COS Chapter Nine: "The Writing on the Wall"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

* Ooh, we’re half-way through the book! :)

 

* Lockhart’s looking “excited and important”, which is the sort of description usually reserved for Percy. Is this foreshadowing for Percy’s evilness in OOTP?

* I like the idea of Picture!Lockharts curling their hair so much that I won’t bother asking where they got the rollers from or why they needed them.

* I wonder why Snape’s trying not to smile. He doesn’t seem to have any particular grudge against Filch – in fact, he’d probably sympathise with him as a fellow outcast – so maybe it’s Lockhart’s behaviour he finds amusing?

* Harry feels sorry for Filch, but “not nearly as sorry as he felt for himself”, continuing the long tradition of self-pity in these books.

* Love Lockhart’s backtracking here, BTW. “Ah! I thought so!”

* Filch seems to be ashamed of the fact that he’s a Squib, whereas Hermione’s never been ashamed of her Mudblood status (and nor, as far as we know, have any Muggleborns), suggesting that Squibs have lower status than Muggleborns. Insulting people for being Squibs is still worse than insulting them for being Muggleborns, though.

* Harry’s sure that nothing Snape has to say will do him any good. Even though Snape’s spent most of last year saving Harry’s life.

* Snape’s logic may be leading him to the wrong conclusion, but at least he’s using logic, which is more than we can say for most characters in the books.

* Contrary to what Professor McGonagall says, there is evidence that Harry’s done something wrong. It may be circumstantial evidence, but it’s evidence nonetheless.

* So is Dumbledore reading Harry’s mind here? Because I have to say that the idea of the epitome of goodness going around violating people’s privacy like that seems a bit disturbing.

* “Hearing voices no-one else can hear isn’t a good sign, even in the wizarding world.” Erm, how do you know, Ron? This is, after all, a world with time travel, teleportation and transfiguration. For all you know, there might be some obscure bit of magic that only allows certain people to hear a sound.

* Ron’s laughing at Filch being a Squib, thereby teaching readers the value of tolerance.

* Ron seems happy that Filch is a Squib because Filch is such a bitter jerk. Apparently it doesn’t occur to him that Filch is such a bitter jerk because he’s a Squib, and that, if he were a normal wizard, he might be quite a nice person.

* No, Harry, Snape hasn’t tried to frame you for anything; he’s merely made a reasonable (if incorrect) deduction from the evidence available to him.

* I hope that at least one of the teachers tried to “Sourgify” the writing away before setting Filch on it with the mess remover.

* Aww, Filch’s portrayal here is so sad. :’(

* Ron doesn’t think Ginny should worry about Mrs. Norris being petrified, because she’s not very nice. Remember, kids, it’s OK for someone to be attacked if they annoy you in some way!

* As per usual, Ron’s is a few inches shorter than everyone else’s.

* Someone should tell Hermione that writing far more than you’re meant to is not a sign of intelligence. Learning to write briefly/choose only the most important points to include is a valuable skill to learn. If I’d handed in an essay that was ¼ over the word limit, my teachers would not have been happy.

* Hey, Hermione’s refusing to help Ron cheat with his homework. Maybe she should do this more often; he might actually learn something then.

* I don’t know what subject it was that JKR used to teach, but I’d be willing to bet it wasn’t History.

* So why is Dumbledore letting Binns teach? Hogwarts is, after all, the only wizard school in Britain; for DD to hire a bad teacher is, therefore, even worse than for a normal headmaster to hire one. He could well be putting literally every single wizarding child off studying history for life.

* Or maybe it’s just a cunning plan to stop them from investigating his own rather… interesting childhood.

* It seems that mediaeval wizarding society was so advanced, they all had surnames several centuries before they were introduced into Muggle society.

* I can’t help but wonder how Gryffindor and Slytherin managed to work together for so long; who to admit is, after all, a pretty fundamental disagreement. Perhaps Slytherin was initially OK with the idea of accepting Muggleborns, but them something happened (maybe one of them tried to betray the school?) that changed his mind.

* No, Ron, no-one’s said anything about Slytherin starting all this Pureblood stuff, simply that he agreed with it. There’s no evidence that this was a particularly rare view back in the tenth century.

* Also, in his haste to condemn Salazar as a “twisted old loony”, Ron seems not to have considered what it would say about Godric Gryffindor if he’d decided to start a school with such a man.

* Plus, of course, wishing to exclude Muggleborns is quite reasonable in an age when Muggles will literally kill you if they ever find out you’re a wizard.

* Maybe that explains all the Pureblood supremacy stuff: back in the old days, when Muggles were out to get magical people, wizards with Muggle relatives could well have divided loyalties, and so would naturally be seen as potential fifth columnists. The most trustworthy wizards would, therefore, be the ones with no Muggle relatives, and who would consequently be loyal only to the wizarding world. By the time Muggles stopped persecuting wizards and the danger of betrayal went away, the whole “Pureblood = best” thing was so heavily ingrained in wizarding culture that it is still present today.

* Considering Ron’s condescending attitude towards Muggles, I’d be a bit more cautious about getting on my high horse if I were him. He’s really a bit like a BNP member criticising a Nazi for being a racist.

* Am I the only one for whom “I wouldn’t be in his House if you paid me. Honestly, if the Sorting Hat had tried to put me in Slytherin, I’d’ve got the train straight back home…” brought flashbacks to “Imagine being in Hufflepuff. I think I’d leave, don’t you?”

* The sad thing is, all this “You could have been great in Slytherin” stuff could have been an excellent opportunity to show that “Slytherin” and “evil” are not synonymous. As it is, though, it comes across as a moral test that Harry has passed. The sign of true goodness = hating Slytherin House.

