COS Chapter Seventeen: "The Heir of Slytherin"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

 

* I’ve got to hand it to JKR, this part of the book is genuinely frightening and tense.

* Still, you’ve got to wonder at how poorly thought-out Harry’s plan is. “Shutting your eyes” is not a good strategy when in the presence of a huge poisonous snake that’s trying to kill you.

* Salazar’s statue looks like a monkey. Because Slytherin House is just so evil, even their founder was sub-human.

* Harry flings his wand aside. After all, it’s not like it could be of any conceivable use in a hidden chamber with a deadly monster somewhere nearby.

* “For a second, Harry wondered how [the diary] had got there” – wait, Harry’s showing signs of curiosity? Are we sure that the real Harry hasn’t been temporarily kidnapped and replaced with a doppelgänger?

* Now Tom’s got Harry’s wand, leaving him practically defenceless. D’oh!

* Good God, but Harry’s slow on the uptake here. So he’s found Tom Riddle standing next to Ginny’s almost-dead body, Tom’s taken his wand, is refusing to help Harry, talks calmly about calling the basilisk, pockets his wand and doesn’t seem keen on leaving the Chamber. Hey, Harry, do you think that Tom might possibly not be a good guy?

* I believe it’s been noted here that Harry seems to feel a natural affinity to dark wizards and magic. It seems that Ginny’s the same (“No one’s ever understood me like you, Tom”), which gives her and Harry something in common to form a basis of their future relationship (ha! And you thought JKR just threw them together without laying any groundwork or bothering to give them any common interests! :p). ESE!Ginny would also explain things like her happiness to hex people for little or no provocation, or her willingness to defend her bf’s attempted murder in HBP.

* Now I’m imagining a fic where Harry and Ginny try and take over the WW and rule as dark king and queen. And fail miserably because they don’t have Hermione to help them.

* “If I say it myself, Harry, I’ve always been able to charm the people I needed.” A bit like Dumbledore, in fact, or for that matter Harry himself…

* “‘Haven’t you guessed yet, Harry Potter?’ said Riddle softly.” Really, Tom, a boy who still hasn’t guessed that you’re a bad guy is hardly likely to have worked out that Ginny was the one attacking people, is he?

* So Ginny knew (or at least suspected) that she was the one behind the attacks, but still didn’t tell anyone. Gryffindor courage, anyone?

* DD persuaded Dippet to keep Hagrid as gamekeeper. Given that Hagrid had allegedly killed someone, I wonder how he managed to do this? Blackmail? Imperius? After DH, I don’t think anything would surprise me.

* “‘I bet Dumbledore saw right through you,’ said Harry, his teeth gritted,” without stopping to wonder why Dumbledore didn’t tell anyone of his suspicions or do anything to try and confirm them.

* “For many months now,” said Tom, “my new target has been – you.”

“Wait,” said Harry. “You mean you don’t want to be my friend?”

* Harry’s little pro-Dumbledore speech is actually quite inspiring. Or would be, if we didn’t now know that DD has essentially been raising him for the past eleven years as a mindlessly obedient soldier, which makes it look rather creepy.

* Fawkes is here! Luckily he’s recovered from his rebirth in time to save Harry the indignity of being rescued by something ugly. Only the beautiful are worthy of saving Our Hero’s life!

* “We even look something alike,” says Tom, foreshadowing the dishy!Harry of HBP onwards.

* Sill, Tom’s really naïve to think that he and Harry are at all similar. Harry’s in Gryffindor, remember? That alone outweighs any petty similarities in background, looks, morals or behaviour that Tom could ever come up with.

* Now this is where Tom’s Pureblood mania really comes back to bite him on the bum. If he’d been more familiar with Muggle fiction like James Bond, he’d know that villains who kill their opponents in really long-winded and theatrical ways always end up being defeated at the last moment. Much better just to AK Harry and Fawkes, then magically burn their bodies along with the Hat, just to be on the safe side.

* Even with Fawkes’ and Tom’s help, Harry would still have been snake-food were it not for the fact that God JK Rowling the basilisk sweeps the Sorting Hat into his arms.

* No, Tom, don’t take your time! Learn from all those Bond villains, finish him off quickly!

* Fawkes gives Harry Tom’s diary, when surely a real Gryffindor would let him fight it out, man-to-man. Christ, DD, what were you thinking of, getting this cissy pet bird? It’s probably some cowardly Ravenclaw. Those Gryffindor-coloured feathers are just a disguise to try and make it look brave!

