts but I sort of had a feeling that was where JKR was going with Snape. I was just disappointed that she went and killed the character. It seems relatively traditional for his sort of character to die at the end of the story and I was really hoping for something different.

But, I think on some level she tried so damn hard to hide the facts of Snape/Lily that even attempting to show a scene with Petunia and Snape together would have been out of the question for her because she'd have to hint how/why they communicated as if they already know each other, etc.

So anyway, I wanted more from the books on the emotional level with Petunia and Harry - I wanted to see at the end that those two characters could somehow come together - and if not totally forgive/makeup for the past at least JKR could have made it look like they might have a future resolution happen.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Jane Eyre has always been one of my favorite stories.

Ditto. I'm not much into "romantic" stuff, but "Jane Eyre" is the only book I find "romantic".

The only movie that fits that bill for me is "The African Queen"...

So yeah, I have a sort of screwed up vision of "romance", I'd have to be in a clunker boat going down a dangerous river on a dangerous mission with a middleaged guy who has an insane wife hidden away somewhere! LOL


I didn't really get Dudley's weird change and the whole strangeness of that situation.

I think perhaps that Rowling is implying that Dudder' close-call with the Dementors has altered his outlook, if not outright overhauled his personality.


So anyway, I wanted more from the books on the emotional level with Petunia and Harry - I wanted to see at the end that those two characters could somehow come together - and if not totally forgive/makeup for the past at least JKR could have made it look like they might have a future resolution happen.

First off, we needed what Rowling did not give us -- a Harry who was capable of self-reflection, and learning from his and other's mistakes.

With that sort of a Harry, we could have then had a character who at 17 had an understanding, if not empathy, with the fear the Dursleys had of the wizarding world. He could have expressed to them his new understanding, even perhaps like Jane Eyre, admit that his own "passionate nature" when young had not helped the situation.

I don't think it would be realistic to think that the outcome of such a scene would be one long, continual "Hallmark Moment", that from then on Harry and the Dursleys loved each other and spent birthdays and Christmases together.

But they could have at least come to have a mutual respect for each other.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

But, I think on some level she tried so damn hard to hide the facts of Snape/Lily that even attempting to show a scene with Petunia and Snape together would have been out of the question for her because she'd have to hint how/why they communicated as if they already know each other, etc.

I think there could have been an effective way to do this. Snape could have visited, behaved properly, and Petunia could have given him the ultra-formal cold shoulder. We would probably think Snape was putting on an act for the family or under orders/threat from Dumbledore to be on his best behavior and, that Petunia was showing her animosity for the entire WW by her clipped, not-quite-nasty remarks back to him. She could even remind him of her sister's death - without the context many readers would have seen that as Petunia just being Petunia, using anything to browbeat someone she doesn't like. Snape's reaction to that could also have been couched in Harry-vision as almost losing his temper at the stupid Muggle instead of some anger plus guilt that we'd see in retrospect.

I see this scene set in the Dursley kitchen. Snape is standing awkwardly near the stove while Petunia angrily washes the dishes up in the sink. She may even have a stray strand of hair fall over her eye while she does this, necessitating her pushing it away with her suds-covered wrist, leaving some suds on her forehead. Snape could even take out his wand to remove the suds and we'd get an OTT reaction from Petunia with some cryptic remark that we would later connect to the branch falling episode.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

I have a lot of thoughts on the whole 'realistic effects of abuse' thing, mainly because I read this pdf which is like, over a hundred pages on how the series could've been improved if more mature themes were explored by a better writer.

After ten years of abuse and neglect, Harry discovers that he's not only a wizard, but a famous wizard. How does he respond to this? He quickly accepts the situation, and then takes it for granted. At Hogwarts, he goes through the motions, quite comfortable with his mediocre performance in class. He accepts Ron and Hermione as his friends as if having friends is no big deal. His laziness and apathy are presented not as debilitating illnesses resulting from insecurity and depression, but as harmless attributes.

As a result, Harry's years with the Dursleys are revealed as nothing more than manipulation of the reader's sympathies. Harry's childhood ultimately has no effect on Harry's personality.

Harry kills Quirrell, then effectively goes on about his business as if nothing had happened. He destroys the Horcrux diary and a magical basilisk, but experiences no guilt. After years of being constantly attacked, he shows no signs of post traumatic stress.

The result of all this is that Harry begins to seem inhuman.

Philosopher's Stone doesn't pay much attention to Harry's psychological makeup. While we don't want the book to become an introspective character analysis, the current approach seems too close to the opposite extreme. Harry lacks both inner drive and inner demons, is unaffected even by the most horrific events, and seems altogether unexceptional. Thus, it seems fair to say that Book 1 would benefit from paying more attention to Harry's personality.

Let's take a closer look at Harry as we find him in Book 1. He's spent nearly all his life with the Dursleys, where he's been neglected, forced to sleep in a small closet crawling with spiders, tormented by Dudley, treated as unwanted, and generally abused emotionally, if not physically. After ten years of this, what kind of person is he? From what we see in Book 1, he's lackluster at school. He seems to be something of a loner used to living without friends. He seems to have a dispassionate, objective view of the Dursleys, seeing them as nasty, petty people who he doesn't expect to change, but he shows no signs of acting out his rage toward them, nor does he make any effort to earn their affection. Harry doesn't appear to have any dreams of getting away from the Dursleys, never mind any concrete plans to in fact run away. Still, he isn't beat down. Rather, he's strangely unaffected by it all, as if he merely watched someone else experiencing ten years of emotional neglect and abuse.

Surely, any child raised in this environment is going to have psychological problems, most likely serious ones, and those problems aren't going to suddenly vanish once the proximate cause is removed. Harry would have a number of harmful beliefs: that he's worthless, that nothing he does is ever good enough so there's no point trying, that those in authority are not to be trusted, that trying to make friends just leads to painful disappointment, and so forth. None of this is apparent in Harry.

Philosopher's Stone falls prey to a mistake that plagues the entire series; it creates a situation and then trivializes it. The book invents an abusive environment for Harry, makes him live there through his most crucial formative years, and then has him walk away absolutely unaffected. Several times during the series, Dumbledore comments on how amazing this is. It isn't amazing, it's false, shallow, and a slap in the face to anyone who has lived through an abusive or neglectful childhood.

I adore reading essays that don't just blindly praise the series, and actually critically examine areas where it fell short of the mark and all that, so finding this book-length thing was pretty cool.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

I'm so torn! I want that pdf but I have too much to read as it is for now. Gaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

Lol! Well, it's not a one-time offer! If you decide at some later state, you don't have too much on your plate, let me know and I can send it to you!

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

Ooh, could I beg the pdf from you, pretty please? That sounds very interesting.

condwiramurs AT ymail DOT com

Thanks!

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

No problem! I hoped to whet someone's appetite with this snippet, hee! >:D