COS Chapter Twelve: "The Polyjuice Potion"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

* Sincere apologies for the lack of postage over the past few weeks; suffice to say that, whilst I’d be happy to log on regularly, RL seems to have other ideas.

 

* Slytherin are so evil that even the thought of being there is enough to make Harry feel sick. These books are such a good argument for tolerance, don’t you think?

* “Harry was just thinking that all he needed was for Dumbledore’s pet bird to die while he was alone in the office with it” just makes him sound so self-centred. Never mind about the dead bird, or Dumbledore losing his beloved pet, I might get in trouble for it! Even though I’d have no motive in killing it and it was pretty obviously sick before I came in.

* Fawkes is usually very pretty, just in case we were worrying that Harry might end up having his life saved by something ugly.

* Given what we now know about Dumbledore’s views on personal loyalty, the emphasis on the word “faithful” looks rather sinister.

* Any guesses on why exactly Hagrid needs to carry the rooster around with him in the castle?

* That’s right, Harry, don’t tell DD about that mysterious voice you heard! Heaven forbid that you might actually help him solve the mystery before anybody is seriously hurt.

* I think it’s rather sweet that Crabbe and Goyle are staying behind with Malfoy. They really do seem to care about each other. (Well, until the abomination that is DH, that is.)

* Harry’s glad that most people are leaving, despite the fact that this’ll narrow down the potential list of suspects and make it more likely that they’ll be caught.

* “[Harry] was tired of people skirting around him in the corridors, as though he were about to sprout fangs or spit poison; tired of all the muttering, pointing and hissing as he passed.” I wonder if that’s what the Slytherins feel like all the time?

* I have to admit, F&G’s heir of Slytherin routine is pretty amusing. But since it’s so different to their usual brand of “humour”, I think I can like it without feeling too guilty.

* I wonder why Fred, George and Ginny have decided to stay? Is it because the fine Mr. Weasley had to pay means they can’t afford to take them, and they’re too proud to admit the real reason?

* I’m sure that the teachers of Hogwarts appreciate Percy staying behind to help them, even if Harry doesn’t.

*How rude of the Dursleys to send him a toothpick like that, especially when Harry gave them an expensive luxury hamper bursting to the brim with Honeyduke’s finest chocolate. Or nothing. I forget which.

* BTW, it seems odd to go to all the trouble of sending Harry such a silly little present. Unless DD sent Hedwig to keep bothering them until they sent something…

* Ron gives Harry a book about Ron’s favourite Quidditch team, rather than something Harry would be expected to be interested in.

* I hope Mrs. Weasley gave her real children presents which were at least as good as the ones she gave Harry.

* F&G have bewitched Percy’s Prefect Badge to make it say “Pinhead”. Oh, the hilarity!

* Crabbe and Goyle eat four helpings of pudding. Harry and Ron, who aren’t greedy pigs, limit themselves to three.

* Hermione’s telling the Slytherins that Millicent Bulstrode came back would backfire spectacularly once they realised that Millicent had not in fact returned, and that they had, therefore, been tricked.

* It’s a shame that nobody’s written a HP/Hercule Poirot crossover fic, in which Poirot investigates the Polyjuice incident. He’d probably solve the mystery within half an hour, and then work out who’s petrifying all those students for good measure.

* Ron and Hermione are prepared to knock out two of Draco’s friends based on extremely flimsy evidence. Remember this is HBP, when they refuse to believe that Draco’s up to something, despite having much better evidence than they do here.

* At least Harry and Ron didn’t strip Crabbe and Goyle. Be grateful for small mercies, I suppose.

* Millicent Bulstrode is “no pixie”, apparently, which seems like a polite way of saying “fat”. Outside of fandom, are there any pretty Slytherin girls, or are they all fat and ugly?

* You’d have thought it wouldn’t have been beyond the Trio to change into their new clothes before taking the Polyjuice Potion.

* Ever since reading Draco Dormiens, I’ve always imagined Harry surreptitiously checking to see whether Goyle is bigger than he is.

* And now they’ve got to find the Slytherin common room. Gee, guys, would it have been impossible to find that out before you took the Potion? Even if you don’t arouse suspicion by not knowing where it is, you’ll waste valuable time trying to find it.

* All this makes Ron’s quip about Goyle being dumb look rather silly.

* I don’t know why, but I’ve always thought that this Ravenclaw girl was Penelope Clearwater. Perhaps she’s just been meeting Percy in one of the disused dungeons.

* Whoever she is, her reply to Harry and Ron is rather rude. Is that what the Slytherins are treated like all the time? It’s a shame Harry and Ron never consider this, and maybe get a bit of sympathy for the Slytherins.

* The Slytherin password is “Pureblood”, just to remind us that they’re all racists, and, therefore, evil. Never mind that Slytherin’s most famous alumni, Tom Riddle and Severus Snape, were both halfbloods, and in Tom’s case, there was no way to know whether he was a muggleborn, pureblood or half-blood.