* Hermione’s really got a high opinion of old Dumbles, hasn’t he? Dumbledore couldn’t cure Mrs. Norris, ergo Mrs. Norris’ attacker can’t be human. What was it I said about elementary logic and the Hogwarts curriculum?

* Nice to see that Fred was already showing strong bullying tendencies by the age of five. And a remarkable control of magic, too, if he was able to turn a teddy bear into a spider without any training or a wand. Remind you of anyone?

* Hermione’s laughing at Ron’s obvious trauma, which, given what we now know about JKR’s views on love, is probably meant to be A Clue for their eventual marriage.

* So Hogwarts can buy golden plates for all its pupils, but not keep its toilets in good order. Clearly, Dumbledore’s been diverting funds from the sanitation department into the crockery-buying department.

* Percy’s noticed how upset Ginny is, whereas neither Ron, Harry nor Hermione have. Remember this when she tells everybody about Percy’s girlfriend.

* “You don’t care about Ginny,” says Ron, even though all the evidence in the books points to him being the only one of his family who actually cares about her.

* Given the rudeness of Ron’s remark, five points from Gryffindor is quite a mild punishment.

* Gosh, the Percy-hate’s really coming strong here, isn’t it? Now the trio are reluctant to even sit near him in the common room.

* “‘Let’s think,’ said Ron in mock puzzlement. ‘Who do we know who thinks Muggle-borns are scum?’” The correct answer is “No-one, because JKR can’t write a convincing racist.”

* It’s a bit like if, when Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson, instead of being a poor labourer, was a respected teacher or something like that. And instead of framing him for rape, Bob Ewell had called him a “nigger”. And instead of doing this pretty much every time he met him, Bob had used this insult maybe one or two times a year. And instead of doing this to every black person he met, Bob only insulted Tom. And if instead of being motivated by blind prejudice, Bob had a perfectly understandable reason for disliking him. And instead of agreeing with Bob’s insults, everyone just ignored him. And instead of being poor and oppressed, Maycomb’s black population were well-integrated and treated as equals with the town’s white people. And instead of being a common insult, “nigger” was rare enough that Tom had to ask one of his friends what it meant. And then the audience are expected to react as if Bob’s an evil bigot making Tom’s life hell, instead of just a minor irritant which any reasonably well-balanced person would ignore.

* Even if we accept for argument’s sake that Draco is a racist, that still isn’t very good evidence for him being Slytherin’s heir. There are, after all, lots of racists in the world; and besides, there’s always the possibility that Slytherin Jnr. would be hiding his racism so as not to draw suspicion on himself.

* Oh, wait, silly me, that’s not the only evidence Ron has. Draco’s also ugly. Because ugliness is a sure sign of badness, obviously.

* Oh, and his father’s “evil” (bear in mind that, so far, about the worst he’s done is insult Mr. Weasley, which is unpleasant, certainly, but not evil). Because Slytherin was so evil, all his descendants would be, too.

* Not that blood’s important in any way, or anything like that.

* And upon this foundation of spurious conjecture, Ron goes on to build a whole edifice of even more spurious conjecture, suggesting that the Malfoys have been handing the key down, father to son, throughout the centuries.

* Yeah Ron, try presenting that evidence in court, and see how far it gets you.

* And by “court”, I mean a proper Muggle one with juries and presumptions of innocence and all the various other safeguards designed to prevent wrongful imprisonment, not one of the kangaroo courts that pass for justice in the wizarding world.

* It is, as Hermione says, “possible”. But, in the absence of any other evidence, it’s no more possible than any of the other thousands of possibilities. (Hey, perhaps it’s Lockhart, and that idiot façade is just a way to throw suspicion. Or perhaps it’s one of the other rich, Pureblood children whose ancestors have all been in Slytherin. Or perhaps the whole thing’s just a practical joke by Fred and George…)

* Ron and Hermione seem to be getting irritated at each other remarkably quickly. Cue Can You Feel the Love in the background.

* “But that’s impossible,” says Harry, apparently forgetting that he’s a wizard in a school of magic in a society that has magic for just about everything, so asking Draco questions without them realising who they are shouldn’t be impossible.

* A lot of people think that Malfoy would be unable to keep his mouth shut if he was the heir, but I disagree. He doesn’t tell anyone about Norbert in PS, after all, and in OOTP he doesn’t seem to blab about Harry’s “remedial Potions” lessons. He’s quite capable of keeping secrets when the plot requires it he wants to.

* “‘Oh come on, no teacher’s going to fall for that,’ said Ron. ‘They’d have to be really thick…’” Can you guess who it is yet? :)

 

Comments

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

* Ron seems happy that Filch is a Squib because Filch is such a bitter jerk. Apparently it doesn’t occur to him that Filch is such a bitter jerk because he’s a Squib, and that, if he were a normal wizard, he might be quite a nice person.

Or just as likely that Filch is a bitter jerk because the Wizarding World treats squibs so poorly.


* I don’t know what subject it was that JKR used to teach, but I’d be willing to bet it wasn’t History.

* Plus, of course, wishing to exclude Muggleborns is quite reasonable in an age when Muggles will literally kill you if they ever find out you’re a wizard.

Except that wasn't much of an issue in the 10th century; the Inquisition, and subsequent witch hunts, didn't start until a couple of centuries later.

But as you point out, History is not Rowling's forte'.


* So why is Dumbledore letting Binns teach?

Binn has tenure? ;-)

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

If I’d handed in an essay that was ¼ over the word limit, my teachers would not have been happy.

The teachers I have now dock points for turning in an essay longer than the stated length. From one assignment: Each additional page over the 10-page limit, excluding References and Appendix, will result in the loss of 1 point. Apparently, JKR never heard of either concise writing (see OotP, HBP and DHs) or she never got up to master's level. I also wonder if she ever assigned her classes homework. Could you imagine being the teacher with at least 1/40 of the student body handing in excessively long essays?

