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

[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.

Re: Harry and Hermione

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

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.

Yes, I think thats how I feel to.

Thats part of the reason I like original characters. If they're written well, it's like adding something fresh to the HP world. We've seen Hermione throughout the whole series, and Ron and Harry, etc. It sort of feels to me like they're story can't pull me in anymore, or as in they got boring.

One character we really don't get a feel of till the end is actually Severus. So stories from his perspective I really like.

And I like having other new original stuff to read about inside the HP world. I don't want to read about Harry/Ron/Hermione. I sorta want to see other new stuff, etc. If that makes any sense. Even if my field of reading and interest can be full of Maryandgary Sue - I just like getting a new perspective with new original characters.

Re: Harry and Hermione

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

That makes sense. I do tend to avoid stories that feature OC's, but I've read a few that were very well-written.

Re: Harry and Hermione

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

I know why you mean about the Trio (although I do like fanon!Hermione in SSHG fic). I find another way of getting around the restricted view of canon that works well for me is bringing the bit players to center stage. They're usually not fleshed out very much at all in the books, so they're practically blank slates, but because they are technically canonical there are fewer people tossing around accusations of sueishness. For example, probably my two favorite het pairings right now are Severus/Poppy and Severus/Andromeda (two pairings which appear far too rarely in fic IMHO*). With them I can give Sev the partner he deserves without resorting to drastic personality transplants.

(*this should of course be read as a not so subtle hint hint that anyone writing more such fic would win an Internet from me.)

Re: Harry and Hermione

[urbanman1984.livejournal.com]

Harry has almost no discernable personality in the books, so many fanfictions of all kinds do create an original personality for him.

Re: Harry and Hermione

[sunnyskywalker]

It's such a shame, because there could have been a lot more going on with her character. Being a highly rational girl suddenly dumped into a bizzarro magical world, cut off from everyone she's ever known, and having to adapt to what is essentially an entirely different culture (in which she is supposedly a despised minority) could have provided all kinds of conflict. Imagine a Hermione who actually missed her parents, and Star Trek, and beverages which are not pumpkin juice or butterbeer, and who eventually realized how ruthless she had become under the influence of wizarding culture and was horrified. A Hermione who eventually stopped looking at the rights of magical beings as a hobby on the side and actually started learning about the issues from the beings themselves and devoting her career to changing the ww - after having a dark night of the soul in which she fought the temptation to become the next dark lord, or at least the next Umbridge. That could have been an awesome character arc.

Re: Harry and Hermione

[oneandthetruth.livejournal.com]

Oh, but we can't have that. That would have made her more interesting than Harry. Not that that's hard. ;-)

Re: Harry and Hermione

[sunnyskywalker]

Well, she could have made Harry interesting too, but that would just make things way too hard! Simple, dumb characters are so much easier to handle XD

Re: Harry and Hermione

[oneandthetruth.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I think that's only true if you're not a very competent, intelligent, or imaginative author. I should think for a smart, creative person, it would be more interesting to write about realistic, complicated characters. Just look at the wonderful job notwolf does with the same characters, many of whom are nothing but walk-ons in Rowling's books, in her magnificent Lives of the Death Eaters Saga (my name for it, not hers). If I were JKR, I'd die of embarrassment to see how an anonymous, unpublished author had taken characters I'd never given a rat's butt about and turned them into rich, complex, exciting individuals. This is what the Potterverse would be like if written by a talented person who really cared about her characters.

If you read notwolf's stories, I recommend reading the short stories first to see if you like her work (although I can't imagine anyone with brains and taste who isn't a Rowling butt busser not liking it). Then read the Saga in order, starting with The Beginnings of a Death Eater, and continuing with I, Too, Shall Follow. She then skips over the years covered by the books, picking up after the war with Death Eater No More; her WiP is The Voldemort Diaries. http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1389018/notwolf

Re: Harry and Hermione

[sunnyskywalker]

Well, it goes without saying that a talented author wouldn't find it impossible, but we're talking about JKR of the one-book wonder spells and the Magic Summer Reset Button :D

Thanks for the rec! I hadn't seen those before, and will make time for them as soon as I can. Good HP fic is such a treat.

[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.