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

[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.

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

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.

Maybe Fawkes just has super-hearing and since Snape couldn't really say anything (or he mentioned it at some earlier point and Fawkes just took longer to get there since he wasn't on site to begin with?) I don't remember anything in Fantastic Beasts about phoenixes being telepathic to any degree.

[oryx_leucoryx]

In OOTP Fawkes Apparates to the Ministry just in time to swallow an AK for Albus. I think at least Albus is connected with him telepathically. Not sure about anyone else.

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

Maybe Fawkes just has super-hearing and since Snape couldn't really say anything (or he mentioned it at some earlier point and Fawkes just took longer to get there since he wasn't on site to begin with?) I don't remember anything in Fantastic Beasts about phoenixes being telepathic to any degree.

I don't have hte fantastical beasts book so I'd have to go to lexicon to read up on phoenix. But did JKR ever say how Dumbledore actually got the phoenix. For some reason I thought she might have been asked in an interview but I thought I remember her sort of avoiding the question.

That always has made me wonder was Fawkes working under his own free will or was he sort of a prisoner to Dumbledore.

But if she did answer the question maybe someone remembers or knows what the deal was with the phoenix and DD.

[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.

[oryx_leucoryx]

I'm only half-way through October at the moment - I can see why Tom was bored with Ginny's early writing. :)

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

(grin) You can half-*hear* Riddle grinding his metaphorical teeth over having to sound interested in some of these entries.

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.

Re: Fawkes was a prisoner

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Oh, my! I like that theory. It certainly fits the cold, callous Dumbledore we see in HBP and DH. But-

My personal theory is that Fawkes did rescue Severus. Harry just didn't see it happen. That's why there's no portrait.

Re: Fawkes was a prisoner

[sunnyskywalker]

I started wondering after HBP whether at some point in Dumbledore's misspent youth he'd turned Fawkes into a Horcrux (and this was before we knew just how misspent his youth was!). What could be better than an indestructible protection against death?