* JK Rowling pulls her trick of having characters crying to distract from the fact that their behaviour has been pretty shoddy. She’ll do it again with Hagrid in POA.

* Interesting to see how Ginny’s main concern is that she’ll get expelled, rather than, say, whether she’s hurt anyone. Good to see she’s got her priorities right.

* Back off, Ron, only the Chosen One’s good enough to comfort Ginny!

* Ron’s “grinning” at Lockhart’s predicament. Yay, let’s laugh at the person with serious brain damage! You can tell he’s a true Gryffindor, alright.

* It would be sort of ironic if Harry had beaten Tom without needing Fawkes or the Hat, and then died of starvation along with Lockhart, Ron and Ginny because they couldn’t get out. Any bets on how long it’d take before they resorted to cannibalism?

* Harry goes to Professor McGonagall’s office. If only he’d thought of this sooner, we might have had a more believable book.

 

Comments

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/* Still, you’ve got to wonder at how poorly thought-out Harry’s plan is. “Shutting your eyes” is not a good strategy when in the presence of a huge poisonous snake that’s trying to kill you./

Since Harry and Ron found out how to counter the basilisk through Hermione, then why didn't they think to take something to guard their eyes? I know that they were in a hurry, but still, a little preparation wouldn't hurt.

/* So Ginny knew (or at least suspected) that she was the one behind the attacks, but still didn’t tell anyone. Gryffindor courage, anyone?/

I know that she was afraid that she'd get into trouble, but people *are getting hurt.* It was only through accident that her victims didn't die. What if somebody *had* died? Would that have been the wake-up call for Ginny, the sign that she should tell somebody already? Or would she have still kept the diary secret?

/* DD persuaded Dippet to keep Hagrid as gamekeeper. Given that Hagrid had allegedly killed someone, I wonder how he managed to do this? Blackmail? Imperius? After DH, I don’t think anything would surprise me./

That's an interesting question. I never thought of that. Given that Hagrid had been expelled for murder, wouldn't Dippet want to keep him as far away from Hogwarts as possible? How *did* Dumbledore manage to convince him to let Hagrid stay?

/* “‘I bet Dumbledore saw right through you,’ said Harry, his teeth gritted,” without stopping to wonder why Dumbledore didn’t tell anyone of his suspicions or do anything to try and confirm them./

So, Dumbledore has enough influence to convince Dippet to let Hagrid stay as gamekeeper even after Hagrid is punished for murder, but not enough to convince Dippet that Tom was the one behind Myrtle's murder and to punish him instead? What was he waiting for? Why didn't he do anything?

/* “We even look something alike,” says Tom, foreshadowing the dishy!Harry of HBP onwards./

And inspiring dozens of fanfics in which Harry is Tom's son, descendant, etc.

/* Sill, Tom’s really naïve to think that he and Harry are at all similar. Harry’s in Gryffindor, remember? That alone outweighs any petty similarities in background, looks, morals or behaviour that Tom could ever come up with./

Well, Baeraad did say in a post of his that Harry and Tom *are* really different and that JKR's attempts to draw parallels between them do not work because Voldemort is "a slow, ponderous planner whose every move is premeditated" while Harry "is a temperamental blowhard who flounders around without a clue." Still, they do have similarities in background...and actions, unfortunately. As a matter of fact, I'd be surprised if JKR admitted that *James* was similar to Tom in any way. But then again, James was in Gryffindor.

/* Interesting to see how Ginny’s main concern is that she’ll get expelled, rather than, say, whether she’s hurt anyone. Good to see she’s got her priorities right./

To be fair, I think that JKR was aiming for a comical echo of Hermione's words in PS/SS. But yes, both of them clearly show that they do not have their priorities straight when they say those lines.

/* Ron’s “grinning” at Lockhart’s predicament. Yay, let’s laugh at the person with serious brain damage! You can tell he’s a true Gryffindor, alright./

Foreshadowing the scene where Montague suffers a similar fate and none of the Gryffindors feel bad about that.

IOIAGDI

[urbanman1984.livejournal.com]

You may be forgetting that negligence on Ginny's part with dangerous consequences is actually OK since she was sorted into Gryffindor. Ditto for Ron laughing at Lockhart and dismissing the matter of Montague and James' possible sociopathic behaviour as well.

