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

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Severus: Has anyone seen my BeeGees records?

Oh, no, no, NO!

As Voldie pointed out, it's GRYFFINDOR that's all "disco and Top 40 shit!" Slytherins are punk rock and New Wave -- Sex Pistols, Billy Idol, The Clash, etc.

Sirius and James would wear a white leisure suit and strike a John Travolta pose to the strains of "Stayin' Alive", no self-respecting Slytherin would! LOL

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

For some reason I've never really been able to see Severus Snape as a music person. I don't know why but I can never wrap my head around him and what particular music he would listen to.

I've seen fics that have him listening to classical, or even with your fic June you have the music of the time as part of the chapter - but when I think of canon Snape or even how I've portrayed Snape in my own fic, I've never been able to associate him with music as in, he'd like that song, etc.

I don't know if that really makes sense, but it's kind of like, maybe there are songs he'd obviously recognize or would be familar with but as far as being someone who has favorite songs or would go out and follow a band or be dedicated to a particular music or musician, etc. I just never got that vibe or feel from the character.

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

I agree - I think Snape, if pressed, would probably go for relaxing, unobtrusive music. I can see him brewing potions, reading, writing research papers, or inventing spells with something pleasant in the background, but definitely can't picture him just sitting down and listening to music.

That said, he almost certainly has a preference for classical music, though I'm not sure where he'd have picked it up from unless all the great composers were secretly wizards.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

I go back and forth. Half the time I have him listening to Bach, the other half the time it's the Beatles or the Sex Pistols or Leonard Cohen or something.

Although there's a song on Dylan's latest album that makes me suspect Severus secretly *wrote* it. So I have no bloody clue, haha.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Albus' chocolate frog card states he likes chamber music. Flamel likes opera. Severus could have picked something up there. He would also be familiar with whatever the various members of the Evans household listened to.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

So there is wizard opera? I wonder how it would differ from conventional opera- I mean, the sets and such might be different but the fundamentals of singing would probably be about the same.

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

There could be wizard classical composers. So like Molly weasley listening to the magical radio, there may be other kinds of music done by magical people that non-magical's don't know about. The wizard world could have it's own versions of a classical composer and classical music.

And yes, some of the great composers could be wizards to.

So there are a lot of options if you're imagining something up or doing writing for a fanfic, whatever.

I wonder how there magical radio works; now that I'm thinking about it. I'm assuming they have a broadcast station somewhere. If so, do they only have one station or do they have other channel options.

Surely there must be more than one across the world. And I wonder, since it's magical does it work more like satellite radio and you could pick it up anywhere as long as you had the magical radio receiver.

[oryx_leucoryx]

I think there must be some range limit or British wizards would know more about the goings-on in other countries.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

I'm seriously liking the idea of wizard Mozart or Verdi....

[sunnyskywalker]

Or wizard Salieri, peeved that a mere Muggle like Mozart has such musical talent XD

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

Holy crap, that's an amazing idea for a fanfic if there ever was one.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

Just post the link when it's finished.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

I've seen fics that have him listening to classical, or even with your fic June you have the music of the time as part of the chapter - but when I think of canon Snape or even how I've portrayed Snape in my own fic, I've never been able to associate him with music as in, he'd like that song, etc.

Actually that's basically how I see him, also. My fanfic utilizes songs of the era to help evoke both the era, and the tone of the particular chapter, but if you notice, for the most part Sev isn't getting all fanboy over any particular singer or group. He enjoys whatever music's being played on the radio, record player, or tape machine at that moment because the OTHERS are enjoying it, but if you notice in the chapter where they were buying prerecorded cassette tapes that Sev didn't express any personal opinion or even desire for any particular artist.

I actually have a scene that will occur in the next decade/"volume" of the series (when I finally get to it), the "Disco Snape" era, where it will be clearly displayed that Sev's attitude towards modern music is "bemused" at best...

So yeah, I basically agree with you regarding Snape and music, altho I think that adult Snape could possibly enjoy certain types of classical music -- more Beethoven than Mozart, for instance. I've seen some fan fics where they show Snape's Spinner's End bedroom with posters of various heavy metal groups, but I just don't buy it.

Besides, heavy metal's for Hufflepuffs... LOL

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

I read a fic once where teen!Snape was part of a terrible punk group called "Schadenfreude." It was slightly crackficcy, but the name: LOL.

[mottsnave.livejournal.com]

Dudes, Snape listens to the Tom Waits opera "The Black Rider" over and over and over and over......