OOTP Chapter Twelve: "Professor Umbridge"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

* “Does he think he’ll turn into a nutter if he stays in a room with me too long?” Given that you threatened to curse him yesterday, he probably thinks you’ve already turned into one.

* So having favoured Harry over Seamus, Ron’s now reluctant to keep his brothers in line. A prefect should really be more impartial.

* Nice to see Harry and Ron dismissing the prospect of uniting with the Slytherins out of hand like that. And to think that some people say Slytherins aren’t treated like proper members of the school!

* So Angelina’s only holding try-outs for Wood’s replacement, whereas Harry will make everybody try-out next year. Is this something that varies depending on who’s captain, or did JKR just make up the “everyone tries out” idea to add some Ron-related angst in Book 6?

* Note how Ron’s already decided that he won’t like Umbridge before having one lesson with her. As it is he’ll be proved right, but still, it’s not like they’re giving her much of a chance, is it?

* “‘Leave me out of it,’ said Ron hastily.” Nice to see him undermining the authority of his fellow-prefect like that, isn’t it?

* As if the prospect of taking exams which determine whether or not you stay at school isn’t stress enough, Fred and George go and give people boils. Charming.

* As an aside, how does the exam system in Hogwarts work? In some ways it seems like GCSEs/O-levels, but if this were the case we’d expect quite a few people to leave school after taking them and take up jobs, rather than study to NEWT level. Or is it more a case of them being necessary to progress to NEWT level, but otherwise not really affecting your final qualifications, a bit like some university exams?

* Poor Ron, wanting to be an Auror. He’s spent his entire school career being overshadowed by Harry, and now he’ll spend his entire professional career being overshadowed, too. What he really needs is some time working/travelling without Harry or Hermione, so that he can become more confident and discover that he can actually cope without them. I doubt JKR would give him that, though.

* Besides, Aurors are, like, the élite. You can’t be one of them unless you’re really good. Or unless you’re the Chosen One, in which case you are entitled to take up whatever job you want. And get your friends into the Aurors, too.

* Ugh, Hermione’s so easy to manipulate. “Oh, you’re so clever, please lend us your notes.” She really ought to stop helping them, or at least scale back her help to a level where she’s not practically doing their work for them.

* Although I am rather attracted to the idea that she’s subconsciously trying to make herself indispensible to the boys due to her deep-seated insecurity. Especially given what happened to her when she last seriously stood up to them, over the broom in POA.

* So Harry meets Cho, makes a complete faux pas and reminds her of her dead boyfriend. Ron quickly steers the conversation away onto something more happy, i.e., Quidditch, before Cho can get too upset. Nevertheless, Ron is apparently the insensitive jerk around here, not Harry.

* And Ron and Hermione keep bickering about it all the way to Potions class. I’ve heard of couples getting into friendly arguments, but really, this is just ridiculous.

* Snape has apparently come to expect a high pass level from his students, suggesting that he’s actually quite a good teacher, after all.

* No matter how “worthless” Harry’s potion is, Ron’s has to be even worse.

* For Divination, they work from The Dream Oracle, by Inigo Imago. Which makes me wonder: where do people get the time to research all this complicated magic stuff and write up books about it? Apart from teaching positions in Hogwarts, there don’t really seem to be any academic jobs in the WW, and there aren’t enough wizards to make writing books a viable way of making a living (which perhaps explains the lack of wizarding fiction – there just isn’t a big enough audience for such works to be profitable). But surely a regular day job wouldn’t leave much time for research, so perhaps there’s some form of Ministry grant to allow people to take time off work and research these topics, or the people who do so are all wealthy enough that they can afford not to work full-time.

* Keeping a dream diary doesn’t seem as onerous as Harry and Ron seem to make out. After all, it’s not like most people have many dreams, and I’d be surprised if they’d end up remembering more than one or two over that whole period.

* Professor Umbridge’s wand is “unusually short”. Freudian, anyone?

* Knowing the WW, those kids really need a Defence class involving some considerations of the ethics involved. Like Umbridge’s. Still, no wonder they don’t take to it. Ethics? Pah! What sort of cowardly thing is this?

* Picking a fight with a teacher like this seems a bit OOC for someone like Hermione. Maybe the real Hermione Granger’s been drugged and locked in a magical trunk with the real Ginny Weasley, and has now been taken over as JKR’s sock-puppet.