* The Slytherin common-room doesn’t look particularly luxurious, which seems odd for a supposed bastion of aristocratic privilege. Perhaps it’s like that to try and inculcate some humility into the children, like the fag system in old British public schools.

* I think it’s rather sweet of Mr. Malfoy to send his son newspaper clippings like that. “Here, Draco, let’s both laugh together at these guys!” I still think it odd that such an evil bully as Draco apparently is wouldn’t make greater use of it to humiliate Ron. Maybe he’s not so bad after all.

* Mrs. Weasley has threatened to set the family ghoul on reporters, apparently not realising that that sort of action is extremely bad publicity.

* Draco’s theory about DD hushing up the attacks is probably correct; at any rate, nobody seems to refer to them much in later books.

* Do racists normally go on about how much they hate [insert ethnicity here] as much as Draco’s doing in this scene? It just comes across as really false and over-the-top, at least to me. Perhaps he’s twigged that there’s something wrong with “Crabbe” and “Goyle”, and is deliberately acting oddly in order to see if they notice.

* Draco wishes that Hermione would get killed by the monster. Knowing what she’s going to become in later books, I can’t help but wonder whether that might not be for the best after all.

* For all Harry and Ron’s jokes about C&G being thick, they seem to be arousing Draco’s suspicions by being slower on the uptake.

* Harry and Ron are “hoping against hope that Malfoy hadn’t noticed anything.” I wouldn’t count on it, guys; he seems like a good Potions student, so he probably remembers what Snape said about the Polyjuice Potion; Harry and Ron were the least convincing Crabbe and Goyle imaginable; a boy who can notice Harry’s foot slipping out of the invisibility cloak for a split second would almost certainly notice his best friends changing into somebody else before his eyes; and the real Crabbe and Goyle would tell him that they weren’t there. He probably knows what happened, and feels really annoyed that DD doesn’t do anything about it.

* What’s the point of Cat!Hermione? It doesn’t advance the plot, it doesn’t contribute to characterisation, and it doesn’t add to the atmosphere of the story. Perhaps it’s to stop people questioning her plan by making them feel sorry for her.

* “Madam Pomfrey never asks too many questions…” Given what goes on in Hogwarts, maybe it’s time she started.

 

Comments

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/* Ron gives Harry a book about Ron’s favourite Quidditch team, rather than something Harry would be expected to be interested in./

Why wouldn't Harry be interested? He's a Quidditch fan and on the Quidditch team, after all. And being Muggle-raised, he doesn't really know that much about professional Quidditch teams.

/* It’s a shame that nobody’s written a HP/Hercule Poirot crossover fic, in which Poirot investigates the Polyjuice incident. He’d probably solve the mystery within half an hour, and then work out who’s petrifying all those students for good measure./

I'd read it! Hercule Poirot is awesome. :)

/* Ron and Hermione are prepared to knock out two of Draco’s friends based on extremely flimsy evidence. Remember this is HBP, when they refuse to believe that Draco’s up to something, despite having much better evidence than they do here./

Either they learned their lesson from this failed effort or it was just a plot contrivance. I'm leaning towards the latter.

/* Millicent Bulstrode is “no pixie”, apparently, which seems like a polite way of saying “fat”. Outside of fandom, are there any pretty Slytherin girls, or are they all fat and ugly?/

I don't think so. The only Slytherin girls that we know by name are Pansy (who's pug-faced), Millicent (who looks like a troll), Merope (who's cross-eyed and sickly), Eileen Prince (who's plain and sour-faced), Bellatrix (who was described as being once-beautiful, but is now ugly), Andromeda (whom I don't think was described as pretty in DH, I could be wrong, though), and Narcissa (who's described as being blond, tall, and slim, but in GoF, had a "look on her face as if something smelly was under her nose").

/* Ever since reading Draco Dormiens, I’ve always imagined Harry surreptitiously checking to see whether Goyle is bigger than he is./

Noo! Please don't remind me of Cassandra Claire and the "Draco Trilogy." :(

/Never mind that Slytherin’s most famous alumni, Tom Riddle and Severus Snape, were both halfbloods, and in Tom’s case, there was no way to know whether he was a muggleborn, pureblood or half-blood./

And yet Tom was popular, regardless. There have been fan theories about Tom telling the other students stories about his supposed pureblood parents or showing them the ring as proof of his lineage; but you're right, on the first day of school, nobody could have known what his background was. He didn't even know it himself. Yet by sixth year, all of the boys in the Slug Club throw "admiring" glances at him.

/* I think it’s rather sweet of Mr. Malfoy to send his son newspaper clippings like that. “Here, Draco, let’s both laugh together at these guys!”/

Really? I think that it was rather weird, petty, and mean-spirited of him. Mr. Weasley isn't a celebrity that they can mock from afar; he's a person that they personally know and whose son sees Draco on a regular basis.

