COS Chapter Eleven: "The Duelling Club"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

 

* Percy’s looking “in far better spirits than last time they’d met”. Wonder if he’s been seeing Penelope in one of the less-used sections of the library?

* Although if we asked JKR, she’d probably say that he’s in a state of sadistic glee after docking points from a first-year, or something like that.

* Percy and Ron both seem quite hung up on the fact that it’s a girls’ toilet. Perhaps Gryffindor wizards are just insecure about their sexuality (cf. Harry), and so compensate by rejecting anything even remotely connected with the feminine sex.

* Harry can’t see why Ron and Hermione would be in the bathroom, but goes in there anyway, proving (as if any more proof were needed) that logic isn’t one of his strongest points.

* Trying to kill someone because you’ve just lost a Quidditch game would be totally IC for a Gryffindor, IMHO. Less so for a Slytherin, though: you’d have thought that a member of a House noted for cunning would be able to put such things into better perspective.

* Or at least they would, if JKR could convincingly write a cunning person.

* Ron immediately assumes it was Lucius Malfoy who opened the Chamber last time round, even though he has absolutely no idea whether Lucius was actually at school when that happened.

* Ron belittles Hermione’s reading, except when he needs her to do his homework for him, in which case he’s glad she knows so much.

* The Twins are giving Ginny nightmares until Percy stops them. This does not stop Percy from being the tactless one with no people skills, obviously.

* Is Neville “almost a Squib”? He’s always having magical accidents, to be sure, but his problem mostly seems to be one of control, rather than actual power. (Cf. Snape’s “we’ll be sending Finch-Fletchley home in a matchbox” comment.)

* Is there any explanation for Draco staying at school? He always goes home during the other years, AFAIK, so why break the pattern now, if not for authorial convenience?

* Or perhaps he’s just started going out with Pansy, and is spending a romantic Christmas Holidays with her…

* On a side note, I’ve never really got all the Pansy-hate that goes around. I can sort of understand it in the books, from a Doylist perspective if not a Watsonian one (Pansy being based on some girls who used to bully JKR at school), but why does fandom seem to hate her, too? Seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever read one fic where she’s portrayed in a positive (or even a neutral) light, which is surprising given that (a) she doesn’t do anything that bad in canon, and (b) fandom (or at least parts of it) seems determined to like pretty much every other Slytherin in the books.

* Anyway, let us leave such characterisation conundrums, and return to the actual book…

* Harry has got to think of a way to steal something from Snape’s stores without being seen. *sigh* If only he had some sort of magical garment – a cloak, maybe, or something like that – which could make him invisible…

* As Harry, unfortunately, does not have any such garment until Rowling remembers about his invisibility cloak, he’s instead stuck with disfiguring the Slytherins to create a diversion.

* BTW, Hermione’s “I’d better do the actual stealing, as you’ll get expelled if you get caught” line doesn’t make much sense, given that Harry would surely be in even more trouble if he were found lobbing fireworks into cauldrons full of dangerous potions than if he were found stealing something from Snape’s stores.

* Snape turns a blind eye to Draco flicking puffer-fish eyes at Harry, which obviously counterbalances Harry’s getting the rules bent to help him, receiving free top-of-the-range broomsticks free of charge, being given extra tuition by Dumbledore, having the House Cup rigged so his House always wins…

* Oh, Harry, the things you have to do to save the school. I bet you hated disfiguring Malfoy like that, didn’t you?

* For all that we’re expected to see Snape’s dislike of Harry as an irrational result of his dislike for James, Harry doesn’t really do much to prove him wrong. He is lazy, arrogant, rude and mediocre, and here he’s endangering other pupils’ safety. It’s no wonder Snape doesn’t like him.

* For “he knows a tiny little bit about duelling”, read “he knows enough about duelling to completely wipe the floor with me”. And Harry, too, but unfortunately we’ll have to wait until HBP to enjoy that.

* “‘Wouldn’t it be good if they finished each other off?’ Ron muttered in Harry’s ear.” Note that this is completely different to Draco wishing that Slytherin’s monster would finish Hermione off.

* I’d love to be a Slytherin in this scene. It’s so rare they’re given a chance to shine, watching their Head of House publicly kick arse must be a very enjoyable occasion for them.

* I don’t see why they don’t teach Expelliarmus in the normal curriculum. It seems to me that spells like this are the first thing you’d teach them in DADA (maybe Stupefy and Protego as well).

* Lockhart bounces back from his humiliation as usual.

* Snape’s “splitting up the dream team”, as he put it, makes me wonder why pupils aren’t made to work with their peers from other Houses more often on assignments and suchlike. Having the Gryffindors work with the Slytherins might teach them that their counterparts in other Houses are human being too, not caricatures of evil like most people seem to think.