* At least Dean acknowledged that Moody “turned out to be a maniac”, but doesn’t seem to dwell on it too much because “we still learned loads”. Which seems… somewhat worrying, TBH. Sort of like a Muggle saying “Yes, well, I know Myra Hindley turned out to be a mass-murderer, but she taught me loads of great childcare tips.”

* So Professor Umbridge states that Voldemort’s return is a lie, which seems to be the Ministry line. But never does anybody suggest that Harry killed Cedric himself, despite him having the means, motive and opportunity, and despite the fact that Cedric’s body doesn’t seem to bear animal attack marks on it. Perhaps it’d just be too difficult for Harry to rebut, and hence would get in the way of JKR’s planned storyline.

* “Well, I’m glad you listen to Hermione Granger, at any rate,” says Professor McGonagall, somewhat ironically, given that Hermione’s the one who started the trouble.

 

Comments

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

Picking a fight with a teacher like this seems a bit OOC for someone like Hermione. Maybe the real Hermione Granger’s been drugged and locked in a magical trunk with the real Ginny Weasley, and has now been taken over as JKR’s sock-puppet.

Oh OH Oh!!! I have to share this that showed up a couple days ago online because it goes along with your above comment about sock-puppets. I am copying the below from mugglenet.

In a new article posted today by MovieLine, J.K. Rowling revealed how apprehensive she was at handing the keyboard over to screenwriter Steve Kloves for the movie adaptation of her magical world.

Rowling recalls how one simple word put her mind at ease and her trust never waivered from that point on. Here is what JK Rowling revealed:

Steve turned to me while food was being ordered and said quietly, "You know who my favorite character is?" I looked at him, red hair included, and thought: You're going to say Ron. Please, please don't say Ron - Ron's so easy to love! And he said: "Hermione." At which point, under my standoffish, mistrusting exterior, I just melted. Because if he got Hermione, he got the books. He also, to a large extent, got me.

Firstly, let me try to keep down my lunch...next...I used to think and ponder that Hermione was JKR in the book, but JKR just rather blatantly admitted she was Hermione right there.

Seriously if she invented all the characters then I would think a good author would appreciate the love no matter which character we liked. But apparently if you like Hermione...you are a super fan.

Does that mean that I'm not a good fan because Snape is my favorite?

Snape has apparently come to expect a high pass level from his students, suggesting that he’s actually quite a good teacher, after all.

No, he's evil because he expects the students to do their work, curse you authority figure! Sorry Severus, you should have realized when Dumbledore gave you the job you were just going to be a babysitter.

[wolf-willow31.livejournal.com]

Does that mean that I'm not a good fan because Snape is my favorite?

We're not good fans because we *think* too much.

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

We're not good fans because we *think* too much.

Yea, that could be it. Read to much into the interviews and comments...but really, that comment from JKR seems very...meh...Shallow to me. If she invented all the characters one would think she'd appreciate a fan who liked a character like Snape, instead of just liking those characters that are on the top three of all time favorites.

It's not hard to fall into the groupie mentality where OH WOOPEE, lets love Harry, Ron and Hermione. They're the main characters - that's easy. Look, I fit in, I like the champions, whoohoo.

JKR should at least give some of us props for not being lead by a chain into the slaughterhouse of fandom.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

Well said.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Does that mean that I'm not a good fan because Snape is my favorite?

I'm worse because I like reading SSHG!

SSHG

[urbanman1984.livejournal.com]

OK how do you do that and keep down your lunch? Are you really suggesting you could bear to see Hermione naked?

Re: SSHG

[oryx_leucoryx]

Since Hermione (and all other characters) are made of words, in my imagination they look any way I want them to. They can look differently in each story.

Re: SSHG

[urbanman1984.livejournal.com]

Snape was the only teacher at Hogwarts who ever put Hermione down like she really deserved, he gets that much credit. I should think he would know better than to ever have anything resembling romantic or lascivious thoughts towards her no matter what happened.

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

I much prefer SSHP. I'm not sure if it's because I prefer slash or if it's because I don't find Hermione to be all that interesting a character.

Harry and Hermione

[urbanman1984.livejournal.com]

It's true that Hermione is uninteresting in the early series and plain repulsive in the later series. But perhaps there is that added dimension of physical attractiveness. JKR does describe Hermione as being unattractive quite relentlessly. For instance, constantly slipping in details like her eyes are "leaking" when she is crying and more significantly, describing her voice as being really grating. It is especially important with female characters when establishing how they come across to describe their voice as well as how they appear. An attractive woman should never "shriek" or even speak in a shrill voice like Hermione does.