/I still think it odd that such an evil bully as Draco apparently is wouldn’t make greater use of it to humiliate Ron. Maybe he’s not so bad after all./

Well...he does show Ron an unflattering newspaper article about his family in GoF, which prompts the whole Ferret!Draco incident.

/He probably knows what happened, and feels really annoyed that DD doesn’t do anything about it./

Actually, in the videogame for PoA, there's a little segment where Draco gets his revenge by turning himself into Ron through Polyjuice Potion and leading Harry into a trap by pretending to know where Sirius Black is. Of course, his plan fails when the real Ron shows up and knocks him out from behind, but before he does, Draco has a line (I don't remember it exactly) that indicates that he did realize that it was them in CoS and that this trick was just giving Harry a taste of his own medicine.

/* “Madam Pomfrey never asks too many questions…” Given what goes on in Hogwarts, maybe it’s time she started./

Agreed.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on almost everything except for this:
I think that it was rather weird, petty, and mean-spirited of him. Mr. Weasley isn't a celebrity that they can mock from afar; he's a person that they personally know and whose son sees Draco on a regular basis.

I honestly don't understand why that's a problem. The whole point is that they know this guy and his son, so there's more satisfaction to be had from those articles than if it were a random celeb. The Malfoys and the Weasleys do not get on. Both the adults and the kids have rivalries and there is definitely bad blood there. Why wouldn't he share that with his son? I know I'd laugh if something like that happened to someone I didn't like.

[oryx_leucoryx]

And so would the Weasleys laugh at the Malfoys if the situation were reversed.

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

I can just imagine it: Draco sends Lucius his school reports and certificates, and Lucius sends Draco details of his machiavellian plots and political manoeuvrings...

[oryx_leucoryx]

* “Harry was just thinking that all he needed was for Dumbledore’s pet bird to die while he was alone in the office with it” just makes him sound so self-centred. Never mind about the dead bird, or Dumbledore losing his beloved pet, I might get in trouble for it! Even though I’d have no motive in killing it and it was pretty obviously sick before I came in.

This is typical of the trio's level of moral maturity in the series. Harry didn't feel much different about nearly actually killing Draco - al that mattered was that he missed out on Quidditch or spending time with Ginny. Who cares about nearly killing another kid?

* Given what we now know about Dumbledore’s views on personal loyalty, the emphasis on the word “faithful” looks rather sinister.

Right! Remember that Fawkes came to help Harry because Harry said Dumbles was more powerful than Tom. Fawkes helps those who sing Albus' praise. That's why he didn't save Severus - as loyal as he was, he criticized Albus to his face (and obviously said nasty things about him to Voldemort and the DEs).

* Any guesses on why exactly Hagrid needs to carry the rooster around with him in the castle?

I don't know about Hagrid, but by now the Twinkles surely should have figured out that the monster is a basilisk (if he didn't anytime in the last 50 years)? What with spiders fleeing and roosters getting killed?

* That’s right, Harry, don’t tell DD about that mysterious voice you heard! Heaven forbid that you might actually help him solve the mystery before anybody is seriously hurt.

I'm pretty sure Albus performed deep Legilimency on Harry here - notcie he looks in his eyes, asks him a question to bring the topic to his consciousness and Harry gets this rush of memories related to the subject. So I think Dumbly knows Harry has heard the basilisk. But he doesn't know how many times Harry heard it, nor will he ask any time later. What Twinkly does here is make sure the Harrycrux isn't releasing the basilisk for Tom. However now that he knows it isn't - why doesn't he take Harry so the two of them can find the Chamber and kill the monster?

* “[Harry] was tired of people skirting around him in the corridors, as though he were about to sprout fangs or spit poison; tired of all the muttering, pointing and hissing as he passed.” I wonder if that’s what the Slytherins feel like all the time?

This is not the last time Harry will be in a position from which he should be able to identify with Slytherins in general or some of them in particular - but he does not.

* I wonder why Fred, George and Ginny have decided to stay? Is it because the fine Mr. Weasley had to pay means they can’t afford to take them, and they’re too proud to admit the real reason?

Is that why they decided to spend their winnings from the Prophet's lottery on a family trip?

* I hope Mrs. Weasley gave her real children presents which were at least as good as the ones she gave Harry.

All except Ron, who gets something he doesn't like or something nobody would like.

* At least Harry and Ron didn’t strip Crabbe and Goyle. Be grateful for small mercies, I suppose.


The honor of stripping Slytherins is reserved to James.

* Draco’s theory about DD hushing up the attacks is probably correct; at any rate, nobody seems to refer to them much in later books.

Even the kids who were attacked don't remember anything - see Colin and Justin in OOTP in the Hog's Head chapter.

* What’s the point of Cat!Hermione?

It keeps Rowling from having to make Draco superstupid for not realizing from the first second that this can't be Milicent. Also, some read it as punishment for having come up with such a silly plan.