* Ron’s laughing at Filch being a Squib, thereby teaching readers the value of tolerance.

Possibility 1: Ron's clueless by the end of the series so, acting like Ron is acting clueless.

Possibility 2: Since the Potterverse is Deterministic, Filch was already known before birth as destined to be a mean old SOB so he was docked his magic; this is something everyone in the Potterverse knows, along with the popular assumption that Muggle-borns steal magic.

Possibility 3: Meanies deserve nothing better than to be laughed at by the good guys. In fact, they're lucky to even be noticed.

Clearly, Dumbledore’s been diverting funds from the sanitation department into the crockery-buying department.

I'd say that a previous head managed funds well enough to afford golden plates (which, being cleaned by magic, don't erode away) while Dumbles mis-managed funds badly enough that everything's going wrong in the castle. Imagine the mess Snape inherited five years later!

Because ugliness is a sure sign of badness, obviously.

It sure is in cartoons. And being buck-toothed means either that you're bad or you're socially stupid. No wonder Hermione got her teeth fixed! After that she just became super-sparkly awesome.

Hermione's overlength parchments

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Why, why, why do we never see Hermione getting an essay returned with the last (overlength) quarter physically amputated, and the grade:

TROLL: Some interesting points raised but too discursive; essay cuts off mid-argument with no coherent conclusion.


It's not that I don't empathize with Hermione: I still remember with squirming shame my first-ever science presentation in seventh grade (on the four states of matter--[By the way, had you noticed how these can be correlated with the four elements recognized by JKR's wizards? You hadn't? Oh, let me expound on this to you--!]--oh, wait, that's not what we're talking about here), which was supposed to be five pages and went to fifteen.

Well, there was a lot of material to cover!

There WAS!

But I got trained out of that. Within a year or two, as I recall, which makes this venue not perhaps the fairest to criticize second-year Hermione.

Except do we see her improve in canon?

Re: Hermione's overlength parchments

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

I used to empathize with Hermione. I cringed for her in scenes like this because, same, I got things returned for being too long (or too short, in classes I didn't do well in) and I knew how embarrassing it would be one day when McGonagall told her they were done with all that nonsense from her and she would have to follow the rules from now on.

Silly me.

Oh, I know there's a lot of material to cover! In some classes, the page limit is just too low. The idea is to distill it all down to something quick and eye-catching. We're doing a mock conference later this month and our group has a poster presentation that needs to grab attention because it'll be in a large hall with tons of other presentations and limited time for everyone to notice. If that's how it really is, I don't think I'll ever like professional conferences - I'll stick to the literature.

Re: Hermione's overlength parchments

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

Haha, we're all know-it-alls here! I frequently went over the word limit with my English essays because I was so passionate about the topic, I'd go on forever! My teacher told me to choose two pages to put a giant X over to remove it from grading consideration, because it wasn't fair to the other kids if I got better marks because I had longer to make my points, or to make more points than they were allowed.

(That said, at the end of the year, my teacher asked to photocopy my essays so she could use samples as an example of good writing with her next class, lol- I had friends a year below me who would tease me whenever they got photocopies of my essays, heh)

Except do we see her improve in canon?

Right, by HBP, she's still making the same mistakes that Snape's been calling her out for since first year! It comes off like arrogance, that she knows better and won't change her methods to suit. (much like her non-approach with Ron, Hermione just can't admit hse's wrong and try something new)

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/* Harry’s sure that nothing Snape has to say will do him any good. Even though Snape’s spent most of last year saving Harry’s life./

Well, given what Dumbledore told him at the end of first year about the reason why Snape saved him, Harry probably thought that the life debt was the only reason why he did it.

/Apparently it doesn’t occur to him that Filch is such a bitter jerk because he’s a Squib, and that, if he were a normal wizard, he might be quite a nice person./

Good point. Why is it perfectly fine for Ron to laugh at Filch for being a Squib, but it's horrible for the Malfoys to look down at Hermione for being a Muggle-born? Both kinds of prejudice are wrong.

/* So why is Dumbledore letting Binns teach? Hogwarts is, after all, the only wizard school in Britain; for DD to hire a bad teacher is, therefore, even worse than for a normal headmaster to hire one. He could well be putting literally every single wizarding child off studying history for life./

Not to mention that he'd be only worsening the problems in wizarding society by rendering wizarding children unaware of what started them. "Those who don't learn history are doomed to repeat it" after all.

/* Also, in his haste to condemn Salazar as a “twisted old loony”, Ron seems not to have considered what it would say about Godric Gryffindor if he’d decided to start a school with such a man./

Ah, but Godric was likely just led astray by the evil schemes of Slytherin! Just like Dumbledore's moral compass was temporarily swayed by Gellert Grindelwald's fiendish charms and good looks. Before he came along, Dumbledore was just a nice, straight, Anglo-Saxon boy dutifully taking care of his siblings and minding his own business, when that filthy, foreign, girly Nazi came from that godforsaken land of Germany to turn Albus gay! He was *evil* and he filled Dumby's head with the *gay* (along with thoughts of Muggle domination and Deathly Hollows) and brainwashed him! So, Slytherin probably just brainwashed Gryffindor too until Gryffindor snapped out of it and threw him out. ;D

/* Am I the only one for whom “I wouldn’t be in his House if you paid me. Honestly, if the Sorting Hat had tried to put me in Slytherin, I’d’ve got the train straight back home…” brought flashbacks to “Imagine being in Hufflepuff. I think I’d leave, don’t you?”/

Oh, Draco. A shame that you didn't have red hair, freckles, and a hand-me-down robe.

