OOTP Chapter Six: "The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

 

* Just in case we haven’t got how super-sassy and awesome Ginny is, Fred’s now going on about how she ignores her mother’s instructions. It’s just so ridiculously unsubtle, and it means that, even when she isn’t present, I still want to give Ginny a good, hard kick.

* “‘Maybe it’s something that can kill loads of people at once,’ suggested George.” Like a bomb, or mortar-shell, or one of the other weapons Muggles have invented. Seriously, a Dark Lord who’s willing to use Muggle technology could totally own the WW.

* Honestly, JKR, maybe in future you should just write “GINNY IS COOL AND REBELLIOUS AND SUPER-SASSY” on a plank of wood and beat me around the face with it. It might be more subtle.

* “‘She doesn’t trust us at all, you know,’ said Ron regretfully.” Since we’ve seen them flout her instructions without a second thought, she’s probably right not to.

* I wonder if there’s supposed to be anything significant about Harry’s dream here?

* And a new day dawns, bright and clear. Harry’s dressed and breakfasted, but not, I note, washed.

* So Sirius can calm his mother down, run to the front door, answer it and begin speaking to Shacklebolt in the time it takes Harry to walk across the room and close the door? Really?

* I like the way JKR’s portraying the Skiving Snackboxes as a fun idea, and not at all an irresponsible way for kids to bunk off class. For an ex-teacher, Miss Rowling can come across as remarkably anti-education sometimes.

* It’s suddenly struck me that, having seen Lord Voldemort come back last book, all this talk of Extendable Ears is just really out-of-place. They would have been a fun and interesting idea in earlier books, but the whole “Twins inventing stuff” subplot just seems jarringly light-hearted in the darker, edgier second half of the series.

* No wonder Kreacher ends up betraying the Order, when everyone around him treats him with such hostility.

* Shocking as it is to hear myself saying this, Hermione’s easily the nicest character in this scene. At least she’s trying to be sympathetic and understanding, which is more than we can say for the others.

* I like how Sirius is getting all judgemental about his younger brother. I mean, I know he joined Voldemort, but nil nisi bonum and all that.

* I doubt that Phineas Nigellus really was the least popular headmaster Hogwarts ever had. Or, if he was, he’s probably been eclipsed by Dumbledore now.

* You’d have thought that the Blacks would have found a more aesthetically pleasing way of editing the tapestry than covering it in burn marks.

* Maybe it’s just my inner Slytherin showing, but all the Black heirlooms look rather cool. Why are they throwing them away, again?

* Wow, that line about “a heavy locket that none of them could open” is such a brilliant piece of foreshadowing that it makes all these Grimmauld Place chapters totally worth it!

* Bah, silly Kreacher, trying to save the priceless mementoes of his beloved former owners from the whiny son who treats him like dirt. Clearly he deserves to be sworn at and thrown around for his insolence.

* I bet Snape was relieved that Harry and he never met, too.

* I like the way that Harry washing his hair is seen as a big deal, rather than, say, a piece of basic hygiene. Cannon proof for DirtySlob!Harry?

* Harry: “Dumbledore, don’t you love me anymore? Why won’t you speak to me?”

Every other student in Hogwarts: “Now you know how we feel about him, you spoilt little git!”

 

Comments

[oryx_leucoryx]

Considering that Voldemort grew up in the Muggle world, why on earth didn't he think of that?

He kept returning to the Muggle world for the summers during World War II. It's not like there wasn't what to learn in ways of destruction.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

Ah, but he had to be kept impossibly stupid, unthinking and unobservant in order for a stupid, unthinking and unobservant halfwit like Harry to be able to beat him with any bare minimum of plausibility.

Seriously - how on earth could the Voldemort we see in the later books (especially DH) ever have attained to the sort of power we are supposed to believe he wielded in VWI? (Leaving aside the incoherency of characters' presentations of that era and the flimsy evidence we have of it...)

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

Seriously - how on earth could the Voldemort we see in the later books (especially DH) ever have attained to the sort of power we are supposed to believe he wielded in VWI?

Because almost the entire wizarding world is impossibly stupid, unthinking, and unobservant. (Would it be uncharitable to suggest how this may reflect on its author?)

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

The stupidity of the wizarding world isn't that impossible. Just look at the following that Sarah Palin has in the U.S.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Ouch. My feelings of muggle superiority just deflated like a punctured balloon.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

I think it might not be unreasonable to- after all, the fact that JKR doesn't seem to notice these issues in itself says something.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

(Would it be uncharitable to suggest how this may reflect on its author?)

If "impossibly stupid, unthinking, and unobservant" could be summed up with the one word "shallow", then it would be an accurate assessment.

[detritius.livejournal.com]

An explanation that's nowhere in the books but would make a certain amount of sense is that the Voldemort from the first war and the Voldemort from the second aren't at all the same person. The Voldemort Mark 2 we see resurrected in in Goblet of Fire is only partly actually Voldemort, along with bits of Tom Riddle Sr, Wormtail, and Harry. The old Voldemort was essentially diluted, with a fresh infusion of lazy, cowardly, and stupid. With this interpretation, he may actually have been confident and charismatic the first time around. He just didn't come back quite as expected.

Unfortunately, for that explanation to work, JKR might have to admit that her protagonist is an idiot.