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

"Even the kids who were attacked don't remember anything - see Colin and Justin in OOTP in the Hog's Head chapter."

DD probably obliviated them, just like he did to Marietta.

"It keeps Rowling from having to make Draco superstupid for not realizing from the first second that this can't be Milicent."

But if she wanted to do that, couldn't she just have had Hermione say "None of Draco's female friends are staying, so I'd better wait here while you two go it alone"?

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

But...polyjuice works whatever sex you are, so Hermione could've transformed into a boy...but then, I don't think any of the other Slytherin boys were staying, so that's a moot point.

But yeah, it's weird how determined she was to take the potion as well. I guess it's like with her lying about the troll in PS/SS, she wants to go down with the boys as well so they can all bond over it, she doesn't want to be left out?

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

>* What’s the point of Cat!Hermione? <

Comic relief. Hermione was still largely comic relief in CoS. And a sidekick, she didn't fully turn into a heroine until after the studios started shoving her in that direction. Although the Cinderella sequence at the Yule Ball could read as foreshadowing, I suspect it was an aberation on Rowling's part.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

It fits right in with Rowlings anti-authoritarian, anti-intellectual ethics. Following and especially enforcing rules is evil (Percy, Snape, Umbridge), rule-breaking and lawlessness is good

I didn't mind the rule-breaking and lawlessness per se -- that is often the device used in children's stories to initiate and advance the plot.

What bothered me is that it NEVER STOPPED. Usually in other children's stories, after the initial rule-breaking (sneaking out at night, entering an area they've been forbidden to enter, doing an activity they've been cautioned against, etc.), the child heroes in such stories are faced with a dilemma that requires them to either buckle down and study and/or practice more, or actually seek the advice of someone older and wiser.

And unfortunately that never happens with The Trio in Potterverse; I would have liked to have seen Rowling put in something along the lines of perhaps something going wrong for The Trio, who afterwards realizes that the help they needed was covered in a previous class, but that they'd not paid attention at the time. Or have them pick the brains of an adult (and neither Hagrid nor Bathilda Bagshot count), perhaps not telling WHY they needed the info, but at least showing that there is a value to the accrued knowledge of talented, older people.

As it is, most of the time when they get any information/knowledge from an adult, it is usually by accident. It would have been nice to perhaps have seen them making a habit to chat up Flitwick, Sprout, Pomfrey, if not McGonagall herself, on a consistent basis to show that they acknowledged and valued the collective wisdom of their elders.

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

For all Harry and Ron’s jokes about C&G being thick, they seem to be arousing Draco’s suspicions by being slower on the uptake.

And yet Crabbe and Goyle still come across as stupider (or developmentally disabled - thanks for the unfortunate implications there, Jo!) in DH, five years on. Maybe that's the result of a Hogwarts education?

The Slytherin password is “Pureblood”, just to remind us that they’re all racists, and, therefore, evil. Never mind that Slytherin’s most famous alumni, Tom Riddle and Severus Snape, were both halfbloods, and in Tom’s case, there was no way to know whether he was a muggleborn, pureblood or half-blood.

Who even sets these passwords? With Gryffindor tower the semi(?)-sapient portrait decides, and the Ravenclaw door seems to ask a different riddle of each person, but how does a wall come up with passwords? Does the head of house make them up, and if so why would Snape choose this password? Is his DE cover so pathetic that he has to come up with incredibly obvious things like this?

It’s a shame that nobody’s written a HP/Hercule Poirot crossover fic, in which Poirot investigates the Polyjuice incident. He’d probably solve the mystery within half an hour, and then work out who’s petrifying all those students for good measure.

I'd prefer Sherlock Holmes, if only for the potential Holmes/Snape interaction and Watson showing Ron just how awesome a sidekick can be. (Though my favourite detective for this purpose would of course be Batman).

Do racists normally go on about how much they hate [insert ethnicity here] as much as Draco’s doing in this scene?

This reminds me of a scene in the comic book Preacher, where a redneck villain does just that at a Klan meeting and the other Klansmen complain that they have more interests than just racism.

How rude of the Dursleys to send him a toothpick like that, especially when Harry gave them an expensive luxury hamper bursting to the brim with Honeyduke’s finest chocolate. Or nothing. I forget which

Well, you can't really blame him, can you? The bigger question is how the toothpick (and the 50p in PS) got to Hogwarts in the first place - just how intelligent are the owls? (It's starting to look like A Very Potter Sequel's talking Hedwig is less a joke and more a logical necessity.)

Any guesses on why exactly Hagrid needs to carry the rooster around with him in the castle?

To prove the attacks are real? No one says he needs a sensible reason to do anything. Or he wants to make clear what a cockerel is. Isn't it great how half-giants are shown to be just as good as human wizards? (Actually, given the average human wizard, that may not have been ironic.)

