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

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

I'm honestly not sure where I stand on the Ginny personality makeover. Yes, it's canon that she tells Harry that Hermione instructed her to 'be herself', so on the face of it the Ginny that we saw in OotP and HBP was the 'real' Ginny ... sadly, essentially defined as the-girl-who-dates when left to her own devices outside of Harry's orbit.

I've read of other fans saying that Ginny's new personality wasn't really "herself" but something designed to snare Harry. That's never really been obvious to me. For starters, it's not like Harry confesses "Ginny, I like you because of XXX" and Ginny responds/thinks/tells us "whew, it's lucky that I realised that Harry liked XXX, that's why I acquired characteristic XXX". No, Harry likes Ginny because she's hawt overnight; and Ginny's simply lucky that her author wrote her as suddenly hawt overnight. Otherwise she'd still be waiting for him to notice her.

Harry's suddenly noticing Ginny and being attracted to her wasn't due to the personality of Ginny v2.0. The only reason we read of Ginny admitting that she'd undergone a personality transplant (of her own volition) was because she said "even though I upgraded to Ginny v2.0 I still hoped you'd suddenly notice me one day". Nothing about how she'd actively worked out the criteria for Ginny v2.0, decided on what attributes would attract her crush and do herself over to suit. The obnoxious girl we see in HBP, the girl-who-dated, that was the 'real' Ginny, yes?

Like I said, I'm not sure where I stand on it. Ginny v2.0 was a nasty little girl and I've always assumed that was the real McCoy.

I.e. - to get back to the point - Ginny 2.0 wasn't anything special that Ginny did to strive for the attainment of her 'ambition'. No, it was just the real Ginny (sad to say), who went ahead and dated boy #1, boy #2, etc, while waiting - *hoping* - that the author would one day wave her magic pen and make her wish come true, no matter how artificial it looked. Yes?

So it wasn't a Slytherin-type ambition that drove Ginny; just a crushing hope of a little girl who waited in the background for the author to grant her a boon.

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

So it wasn't a Slytherin-type ambition that drove Ginny; just a crushing hope of a little girl who waited in the background for the author to grant her a boon.

Yea, I kinda feel like way. Or, I almost think Ginny was intended for Harry from the start. It's like the Lily twin. She's popular, powerful, redheaded, got a temper and just damn near perfect for the 'hero' of Hogwarts.

Which in Lily's case was James, and so Ginny is the do over made perfect for Harry, red hair and all.

For me I think she was always meant to be Harry's future wife, that was her design but I think in a lot of ways her biggest flaw because like Lily these two females become the 'perfect female character' - this is the character that most fanfic writers get the dreaded MarySue label from. The character that can do no wrong and is visually stunning, and is date material, etc.

I just sort of always figured they were going to end up together, maybe thats why I found the teenage romance, I don't know what words to use, dry and uninteresting maybe.

I know I've had a lot of discussions about the series and a lot of the really bad things that happen the characters seem to get over them so easy it's kind of shocking sometimes. And the romance, most of it seems like a lot of comedy instead of a real and deeply meaningful thing. It kind of comes across as shallow, like the characters if they were in the real world wouldn't really give a damn about each other, they'd be reading and following a script to know what kind of romantic roll they were going to play with each other.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Ginny is supposed to be popular, but do we see it? Does she have any friends other than the trio? Lily is at least shown with a group of female friends and she had friends to whom she had trouble justifying her continued hanging out with Severus.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

It's clear, I think, that Ginny was intended for Harry from the start; we know this from her author pushing it down our throats in all the post-publication instructions on how her books need to be read, how the character should be seen, her patting herself on the back and telling us what a good job she thinks she did with the pair, the 'soul mates' nonsense, the 'emotional journey', the ...

It's the do-over that Ginny got in upgrading from v1.0 to v2.0 which was hard to accept, given its artificiality. Plus Ginny 2.0 just isn't a very nice girl.

It kind of comes across as shallow, like the characters if they were in the real world wouldn't really give a damn about each other, they'd be reading and following a script to know what kind of romantic roll they were going to play with each other.

Yes. And if Harry hadn't read the part of the script which said "and now you suddenly find the girl you've ignored all those years very attractive and you lust after her" nothing would have happened. Ginny would still be waiting, she'd still be dating other boys while 'never giving up' on her hope that one day the hero would notice her.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

It's clear, I think, that Ginny was intended for Harry from the start; we know this from her author pushing it down our throats in all the post-publication instructions on how her books need to be read, how the character should be seen, her patting herself on the back and telling us what a good job she thinks she did with the pair, the 'soul mates' nonsense, the 'emotional journey', the ...

I think I remember reading somewhere that Rowling stated that we all should have known Ginny and Harry were slated (fated?) to be together because Ginny ran after the Hogwarts Express at the beginning of Book 1...

Maybe I'm just not a romantic, but when I read that passage I just figured it was a little girl who was being left home alone without her siblings for the first time, and that she was running after the train because she'd miss THEM, not this stranger boy that she just met a few moments before...

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

I think I remember reading somewhere that Rowling stated that we all should have known Ginny and Harry were slated (fated?) to be together because Ginny ran after the Hogwarts Express at the beginning of Book 1...

Waving goodbye to her *brothers*.

I *don't think* Rowling ever instructed her fans that this was to be part of their H/G bible, but certainly it's a plank in many H/G fans' vision of that 'ship. I think it's a 'meta reason' that isn't evidence at all to the pairing, at least as far as the story itself goes. Ask Harry "when did you realise that Ginny was the girl for you?" and he's certainly NOT going to say "oh, when I saw her waving goodbye to her brothers when I was eleven". Shucks, he forgot that she'd almost been killed by the world's most evil wizard one year later!

