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]

Argh, yes, the old double-standard at work there. Snape does something to his pet and omg, he's a monster! Filius zooms the toad around, which would freak it out and Neville as well, but it's all good! *shakes head*

And point taken on Snape needing to realize he didn't treat Neville well there- it's a perspective thing, I knew he wasn't really going to kill the toad, so I didn't get alarmed, but from Neville's pov, this guy hates him and makes his life miserable, so there is that fear.

It's all about perspective. I don't see a lot of the things he does as deeply horrible or anything, because I do believe he has the students' best interests at heart- not in a soppy way, but he's going to look after them and make sure they learn this stuff damn well enough to ensure they don't get hurt.

And I can see kids with the right attitude enjoying his classes and being like 'it's so cool, he poisons one of us now and then to test our antidotes!' instead of Harry ridiculously thinking he was in real danger and getting all OTT over how mean old Snape was gonna poison him, ohnoes! *eyeroll*

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

ITA about Severus trying, in his own stern way, to protect his students and *make them learn.* And it's not just Potions or DADA he wants to teach them. I rather think a lot of his ranting at Harry about arrogance and attempts to get him to actually face consequences for things (instead of always having someone get him off the hook) is not about James, but comes from Severus' *own* experience of messing up royally because he didn't think or care about the possible consequences of his actions. He wants Harry - and his other students, but especially Harry - to learn that lesson without having to experience their entire world falling apart, so that they'll act wisely in the future.

And yeah, I have the feeling that a lot of teenage boys at least would love his classes in exactly the way you describe.

RE Neville, I agree that it's a perspective thing. I also think that Severus doesn't realize why Neville is afraid of him (he doesn't know about Neville's particular issues around magic), doesn't have a good grasp on alternate methods of teaching, and senses that Neville at some level is trying to get out of having to perform as a wizard - which just drives him up the wall. He ought to step back and reconsider things, but I think he's too insulted at the idea that Neville really fears real harm from him (not the hyperbolic 'terrified' of maybe getting into trouble) to 1) fully grasp the fact that Neville in fact really is that terrified of him, or 2) realize he thus needs to change his approach to Neville. I also wonder how much of the toad incident was a calculated show of 'I'm a big bad DE who gets off on torturing kids' pets,' but I haven't reached any conclusions there yet.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

I rather think a lot of his ranting at Harry about arrogance and attempts to get him to actually face consequences for things is not about James, but comes from Severus' *own* experience of messing up royally because he didn't think or care about the possible consequences of his actions

Exactly, there are so many stupid reckless things Harry does that risk his life and that of his friends (OotP anyone? *headdeskwallfloor*) and I can see Snape just being totally at his wits' end on how to get through his thick skull that he can't be running off, doing what he wants, when the stakes are so high. But every time he tries to teach him that lesson, someone steps in to validate Harry and tell him it's okay and just smooth it all over. Argh.

I remember HBP was the book where the series finally lost it for me. I was okay with it up til then, even things I didn't quite like, I excused because I thought it was building up to go somewhere cool and she'd fix it later or there'd be some sort of payoff...but I thought Sirius dying would be a painful life lesson, and yet he learnt NOTHING.

I thought these kids having faced DEs and being terribly out of their depth and nearly losing their lives would become more mature because of that experience, they'd see how serious this war was and strive harder to be prepared for it- but then HBP was all about hormones and stupid in-fighting (right at the time they most needed unity, too) and picking on each other and ~feelings~ instead of growing the hell up like they ought to have done.

And...that turned ranty without warning.

Neville at some level is trying to get out of having to perform as a wizard

Yeah, that relates to what I thought of his character- that he's crippled by his insecurity and the damage his relatives did him when he was a kid and just doesn't believe he deserves to be there and it's this negative self-fulfilling prophecy where he just can't stop failing because that's the pattern he's locked in.

I also wonder how much of the toad incident was a calculated show of 'I'm a big bad DE who gets off on torturing kids' pets,' but I haven't reached any conclusions there yet.

I hadn't thought of that, actually. Hmm. IDK...

But I do like that lesson when the trio were reading a magazine in class (what were they thinking?! Oh, wait...) and he embarrassed Harry and Hermione- and I think they totally deserved it, tbh.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

Neville also has the example of his parents - from which a young kid (who is of course not going about this rationally, or even necessarily consciously) might draw the conclusion that being good at magic gets you tortured into insanity by evil wizards. That's a pretty strong motivator.

