OOTP Chapter Five: "The Order of the Phoenix"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

* Thought I should perhaps point out that by this point in COS we were at Hogwarts. Ah, the days when the Potter books were reasonably well-paced…

 

* Apparently they’ve been trying to remove Sirius’ mother for a month. IOW, someone annoys you, you kick them out of the house. What a charming group of people.

* Yes, Ginny, let’s all laugh at the unkempt, drunken petty criminal. What a hilarious man!

* Also, given Mundungus’ proven unreliability, why do they let him join the Order or attend meetings?

* Yes, JKR, Tonks is clumsy, we get it. You don’t need to show her knocking over chairs every time she does something. Less is more, remember, and doesn’t make us want to strangle the character every time we see her.

* So why exactly is Sirius getting so angsty about staying at No. 12, again? This is the man who’s been incarcerated in an impregnable island fortress for twelve years, surrounded by an army of depression-inducing monsters, whilst staying sane enough to escape and evade the biggest manhunt in recent wizarding history for almost a year. How is his current situation worse than that?

* Although come to think of it he didn’t have Ginny with him then. Canonical proof that Ginny Mk. 2 is officially more depressing than a Dementor? :p

* I know Sirius doesn’t like his family, but distastefully surveying his antique silverware like that just makes him look really spoilt. Most people would be glad to own something so valuable, but I suppose we can’t have Sirius counting his blessings, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to angst all the time and make Harry feel all miserable.

* Let’s all laugh at the Twins and their reckless use of magic! That’ll really do their behaviour a whole world of good.

* So how are magical pests any different to Muggle pests? Do they only live in places with high concentrations of magic? But then, surely they wouldn’t have enough habitat to survive, and would pretty soon go extinct? Or are they just like normal pests, only magical, in which case how come Muggles haven’t discovered them yet?

* I’m glad that the goblins did, by and large, decide to stay out of the war. If were in the books, I’d want my species to stay as far away as possible from these violent, stupid, permanently infantilised people. Whilst embezzling all the gold they left in my bank, of course. ;-)

* As if to prove my point, the Weasley children are all howling with laughter at Mundungus’ rather unfunny story.

* Remember when I asked why they let Mundungus be part of the Order? Turns out he’s loyal to Dumbledore. Silly me for not guessing that.

* Let’s be reminded of how overweight Dudley is. Unlike Harry, who can eat three helpings of dessert at every meal and not get fat.

* Note how Sirius had to stick his oar in and ruin the atmosphere. His maturity level’s really dropped in this book. Maybe killing him off was the kindest thing to do, as it stopped him becoming even worse later on in the series.

* And now the adults are all arguing in front of the kids. After all, it’s not like that’ll undermine their authority or anything.

* “Harry felt sure that Lupin, at least, knew that some Extendable Ears had survived Mrs. Weasley’s purge.” And did nothing about it. How depressingly IC.

* Ginny’s raging clearly proves that she’s a tough, independent, strong girl, fully the equal to the Chosen One. As opposed to, say, an immature, whiny brat, who throws a tantrum every time she doesn’t get what she wants.

* “‘Dumbledore’s got a shrewd idea,’ said Lupin, ‘and Dumbledore’s shrewd ideas normally turn out to be accurate.’” Aargh, this Dumbledore sycophancy, it’s too much! Why can’t I be reading a sensible series, with characters who can think for themselves? Heck, I’d even prefer to be reading My Immortal than this.

* BTW, why does nobody wonder where Dumbledore gets his information about Voldemort from? Very suspicious, if you ask me…

* “Fudge thinks Dumbledore is plotting to overthrow him.” Knowing our Dumbles, it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest to learn that he was plotting to overthrow the Minister, and replace him with someone who’ll do what he, Dumbledore, says – for the greater good, of course…

* Fudge has become more confident in the exercise of his power. Which is a bad thing. Everyone should stay tied to Dumbledore’s apron strings for all their life!

* Still, this chapter makes the whole war sound so exciting and underhand. A pity it turned out to be such a disappointment, really.

 

Comments

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

Yep, thats the one.

It's a bit strange, he was the butt of the joke in that scene.

But When I think of christmas crackers they are supposed to have surprise gifts inside. So I have to wonder how that hat showed up to mock him in that way, or that a similar hat to what he was shown in, in the boggard lesson.

Makes you wonder was that Dumbledore's doing?

To me that would be like winning the lottery, to have a hat so similar show up randomly in the Christmas Cracker Severus ended up pulling.

Snape doesn't seem to be the hat type to start with. I don't think it's ever been said in canon that he wears hats; I guess that is the author trying to be funny but I just find it hard to believe that hat happened to randomly be in the one Severus ended up getting. Or should I say sharing with Dumbledore.

The scene is rather weird to me because I find it strange for Dumbledore to share a silly gag gift like that with Severus. maybe one of the kids but what inspired him to get Severus to do it, and what the hell inspired Severus to accept.

Although I think they tradition over in England so maybe it's not so unusual for two grown men to share a Christmas cracker thingie.

Actually, I never knew what the damn things were till I read these books. It's not something I ever had as a kid and I don't know anyone who ever actually had these as a holiday tradition or otherwise.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

I believe it's quite traditional in England; I was at a Christmas party there and everyone was pulling crackers, adults and children alike.

As for how the hat got there: I agree that it seems a bit too coincidental. I wouldn't put it past Dumbledore to have arranged it in an attempt to humiliate Severus. His entire strategy with Severus over the past dozen years seems to have been to keep him disempowered that way, undermining his authority and self-esteem, and with Remus in the castle Severus is probably not submitting to his leash so quietly.

But then, I long ago ceased to be able to give Dumbles the benefit of the doubt. The Doyalist explanation is probably that JKR thought it would be truly hilarious to have him be humiliated and gave no thought to how the hat happened to be in the cracker he got.