/* Nice to see that Fred was already showing strong bullying tendencies by the age of five. And a remarkable control of magic, too, if he was able to turn a teddy bear into a spider without any training or a wand. Remind you of anyone?/

Yes, at least Tom Riddle doesn't try to pass off his handiwork as "just a joke." Not to mention that Fred and George tried to make Ron swear an Unbreakable Vow, too. And they killed Ron's pet. Where were Molly and Arthur when all of this was happening? Were they too busy with taking care of their other children?

/* Hermione’s laughing at Ron’s obvious trauma, which, given what we now know about JKR’s views on love, is probably meant to be A Clue for their eventual marriage./

I didn't like this when I first read it and I don't like it now. How is this funny, Hermione? A *lot* of people are afraid of spiders. I think that I read somewhere that arachnophobia is one of the most common phobias out there. It wasn't like Ron had said that he was afraid of puppies or something similarly harmless.

Besides, how much do you want to bet that if Hermione had confessed her greatest fear to Ron (and I don't mean Professor McGonagall telling her that she failed everything) and Ron had laughed at her immediately afterwards, she would have burst into tears and wailed about how Ron was such an insensitive person?

/Because Slytherin was so evil, all his descendants would be, too./

*glumly* As Dumbledore showed us in HBP.

Professor Binns, y'all

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Not to mention that he'd be only worsening the problems in wizarding society by rendering wizarding children unaware of what started them. "Those who don't learn history are doomed to repeat it" after all.

Er, given what we now understand of dumbles, that might actually be the point? I really like ioanna's idea that dumbles subconsciously wanted a dark lord running around (and a disfunctional society) because it let him be "special, important," as Snape put it to Harry....

Re: Professor Binns, y'all

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

Which would actually make him a bigger villain than Voldemort, come to think of it.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

So, Slytherin probably just brainwashed Gryffindor too until Gryffindor snapped out of it and threw him out. ;D

Hmmmm...one now wonders if Slytherin/Gryffindor had the same sort of "friendship" that Grindewald/Dumbledore did...?

;-)

[oryx_leucoryx]

* I wonder why Snape’s trying not to smile. He doesn’t seem to have any particular grudge against Filch – in fact, he’d probably sympathise with him as a fellow outcast – so maybe it’s Lockhart’s behaviour he finds amusing?

Maybe. But I think we are supposed to think he is happy that Harry is in trouble and will either get expelled or experience some anxiety that he might.

* Harry’s sure that nothing Snape has to say will do him any good. Even though Snape’s spent most of last year saving Harry’s life.

So much for Harry's decision at the end of the previous book not to care about Severus.

* So is Dumbledore reading Harry’s mind here? Because I have to say that the idea of the epitome of goodness going around violating people’s privacy like that seems a bit disturbing.

If he is it is just the 'surface' version of Legilimency here - no more intrusive than figuring out if someone is being sincere by hir body language. But in chapter 12 (IIRC) he will engage in deep (though still wandless) Legilimency.

* “Hearing voices no-one else can hear isn’t a good sign, even in the wizarding world.” Erm, how do you know, Ron? This is, after all, a world with time travel, teleportation and transfiguration. For all you know, there might be some obscure bit of magic that only allows certain people to hear a sound.

Notice that neither Ron nor Hermione heard the basilisk. Apparently only a Parselmouth can hear snakes speaking, though anyone can hear when a human speaks Parseltongue.

* No, Harry, Snape hasn’t tried to frame you for anything; he’s merely made a reasonable (if incorrect) deduction from the evidence available to him.

Sad that in a book where a past frame-up is significant to the plot the main character doesn't understand what framing is, and the point isn't explained. It would have been a frame-up by Severus if he had been the one to lure Harry to the corridor where Mrs Norris was found.

BTW I wonder how Severus felt about Twinkly's upholding of 'innocent until proven guilty'. He probably thought 'and even after proven guilty, if it's one of your favorites'.

* Hey, Hermione’s refusing to help Ron cheat with his homework. Maybe she should do this more often; he might actually learn something then.

This is early!Hermione. By OOTP she'll nag for a while, then let the boys copy.

* Or maybe it’s just a cunning plan to stop them from investigating his own rather… interesting childhood.

Considering that the only Magical Historian we know has inside information and was blabbing about it back in 1981, I have no doubt this was a consideration.

Justin already suspects Harry.

* It seems that mediaeval wizarding society was so advanced, they all had surnames several centuries before they were introduced into Muggle society.

They may have been nicknames back then. And some families did have surnames before others.

* I can’t help but wonder how Gryffindor and Slytherin managed to work together for so long; who to admit is, after all, a pretty fundamental disagreement. Perhaps Slytherin was initially OK with the idea of accepting Muggleborns, but them something happened (maybe one of them tried to betray the school?) that changed his mind.

Well, we have an alternate version of that history in the Sorting Hat's song in OOTP. While the Hat might be a tad biased (having been Godric's) it at least was an eyewitness. It seems somehow discord got between them and they all started fighting. Salazar left as a sacrifice for the greater good, to allow peace to return. Regarding Muggle-borns, I don't think the Hat said Salazar didn't want them at the school, he just didn't pick them for his House.

Thanks for pointing out the spiders' behavior. Hermione noticed it already shortly after Halloween, I bet Twinkly did too.

My hugs to Percy!

* It is, as Hermione says, “possible”. But, in the absence of any other evidence, it’s no more possible than any of the other thousands of possibilities.

