OOTP Chapter Ten: "Luna Lovegood"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

 

* Harry wakes up late and has to rush to avoid missing the train. Apparently wizards have not yet invented alarm clocks.

* Indeed, so late is he that he apparently doesn’t have time to get washed.

* Such a pity that Ginny didn’t break her neck as she fell down the stairs; it would have been kinder than being turned into JKR’s favourite Mary Sue and then yoked to Harry for the rest of her life.

* Harry hates having to go with a guard. TBH I wouldn’t be surprised if the guard hate it, too. “Babysitting the Chosen One today, Sturgis? Bad luck. Try telling him your best friend was in Slytherin, he won’t try to speak to you after that.”

* “How Muggles can stand travelling without magic…” I doubt this is the intention, but every time a wizard talks about how difficult Muggles must find things without magic, they just end up looking really spoilt and entitled, a bit like people who wonder how anyone managed before TV and the internet were invented.

* Sirius scaring the local cats is a source of great entertainment to Harry. For a Christ-metaphor overflowing with love, he can come across as rather sadistic sometimes.

* If Sirius is going to go out with Harry, he should at least try and keep a low profile. Standing on his hind legs and placing his paws on Harry’s shoulders is not a very responsible thing to do.

* Once again, Hermione and Ron look nervous at telling Harry anything with even the slightest chance of upsetting him. Seriously, they should find themselves a better friend.

* Ron seems so defensive about being made a prefect. TBH I have to question Dumbledore’s judgement in giving the position to someone who clearly isn’t going to enjoy it.

* “‘I’m not Percy,’ he finished defiantly.” No, worse luck; Percy might actually have something useful to bring to the Trio.

* Luna’s here! :) Luna’s always been one of my favourite characters; her “I’m so weird act” may obviously be a way of getting attention, but it’s better than, say, bat-bogey-hexing everyone who annoys you.

* I wonder what it says about Harry that the only thing he can think of about Neville is that he once got a Remembrall five years ago?

* So what exactly is the point with Neville’s new cactus? I don’t think it appears at all later in the books. Is it just to give Harry an opportunity to angst about how Cho finds him covered in pus?

* Note how Harry’s embarrassed to be seen with Neville and Luna Lovegood. Normal teenage behaviour, but Harry’s not supposed to be a normal teenager, he’s supposed to be a Christ-metaphor, and Christ spent far more time with unpopular outcasts than he did with very cool people.

* Ginny waits till Cho’s gone before cleaning away the Stinksap. Could it be that she was intentionally waiting till Cho had gone to make Harry look bad in front of her, and thereby reduce the chances of her stealing away Ginny’s future husband?

* Of course Malfoy’s the Slytherin prefect, says Ron. After all, we can’t expect JK Rowling to come up with another Slytherin character to give the job to. Conservation of detail, and all that.

* Pansy Parkinson is “a complete cow”, according to Hermione. I’m still not sure what she’s done to merit the trio’s dislike, aside from being in Slytherin. Although in JKR’s mental universe, that’s probably enough.

* She’s also “thicker than a concussed troll”, apparently, giving yet another example of Slytherin seeming less the House of cunning people, and more the House of racist thugs. If Slytherin really were for cunning people, we’d expect members to have a fair degree of intelligence, even if it’s not the academic kind.

* Luna’s little sally into the conversation is enough to make Ginny stuff her knuckles into her mouth to stop herself from giggling. Either Ginny’s easily amused, or JKR is just desperate to make us think of Luna as a funny character, but cannot in fact write her as such.

* I like how Ron’s first thought is to use his position to get at people he didn’t like. Still think he was a better choice than Dean or Seamus, Dumbledore?

* I think (hope) that Luna actually is taking the Mickey here.

* “How Far Will Fudge Go to Gain Gringotts?” Quite far, if he’s sensible enough to realise that placing your entire financial system in the hands of a people who’ve consistently rebelled against you for the past few centuries is a rather bad idea.

* “Cornelius ‘Goblin-Crusher’ Fudge” is quite a cool nickname, I think. A pity we don’t hear him called it more often.

* Apparently it doesn’t occur to Harry that it might not be a good idea to antagonise the new Slytherin prefect.

* For that matter, given that the Trio’s got the better of Malfoy and Co. every time they’ve clashed, why do they apparently hate them so much? If anything, they should have come to look down on Draco, Crabbe and Goyle as being beneath their notice, and ignore them accordingly.

* Even though Draco’s got a much better reason to dislike Harry than Harry has to dislike Draco, he doesn’t give Harry a detention, even when Harry insults him in front of his friends. This seems rather inconsistent with Hermione’s report of power-mad!Draco bullying the normal students.

* Hagrid’s not here. Enjoy it while you can, chaps; he’ll be back with a vengeance in Chapter Twenty.

* Malfoy, being a bad guy, doesn’t have friends, only “cronies”. Because it’s impossible for anyone who doesn’t like Harry to have ordinary friendships with other people. Clearly.

* So wait, Dumbledore has a load of flesh-eating monsters pull carriages full of excited schoolchildren who can’t see them and don’t even know they’re there? Why haven’t there been any accidents?

Comments

Re: Animagi

[urbanman1984.livejournal.com]

Ugh so it was more hasty revision in the later series. Like so much of the inconsistent rules of magic in the Potterverse.

Re: Animagi

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

Actually I think you were correct. Dumbledore's patronus form was a phoenix, I'm pretty sure, and you can't be a phoenix animagus.

I think one's patronus form is the animagus/animal form of the individual you see as your patron-- the person chosen, named, or honored as a special guardian, protector, or supporter, according to Merriam-Webster.

Re: Animagi

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

Dumbledore's patronus form was a phoenix, I'm pretty sure, and you can't be a phoenix animagus.

Is this explicitly stated anywhere? A phoenix sounds like the perfect animagus form for someone determined to live forever, such as Voldemort.

Re: Animagi

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

You know, I thought it was stated somewhere that one's animagus form couldn't be a magical creature, but I seem to have been wrong about that. All of the aniamgi that we know about in canon transform into regular animals, though.