So poor Neville would be between a rock and a hard place: abused by his relatives for *not* performing magic, but fearing that if he *is* good at it it will *still* end up badly for him. Thus he doesn't block his magic entirely - he shows *power* - but refuses (subconsciously) to actually try to be *good* at magic, that is good at *controlling* it. And Severus senses that something like this is going on without understanding *why,* and decides its up to him to get the kid to stop being lazy or timid or whatever his problem is, because he just can't sit back and let the kid become a total menace in class. But when he tries to get through to Neville, it all just gets worse, for reasons he can't understand - which infuriates him, making things even worse.

Sigh.

ITA about HBP. I've read fics in which Harry goes back to Snape at the beginning of his sixth year and apologizes and explains he's got it now, he really does need to learn Occlumency, and basically shows that sense of responsibility we were hoping he'd learn. But of course in JKR-land Harry can do no wrong and never needs to actually learn a hard lesson, so Sirius' death gets blamed on Snape (Harry's favorite object to project onto) and Harry gets over it amazingly quickly. Arg.

[maidofkent.livejournal.com]

Great points on Neville. I also think personalities are involved as well in Neville's problems. We know that he actually does ok, or very well, in Herbology and Charms which are taught by the fairly unthreatening Sprout and Flitwick. He is rubbish at Potions and Transfiguration, taught by Snape and McGonagall. He goes badly wrong in Potions before Snape's addressed a word to him directly. I think McGonagall who's a strict elderly woman, conjures up 'Gran' and Neville fails before he's started. Neville's been raised by his grandparents and great-aunts and great-uncles, and he's been told what a great wizard his dad was, and how Neville just doesn't begin to come up to scratch. Apart from Quirrel, who's a wreck, Snape's the only teacher we know of at the school who's a man of the same/ish generation as Frank, perhaps the only young man with whom Neville's ever had close contact. So there's a powerful authoritarian wizard in loco parentis, and faced with that Neville confirms the 'idiot boy' stance that Neville subconsciously believes such a figure would take.

[oryx_leucoryx]

We don't know if he was any good at Charms before he started practicing with the DA.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure he did that well in Charms:

and he did so badly at Summoning Charms in Professor Flitwick's class that he was given extra homework - the only person to get any, apart from Neville

So Harry falls to pieces 'coz of the stress and drama of his life, and that's why he does badly, but Neville gets extra homework for doing badly, even though he's not under similar pressure.

Also:

He, Ron, and Hermione were sitting at the very back of the Charms class with a table to themselves. They were supposed to be practicing the opposite of the Summoning Charm today - the Banishing Charm. Owing to the potential for nasty accidents when objects kept flying across the room. Professor Flitwick had given each student a stack of cushions on which to practice, the theory being that these wouldn't hurt anyone if they went off target. It was a good theory, but it wasn't working very well. Neville's aim was so poor that he kept accidentally sending much heavier things flying across the room - Professor Flitwick, for instance

Neville does have magical ability but it's poorly focused- it's no good having the power but being terrible at putting it to practical use and being unable to complete the task.

I think it's Neville who's sabotaging himself. He makes this comment about 'everyone knows I'm practically a squib'- I think he really does have no confidence and thinks so negatively of himself, that it practically assures his failure.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

And I can see kids with the right attitude enjoying his classes and being like 'it's so cool, he poisons one of us now and then to test our antidotes!'

Sort-of like the Weasley twins.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

Kind of, yeah.

Except when the twins do mean things to people, it's all in good fun and yay, everyone's having a laugh, no matter how embarrassed or hurt the 'victim' is. Snape just has to loom over his students to get bashed. *eyeroll*

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

Is this why Flitwick is allowed to be sarcastic and torture Trevor but never gets slammed for it? He can't loom? Because I'm at a loss otherwise.

Don't get me started on the Twins. I hope you've read Elkins on the Twins and bullying - so much truth.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

And, if Snape's class was popular it would be the same way. Kids might even compete to lie the most about the worst thing done to them, just for bragging rights.

It was the 'poison us' comment that made me think of the twins. They were always testing out their candies on anyone who even vaguely let them.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

There was a thread somewhere wondering about who Snape tested his control of Sectumsempra over- now I'm wondering how the twins tested and refined their products. Do you think they experimented on each other or just got random animals or what?

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

There was a thread somewhere wondering about who Snape tested his control of Sectumsempra over- now I'm wondering how the twins tested and refined their products. Do you think they experimented on each other or just got random animals or what?

Do you hae to test sectumsempra on anyone? Does it only work on human skin or a living creatures skin or can you cut anything with it? I don't know if it's only specially for a body - couldn't use just as easily cut down a tree, cut a piece of parchment, a wall...anything with that spell?

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

My first inclination would be a pillow.