[oryx_leucoryx]

Some points about this chapter in the context of the whole book and the whole series:

This is the first time we see Polyjuice being used. It allows complete mimicry of the *shape* of someone else, but for really successful deception one needs acting skills (as well as familiarity with the one being impersonated).

Harry and Ron learn of the existence of some hiding place under the drawing room in Malfoy Manor. Ron tips his father off here. In HBP Harry suggests that Arthur search the manor (for some illicit item possibly related to what Draco may have been plotting). Arthur finds nothing, despite his knowledge from this chapter about the secret hiding place. In DH we shall see it and will learn that at the time of Arthur's searches said place served as prison for Ollivander.

Albus' conversation with Harry is the last time in this book that Albus is seen doing anything to investigate the serial attacks. What the heck did he do the following 4 months?

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

Slytherin are so evil that even the thought of being there is enough to make Harry feel sick. These books are such a good argument for tolerance, don’t you think?

It's amazing how black-and-white JKR's depiction of their world is, and yet people treat it like she created this intricate, complex world full of subtleties. If she'd stuck to writing children's books, that's fine to have people as caricatures, but what bothers me is people treating these books as the very best thing to ever happen to literature when it's full of cliches and so very one-dimensional and exaggerated. But for some reason, fans act like she's teaching real life lessons about morality and tolerance, like wtf? When does that ever happen?

* “Harry was just thinking that all he needed was for Dumbledore’s pet bird to die while he was alone in the office with it” just makes him sound so self-centred. Never mind about the dead bird, or Dumbledore losing his beloved pet

This I took more as sarcasm. Harry can be wry at times, I didn't really see it as 'omg, the bird might die, what will I do, I might get in trouble!' but more of, 'My life sucks right now. How could it get any worse? Oh, this awful thing might happen, I suppose'.

Given what we now know about Dumbledore’s views on personal loyalty, the emphasis on the word “faithful” looks rather sinister.

Oh, yeah. I'm seeing parallels between Fawkes and Snape now- talk about carrying heavy loads and being faithful to Dumbles, and look at their penchant for saving Harry's ass, while he takes all the credit for heroism.

That’s right, Harry, don’t tell DD about that mysterious voice you heard! Heaven forbid that you might actually help him solve the mystery before anybody is seriously hurt.

Okay, so he's thinking about how everyone's whispering about his behind his back and how he might be responsible for people being hurt...so it makes him LESS inclined to tell Dumbles everything in the hopes of clearing up what's going on, he chooses to keep his mouth shut on that tantalizing clue, which makes for a greater possibility kids will get hurt? Oh, yes, THAT's going to endear him to the student population.

Seriously, someone who's got a grudge might be like, 'Screw them all, I'm not gonna open my mouth, they can all die, serves them right'. But Harry hates being the center of attention and suspected Heir, so he has more reason to confide in Dumbles, but no! Logical fail...

Harry’s glad that most people are leaving, despite the fact that this’ll narrow down the potential list of suspects and make it more likely that they’ll be caught.

I've read a few snark recaps of CoS and each time this is brought up, I headdesk over and over. IT MAKES NO SENSE to be happy at the limited suspect pool!

I have to admit, F&G’s heir of Slytherin routine is pretty amusing. But since it’s so different to their usual brand of “humour”, I think I can like it without feeling too guilty.

I felt kind of dirty for snickering at their banter- but this is one case where they're actually funny and not hurtful, so it's okay!

BTW, it seems odd to go to all the trouble of sending Harry such a silly little present. Unless DD sent Hedwig to keep bothering them until they sent something…

That seems in character. Saddle them with an unwanted kid they have to clothe and feed and educate without any access to the money in his vault to pay for any of that, bully them into keeping this kid with threats at any hint they might want to give up this responsibility they never asked for, throw glasses at their heads YEARS too late to be ranting at their abuse, which he knew about and never bothered to address...yes, I can see him being sanctimonious and insisting on them making some sort of gesture in the Christmast spirit. Ugh.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/Oh, yeah. I'm seeing parallels between Fawkes and Snape now- talk about carrying heavy loads and being faithful to Dumbles, and look at their penchant for saving Harry's ass, while he takes all the credit for heroism./

Good point, I didn't notice the parallels there.

/Okay, so he's thinking about how everyone's whispering about his behind his back and how he might be responsible for people being hurt...so it makes him LESS inclined to tell Dumbles everything in the hopes of clearing up what's going on, he chooses to keep his mouth shut on that tantalizing clue, which makes for a greater possibility kids will get hurt? Oh, yes, THAT's going to endear him to the student population./

Does Harry think that if he says anything, Dumbledore will think that he's the Heir, too? That's the only reason that I can come up with for why Harry doesn't tell him anything. (Well, either that, or it's because life with the Dursleys caused him to distrust authority figures and keep things to himself.)

