deathtocapslock | COS Chapter Eighteen: "Dobby's Reward"

for-diddled.livejournal.com posting in

* Dumbledore’s beaming at Harry. Yes, Albus, it must be nice to know that Harry now worships you so much that he cares about your reaction more than anyone else’s.

* So how long has Dumbles known that Riddle’s been possessing Ginny? After HBP, I wouldn’t be surprised to know that he’d guessed from the start, but has been sitting on the information to let Harry “try his strength” or whatever.

* “Very few people know that Lord Voldemort was actually called Tom Riddle.” Yes, Dumbles, because you never tell anyone. Which seems somewhat odd, given that the pureblood fanatics who apparently make up his biggest supporters might hesitate at joining a known half-blood. Plus, of course, it’s a lot harder to be scared of Tommy Riddle of Slytherin House than it is of Lord Voldemort, Master of Death.

* On second thoughts, it’s not that odd. After all, the threat of Voldemort provides a useful means of distracting people from the underlying problems facing the Wizarding World, not least of which is the fact that this Machiavellian schoolteacher is controlling everything behind the scenes.

* Seriously, for all his supposed modesty in not accepting the Minister of Magic post, he seems to have acquired a remarkably large amount of influence. He’s already Headmaster of wizarding Britain’s only school, Supreme Warlock of the Wizengamot, Chief Mugwump and head of the International Confederation of Wizards, which in Muggle terms is like being Education Secretary, Speaker of the House of Commons, Lord Chancellor and Secretary-General of the UN all at once. More powerful, in fact, since the Education Secretary doesn’t hire and fire individual teachers, or expel individual pupils. No wonder he wants people distracted by Voldemort.

* I wonder if Dumbledore’s being so lenient to Ginny here because he’s remembering how he was once taken in by Grindlewald?

* For some reason, I now find myself always suspecting the worst every time Dumbledore’s eyes start twinkling. I wonder what he could be up to here?

* Note how it’s Ron who immediately thinks of Hermione being OK. Another clue to Hr/R?

* Special Awards for Services to the School and two hundred points? Hardly an appropriate reward, IMHO. Not only is fighting millennium-old monsters not a recognised extra-curricular activity, making it inappropriate to give them points for it, but a glorified school trophy seems a bit inadequate. They should be given Orders of Merlin instead.

* Dumbledore doesn’t seem surprised that Lockhart tried to memory charm Harry and Ron. So does this mean that he knew all along about Gilderoy’s modus operandi? And he still hired him nevertheless? Remind me again, why is it that Dumbledore’s considered the greatest Headmaster Hogwarts has ever had?

* Harry doesn’t think he’s like Tom, because Harry’s in Gryffindor and Tom’s just a Slytherin. Oh dear. Maybe Voldemort’s idea of abolishing Houses was a good one after all.

* Also, note how Harry thinks “doing well in Slytherin” means “evil”. Yet more evidence of the Houses dividing students and encouraging them to think of members of other Houses as being beneath them. Seriously, it’s like the Founders thought that the WW was too boring, and set up a system purposefully designed to lead to as much civil war as possible.

* This would be an excellent opportunity for Dumbledore to say to Harry, “Look, Harry, I know you don’t like some Slytherin students, but Slytherins are people too, Slytherin House is every bit as good as any other House, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being sorted into Slytherin.” Instead, he seems to confirm Harry’s idea that choosing not to be sorted into Slytherin is some sort of moral test he had to pass.

* Getting all psychoanalytical here, I think that maybe Dumbledore knows deep down that he’d have been better-suited to Slytherin than Gryffindor (he’s cunning and manipulative enough, at any rate), and compensates by doing down Slytherin House whenever he can get away with it.

* I’d like to think that Helga Hufflepuff, at least, would have offered up her weapon (battle-axe, maybe? Mace?) to anyone who needed it, regardless of House.

* So why did the governors want Dumbledore back? When has he done anything to stop the attacks?

* Come to think of it, does anyone know whether any of the governors went on to mysteriously find themselves in a position where their only option involved doing some humiliating and demeaning job for Dumbledore?