Slytherin's heir (or whoever it is that is threatening people in the heir's name) could be in one of the other Houses. Or no longer at the school.

hit-and-run comment

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

Hopefully I shall be around tomorrow, to babble on to my heart's content, but for now:

I think we are supposed to think he is happy that Harry is in trouble and will either get expelled or experience some anxiety that he might

I had a look at that chapter and I think perhaps it might relate to Lockhart? Because he's pompously going on and on about some theory that's totally wrong, acting like the big idiotic fraud we know he is, and I think Snape's worked out what's wrong with Mrs Norris and he's enjoying Lockhart digging the hole deeper and deeper for himself...y/n? He looks down on Lockhart, with reason, and it might be he's anticipating the fun of the man being proven wrong.

Either that or he finds the contrast of the animagus!cat inspecting the actual cat.

(I wonder whether her animagus form gave Minerva an advantage in dealing with felines? Or whether they knew something was off and didn't like being around her or something? Actually, I wonder how she and Crooks got on!)

Re: hit-and-run comment

[snapes-witch.livejournal.com]

I had a look at that chapter and I think perhaps it might relate to Lockhart? Because he's pompously going on and on about some theory that's totally wrong, acting like the big idiotic fraud we know he is, and I think Snape's worked out what's wrong with Mrs Norris and he's enjoying Lockhart digging the hole deeper and deeper for himself...y/n? He looks down on Lockhart, with reason, and it might be he's anticipating the fun of the man being proven wrong.

Agreed, this has always been my impression of Snape's expression.

Re: hit-and-run comment

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

Severus seems to suspect Harry is not being 100% truthful with why he was where he was in that scene.

And technically he is exactly right, Harry did not want to tell them about the voices he heard.

My wondering is, Snape seems quite capable of telling when harry is telling a lie. He doesn't always seem to know what the truth is but I have always wondered about Severus using Legilemency on harry.

As far as Snape fighting off a smile, perhaps it was a little bit funny to him, Lockehart, what DD and Minerva were doing, there faces right up on the cats body, and all the fuss over the cat

Being that it was just petrified they would be able to cure it fairly easily so maybe Snape thought it was a lot of wasted time and dramatics over an issue that could easily be resolved.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

I wonder why Snape’s trying not to smile. He doesn’t seem to have any particular grudge against Filch – in fact, he’d probably sympathise with him as a fellow outcast – so maybe it’s Lockhart’s behaviour he finds amusing?

I addressed that in another comment, but yes, in short, I think he's smirking at Lockhart being a big show-off and yet so TOTALLY WRONG in what he's saying, and Snape's looking forward to when the other shoe drops and it's revealed Lockhart knows absolutely crap-all about the situation.

And yes, he and Filch do have kind of a bond, I think- apart from both being hated authority figures in the school, because it's SO ANNOYING the way they enforce rules and don't let kids get away with mischief, wasn't there that moment in PS/SS where Filch is tending to the injuries Fluffy deals Snape? Like, why Filch, as opposed to Poppy? They must get on.

Filch seems to be ashamed of the fact that he’s a Squib, whereas Hermione’s never been ashamed of her Mudblood status (and nor, as far as we know, have any Muggleborns), suggesting that Squibs have lower status than Muggleborns. Insulting people for being Squibs is still worse than insulting them for being Muggleborns, though.

YOU ARE ON FIRE. I love everything that you have to say about the supposed racism in these books, and where the real prejudice lies. Because yes! I pointed out once that Hermione wasn't insecure about being Muggle-born, that she didn't internalize the attitudes of the ONE PERSON that put her down, like once a year, based on her blood. (and got the nonsensical replies that she goes, 'Mudblood and proud of it!' in DH, which proves...nothing! Hermione's not hurt, not ashamed, not fighting to overcome her feelings of inferiority, it doesn't read as a parallel to racism as we know it at all)

And yes, interesting how JKR inserts moments with 'good guys' sneering at Filch and putting him down by using 'squib' as a derogatory word, but we're supposed to think that's cool. Sure, Filch is a pain-in-the-ass, but prejudice against him is still prejudice. It's not just when it's against the people Harry likes that it exists. Oh, wait, JKR would beg to differ. *eyeroll*

Contrary to what Professor McGonagall says, there is evidence that Harry’s done something wrong. It may be circumstantial evidence, but it’s evidence nonetheless.

She'd be the first one to say there's no proof Harry was guilty of nearly killing a classmate if he was found fleeing the girls' bathroom with his wand in his hand while Draco bled out behind him.

“Hearing voices no-one else can hear isn’t a good sign, even in the wizarding world.” Erm, how do you know, Ron? This is, after all, a world with time travel, teleportation and transfiguration.

It IS weird, isn't it? The same way it's weird that Hermione snubs Luna for the strange things she sees and poo-poos Divination because it's too fantastical when- hello, she waves a magic wand and a flock of canaries appear to attack anyone in her way!

it doesn’t occur to him that Filch is such a bitter jerk because he’s a Squib, and that, if he were a normal wizard, he might be quite a nice person.

I can't really blame Ron for this. He's only what, 12? Not nearly old enough to be that aware and thoughtful. When I was his age, I loathed Snape and thought he was the most evil bastard that ever lived! *hides in shame*

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

I hope that at least one of the teachers tried to “Sourgify” the writing away before setting Filch on it with the mess remover.

I doubt it. Remember in GoF how Dumbles made Filch lug over this great wooden casket- and then he used his WAND to open the lid? Far be it for him to display some consideration by levitating the thing over! I guess it adds more atmosphere to have an old man wheezing and huffing as he carries it to him.

Hey, Hermione’s refusing to help Ron cheat with his homework. Maybe she should do this more often; he might actually learn something then.

IKR? If she really wanted to help, doing the work for him isn't the way to accomplish it. But then, what Hermione really wants is for the boys to be dependent on her, which gives her power and assures her they'll stick around. Remember how Harry was happy to be friends with Hermione in PS/SS because:

It was really lucky that Harry now had Hermlone as a friend. He didn't know how he'd have gotten through all his homework without her, what
with all the last-minute Quidditch practice Wood was making them do.