I always thought of Harry as being sexy either in drag or in something that suggested casual chic, what do you think?

Re: Harry and Hermione

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

Well, like I said, it could just be that I do generally prefer reading slash, so it's quite possible that my preference for SSHP over SSHG has very little to do with any of my feelings regarding Hermione. I've heard that there are some very well-written SSHG fics out there, so I don't really want to disparage anyone's fanfic preferences.

IMO, neither Harry nor Hermione are particularly attractive individuals by the end of the series. I find them both pretty repulsive in the last 2 or 3 books.

I think my lack of interest in Hermione has more to do with the fact that I just don't feel like there's much to explore with her character. I prefer characters who are more internally conflicted than Hermione is or who have to deal with bigger "issues" than Hermione ever faces, such as coping with the loss of someone or something important, or having to make a difficult decision, or recovering from a difficult childhood, or trying to meet (someone else's) unrealistic expectations, etc. While JKR did give Hermione flaws, she didn't give Hermione much in the way of problems.

[oryx_leucoryx]

While I'll read the occasional SSHP the stories often annoy me because they are often written by Harry fans. I never particularly liked Harry - he was just necessary to bring out the stories of the other characters. I think I feel about Harry very much like many feel about Hermione - I don't like him enough to I care to read about fanon-improved versions of him.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

I sort of get what you mean. I have an odd relationship with Snarry fic. I never liked the *idea* of the pairing particularly (not much of a Harry fan here, and canon!Severus would not be, um, particularly thrilled with the idea either). But a lot of the fic I read starting out in fandom happened to be by people who loved Snarry and could write decently, so I sort of accidentally started reading it when going through their work. And I found that when a fic is of a certain overall quality, and there is enough plot/intrigue/other stuff happening, it was bearable.

Then, working my way through whitehound's recs list, I read perverse-idyll's "The White Road." I honestly don't know what happened to me reading that fic, if it was just *that* brilliantly written or what, but when I finished it I picked myself up off the floor, sat back and said, 'I didn't know Snarry could be BELIEVABLE!' But then I couldn't find any other Snarry fics nearly as good, so it's still sort of not believable to me, but I will read it now and then hoping against hope. (Or maybe it's the perverseness of the fic, and I'm just perverse. After all, the only other Snarry I will reread is "By Sulfur and Salt." Is it the twisted Lily angle that gets me? /stops psychoanalyzing self all over your post, sorry)

All of which is very weird to me, because when I'm in my right mind the only fic about these two together that I like otherwise is the very-AU, and very gen, sort of mentor fic that requires major readjustments of the canonical plot to work. (This I like because then Severus actually has a shot at getting the brat's head put on straight properly.) I still don't *buy* the pairing, I just find myself reading it from time to time for no discernible reason. Lol.

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

I'm worse because I like reading SSHG!


Runs away screaming...

okay so I'm more of a Snape needs an original character to get free from the world of HP, but OC's tend to turn people away...but thats what I like. Not marysue but interesting OC's which bring something fresh into the story instead of the same old characters.

I think the Hermione thing is a mix of the influence from the movies and just plain there are so few interesting females in the series. Unless you count characters like someone like Tonks, who I never found all that interesting but I have seen that people put SS with just about anyone so there are stories out there for every taste

For me personally, Hermione and Snape just isn't my thing - I just don't see him being interested in a former student and maybe that's just me placing my own morality onto the characters - something about it just sorta doesn't set well with me. Not that I'm particularly a Hermione fan who needs to save her or whatever, but it just doesn't feel right, no matter how old she's portrayed in the story it just tends to make me uncomfortable.

The Sexism of Snupin and Snack

[oneandthetruth.livejournal.com]

I'm worse because I like reading SSHG!

Runs away screaming...

That's how I feel about Snupin and Snack. I find those pairings not just stupid, but also offensive and sexist. That is, if Severus were a woman who had been bullied and terrorized by Remus and Sirius all through school, nobody would dare to even suggest she should become romantically involved with one of her tormentors, even 20 years later, particularly if Remus was still so irresponsible about controlling his condition. Writing such a "romance" would be seen as misogyny and an endorsement of battering. But because Snape is a man, his pain doesn't deserve acknowledgement. I've read a few Snupin stories, and they either ignore or gloss over the abuse he suffered.

