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

Re: SSHG

[snapes-witch.livejournal.com]

Besides which, if ex-students are off limits, where does that leave someone who has taught at the only wizarding school in the British Isles since he was 21? The wizarding population is small to begin with without putting that limitation on any Hogwarts teacher.

Re: SSHG

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

I personally don't know that 'all' ex-students would be but JKR's population has never been clear to begin with. Plus the fact that in Severus first couple of years of teaching he would be teaching students who were students at the same time he was. So there is that gray area.

So for me I can't say all would be off his radar - but if we're talking canon I have a feeling if he had a relationship at all he would have looked for someone who was not that familar with him.

I always saw him as a very private person and he wouldn't want to be dating someone who might be talking with 'the girls' about him. I just find him so tightly caged that he would have a difficult time connecting with someone. There would be that trust issue.

Hermione being close to Harry and Ron - I have a hard time believing he would ever feel comfortable sharing himself with her or ever fully opening up to her.

I've always thought an outsider or someone magical who might not have attended Hogwarts would be the better match for him. Someone who didn't know everyone he knew, etc.

Another thing for me that doesn't attract me to HH/SS stories is a lot of times it's putting Hermione's face on what is really a OC. Now, I prefer the OC's story but it's hard to keep reading Hermione when it doesn't feel like Hermione when I'm reading. So unless I wanna print the damn thing out and go in and alter the names it just doesn't work for me.

Another is, I don't know that Severus Snape would ever be attracted to Hermione. So for me it just doesn't feel right when I'm reading the story. Of course most fanfic is going to be the authors personal take on the characters, so I'm more to each his own and I get that some people like HH/SS, and thats fine for everyone else who can or wants to read it.

I personally just don't see Snape as the kind of man who would choose to date Hermione. I could see him 'maybe' dating some of the older students, people who would be closer to his age - but I just don't feel the connection I'm supposed to when it comes to paring up Hermione and Snape.

So since I can never get that 'connection' it makes it more difficult for me to read - if that makes sense.

Re: SSHG

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

I personally don't know that 'all' ex-students would be but JKR's population has never been clear to begin with. Plus the fact that in Severus first couple of years of teaching he would be teaching students who were students at the same time he was. So there is that gray area.

Not that I see Snape having a romantic or even just sexual relationship with anyone, but if he did he has a whole population of nonmagikal people to choose from, plus magikal folk who are his same age who were never his students, magikal folk who are older than him (and hence never had him as a teacher), and magikal folk who never attended Hogwarts (homeschooled or foreigners).

Another thing for me that doesn't attract me to HH/SS stories is a lot of times it's putting Hermione's face on what is really a OC. Now, I prefer the OC's story but it's hard to keep reading Hermione when it doesn't feel like Hermione when I'm reading.

That's what I've been saying. The rabid Hermione fans, especially those who ship her with Snape, make so many excuses for her and end up making so many changes to her in fan fiction that she effectively becomes an OFC who just happens to share the same name as a major character in Rowling's books.

And I admit that many fans of Snape do the same thing to him, they choose to "reform" him so much that he is no longer Snape.

I love Snape as Snape, no excuses, no modifications...just, perhaps, a little more understanding of his motivations. But keep him snarky, sarcastic, and bitter! LOL

I personally just don't see Snape as the kind of man who would choose to date Hermione.

He'd only be attracted to someone whose intellect matched his own, someone he could hold long intellectual discussions with. Hermione might sit and listen to him all evening, enrapt in his theories, but she definitely would never be able to hold her own in sustained conversation with him.