* So why is Dumbledore letting Binns teach? Hogwarts is, after all, the only wizard school in Britain; for DD to hire a bad teacher is, therefore, even worse than for a normal headmaster to hire one.

This is what bothers me. Hogwarts is a really crappy school. Not only are kids put in danger due to the political agenda of their rarely seen, aloof Headmaster (who is unavailable to the Muggle parents, kept in the dark about their child's welfare), but he doesn't even bother enforcing reasonable teaching standards! We have a drop-out with no experience and little concern for safety, a drunk seer who only ever made two prophecies in her life and the stuff she teaches is completely useless, a ghost who drones on unbearably and puts his students to sleep...yeah, teaching standards are high at this school!

I felt so ashamed in GoF, next to Durmstrang and Beauxbatons. (Especially win the movie, hen Hogwarts began singing their stupid, cringe-worthy song, wtf was that all about? *dies*)
* No, Ron, no-one’s said anything about Slytherin starting all this Pureblood stuff, simply that he agreed with it. There’s no evidence that this was a particularly rare view back in the tenth century.

IKR? Considering back in whatever age it was when they were fearing for their lives from the Muggles and pulled their society into hiding to keep safe from them, I don't imagine absolutely EVERYONE was thrilled when it was suggested they take in children of those barbarians that wanted to barbecue them at the stake. Talk about 'high risk-low reward' scenarios.

in his haste to condemn Salazar as a “twisted old loony”, Ron seems not to have considered what it would say about Godric Gryffindor if he’d decided to start a school with such a man

LMAO. Point!

of course, wishing to exclude Muggleborns is quite reasonable in an age when Muggles will literally kill you if they ever find out you’re a wizard.

Exactly what I said! (I typed my above statement before reading this, jsyk)

The most trustworthy wizards would, therefore, be the ones with no Muggle relatives, and who would consequently be loyal only to the wizarding world. By the time Muggles stopped persecuting wizards and the danger of betrayal went away, the whole “Pureblood = best” thing was so heavily ingrained in wizarding culture that it is still present today.

I really like this theory, it makes a lot of sense. Much more than the MUGGLEBORNS STEAL MAGIC idea that randomly turned up in DH. *shakes head*

Although, jeez, how hard would it be to put a silencing spell on anyone who tried to reveal the existence of the WW? Like a delayed thing that would be activated if they tried to betray them, a la Hermione's jinx on Marietta. If a fifth year can do it, surely the best and brightest of the WW should be able to sort something out.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Considering back in whatever age it was when they were fearing for their lives from the Muggles and pulled their society into hiding

That wasn't happening in the 10th century when the school was founded; the Inquisition didn't start until a couple of hundred years later, and even then it took another 100 years or so to get to England.

But we know History isn't particularly Rowling's forte'...

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/This is what bothers me. Hogwarts is a really crappy school. Not only are kids put in danger due to the political agenda of their rarely seen, aloof Headmaster (who is unavailable to the Muggle parents, kept in the dark about their child's welfare), but he doesn't even bother enforcing reasonable teaching standards! We have a drop-out with no experience and little concern for safety, a drunk seer who only ever made two prophecies in her life and the stuff she teaches is completely useless, a ghost who drones on unbearably and puts his students to sleep...yeah, teaching standards are high at this school!/

Not to mention a teacher with a dangerous condition (I do sympathize with Remus' circumstances, I really do, and I know that it isn't his fault, but in terms of his students' safety, he really is a risk to have around), a teacher who mutilates her students during detention (yes, I know that Albus didn't appoint her, but he should have done *something* to stop it while he was still in school), and a charlatan whose lessons are also useless. And what's worse is that the teachers don't receive any punishment from the administration for their behavior. They can hurt students or fail to teach them anything, and it won't matter.

I could understand if the teaching standards were low for the DADA position because it was cursed (although it still wouldn't be justification for Dumbledore never trying to get rid of the hex in the first place). But yes, maybe the wizarding world is just short on prospective teachers and that's why Dumbledore will accept anybody that he can get. That still doesn't say much about his experience as headmaster.

Not to mention that the students don't learn half of the subjects that Muggle children do: there's no mention of any foreign language classes (apparently Crouch Sr. and Dumbledore became polyglots all by themselves), there aren't even English literature/writing classes where students learn how to write and analyze novels and texts, there's no mention of any regular science classes (Potions and Astronomy were probably supposed to be the stand-ins for science, but what about natural sciences like anatomy and biology?), the only math class that we hear of is Arithmancy (which isn't even a requirement, given that we never see Harry and Ron taking it), and there are no physical education classes (no, I would not count a one-time flying lesson in first year as a gym class). Sure, the kids learn about the history of magic, but does that include the general history of England as a whole? Does that include World History? Or is the "Muggle side" of history specifically excluded to Muggle Studies? The whole time that I was reading the series, I was wondering if maybe pureblood wizarding children are home-schooled before Hogwarts and that's how they learn how to read and write, as well as other basic educational skills.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

Am I the only one for whom “I wouldn’t be in his House if you paid me. Honestly, if the Sorting Hat had tried to put me in Slytherin, I’d’ve got the train straight back home…” brought flashbacks to “Imagine being in Hufflepuff. I think I’d leave, don’t you?”

As well as James': “Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I’d leave, wouldn’t you?”