I bet Ginny had been reassured by the fact that all the basilisk's victims had been spared by plot cheats. Maybe she knew that there was some kind of authorial fiat at work.

Re: IOIAGDI

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Maybe she knew that there was some kind of authorial fiat at work.

Yes. I'm slightly stunned when I wonder how things would have turned out if Ginny *had* killed someone. Would Rowling still have dropped the whole thing (along with the girl herself) for the next 3 books, only recalling the incident for one sole paragraph in the entire rest of the series? Or would we have seen some serious repercussions? Where Ginny is shunned by the school (rather than materialising as the Belle of Hogwarts in book 6), or exhibits signs of remorse?

Thinking along those lines REALLY shows how incredibly lightweight the actual canon was. La la la, no-one hurt, everything ends up great, let's have a feast, yay!!

Well, it is a children's book.

But it's the same deal with Harry ... no preparation, no looking for teachers, saved by a deus ex machina dressed up as a magical bird. It's like Harry *knew* that he would be saved by plot-contrivance luck.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Well, to be accurate, Hagrid was expelled for bringing monsters into the castle, and for that they had him dead to rights. He was strongly *suspected* of harborng a monster which was trying to kill students and had finally got one. And if Hagrid could have found the way down into the Chamber they'd have had him dead to rights on that, too. Can anyone cpnvince me that Hagrid *wouldn't* have been quite facinated at the prospect of making a pet out of a Basilisk?

But the Powers that Be couldn't *prove* that it was Hagrid's monster that had killed Myrtle and they contented themselves in evicting him from the castle. (although really if a situation ever called for a "Scottish verdict" of "not probven" this did).

Keeping Hagrid on.at Hogwarts..

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

But... if there's one thing clear about Hagrid, it's that he really doesn't get that his monsters truly are dangerous. And much more so to fragile little humans than to half-giants like himself.

And when he was, what, thirteen, this misperception would have been for more excusable than it is when he's the sixty-something CoMC teacher watching with satisfaction as illegally-bred monsters with unknown properties maul and burn fourteen-year-old kids.

So I can totally see Dippet agreeing that yes, the boy meant no harm. Manslaughter through negligence, not murder, and the boy's too slow to possibly have understood the risks he'd taken with others' lives.

So clemency, yes. But make sure he's never in a position again to endanger others through his lack of judgment.

And Dippet did ensure that. It was Dumbledore who sabotaged his safe placement of Hagrid.

DIPPET did not make Hagrid a professor with authority to order students to perform dangerous acts with monsters. Dippet did not even make Hagrid a gamekeeper. Or Keeper of the Keys. Or an authorized supervisor of detentions.

DIPPET made Hagrid the gamekeeper's assistant. He had Hagrid under constant supervision, and as long as someone sensible like Ogg was riding herd on him (so he couldn't play with dragon's eggs and such), Hagrid was entirely safe.

It was Dumbledore who thought it a grand idea to let Hagrid loose without supervision, and to give him increasing authority over students. No matter how often Hagrid proved his judgment about monsters had never improved since he was thirteen.

Well, Hagrid continued to adore Dumbledore, after all.

[sunnyskywalker]

I just realized that if there were an additional basilisk attack right before this - one that, say, incapacitated McGonagall and maybe Flitwick as they patrolled the corridors (or better as they came out of McGonagall's office with Hermione after Hermione told them she'd figured it out - then Harry would have more reason to think he needed to do the rescuing, and even to ask Lockhart for help since the capable teachers (at fighting/defense) are unavailable and he sure as hell isn't going to ask Snape. Easy fix!

If Tom had been born late enough to read the Evil Overlord handbook, they would have had a much tougher time. I think the only thing he did right was trying to kill the child of prophecy himself instead of leaving it to incompetent/bleeding heart underlings, and he screwed that up with his promise-breaking. Don't mess around with promises when there's magic flying around.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

I just realized that if there were an additional basilisk attack right before this - one that, say, incapacitated McGonagall and maybe Flitwick as they patrolled the corridors (or better as they came out of McGonagall's office with Hermione after Hermione told them she'd figured it out - then Harry would have more reason to think he needed to do the rescuing, and even to ask Lockhart for help since the capable teachers (at fighting/defense) are unavailable and he sure as hell isn't going to ask Snape. Easy fix!

That's good stuff. It ranks up there with the simple but powerful fix of the movie people to the DH nonsense that Rowling inserted about Harry's 'signature spell' combined with Hedwig's death. Something that removes a big weakness of the plot.