/That seems in character. Saddle them with an unwanted kid they have to clothe and feed and educate without any access to the money in his vault to pay for any of that, bully them into keeping this kid with threats at any hint they might want to give up this responsibility they never asked for, throw glasses at their heads YEARS too late to be ranting at their abuse, which he knew about and never bothered to address...yes, I can see him being sanctimonious and insisting on them making some sort of gesture in the Christmast spirit. Ugh./

I know, I don't see how anyone could think that Dumbledore came off well in that chapter in DH where he confronted the Dursleys. Yes, Albus, their abuse of Harry was terrible, but you *knew* that they were abusing him and you didn't do anything about it! You knew that they were the types of people who hated and feared magic, and you left Harry with them anyway! And what's even worse is that you of all people should have known what the Dursley's treatment could have done to Harry, given that your own *sister* was abused by magic-fearing Muggles. And you didn't keep tabs on Harry; you didn't regularly drop in to see how he was doing or send anybody else to meet regularly with the Dursleys to give them pointers on how to deal with Harry's magic, you just dropped him off and left. The Dursleys may be guilty of abuse, but you're also guilty of criminal negligence.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

Ron gives Harry a book about Ron’s favourite Quidditch team, rather than something Harry would be expected to be interested in.

Didn't see that as a problem- Harry is quidditch mad, after all, but he doesn't know much about the professional teams, so Ron gets him a book on the team he loves and is confident will provide something of interest to Harry. It'd be different if Harry knew all the teams and supported someone else, but I think as a newcomer who isn't that well-versed in quidditch teams, this makes sense. It's like people who would recommend fandoms they like, say, Fringe to a sci-fi fan or something.

I hope Mrs. Weasley gave her real children presents which were at least as good as the ones she gave Harry.

I'm sure Ron got something she knows he hates.

F&G have bewitched Percy’s Prefect Badge to make it say “Pinhead”. Oh, the hilarity!

Someone bashed Draco as immature for the names he called Harry, cannot recall, it was lame, though- and yet the twins are held up as the height of comic relief in these books, so IDK, he's doing all right in comparison. I find his unintentional, sly humor more amusing than their rowdy boisterous showoff antics.

Crabbe and Goyle eat four helpings of pudding. Harry and Ron, who aren’t greedy pigs, limit themselves to three.

JKR has the most bizarre relationship with food- people who are evil eat a lot and are very greedy and fat, people who are good...eat a lot...but aren't fat. I guess those calories know when to pad the hips and when to back off from the pure of heart and noble of soul or whatever?

Hermione’s telling the Slytherins that Millicent Bulstrode came back would backfire spectacularly once they realised that Millicent had not in fact returned, and that they had, therefore, been tricked.

I KNOOOOOW. brb, ranting forever

SO STOOOOPID. And Hermione's the brain of the trio? Ye gods!

Ron and Hermione are prepared to knock out two of Draco’s friends based on extremely flimsy evidence.

Yes, two relatively innocent bystanders (have Crabbe and Goyle attacked them at this stage? At any rate, we're talking about the heroes here, revenge shouldn't be a valid motive) can be knocked unconscious and stuffed in closets (gosh, let's hope they're not allergic or they don't swallow their tongues or go into convulsions) and they're not perceived as victims at all. Even when they're not doing anything bad, they're tainted and identified as evil by virtue of being Slytherin, so any wrongs inflicted upon them are justified in retrospect. There is no such thing as hurting a Slytherin, it's pre-emptive self-defense!

Remember this is HBP, when they refuse to believe that Draco’s up to something, despite having much better evidence than they do here.

That was SO CONTRIVED. JKR needed nobody to believe him so he could angst moar, but it makes no sense at all that Ron and Hermione would disregard his concerns! I guess the teen hormones overwhelmed their knee-jerk vilification of Slytherins? Either that, or they're both suppressing a deep attraction to Draco and had to put him out of their minds or else risk the embarrassment of fighting a crush on him.

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

JKR has the most bizarre relationship with food- people who are evil eat a lot and are very greedy and fat, people who are good...eat a lot...but aren't fat. I guess those calories know when to pad the hips and when to back off from the pure of heart and noble of soul or whatever?

But if they're powerful and important (Voldemort, Snape (using JKR's ideas of evil)), they're thin. Fat people are never a threat (which may have something to do with the paedophilic vibes some people get from Slughorn - perhaps the reason JKR didn't notice them is because she can't perceive fat, semi-cowardly Slughorn as posing any danger).

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/I'm sure Ron got something she knows he hates./

I will never understand why Mrs. Weasley does that to Ron. Why does she have such a passive-aggressive relationship with him? She *has* a daughter now, shouldn't she be over the disappointment she felt when Ron was born and he wasn't a girl (if Locket!Tom is to be believed)? Just for once, can't she buy him something that she knows he likes? If she can afford to buy something nice for Harry, she can afford to buy something nice for her own son.