Parallels all around! I've never seen any Ron/James comparisons...mainly because for all they're both purebloods, they may as well live in two completely separate universes in terms of popularity and reputation and way with girls- oh, hang on, that IS something in common; James fought with Lily and they bickered nastily often enough, just like Ron and Hermione! Only problem is that the latter duo were supposed to be friends, which makes the spitefulness quite awful.

it comes across as a moral test that Harry has passed. The sign of true goodness = hating Slytherin House.

*sighs* Too true. And this is annoying to me:

I dunno why fans think JKR pigeonholes all Slytherins as evil. Slughorn was a Slytherin who might initially have run off, but it was to get reinforcements from the village, and many of those reinforcements were Slytherins. Tonks' mom was a Slytherin. Regulus was a Slytherin. Snape was a Slytherin. Phineas Nigellus was a Slytherin. All the Black family members (minus the Squib) were sorted into Slytherin, except Sirius. Some of them were blasted off the tree for whatever reason, but they were Slytherins.

Yeah, fans can be stupid. I also get irritated with fans who say, "Baw, why does JKR equate Slytherin with evil?" (SHE DOES NOT! IT'S ONLY OTHER FANS WHO DO!) Never mind that Harry himself named his child after Snape - the one who had his and Lily's eyes, no less. And that he asked the Ministry to put up a portrait of Snape.

Sluggy- basically gave Voldy the idea for Horcruxes and enabled him to attain some wacked out form of immortality. Ran off during the battle- and it was NEVER CONFIRMED IN THE TEXT THAT HE RETURNED WITH REINFORCEMENTS.

All the other examples are barely even characters, having about a couple pages of dialogue at most (Tonks) or being one-line presences throughout the series. That's really going to counterbalance the SLYTHERIN IS EVIL, GRYFFINDOR IS AWESOME AND HEROIC AND THE BEST EVER theme.

And I just rage so hard at the idea that Harry getting Snape a portrait and using his name for his kid's MIDDLE name (coupled with ALBUS, wtf, the guy who ruined his life and used and betrayed him! RIGHT ON) is supposed to indicate anything- people use it as an example of how saintly and amazing Harry is, it's there to flatter and validate his hero status, not reflect any glory on Snape. As if one middle name and the portrait thing which NEVER HAPPENED IN CANON are going to undo seven books of Harry hating Snape and thinking he's evil. And then we find out the main villain was a Slytherin and there you go, it's rep is forever ruined beyond repair.

And even ASP is terrified of joining Slytherin, because in his eleven years, Harry never bothered to tell him about his namesake and how Slytherin is actually an okay house.

Percy’s noticed how upset Ginny is, whereas neither Ron, Harry nor Hermione have. Remember this when she tells everybody about Percy’s girlfriend.

Honestly, I thought CoS!Ginny was all right, and then she backstabs him like that. The ONE BROTHER who cared about her and worried about her, and she just serves him up for more humiliation.

That whole Harper Lee comparison? EPIC. I'm gonna quote you on that when this issue comes up, for it is utter perfection. (JKR deals with racism, my ass)

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

and it was NEVER CONFIRMED IN THE TEXT THAT HE RETURNED WITH REINFORCEMENTS.

The reinforcements appear led by Slughorn and Charlie Weasley. What isn't confirmed is the interview statement that the Slythering pupils were with them.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

I agree with what you said about the portrayal of Slytherins in the text. Andromeda only showed up for one scene in DH. While her marriage to Ted Tonks did provide an example of a sane Slytherin not being prejudiced when it came to marrying someone (I say "sane" because I don't think that Merope is a good example), we never really got a back-story with her about why she decided to go against her family's wishes.

As for Regulus, we never actually *saw* him; we just heard about him. And considering that he was eager to join the Death Eaters at first, I really don't think that we were supposed to view him in a positive light for that (and before that, we had been told by Sirius that Regulus had been an idiot who'd gotten cold feet and had been killed while trying to run off, which makes him yet another "cowardly" Slytherin). I've seen fans defend Sirius by saying that Regulus' fans are hypocrites because Sirius rejected the Death Eaters all based on his own moral conviction, while Regulus rejected them because of what Voldemort wanted to do to Kreacher. So, I don't think that we were supposed to view Regulus as a bastion of morality.

Slughorn was never a definite antagonist, true, but he was constantly described in negative terms. Harry compared him to a spider trapping flies in his web, Dumbledore told Harry that Slughorn liked to "collect" people, and Slughorn is portrayed as greedy, shallow (he continues to forget Ron's name even after he was nearly killed in his office), and bigoted to an extent (he told Tom Riddle that he "must" have come from good wizarding stock since he was so talented in magic, implying that he wouldn't have had his abilities otherwise).

Phineas Nigellus? We had less than five scenes of him and the only impression that we got was that he was an ornery old bat. What great contribution did he make to the plot? What overall importance did he have in the series?

All of the Black family members who were Sorted into Slytherin were either bigoted and/or insane (with the exception of Andromeda and Regulus). We're meant to see the Black family as a racist family of aristocrats who look down on everyone. How exactly do they make Slytherins look good? If anything, they're the wealthier, more refined version of the Gaunt family.

Snape was a Slytherin - and the teacher who scared Neville, the man whom Harry hated for seven books straight, and who was consistently described in negative terms (he had "cold black eyes," he had a "greedy" expression when he met Lily for the first time, etc.). Yes, Harry named his son after him - for *no reason.* Again, Harry *hated* this man. You're telling me that all Snape had to do was to tell him, "Oh, hey, Harry, I was madly in love with your mother," and he would instantly have been Harry's favorite teacher? Not to mention that he and Harry never reconcile. Harry only names his son after him after he's *dead* and Harry doesn't have to deal with him anymore.