[sunnyskywalker]

It's always a sad day when a simplified, sanitized movie adaptation actually improves on the original book, but I'm glad they exist just so we can get an idea of how things might have looked with a really on the ball author. Not that the movies are super-masterpieces, but they do take out some of the more ridiculous and convoluted parts!

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Now I’m imagining a fic where Harry and Ginny try and take over the WW and rule as dark king and queen. And fail miserably because they don’t have Hermione to help them.

Heh, that's funny. But oh so true! Harry (and Ron) would have been killed umpteen times were it not for Hermione. That would be a funny story.

But when I think about a story like that I can't help but also ruminate about stories that try and support Rowling's interview fantasies about Harry becoming chief Auror and so forth. With merely his mediocre talents, 4th year spells and no deux ex machina wand contrivances to bail him out.

So Ginny knew (or at least suspected) that she was the one behind the attacks, but still didn’t tell anyone. Gryffindor courage, anyone?

I think you've got the house system wrong.

A Gryffindor doesn't necessarily have to be brave. He simply has more bravery than anything else.

It's something that bugs me when Luna or another Ravenclaw makes a brilliant deduction and she, or someone else, observes "well, that's only natural, I'm/she's a Ravenclaw". A Ravenclaw doesn't have to be particularly clever. Just more clever than brave, ambitious or loyal.

We know that eleven-year-old Ginny had minimal courage. Her being in Gryffindor house merely means that her ambition, loyalty and smarts rank even less than her minuscule bravery. Hey, we can all agree with that, right? ;-)

Turning things around the other way, consider our girl Hermione, the "smartest girl of her age" ... placed in Gryffindor House. Which means that she's even more brave than she is clever! Wow, watta girl, that Hermione!!

“‘I bet Dumbledore saw right through you,’ said Harry, his teeth gritted,” without stopping to wonder why Dumbledore didn’t tell anyone of his suspicions or do anything to try and confirm them.

Yeah, that was particularly pathetic, wasn't it? In this scene Harry reminds me of those particularly feral or zealous members of the HP fandom who insist that Dumbledore was competent or Rowling a good writer ... while deliberately closing their eyes to the contradictions that are in plain sight. I hated that line of Harry's back when I read it. It's always been amusing to see his stupid indefensible bravado repeated in real live people in the fandom.

Interesting to see how Ginny’s main concern is that she’ll get expelled, rather than, say, whether she’s hurt anyone. Good to see she’s got her priorities right.

One of the earliest bits of canon that really damns the character. She's only eleven, but still she shows no sign of concern for those she harmed at all! In this book or at any time over the next 6 years! Ugh.

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

A Gryffindor doesn't necessarily have to be brave. He simply has more bravery than anything else.

Or they have to value bravery above everything else (at least, I'm assuming that's what the choice aspect is supposed to be about). Look at Wormtail - he's cunning, resourceful, and determined, but no one could call him particularly brave.

[oryx_leucoryx]

A Gryffindor doesn't necessarily have to be brave. He simply has more bravery than anything else.


But Ginny has ambition - she has the ambition to become Mrs Harry Potter at any price. She was working on that project since she was 10.

[sunnyskywalker]

I can forgive Ginny for worrying about being expelled, since it is actually a bigger deal in the wizarding world - at best she'd have to transfer to another continent entirely and learn French or whatever Durmstrang's official language is, and more likely she'd have her wand snapped and be a second class citizen forever.

However, that does not excuse her for not also worrying about the people she might have hurt! Even if she's, say, too much in shock and panicking about her own situation right now, shouldn't she find a moment sometime to reflect? At any point in the next five books, even?

[oryx_leucoryx]

* Harry flings his wand aside. After all, it’s not like it could be of any conceivable use in a hidden chamber with a deadly monster somewhere nearby.

Well, at this point his strongest attack is probably about the level of tickling charms or jelly-legs. But yes, that was a dumb move. Heck, he could have tried levitating the basilisk and dropping it on its head or something.

* Now Tom’s got Harry’s wand, leaving him practically defenceless. D’oh!

So is Voldemort now the Master of Harry's wand?

* “‘I bet Dumbledore saw right through you,’ said Harry, his teeth gritted,” without stopping to wonder why Dumbledore didn’t tell anyone of his suspicions or do anything to try and confirm them.

