COS Chapter Eighteen: "Dobby's Reward"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

* 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.

* Someone really ought to write a parody fic with Dumbledore as this sinister villain controlling everything behind the scenes, and the Death Eaters as a group of noble freedom-fighters trying to overthrow him, who have an unfair reputation as a group of dark wizards due to Dumbledore’s control of the press. Or better yet, Voldemort could be an agent working for Dumbledore, giving the WW something to unite against in order to stop them questioning Dumbledore’s authority.

* 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.

* 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?

* 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?

* 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.

* 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.

 

Comments

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/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./

One wonders why *Harry* didn't make this knowledge public either. Sure, he told Bellatrix and the other Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries that Voldemort was a half-blood and Bellatrix apparently didn't believe him, but why wasn't he trying to spread the news around Hogwarts or tell his friends to let everybody know? Why didn't the Weasleys, after hearing that Voldemort was once called Tom Riddle, try to spread that information?

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

Ha, I never thought of that! One wonders if Dumbledore was referring to himself during his line about "older and wiser wizards [being] hoodwinked by Lord Voldemort." Or, if one wants to be more cynical about it, one might say, "Well, yeah, Albus, older and wiser wizards than Ginny were hoodwinked by Voldemort...because you didn't tell them the truth about him! You *let* him hoodwink them!"

/* Special Awards for Services to the School and two hundred points? Hardly an appropriate reward, IMHO./

I wonder if it's supposed to be ironic, considering that Tom Riddle received the same trophy for supposedly ridding the school of another monster.

/* 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./

It's ironic that Gryffindor is supposed to be the superior House, while Slytherin House is evil and Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff are mostly ignored and left by the wayside, yet Voldemort's speech about Slytherin becoming the only House in Hogwarts is supposed to be unfair and prejudiced.

/* Also, note how Harry thinks “doing well in Slytherin” means “evil”./

Remind me again why Slytherin even still exists in Hogwarts if it's supposed to be the House of bullies, traitors, and racists? As the House of *bad* kids? Why have a House that's viewed as the wizarding equivalent of St. Brutus' Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys? Because it's tradition? Because even though Salazar Slytherin is viewed as evil incarnate, he was still once a member of the Founders? That's still no reason to have what's basically the dumping ground for troubled children.

/* 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./

Even his line about Harry being better than Tom Riddle because Harry chose to reject Slytherin while Tom did not is disingenuous. Tom didn't reject Slytherin because Tom probably knew *nothing* about Slytherin! He grew up in the Muggle world just like Harry did. The only reason that Harry believed that avoiding Slytherin was a priority was because Hagrid told him that Slytherin was the only House that produced Dark (i.e. evil) wizards and because Draco Malfoy, a boy he had just met and disliked very much, had just been sorted there. Yeah, Harry made a choice, a choice based on hearsay and anger against another individual. Real moral fiber there.

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

In the real world, Dumbledore would have been sacked ages ago. In the wizarding world, unpleasant things like possession and attempted murder should be quickly forgotten about and swept under the rug, never to be spoken of again.

/* 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./

Again, sweep it under the rug, sweep it under the rug...

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

No no no, silly. Voldemort's making Slytherin the only House isn't evil and wrong because it's singling one House out as superior, it's that he's making *Slytherin* superior and denying the inherent purity and goodness and superiority of *Gryffindor.* THAT'S why it's bad.

Slytherin exists so that everybody can tell right away who is good and trustworthy and who not by the color of their scarf, and in order to keep all the evil kids from sullying and perverting the other Houses with their evilness and deviousness. And also so that the brave upholders of the good, the Gryffs, have a practice group to learn on in school. See, it's compassionate: they're allowed to be at Hogwarts and not all arrested immediately after being Sorted because of the very faint hope that some of them might avoid actually doing anything too wrong, and just sort of exist miserably in roles supporting the others and giving people an excuse to complain if something goes a way they don't like politically; they Slyths get to be there to be scapegoats. Plus the Aurors will need somebody to catch someday.

/sarcasm

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, silly me. ;)

But then one wonders what happened to Peter Pettigrew. Was he somehow "sullied" by a Slytherin's evilness and deviousness and that's why he turned out bad? Or was he just "Sorted too soon" like Snape was?

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

Yeah, good question.