/That was SO CONTRIVED. JKR needed nobody to believe him so he could angst moar, but it makes no sense at all that Ron and Hermione would disregard his concerns!/

I agree that it was a contrivance. In addition to their general obnoxiousness in HBP, Ron and Hermione just seemed so obnoxiously determined to ignore Harry that it was annoying. Sure, Harry was obsessed, but he did have valid reasons for thinking that Draco was a Death Eater and given all they know about Draco, Ron and Hermione shouldn't have been so skeptical. I rolled my eyes at the part where Harry tells Hermione that he overheard Draco talking about his "master" and Hermione stupidly suggests that Draco may have been talking about his father.

Still, it was nice to see Harry proven right by the end, for once.

/I guess the teen hormones overwhelmed their knee-jerk vilification of Slytherins?/

Well, the teen hormones certainly overwhelmed their intelligence and sense of morals and decency. *grumbles about Hermione's deadly canaries and Ron's manipulation of Lavender*

/Either that, or they're both suppressing a deep attraction to Draco and had to put him out of their minds or else risk the embarrassment of fighting a crush on him./

*snorts in laughter*

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

"Either that, or they're both suppressing a deep attraction to Draco and had to put him out of their minds or else risk the embarrassment of fighting a crush on him."

That would probably be more realistic and interesting than what we actually got, IMHO, as well as making the Hr/D shipper in me very happy. :)

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

You’d have thought it wouldn’t have been beyond the Trio to change into their new clothes before taking the Polyjuice Potion.

Gee, guys, would it have been impossible to find that out before you took the Potion? Even if you don’t arouse suspicion by not knowing where it is, you’ll waste valuable time trying to find it.

Common sense. It is beyond them.

Is that what the Slytherins are treated like all the time? It’s a shame Harry and Ron never consider this, and maybe get a bit of sympathy for the Slytherins.

Are you joking? Empathy for bad guys is for sissies! (cue Dumbles and his amused bewilderment at Harry feeling sorry for a kid who lost his mother or whatever tragedy he had a rare moment of human feeling over)

Remember Harry's short-lived feeling of empathy for young!Snape being bullied by James and co? If he couldn't understand him after that, when it's so similar to his own life experiences, he's not gonna learn anything just being put off by some Ravenclaw while in the guise of a Slytherin.

I think it’s rather sweet of Mr. Malfoy to send his son newspaper clippings like that. “Here, Draco, let’s both laugh together at these guys!”

I do like that! He has an odd way of interacting with Draco- it's not all hugs and warmth and that- but I do find it amusing that he sent those articles. I don't think it's nasty or immature at all, it's like, 'Here's something that's happened to a guy we don't like, I'll let Draco know so he can snicker at it as well'.

Or maybe it's just that I dislike Arthur very much- the man is in charge of a department that's supposed to stop something, but oh no, he's above the law he enforces against others (except when it's in his best interests to look the other way, say, when he gets BRIBED to smooth matters over) and he can do the very thing he's supposed to stop! I think it's great that he got called out for his wrongdoing, too bad what we're supposed to get from this is that Draco is a bad kid and everything he does is awful and he should be bashed up a lot.

(I like the idea that he knew it was Harry and Ron and this was just to needle them)

I still think it odd that such an evil bully as Draco apparently is wouldn’t make greater use of it to humiliate Ron. Maybe he’s not so bad after all.

Yeah, note the way he didn't tell anyone in OotP about Harry needing remedial potions classes? Passing up a chance to humiliate Harry? OH, SO EVIL, LET ME COUNT THE WAYS.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/Are you joking? Empathy for bad guys is for sissies! (cue Dumbles and his amused bewilderment at Harry feeling sorry for a kid who lost his mother or whatever tragedy he had a rare moment of human feeling over)/

That moment annoys me so much. Heaven forbid Harry feel the least bit sorry for Voldemort, because apparently, the tiniest drop of pity for your enemies leads to the Dark Side. Look, Dumbledore, Harry isn't like Tom Riddle's peers and professors at Hogwarts. He already knows that Tom Riddle is a bad apple, sympathizing with him isn't going to make him want to sign up for the Death Eaters or become Tom's fanboy.

(And by the end of HBP, Harry feels the "tiniest drop of pity mingled with his dislike" for Draco. That's so compassionate of him, isn't it? To feel ever-so-slightly sorry for a boy whom he nearly killed in the bathroom and who was forced to try to kill someone because his family was in danger)?)

Besides, sympathy for one's enemies is supposed to be one of the hallmark traits of being a hero/heroine. Feeling sorry for someone even if they don't deserve it doesn't make a person weak; it just shows how compassionate he or she is. It's also meant to show how morally superior the hero is to the villain.

/Remember Harry's short-lived feeling of empathy for young!Snape being bullied by James and co?/

Well, to be fair, there are fans out there who also had a short-lived feeling of sympathy for Snape, given that they still believe that James was a good person, Lily was an angel, and Snape deserved all the bullying he got. Besides, Snape and Harry never got a moment of closure. They never had a scene together where they discussed their similarities. Both of them seemed to have some tacit agreement to just ignore Harry's discovery of the Pensieve in OotP altogether and pretend that it never happened.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

Draco’s theory about DD hushing up the attacks is probably correct; at any rate, nobody seems to refer to them much in later books.