And it is even worse after HBP. Albus didn't need any super-intelligence or magic to 'see' through Tom - Tom told him voluntarily what kind of kid he was and Albus collaborated with Tom's cover-up.

* Interesting to see how Ginny’s main concern is that she’ll get expelled, rather than, say, whether she’s hurt anyone. Good to see she’s got her priorities right.

Well, those were also Hermione's priorities in first year - expulsion is a fate worse than death, apparently.

* Harry goes to Professor McGonagall’s office. If only he’d thought of this sooner, we might have had a more believable book.

For a more believable version of the saving of Ginny, see Hunter's Hunters, part 1 and part 2.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

So is Voldemort now the Master of Harry's wand?

Ha ha ha!!! Sometimes I think DH might be worth its price simply for the sheer humour that has been generated in mocking its many failures; the stupid new wand lore in particular.

Hmmm ... Harry flung aside his wand, so Tom didn't 'win' it off him, 'defeat' him or achieve 'mastery' of it. I think this is another case where we have to interview the wand - oh, those wonderful sentient wands that do whatever is required of them to prop up the plot at the time! - and ask it for its decision.

Well, those were also Hermione's priorities in first year - expulsion is a fate worse than death, apparently.

But there was no case of others, third-parties, having been harmed by Hermione's actions. With Ginny, though, we have numerous people injured as a result of her possession/weakness/gullibility/lack of courage. But Ginny only thinks of the personal repercussions on herself. Selfish Ginny!

[oryx_leucoryx]

Back off, Ron, only the Chosen One’s good enough to comfort Ginny!

Wait a minute here!

Harry is comforting Ginny who is crying? I thought he didn't like girls who cried! Isn't she being a human hosepipe? In 5 years time he wouldn't be able to find it within himself to comfort her for the death of her brother.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Wait a minute here!

Harry is comforting Ginny who is crying? I thought he didn't like girls who cried! Isn't she being a human hosepipe?

It is one of the two "good cries" she's allowed to have in her lifetime...

;-)

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

Still, you’ve got to wonder at how poorly thought-out Harry’s plan is. “Shutting your eyes” is not a good strategy when in the presence of a huge poisonous snake that’s trying to kill you.

YES. I mean, he's just a kid, so I can't hold it against him, but when you factor in that he never learned to plan ahead of time and react better to dangerous situations despite being thrown into them or running headlong into them on a whim, well...ugh.

It just pisses me off that he knows what he's facing and doesn't take any protective measures. Sunglasses, lugging around a mirror (I assume if its gaze can petrify anything, that includes itself? Wouldn't that have been an effective measure for defeating the damn thing while still being in-character for a 12 year old kid?), levitating something into its eye, etc. etc. So many different things he could've done, but NOOOO.

Harry is so not a hero and it bugs me that everyone perceives him as such (well, not here, lol)- he's the most passive 'hero' ever.

Harry flings his wand aside. After all, it’s not like it could be of any conceivable use in a hidden chamber with a deadly monster somewhere nearby.

Harry is rocking the stupid hardcore here.

Especially with his inability to see that Tom DOES NOT MEAN HIM WELL. *headdesk* I just wanted to bash his head into a wall as I was reading your summary of his idiocy. It's like he can't believe someone so handsome could be evil!

And my god, I lol'd so hard at your correlation between H/G + affinity to darkness. HEE! Win!

ESE!Ginny would also explain things like her happiness to hex people for little or no provocation, or her willingness to defend her bf’s attempted murder in HBP.

IKR? Too bad JKR didn't go in that direction. I like the idea that she was drawn to Harry 'coz of his Horcrux and her subconscious attraction to that evil soul bit... :P

And fail miserably because they don’t have Hermione to help them.

LMAO! Hermione for Dark Queen!

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

Ginny knew (or at least suspected) that she was the one behind the attacks, but still didn’t tell anyone. Gryffindor courage, anyone?

IFKR? It pisses me off SO MUCH EVERY TIME. I get the kid being scared, but FFS, how easy would it be to go to a teacher and say, 'Excuse me, but I'm being possessed by this evil book, can you please save me?' I hate that people make excuses for her when HELLO, it would be in her best interest to speak to an adult and it makes no sense at all that she wouldn't go get help. I mean, what was her plan? Just keep getting possessed and hurting people and eventually wind up killing someone without lifting a finger to stop it? Heck, she even goes and STEALS BACK THE DIARY when she knows what it'll do to her! WTF is this kid's problem?!