* So did Malfoy use Expelliarmus on Harry, then? Harry still seems to have his wand, but that could be attributed to Malfoy just learning the spell and, therefore, not being very good at it. If so, then Harry’s the one who actually starts using non-Expelliarmus spells.

* “Whoops – my wand is a little over-excited” must surely win the award for most Freudian sentence in COS.

* So is Snape the one who gave Draco the idea of using the snake spell? If so, why? Using random dark magic (presumably) just for the hell of it doesn’t really seem his style. Is it perhaps because he knows that Harry doesn’t know how to block proper spells, and just wants Draco to cast one which Harry will be able to avoid more easily?

* Also, is Draco’s already knowing the Serpensortia spell a sign that Slytherin has its own duelling club? It wouldn’t actually surprise me to find that Slytherin has the best clubs; given what we’ve seen of inter-House relations, I doubt that Slytherin students would be made to feel very welcome in any school-wide clubs they did join, so they’d probably set up their own.

* I have to admit, that “What, drop my wand?” line is rather funny.

* Better not tell Harry that, in a society as small as the WW, and given that Salazar lived a thousand years ago, everybody’s probably related to him several times over.

* Anyway, the idea of there being one heir of Slytherin doesn’t really seem very likely. Even if there’s only one legitimate heir, all it would take would be for one descendant over the past thousand years to have one illegitimate child, and there could be any number of unknown heirs. It could be anyone. It could even be Dudley Dursley… (Now there’s a fanfic idea if ever I saw one!)

* I like the way everyone assumes that (a) being Slytherin’s heir automatically makes one evil, and (b) all Slytherin’s heirs would get sorted into Slytherin. And people say that blood’s not important in Harry Potter?

* BTW, I wonder what the Slytherins all think of this constant vilification of their House’s founder?

* That’s right, chaps, Salazar spoke Parseltongue, so anyone who speaks Parseltongue must also be evil. Just like Slazar wore clothes, and ate, and got married, so anyone who does any of those things must also be—no, wait…

* Come to think of it, the evidence for Harry being the Heir is much stronger than the evidence against Draco. Not that this’ll give Harry pause for thought when he knocks out two of Draco’s friends to spy on him.

* “‘He always seems so nice, though,’ said Hannah uncertainly.” Don’t worry, Hannah, we’ll stamp that out of him soon enough.

* Harry’s voice is “shaking with anger” now, both foreshadowing CAPSLOCK!Harry and making him look like the dangerous menace the Hufflepuffs all think he is.

* Harry’s really unlucky in that he has a motive for attacking everybody who’s been attacked so far. Maybe Tom’s trying to discredit him, like Lucius is trying to discredit Dumbledore?

* I like the way going to Dumbledore’s office is seen as such a big deal. You can tell he’s got such a close relationship with the student body, can’t you?

 

Comments

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

It’s so rare they’re given a chance to shine, watching their Head of House publicly kick arse must be a very enjoyable occasion for them.

As a Snape fan, I totally love this scene! Especially in the movie! ♥ Alan Rickman pwning Lockhart.

Having the Gryffindors work with the Slytherins might teach them that their counterparts in other Houses are human being too, not caricatures of evil like most people seem to think

I guess that was Dumbledore's motive in making Gryffs and Slytherins partners in a few classes every year? Wow, look at him trying to foster inter-house unity...

I like the way everyone assumes that (a) being Slytherin’s heir automatically makes one evil, and (b) all Slytherin’s heirs would get sorted into Slytherin. And people say that blood’s not important in Harry Potter?

Much as I hate to defend prejudice, it IS a giant muggle-born killing machine (well, incompetent at that, given nobody actually dies, but hey) so anyone who released/controlled that creature could be fairly assumed to be evil. And given that families often sort into the same house- but wait, no, look at the Patil twins! So yeah, it isn't fair to assume the heir would be in Slytherin- but then, people think that Harry's the heir and he's not a Slyth, so point to them for thinking outside the box?

That’s right, chaps, Salazar spoke Parseltongue, so anyone who speaks Parseltongue must also be evil. Just like Slazar wore clothes, and ate, and got married, so anyone who does any of those things must also be—no, wait…

LOL. But still, he did leave a very nasty basilisk to take out muggle-born students, so I'd be thinking he was bad news. The Parseltongue vilification is unfair, but I can see how people would think that way, given the only example they have at hand.

Too bad he's so against snakes, it'd've been cool for Harry to have a pet snake- I mean, Hedwig's okay for mail, but he can't talk with her. I'd love a pet I could communicate with. *sighs wistfully*

I like the way going to Dumbledore’s office is seen as such a big deal. You can tell he’s got such a close relationship with the student body, can’t you?