If they did, I'm sure they referred to it as 'the awful thing that Slytherins were responsible for and the Chosen One delivered us from' as opposed to 'the terrible thing that hunted our kids and Dumbledore, Greatest Wizard Ever, did nothing about'.

It just comes across as really false and over-the-top, at least to me.

I don't spend much time with racists, so IDK, maybe. I'm sure anti-Draco fans would say I'm biased 'coz I like him and don't want to admit anything bad about him, but seriously, I think it's more that JKR is bad at characterization than anything.

Draco wishes that Hermione would get killed by the monster.

Note that this verbal statement is worse than any physical attacks our heroes are given to throughout the books! In fact, his two friends are lying unconscious at this moment because of our 'heroes', but Draco's just cemented his place as the most evil person ever. I love how saying bad things because of 'racism' is worse than doing bad things because of any other kind of prejudice.

a boy who can notice Harry’s foot slipping out of the invisibility cloak for a split second would almost certainly notice his best friends changing into somebody else before his eyes

IKR? I love how characterization changes as needed to suit the plot. BAD WRITING, YOU'RE DOING IT RIGHT.

What's the point of Cat!Hermione?

To show her up for being so smart. The best way to get through things unscathed is to be dumb, never try to achieve anything on your own merits and not put any real effort into getting what you want. WANTING thing is what leads to your downfall. You gotta be awesome enough that other people will do things on your behalf and suffer the consequences when it goes wrong. Hermione is both essential to the plot because of her smarts and also a threat to Harry's supremacy as The Hero, ergo, she must suffer some embarrassing mishap to put her in her place.

“Madam Pomfrey never asks too many questions…” Given what goes on in Hogwarts, maybe it’s time she started.

IKR? But it wouldn't be Hogwarts if authority figures paid attention to what kids were doing and tried to protect them.

[oryx_leucoryx]

IKR? But it wouldn't be Hogwarts if authority figures paid attention to what kids were doing and tried to protect them.

And those that do are evil for it.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/If they did, I'm sure they referred to it as 'the awful thing that Slytherins were responsible for and the Chosen One delivered us from' as opposed to 'the terrible thing that hunted our kids and Dumbledore, Greatest Wizard Ever, did nothing about'./

Well, it was the "Heir of Slytherin" who claimed credit for the attacks. Even though he possessed a Gryffindor to do it (a fact that, surprisingly, nobody in school finds out).

Besides, there are a lot of things that Dumbledore, Greatest Wizard Ever, did nothing about. They'd have to make such a long list to keep up with him. :)

/To show her up for being so smart. The best way to get through things unscathed is to be dumb, never try to achieve anything on your own merits and not put any real effort into getting what you want. WANTING thing is what leads to your downfall./

Ah, so that's why Voldemort is the villain. ;)

I know that the "courageous" hero against the "crafty" villain is a common theme in fantasy, but I wonder what would have happened if Tom and Harry's personalities had been switched? If Harry had been the patient, diligent, intellectually curious student that had to take down the short-tempered, athletic Voldemort who'd been an average student?

/IKR? But it wouldn't be Hogwarts if authority figures paid attention to what kids were doing and tried to protect them./

As Severus Snape no doubt knows.

Adorable lack of planning

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

"And now they've got to find the Slytherin common room...."

When I reread this chapter recently, it was actually unbearably cute and in-character for a bunch of little kids. Here they've been planning this adventure for over a month, making what they think are careful preparations, and it never once occurs to them to use the cloak to follow a Slytherin and find out the location and password? That's just so--adorably kid-like, that they waste much of their limited time transformed looking for the right place.

Unfortunately they show about the same level of ability to plan in DH. Yeah, show up at the Ministry in randomly-assumed Polyjuice disguises, and then, um, look around and wing it.

It's only cute when you're twelve, guys, and when it's only the second adventure you've embarked on.

Re: Adorable lack of planning

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

It's ridiculous how little they've advanced in plotting ability since second year. I see your point- before I kind of ranted about this, but from that pov, yes, it is rather cute how unprepared they are and age-appropriate too (though I'm still convinced I would not be that unprepared), but it's so enraging how absolutely dimwitted they are in DH!

The bit that pissed me off the most was Ron running off to stop the rain in the offices. Um, wtf, FATE OF THE WORLD IS AT STAKE and he's doing menial tasks? And Hermione has to suggest a 'finite' to him? SERIOUSLY? (admittedly, I'm not sure if the 'finite' was in the books as well, or just movie contamination, but my main point remains) Also, Harry went looking for Ron, iirc, then runs into him and then lets him run off again and doesn't bother saying anything, what?!