They also require Snape to be both incredibly stupid and completely lacking in self-protectiveness because he's always willing to just go, "Oh, that was a long time ago. It was really bad then, but let's just forget all about it now." WTF? All of that is completely contrary to everything we know about him.

Re: The Sexism of Snupin and Snack

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

I agree, with two minor exceptions regarding what I actually find believable / will read. One is Snupin where Severus is a werewolf, has to learn how to deal with this (which gives him some insight into Remus' situation - most of his dealing win Remus are justified I feel but I think he has little sense of Remus' own difficulties, tho I have less sympathy for Remus), and where Remus genuinely realizes how badly he treated Severus. In that context, given a careful enough development, I could see them both finding a new sense of each other and maybe a relationship. (Also I suppose an AU where they were never in that situation at school to begin with would work, but I'm not interested enough in Remus in such situations to seek out such fic.)

The other is Severus/Sirius hatesex. Which, basically, isn't about a healthy relationship to begin with. Needless to say, Sev gets to be on top there, on the rare occasions I feel up to reading such a fic.

Sometimes I really wonder what was going through my head when I read poa, because after it I was a raving Sirius fan for a couple of years. Thankfully I hadn't discovered lj at that point or I might never have recovered.

Re: The Sexism of Snupin and Snack

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

Yea, I am to Snapish and strict, I can't see Snape as anything other than strictly liking females. Thats my personal preference, it's not that I'm saying it's not okay for other people, but it's just not for me.

I think Snape at the suggestion of dating any of the male characters like Lupin and Sirius, would probably have to restrain himself from hex someone. Plus depending on how the situations was initiated I think it might be rather embarrising and I don't think he takes to feeling humiliated very well.

Severus might say something like the following: "Do not even suggest it unless you want to end up in a matchbox."

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Does that mean that I'm not a good fan because Snape is my favorite?

No, that means you're a deluded woman who is foolishly attracted to bad boys. You want to marry Snape because you think you can heal him and make him into a good person by the power of your True Love. (interpreting/paraphrasing a JKR interview here)

Snape can't be your favourite for any other reason.

Also, to identify with him is probably sinful.

/sarcasm

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

No, that means you're a deluded woman who is foolishly attracted to bad boys.

Bad boys bad boys whachagonna do, whachagonna do when KarentheUnicorn hits on you...

You want to marry Snape because you think you can heal him and make him into a good person by the power of your True Love.

Oh damn, how come I feel like I just got tossed into the Princess Bride movie wedding scene....Mawwaeege is what bweengs us togefer today...Lob...Twoo Lob.

Also, to identify with him is probably sinful.

and as Jerry Lee once said; Well, if I'm going to hell, I'm going there playing the piano.

[wolf-willow31.livejournal.com]

Well said!

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

and as Jerry Lee once said; Well, if I'm going to hell, I'm going there playing the piano.

And as Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, opined, one goes to heaven for the scenery, but to hell for the good conversation...

;-)

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

Alas, the same goes for Draco. *sighs*

Although...considering his unexpected character arc in HBP, maybe JKR realized that a lot of people still liked him, even after she told them not to, and thus made him more of an important and sympathetic character? But then you have to wonder why his role was suddenly reduced in DH.

Still, I'm glad that Draco was at least spared the shoddy treatment that Snape got in "The Prince's Tale."

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

Seriously if she invented all the characters then I would think a good author would appreciate the love no matter which character we liked. But apparently if you like Hermione...you are a super fan.

I can't imagine how an author can show that kind of blatant favoritism and not be aware of how it plays out in the books. I am not a published author or anything, but even I try to love and understand all my characters pretty equally. To love some and despise others (Pansy Parkinson, apparently?) makes for a pretty lopsided cast of characters, though the irony here is that the characters she apparently loves the most are the ones that quite a few people can't stand. I wonder what that says?

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

I am not a published author or anything, but even I try to love and understand all my characters pretty equally.

Same here. To me an author who makes a character into an avatar for themselves displays that they are a rank amateur.

If a fan tells me they particularly like any character I've written about in a story, then that fan has "got me" no matter which character they've chosen.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I have noticed when I show my work to my friends that they tend to like very different characters than I expected them to, but really I am more flattered that they like any of them than annoyed that they have picked the "wrong" person. For me there shouldn't be a wrong person. I love all of my characters for different reasons (even the antagonists!), and so any of them to striking a chord with people tells me that I have done my job.