*gigglesnort* I never understand how Dumbles is seen as an awesome Headmaster- heck, Snape's more involved, given the way he sent students off on innocuous detentions to spare them being hurt, as opposed to Dumbles, who knew Draco was concocting murder schemes that had an unfortunate habit of endangering fellow pupils and didn't do anything about it.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Much as I hate to defend prejudice, it IS a giant muggle-born killing machine

No, it's a 'creatures with eyes' killing machine.

But still, he did leave a very nasty basilisk to take out muggle-born students, so I'd be thinking he was bad news.

We don't know that. Our source that the purpose of the unnamed monster was to kill Muggle-borns is a legend quoted by Binns. For all we know, Salazar was the Hagrid of his times, experimenting with breeding weird creatures. Then he left the castle to allow the peace to return among the other 3 founders (see Sorting Hat song in OOTP - the Hat was an eyewitness) and had to leave his pet snake behind.

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

No, it's a 'creatures with eyes' killing machine.

...It would have made a lot of sense to attack it with bats, wouldn't it? Rather than a phoenix?

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

No, it's a 'creatures with eyes' killing machine.

...It would have made a lot of sense to attack it with bats, wouldn't it? Rather than a phoenix?


At this point I'm thinking about it now and what would have really been a neat twist is if something as simple as muggle sunglasses could stop the evil stare of the thing.

Salazar Slytherins evil muggleborn killer Defeated by muggle technology would have been a fitting change up.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

At this point I'm thinking about it now and what would have really been a neat twist is if something as simple as muggle sunglasses could stop the evil stare of the thing.

Well we know one can circumvent a basilisk's stare by looking at it via a mirror...would looking at it thru camera lenses or night-vision goggles work the same?

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

It burnt out the insides of Colin's camera, so I'd guess that looking at it through anything transparent just turns it into a petrification effect - which implies that simply wearing glasses or contact lenses would save your life. Night vision goggles, I think, are electrical, so they wouldn't work anyway.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

It burnt out the insides of Colin's camera, so I'd guess that looking at it through anything transparent just turns it into a petrification effect - which implies that simply wearing glasses or contact lenses would save your life.

But since one can look at it in a mirror and not be affected, then conceivably any device utilizing mirrors would work -- such as binoculers, which utilize mirrors (what you see is actually the image reflected off mirrors and then magnified thru lenses). Ditto a telescope, which works on the same principle.

Seeing a basilisk in a teleidoscope probably wouldn't have an effect on the viewer either, except that the basilisk would eat the viewer before they figured out what the pretty design was! LOL

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

...It would have made a lot of sense to attack it with bats, wouldn't it? Rather than a phoenix?

Bats have eyes, just weak ones. (So what happens when a partially-sighted person sees a basilisk?) And they're not as intelligent as a phoenix, nor can they be commanded like snakes (as far as we know).

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

They have eyes, but they also have eyelids. The bats' advantage wouldn't be that they're totally invulnerable, but that they could keep their eyes shut and still have no problem "seeing" everything with sonar. Controlling them might be an issue, but you'd think there would be some magic that would let you control animals in a general way, even if you couldn't hold a conversation with them.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Bring in a bunch of cockerels. One of them is bound to crow before it gets them all.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

That would've been awesome, lol! Imagine trying to make that into a movie, though... *g*

When I described the plot to my mother, she suggested using a mirror to reflect the basilisk's deadly gaze upon itself. Too bad Hermione didn't get a chance to try to use her mirror that way- I assume the basilisk's gaze wasn't on the same level as her 'mirror around the corner' trick, otherwise the book would've ended several chapters early.

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

Right, of course. Heck, if Hermione can spontaneously generate canaries in HBP, there should be a way to spontaneously generate roosters. Unless that somehow doesn't "count" for the magic basilisk-destroying power.

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

We don't know that. Our source that the purpose of the unnamed monster was to kill Muggle-borns is a legend quoted by Binns. For all we know, Salazar was the Hagrid of his times, experimenting with breeding weird creatures. Then he left the castle to allow the peace to return among the other 3 founders (see Sorting Hat song in OOTP - the Hat was an eyewitness) and had to leave his pet snake behind.


Yea, I have to agree wiht Oryx on this one and ask: how is the basilisk any different than Hagrids giant man eating spiders?

And frankly it sounds to me that upon his leaving Salazar Slytherin pet got locked up and didn't get released for a long, long, long time.

Hagrid set his killer spider free so it could produce babies that look to me like they're overrunning the forest.

I wonder how the centars fill about those giant spiders multiplying in their forest?

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

I'm not certain, but I think Fantastic Beasts mentions that Acromantulae prefer humans over everything else (unless I'm confusing them with Sphinxes), so it's possible Aragog simply made a deal with the centaurs to stay out of each others' territory.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

it's a 'creatures with eyes' killing machine

Lol, point. But it did seem to be targeting muggleborns in particular. On that, though, did the basilisk even get told who to target? Or was it actually random?