JKR doesn't equate Slytherin with evil? Oh, that explains why all of Harry's enemies are or were in Slytherin (the enemies whose House we know of, that is). That's why Harry desperately wanted to avoid being in Slytherin and was greatly relieved when he found out that he was a true Gryffindor instead. That's why his son, the very same son that he named after Snape, was very worried about possibly becoming a Slytherin. That's why Slytherin's animal is a *snake*, an animal that has long been used in Western culture as well as in other cultures as a symbol of evil, deception, and treachery, while the other Houses get noble-sounding animals like lions, eagles, and badgers. That's why the main villain of the series was in Slytherin and the fact that he was related to the actual *founder* of Slytherin was what made him evil in the first place! He was evil because he was born evil, and he was born evil because his mother's family was evil, and they were all evil because they were all directly descended from Salazar *Slytherin* and followed his alleged ideas about blood purity.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

Oh, and his father’s “evil” (bear in mind that, so far, about the worst he’s done is insult Mr. Weasley, which is unpleasant, certainly, but not evil).

Okay, to be fair, Lucius doesn't care about the Muggle-borns dying and he orchestrated the whole opening of the Chamber (not on purpose, though? I think? I can't remember- Dobby being paranoid about a plot makes me think it was pre-planned) and also blackmailed the Board of Governors, but then the Trio don't know that.

by “court”, I mean a proper Muggle one with juries and presumptions of innocence and all the various other safeguards designed to prevent wrongful imprisonment, not one of the kangaroo courts that pass for justice in the wizarding world.

As an Australian, I take offense at this derogatory use of the word 'kangaroo' in that context! :P I wonder how that came about, anyway. But yeah, you're totally right, their justice system is so frakked up. I don't know how a hippogriff can get a trial and more attention than a supposed serial killer. O.o

Ron and Hermione seem to be getting irritated at each other remarkably quickly. Cue Can You Feel the Love in the background.

a) IKR? How did people ever find them cute, IDK. The movies improve on their friendship, making it actually seem as though they LIKE each other, but the books...

b) We did a Mock Wedding for Legal Studies in high school (I was the person marrying the couple, I forget...celebrant?) and the bride and groom were picked at random- it turned out to be two people who hated each other! And when we went through song suggestions, one of the guys came up with the Black Eyed Peas Where is the Love? :D

“But that’s impossible,” says Harry, apparently forgetting that he’s a wizard in a school of magic in a society that has magic for just about everything

THIS, EXACTLY. It bugs me so much every time they have arbitrary 'magic can't work that way' moments. ARGH.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

As an Australian, I take offense at this derogatory use of the word 'kangaroo' in that context! :P I wonder how that came about, anyway.

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Kangaroo+Court

[harpsi-fizz.livejournal.com]

Harry feels sorry for Filch, but “not nearly as sorry as he felt for himself”
I wish we could fantasize that J.K is mocking Harry here. Reads that way.

“Hearing voices no-one else can hear isn’t a good sign, even in the wizarding world.”
I'm extremely concerned with the fact that he says "even", as though Ron knows anything about the non-magical world and its culture. He might know some from his "Martin the Mad Muggle" comic, but that doesn't fit in with his cluelessness about telephones. And if it did, then it doesn't fit in with his cluelessness about what they're called (end of book 3) and now the topic is so upsetting that my mind is inventing excuses for Rowling to duct tape all of the holes.

* Ron doesn’t think Ginny should worry about Mrs. Norris being petrified, because she’s not very nice. Remember, kids, it’s OK for someone to be attacked if they annoy you in some way!
Holy sh*t! Book six foreshadowing!

"Where did you get that bat-bogey hex? Who taught you that it's ok for people you don't like to be in pain?"
"You, alright?! I learned it from watching all of you!"

Poor Ginny...

* Plus, of course, wishing to exclude Muggleborns is quite reasonable in an age when Muggles will literally kill you if they ever find out you’re a wizard.
Oh man, especially if they sent out the letters the way they used to. ... Except, they couldn't do that because probably nobody could read... so they'd have to send someone to tell the kid. Then what?

Tell the parents of the child that his/her kid was a wizard and they were being taken away? That wouldn't go over well, would it? And even if it did, suddenly the eleven year old goes missing- what're the parents supposed to do?
"Wizards took her?" *Accuse mama of laying with the devil, kill her*
"Uh... she died?" *Parents get suspicious looks*
"Uhhh... mind wipe the whole village?"

I bet the argument started out in a very civil way because they both have good points. Everyone is entitled to fair treatment but safety is something to consider. Besides, if Slytherin was so cunning, I'm sure he would rather phrase the argument as "we have to think of everyone's safety" to appeal to Gryffindor, not to mention Helga, who valued fair play and wouldn't put up with that exclusion nonsense unless life literally depended on it.

The sign of true goodness = hating Slytherin House.
Reminds me of Jack Chick's God who, for being "a loving God", sure does put most emphasis on what he hates.

And instead of being a common insult, “nigger” was rare enough that Tom had to ask one of his friends what it meant.
I don't know where to begin expressing how much I adore the paragraph as a whole, but this sentence made me literally laugh. Out loud even.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Tell the parents of the child that his/her kid was a wizard and they were being taken away? That wouldn't go over well, would it? And even if it did, suddenly the eleven year old goes missing- what're the parents supposed to do?
"Wizards took her?" *Accuse mama of laying with the devil, kill her*
"Uh... she died?" *Parents get suspicious looks*
"Uhhh... mind wipe the whole village?"

And I'm sure the child in question didn't display any magikal traits to his or her family or fellow villagers for the first 11 years of their life... =:-P

The reality would, I think, have more likely been that such children, if not killed by superstitious parents and/or neighbors by that age, would have found themselves committed to the nearest monastery or nunnery for the salvation of their souls...

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

*Sighs*

Very good points, BTW. :) (It's just...it's just kinda sad. :( )