Maybe I'm just not a romantic, but when I read that passage I just figured it was a little girl who was being left home alone without her siblings for the first time, and that she was running after the train because she'd miss THEM, not this stranger boy that she just met a few moments before...

Nah, you've just got too much common sense. :-)

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Nah, you've just got too much common sense. :-)

Not the first time I've been told that! LOL

[oryx_leucoryx]

I think Ginny V1.0 is her 'real self' in GOF - she talks like a normal girl, she isn't shy, she knows the kind of things Weasley kids generally know, basically a female version of Ron. She only ever hangs out with Hermione, so she isn't any kind of queen bee. Ginny v2.0 is someone different, and the only ways to explain her within world are either she came under some external influence (including being impersonated by someone else) or some cunning plan she isn't willing to admit to. Going with the latter, she realized harry wasn't noticing her when she was her true real self - he didn't even invite her to the Yule Ball. So it was time to go a level higher in changing her behavior.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Going with the latter, she realized harry wasn't noticing her when she was her true real self - he didn't even invite her to the Yule Ball. So it was time to go a level higher in changing her behavior.

This means, then, that she was flat-out lying in her chat with Harry at the end of HBP; well, part of it at any rate:

"I never really gave up on you," she said. "Not really. I always hoped ... Hermione told me to get on with life, maybe go out with some other people, relax a bit around you, because I never used to be able to talk if you were in the room, remember? And she thought you might take a bit more notice if I was a bit more - myself."

The first part certainly reads as if she was accepting Hermione's criteria for the new 2.0 personality. It's only the last sentence where she tries to make out that 2.0 is the 'real' Ginny. Maybe the pause before the final word helps with the theory that Ginny was lying in saying that it was 'herself'.

Mind you, was it a lie? After all, at that point in time, Ginny 2.0 was up and running and so could happily proclaim that 2.0 was the 'real' Ginny.

I'm confused. Too much thinking about Ginny, not too pleasant a way to spend the day. :-)

[oryx_leucoryx]

Either Ginny is lying or there is something we don't know about, because she was already relaxed around Harry at the beginning of GOF and her first known date was with Neville to the Yule Ball, which led to her getting together with her first known boyfriend, Michael Corner. So either she had a secret previous boyfriend somewhere in POA or there was no connection between dating other boys and her being more relaxed and more -herself.

Too much thinking about Ginny, not too pleasant a way to spend the day. :-)
Agreed.

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

I'd say what we get to see over the books is a sort of social climbing within the Hogwarts pecking order on the part of Ginny:
she starts out as a mousy little nothing (always as far as we in Harry's POV can see) - and the mousyness is NOT just something that depends on Harry: e.g. in CoS there never seems to be any female friend of hers around - which would account for her pouring her soul into a diary instead of her bestest friend's ear.
By GoF, as you say, she has relaxed enough to talk like a normal not overly popular girl would and consequently goes out with Neville - he is a boy she can "get" because he's low on the pecking order as well so he would hardly get a girl like Lavender or Parvati as a date for the Yule Ball. From their, Ginny works her way up to Michael (we don't know much about him, but he is in Ravenclaw and never described as a bumbling charity case like Neville mostly is - movie canon treated him much better and you got the impression Ginny might actually have enjoyed herself in a mild way whereas in the book it is obvious she just accepted him because he was the only one who had asked her at all).
From Michael, she upgrades to Dean who - being a Gryffindor AND one year her senior - is obviously better dating material.
And then, tatatataa! - Harry in the end.

[sunnyskywalker]

GoF!Ginny does seem like the real Ginny, and she can still work as a believable extension of the Ginny from the first three books. Original Ginny is shy and blushes around some people, but we also see her loudly whining about wanting to go to Hogwarts in PS/SS and sending Harry that get well card in PoA (and possibly the valentine in CoS, though it might have been Draco playing a prank, since the poetry scans and we know he can do that). CoS is a bit misleading because she's terrified most of the year, but even then we see her gossiping to the twins about Percy's secret girlfriend at the end of the year. So she's not a total meek shrinking violet at any point. And in GoF, she's grown up enough that she isn't blushing all the time around Harry (which as someone pointed out once is an involuntary reaction; she can't just decide to blush or not blush), but is still visibly embarrassed when Harry asked her to the ball and she can't go with him. She seems like a girl who's outgoing and a bit obnoxious when around people she's comfortable with who's also a bit shy in other situations, which can happen, and she's starting to get over that by GoF, as kids do. It's a plausible development.

OotP was just too much of a jump.

[sunnyskywalker]

When Ron sort of asks for Harry that Ginny go to the ball, that is. Forgot how that all went down.

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

possibly the valentine in CoS, though it might have been Draco playing a prank, since the poetry scans and we know he can do that

I always thought it was Draco. It just doesn't sound like anything a 12-year-old girl would write. Fresh pickled toad? Blackboard? This is romantic? Even if Ginny didn't err on the side of the comparisons sounding a little to feminine, it's just too... odd.

Also... blackboard are often fairly grayish from the chalk. Okay, maybe too literal, but why a blackboard?

The poem is silly, but not in a romantic way. It isn't flattering, really, either, although it avoids being unflattering (which would make it obviously *not* from an admirer). Draco seems like the most likely candidate to me.

[sunnyskywalker]

If it was Draco, maybe seeing Harry not start publicly trashing the sender is what gave Ginny the courage to send the card in the next book.