For all we know, Salazar was the Hagrid of his times, experimenting with breeding weird creatures.

OMG, YES, BRILLIANT OBSERVATION. Hagrid allows giant deadly spiders to live in the castle and then breed out of control in the Forest (I wonder if it was always Forbidden, or if that was only after he polluted its ecosystem) and let's not even get into all the other dangerous creatures he keeps around students, but he's the man of the people, the loveable good-natured oaf we're supposed to admire for his simple affection for Harry (this trumps all his flaws!).

Salazar has one giant snake and he's forever condemned. >:[

And you're right, we don't have any evidence to say that he was intent on killing off muggle-borns. Just as likely that history warped his reputation and turned him into a caricature of pure evil just for the drama of it all.

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

On that, though, did the basilisk even get told who to target? Or was it actually random?

There's a theory that Tom was directing the basilisk based on Ginny's subconscious urges - Harry had had a run-in with Filch, Colin was annoying him, Justin believed him to be the Heir, and Hermione may have been seen as a romantic rival (and Penelope just happened to be next to her). It's fairly ridiculous to imagine that a giant snake is capable of performing a genealogy test on everyone it meets.

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

I think it had to be directed who to kill, I don't think there would be a way for it to know/identify who was a muggleborn unless it was told.

So I don't think the snake is officially 'evil' it was just doing what it was ordered to do by what it assumed was it's master. It also could have been magically ordered to obey a heir of Slytherin, so there could have been some magic going on that tied it to someone who was related to Salazar.

So maybe if Harry had of been related, I'm wondering that Harry could have told the snake to pack it's bags and move out and never kill a human again, etc.

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

Harry was related via the Peverells, and possibly had a better claim than Voldemort (who may have been illegitimate - it's unclear). (Probably everyone with enough pureblood ancestry was descended from Salazar, of course). And book!Harry doesn't even try to command the basilisk - the writers of the screenplay noticed this problem but JKR didn't. Plus, given that Harry's Parseltongue came from Voldemort's soul, if it obeyed Voldemort even when speaking through Ginny it should have obeyed Harry.

[oryx_leucoryx]

No need to involve subconscious urges, he decided based on things Ginny wrote in the diary. She was obsessed with Harry and probably wrote how Colin was annoying him and Justin fearing him (or at least how the school was talking about how Harry set a snake on Justin in the dueling club). According to diary!Tom Hermione was chosen specifically in order to keep Harry involved. Penelope may have been collateral damage - she just happened to be in the same corridor where Hermione was.

Hagrid of his time

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Pasi actually wrote that one! And it was great!

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/Too bad he's so against snakes, it'd've been cool for Harry to have a pet snake- I mean, Hedwig's okay for mail, but he can't talk with her. I'd love a pet I could communicate with. *sighs wistfully*/

That's why fanfic authors will often give Harry a pet snake in AU fanfics.

/as opposed to Dumbles, who knew Draco was concocting murder schemes that had an unfortunate habit of endangering fellow pupils and didn't do anything about it./

Especially when his excuse was, "Oh, if I told you that I knew, then Voldemort would know, and you'd be in big trouble!" Never mind that Dumbledore could have used that as leverage to bring Draco over to his side. And even if he couldn't save Draco, Dumbledore should have least created some safeguards for the students or have done something to make them safer.

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

Especially when his excuse was, "Oh, if I told you that I knew, then Voldemort would know, and you'd be in big trouble!"

I don't think he says that, given that he claims to believe that after the possession in the Ministry, Voldemort's staying out of his head (especially since he's telling Harry about the Horcruxes - eventually). Or are you saying his excuse was "If I told [Draco] that I knew..."? Because unless Draco's hypothetical Dark Mark works as a listening device or Voldemort's turning up for regular Legilimency-debriefing sessions I don't see how that would work.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

It was during the lightning-struck tower scene when Dumbledore was talking to Draco. When Draco told Dumbledore that he'd managed to pull off his plan without Dumbledore knowing it, Albus countered by saying that yes, he had known all about it and had given that excuse as the reason why he hadn't confronted Draco about it earlier.

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

... that's a piss-poor excuse.

Seriously, just offer Draco asylum and when Narcissa's out proving that everything's fine and there are no DEs using her house as HQ, send an Order strike team to fake-kidnap her. Where's the problem?

[oryx_leucoryx]

Since Severus' Unbreakable Vow kicks in the moment Draco gives up, Draco still has to keep trying to kill Dumbles until the latter is ready (ie at least until he gave Harry the Horcrux lesson and went as far as he thought possible with his search).