I think she just was warped and loved Tom so much that she desperately needed his friendship and didn't give a damn who got hurt as a result because she couldn't stand being alone. I actually feel quite sympathetic for little!Ginny, at her being so lonely that she latched onto this friend via a magic book because that was her only chance to talk to someone she thought cared about her and that she could confide in about whatever was on her mind, but honestly...that doesn't excuse her not seeking help.

I think it'd've been quite interesting if she turned out to have turned a blind eye to what he was using her to do to others because she was that fiercely attached to him that she could overlook it as long as she could retain that relationship, but to try and make her this poor innocent little girl who had no choice and no options... *shakes head* Like I said, I do feel sorry for her, but she had so many times when she was free of his incluence and she could've done something but chose not to.

Given that Hagrid had allegedly killed someone, I wonder how he managed to do this? Blackmail? Imperius?

IKR? I mean, if he was such a threat to students, why would they let him stay on the school grounds?!

* “‘I bet Dumbledore saw right through you,’ said Harry, his teeth gritted,” without stopping to wonder why Dumbledore didn’t tell anyone of his suspicions or do anything to try and confirm them.

I KEEP NODDING EMPHATICALLY AND AGREEING WITH EVERYTHING, IT'S JUST RIDICULOUS HOW STUPID THIS SERIES AND ITS CHARACTERS CAN BE AT TIMES. Nobody ever wonders why Dumbledore didn't do anything, it's like... 'God Dumbledore works in mysterious ways...he never gives us more than we can handle...bad things happen for a reason...' etc etc.

Harry’s little pro-Dumbledore speech is actually quite inspiring

Not really. To quote my earlier comment on this in another comm:

"He's not as gone as you might think!" Harry retorted. He was speaking at random, wanting to scare Riddle, wishing rather than believing it to be true

Argh. This annoys me so much. Harry doesn’t even BELIEVE what he’s saying, it’s just him blathering to keep Tom from killing him, and yet that’s enough for Fawkes? That’s the extent of his great loyalty to Dumbledore?

Seriously, WTF?

If that half-assed comeback delivered just to piss off Tom rather than because he believed in it, where the hell was Fawkes for Snape in DH? I think the man dying to fulfil DD's plan counts as above and beyond the cause of loyalty, FFS.

[oryx_leucoryx]

but FFS, how easy would it be to go to a teacher and say, 'Excuse me, but I'm being possessed by this evil book, can you please save me?'

Darn it, some of Pratchett's *villains* have that much human decency if they are written as opportunists (rather than psychopaths). See Lupine Wonse in 'Guards! Guards!' for example.

If that half-assed comeback delivered just to piss off Tom rather than because he believed in it, where the hell was Fawkes for Snape in DH? I think the man dying to fulfil DD's plan counts as above and beyond the cause of loyalty, FFS.

I think that's why Terri reads Fawkes as having the psychology and depth of a dog rather than a creature with magical understanding of true intent. On the surface Harry was expressing loyalty and Severus was superficially the traitor and that's what Fawkes can understand.

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

May I recommend "The Very Secret Diary," at http://www.sugarquill.net/read.php?storyid=1026&chapno=1 ? The author probably likes Ginny (given the archive), but that possibility honestly didn't even occur to me on the first read. It strikes me as a very true-to-canon fic of how things might have gone.

The reason why I mention it here/now is because Riddle does an excellent job of intimidating Ginny into not telling anyone. Of course, Ginny still looks quite flawed, particularly over stealing the Diary *back*. Mostly, though, she looks like the "silly little girl" Riddle called her in the movie. In this fic, she deserves that and in spades, but she's a *normal*-seeming silly little girl. Also, Riddle is an excellent manipulator (for a sixteen year old), and that helps, too.

Anyway, I really do recommend it.

Fawkes was a prisoner

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

"He's not as gone as you might think!" Harry retorted. He was speaking at random, wanting to scare Riddle, wishing rather than believing it to be true

Argh. This annoys me so much. Harry doesn’t even BELIEVE what he’s saying, it’s just him blathering to keep Tom from killing him, and yet that’s enough for Fawkes? That’s the extent of his great loyalty to Dumbledore?


Seriously, WTF?

If that half-assed comeback delivered just to piss off Tom rather than because he believed in it, where the hell was Fawkes for Snape in DH? I think the man dying to fulfil DD's plan counts as above and beyond the cause of loyalty, FFS.

