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

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

I've always contended that once Snape sent him away with a hex, Pettigrew transformed and was listening at a mousehole. I'm quite convinced that Tom knew about the Vow. It probably saved him the trouble of havig to openly oder Snape to be the one to get rid of Albus.

He never *did* expect Draco to succeed, after all.

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

Yea, I always wondered about that and Pettigrew being there. I don't believe the bullcrap about assisting Severus. He was there to spy on Severus.

I do however like that Severus has him cleaning the house; thats pretty funny.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

I worked out a timeline in one or other of the essays on Red Hen (probably the pair on the grand production of staging Albus's death) which still sort of holds together. Doesn't get any direct contradiction in canon, anyway. Snape reported Albus's injury, and ended up being saddled with Pettigrew for his trouble, Went home and put Peter to work, and it was when Narcissa showed up on his doorstep (possibly the following evening) that he understood why he had an observer planted on him.

Peter wasn't really there to spy on Snape, he was there to spy on Narcissa, if she showed up. At that point Tom was looking for an excuse to kill her *and* Draco -- since he couldn't get at Lucius, who had escaped to Azkaban.

Snape managed to lead the discussion so that Narcissa didn't say anything that would get her summarily executed for disloyalty, and they even managed to run an end run around the situation where if the matter was reported (and Snape may have even done some apple polishing by reporting it himself) it would be Bellatrix that ended up looking the worst of the three.

I *think* that Tom only decided to set Draco to the task of eliminating Albus once it was reported that Albus had been injured and leveled the field a bit. Knew that the news would get back to Narcissa, and that if she went to anyone for help it would be Snape. Ergo; he planted an observer in Snape's house to report on developments.

[oryx_leucoryx]

According to DH Voldemort was already planning to assign killing Dumbledore to Draco before the injury. Albus already knew of the plan the day he was injured. I think Voldemort decided he couldn't kill Harry as long as Albus lived - at the Ministry Albus saved Harry from a direct AK by shoving a statue in the way.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

It's likely that Tom *was* already considering it. He may even have spoken of the possibility. Which Snape reported. Once again Albus seemed to be playing hand-in-glove with Tom, making sure that the injury was reported and then parading it around Diagon Alley for good measure.

But I can't see Narcissa allowing even one day to pass after hearing about Draco's assignment before running for help. And if Tom was looking for an opportunity to destroy her to get revenge on Lucius for betraying his trust over the Diary, then Tom would have made sure that Narcissa *would* hear of it. I really do think that Draco had been given his assignment earlier that day. And if Snape was casually mentioning Albus's injury, then he had probably already reported it to Tom.

It's obvious that Albus made a quick decision to *use* that injury, although he wasn't telling anyone what the injury was from. Now that we've been hit over the head with the stupid Hallows, it almost looks like having Snape kill him was a fall-back plan. What he wanted was for Harry to have first claim on the Hallows. He was very possibly hoping to die of the poison -- which he had Harry force him to drink, so the mastery would pass to Harry, regardless.

It almost worked. Snape was a fall-back, to keep the mastery out of Tom's hands. Or Draco's .

I really don't know that we can trust Albus's statement that he didn't want Draco to fracture his soul by killing him. Although I suspect that Albus simply had Draco's measure and didn't think he would be capable of actually doing it -- and he did not want the mastery going to any of the DEs that Draco might bring into the castle. But Albus had too many plans that he wasn't sharing with anyone else. He knew that Snape would do it if he had to, and that was good enough. But he spent a lot of time looking for that cave over the course of the year. And by the time of his injury, he already had got what information he was able to pry out of Kreachur.

I really do think he had hoped that he could arrange things so that Harry would be the one to kill him.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Dumbles sent Harry the message on Tuesday and came to pick him up on Friday night. I think the message was sent after the cursed hand incident - ie after Severus was already charged with the task of killing Albus. Voldemort assigned Draco his task on Friday, and then the first 4 chapters of HBP take place on the same night.

It's obvious that Albus made a quick decision to *use* that injury, although he wasn't telling anyone what the injury was from.

I don't see it as *using* the injury, more like damage control: once it was clear the injury was going to be fatal (eventually) it was necessary for Dumbledore to die from something else before the curse eventually got him, because dying from Tom's curse would land the mastery of the Elder Wand directly in Tom's lap. As for the green potion, I'm not sure if death by it would give the Elder Wand to Harry who fed the potion to Albus without knowing its full effect, to Tom who made the potion and placed it in the basin with the intent of killing whoever attempted to empty the basin or if the Mastery would have died with Albus - who insisted on drinking the potion while aware of its properties.

Yes, the plan was to keep the wand out of Tom's hands - and it nearly failed because Albus did it wrong. He died knowing the wand was still 'alive' and the mastery had gone to Draco. At any moment Tom could have won the Elder Wand completely without intending it, simply by taking Draco's wand (as part of his punishment of the Malfoys, for instance). What Albus should have done of course is to destroy the wand while he was still alive, but since he failed, he should have instructed Severus to do so (and plant some other wand in the white tomb instead).