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* 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.
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no subject
Date: 2011-01-07 06:14 pm (UTC)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
Date: 2011-01-07 07:04 pm (UTC)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
Date: 2011-01-07 11:37 pm (UTC)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.
Re: IOIAGDI
Date: 2011-01-10 04:24 pm (UTC)Re: IOIAGDI
Date: 2011-01-10 10:13 pm (UTC)Re: IOIAGDI
Date: 2011-01-11 12:39 pm (UTC)Re: IOIAGDI
Date: 2011-01-12 03:06 am (UTC)On the other hand, if Rowling had worked at it, shown how a sympathetic Ginny had handled the repercussions of her possession, we might have all been on her side by the time she finally go to realise her fantasy, the snaring of the boy hero. We might have all been cheering for her!! (Wow.)
No, really!
no subject
Date: 2011-01-10 04:24 am (UTC)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..
Date: 2011-01-11 07:32 pm (UTC)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.