I didn't even remember that! (goes to get her copy to reread) YES, it says he wished it to be true, not that he actually believed.

And here it seems that Snape was actually believing and gets the cold dark tunnel of death. He seems to have put all his trust in Dumbledore or at least Dumbledore's plan. EVEN when he seemed to have doubts he was right there doing his duity upon the faith he had in DD's great plan. His faith and trust to me seems just as loyal as Harry's wising without believing.

It almost seems like fawkes was a prisoner. As soon as DD died he left, yea he gave a song upon his departure but Fawkes could have been singing because he was happy to be free, not because he was sad Dumbledore was dead. Animals that really love you will linger by you, hang around and some even seem to morn their owners passing, fawkes seems to have hightailed it to greener pastures pretty quickly.

I say Dumbledore had Fawkes under some kind of spell or bound to him while he lived.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

Even with Fawkes’ and Tom’s help, Harry would still have been snake-food were it not for the fact that God JK Rowling the basilisk sweeps the Sorting Hat into his arms.

SOOO CONTRIVED. I mean, wtf, this kid puts on the Sorting Hat for no reason, there's a psycho with a basilisk trying to kill him, and his decision is that the best course of action is to PUT ON A HAT? *headdeskwallfloor* I can't even.

Everything here is just so annoyingly convenient, we don't see Harry really doing anything on his own. Except for actually stabbing the basilisk, that part, I concede, is cool, but he should never have actually SURVIVED til that point. I mean, Tom's got a wand, right, and he loves that snake (at least, I remember movie!Tom being all broken up about it dying) so couldn't he have used Harry's wand to knock him out or something? Don't tell me Tom's interested in a fair fight!

JK Rowling pulls her trick of having characters crying to distract from the fact that their behaviour has been pretty shoddy

This woman has serious issues. So the characters who whine and complain and make people's lives hell and don't apologize are good, but the one that makes a mistake and apologizes and does his best to atone for it is evil. Okay, then. Priorites, frakked up, much?

Interesting to see how Ginny’s main concern is that she’ll get expelled, rather than, say, whether she’s hurt anyone

CONSIDERING HOW PEOPLE ONLY ESCAPED DEATH THROUGH SPECTACULARLY CONVENIENT CONTRIVANCES, I'D SAY. I know kids get away with some things- like say, Harry not caring about Mrs Figg's broken leg 'coz it meant he got to go to the zoo. Because a kid would be happy about a treat like that as opposed to worrying about some lady he doesn't really like. But Ginny was being used to commit potentially fatal (heck, almost always fatal) acts against her friends and other classmates and she's not bothered at all!

Damn, did she even worry about going to Azkaban? I'd understand that, at least, her worrying about being sent to prison would make sense, but being expelled? For serious?

Harry goes to Professor McGonagall’s office. If only he’d thought of this sooner, we might have had a more believable book

Amen.

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

SOOO CONTRIVED. I mean, wtf, this kid puts on the Sorting Hat for no reason, there's a psycho with a basilisk trying to kill him, and his decision is that the best course of action is to PUT ON A HAT? *headdeskwallfloor* I can't even.

This. Is it capable of mind control? Couldn't JKR have put the least bit of thought into this and had the damn thing tell him to put it on? Did she just give up? Did she think no one would notice? If she were being attacked by a dangerous predator, would her first thought be, "Oh my, I seem to be lacking in the department of stylish headgear! I must adorn my head at once!" It's not even a particularly nice hat! What! The! Hell!

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/This woman has serious issues. So the characters who whine and complain and make people's lives hell and don't apologize are good, but the one that makes a mistake and apologizes and does his best to atone for it is evil. Okay, then. Priorites, frakked up, much?/

And yet Draco is the whiny crybaby for crying to his father when Buckbeak slashed his arm. Hagrid can endanger students' lives, but when he cries about getting into trouble and not, you know, about the students whose lives he risked, we're supposed to be sympathetic. Ginny can endanger students' lives, but when she cries about being possibly expelled, we're also supposed to be sympathetic. Yet whenever Draco cries, due to the Buckbeak fiasco or about the fact that his parents' lives depended on him killing someone, we're supposed to view him as a pathetic wimp.

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

Very interesting parallel regarding Tom and Harry. I have to say, depending on your POV, Tom's "we even look something alike" is either a Funny Aneurysm Moment or Hilarious in Hindsight. :(