* So Lucius, a man whom even Voldemort described as “slippery”, now virtually goes to pieces the moment his plot’s uncovered. Has JKR been getting the car batteries out again, perhaps?

* If any more of Voldemort’s schoolthings turn up, Mr. Weasley will have them traced back to Lucius. That’s right, one of the main good guys is going to frame his personal enemy based on nothing more than a hunch.

* So “Lucius throws a sock which Dobby happens to catch” is now the same as “Lucius hands Dobby a sock.” Hmm, you’re on shaky legal grounds there, I think.

* Unfortunately, being free doesn’t seem to have changed Dobby’s inherent servility. Even more unfortunately, he’ll be back to inflict it upon us in later books.

* I hope than when Dumbles cancelled all those exams, he just cancelled the internal end-of-year ones, rather than the OWLs and NEWTs. How’re those seventh-years going to get jobs without any qualifications?

* Lucius Malfoy’s been sacked as a school governor. By whom, exactly? Do governors have the power to sack each other?

* Ginny Weasley’s perfectly happy again. She may have recklessly endangered her fellow-students’ safety (why did she write in that diary again? Why?), but none of them actually died, so that’s OK.

* So Percy – who, let us not forget, seems to have cared for Ginny the most out of all the Weasley brothers – has specifically asked her not to tell anyone about his girlfriend, so what does she do? Tell as soon as someone asks. In front of the twins. The best you can say is probably that she’s being extraordinarily naïve; the worst, I suppose, is that she’s maliciously hoping that the twins’ persecution of Percy might amuse her in some way.

* So, to recap, she’s written in this diary even after she suspects it’s possessing her, not told anyone that she’s the one attacking people, and completely betrayed Percy’s confidence. And yet, somehow, I still like this version better than the second one.

* Still, kissing in deserted corridors doesn’t seem particularly IC for the Percy we know. More evidence that he’s not nearly as pompous normally as he is when surrounded by people who constantly try to belittle him?

* And on that bombshell, it’s time to end the read-through. Thanks to everyone who read and commented on it.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: Dumbledore's Office

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

mmmarcusz.livejournal.com

First!

* So how long has Dumbles known that Riddle’s been possessing Ginny? After HBP, I wouldn’t be surprised to know that he’d guessed from the start, but has been sitting on the information to let Harry “try his strength” or whatever.

DD, in the early books, is essentially the author, so to think of him as a person makes little sense.

* “Very few people know that Lord Voldemort was actually called Tom Riddle.” Yes, Dumbles, because you never tell anyone. Which seems somewhat odd, given that the pureblood fanatics who apparently make up his biggest supporters might hesitate at joining a known half-blood. Plus, of course, it’s a lot harder to be scared of Tommy Riddle of Slytherin House than it is of Lord Voldemort, Master of Death.

And a lot harder to therefore support Dumbledore - if LV were really gone, we wouldn't need DD's protection and he'd be gone from Hogwarts, the Wizengamot and the UN thingy. Who, after all, keeps saying that LV is definitely coming back?

* Only a true Gryffindor could have pulled the sword out of the Hat, apparently. So does that mean that no other House member would be able to receive help from the Hat, or would they have pulled out something equally cool? If, say, Pansy had been taken into the Chamber and Draco had gone down to rescue her, would he have pulled out Slytherin’s crossbow or something?
Probably a mirror, given that that's what is usually used in legends to kill basilisks. You know, something more useful than a sword that Harry has never used.

* I don’t believe the cursing families part, either. A shrewd political operator like Lucius would never resort to something so obviously illegal. More likely the governors are just trying to cover their backsides in case Dumbledore’s angry with them. You know what he’s like about personal loyalty, after all.

True. They were all probably looking for a chance to be rid of him.

* If any more of Voldemort’s schoolthings turn up, Mr. Weasley will have them traced back to Lucius. That’s right, one of the main good guys is going to frame his personal enemy based on nothing more than a hunch.

And Arthur Weasley will go after Lucius for mere possession of Dark artifacts, when Arthur has been enchanting Muggle artifacts and leaving them around for his wayward children to find (I think Draco would have thought twice about taking a flying car to a Muggle suburb...)

* Unfortunately, being free doesn’t seem to have changed Dobby’s inherent servility.

Just like black people! ;)

* So Percy – who, let us not forget, seems to have cared for Ginny the most out of all the Weasley brothers – has specifically asked her not to tell anyone about his girlfriend, so what does she do? Tell as soon as someone asks. In front of the twins. The best you can say is probably that she’s being extraordinarily naïve; the worst, I suppose, is that she’s maliciously hoping that the twins’ persecution of Percy might amuse her in some way.

I think she just wants them to like her.

From:

seductivedark.livejournal.com

And a lot harder to therefore support Dumbledore - if LV were really gone, we wouldn't need DD's protection and he'd be gone from Hogwarts, the Wizengamot and the UN thingy. Who, after all, keeps saying that LV is definitely coming back?

Ooh, wild konspirasy theory! Peter Pettigrew, a Gryffindor, was the one who revived the fetal Voldy. PP was a member of Order Mach 1 and we can theorize that DD was a Gryffindor via Hermione's statement in PS/SS, through the griffin door knocker and, through DD's not so tacit support of IOKIAGDI. Critical thinkers wonder how DD knew LV was in Albania; where the fetal form came from; how PP, a supposedly mundane wizard, came up with the Bone of my Father ritual to revive LV and, how a not apparently brave person like PP could cut of his own hand for the purpose of that ritual (though this may be foreshadowed by his cutting off a finger to "prove" his death eleven years earlier - or could it???)

Suggestions for a Trew Konspirasy:
1) DD sent PP to Voldy deliberately as an undercover agent posing as a double agent. When PP was made SK, he dutifully reported to DD. DD tells him to to ahead and reveal the Potters' whereabouts to Voldy, intimating that there would be a trap (but not mentioning that the trap was to get Voldy to kill the Potters so as to set up the Chosen One.) After the debacle, PP searches out DD (while Sirius is giving Hagrid the motorbike) and confronts him. DD mind-wipes him and Imperiuses him to fight Sirius and cut off his finger. PP only remembers that he betrayed his friends and fought Sirius. He follows DD's post-hypnotic suggestion of becoming the Weasleys' pet since the Weasleys have a connection with Order martyrs and a son who will be in Harry's year in school. He doesn't know why he does this but he does know he's still loyal to the Order in his heart.

2) As a loyal Order member, PP went to DD immediately upon arriving with his first Weasley owner at Hogwarts, throwing himself on DD's mercy for the weird things he did (see above,) following the pattern of putting himself in DD's debt. DD welcomes him and advises that he remain in rat form for the nonce because it will further the Order's plans to capture Voldy, who is actually still alive. Meanwhile, DD keeps the fear fires burning over Voldy's return in the WW.

3) Because Sirius broke out of Azkaban (Peter the spy's fatal mistake here - allowing his rat form to be photographed) it's time to revive Voldy. DD instructs PP to escape once Sirius is about to be captured. He is to go to Albania to gather rare ingredients for a job.

4) PP brings the rare ingredients back during the summer and DD creates the fetal body, animating it with a spell - a Magimatronic puppet, a riff on the Inferi. PP takes care of it because he fears DD by now and the puppet, like a portrait in more than one place, can report on his actions to the caster.

5) Under duress or Imperius, PP goes through with the ritual to "bring Voldy back." It's another riff on the Inferi spell, creating a Frankenstein from the puppet that has some of TR sr's traits due to the bone - a demonic version of LiveBoy!Pinocchio. This creation is under DD's power.

6) At DD's commands, the creation wreaks havoc in the WW and leads LV's old followers along, proving that DD was right and forcing everyone in the WW to turn to him and his organization. DD's big fault was arrogance in somehow injuring himself beyond repair. The Hallows were all a front devised by DD and implanted into key figures like Xeno and Olivander, and suggested in the book he bequeathed to Hermione, to lead Harry along. There is no real LV to die, the puppet merely self-destructs at the appropriately keyed moment, assured that Harry will use his "signature spell" due to DD's recent mentoring.

COS Chapter Eighteen: "Dobby's Reward"

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