GOF Chapter 22: The Unexpected Task
May. 28th, 2011 05:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oryx_leucoryx posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
deathtocapslockToday's Transfiguration lesson is about turning an animal from one species to an animal from a different one. What's the point? Does the animal retain the neurology of its original species or acquire that of the new one? Even in the latter case, surely its memories are those of the original species? How do the poor creatures know how to do things?
Ron and Harry are having a sword-fight with fake wands. At least Minerva criticizes them. She announces the Yule Ball, where 4th years and up (as well as any younger guests some of them might invite) have a chance to socialize with the 24 guests. Because the guests are living on their respective vehicles and hardly have a chance to socialize with anyone. Unless you count Viktor ducking his fans in the library.
The champions and their dance partners traditionally open the ball. Now Harry has a task to distract him from preparing for the second task (something he hasn't thought about yet, despite his experience with the danger of the first one). Well, now he thinks of the dragon as a fun diversion, so maybe there is no contradiction.
Molly was right - at least among the 4th years and higher everybody is staying for Christmas, regardless of how they rank their prospects of getting a date to the ball. (Did Ginny think of going home before she got an invitation or was she counting on someone inviting her?) Harry suddenly notices the girls at Hogwarts, now that he needs one as a date. Until now he only noticed boys like Ron, Cedric, Viktor and Draco. Maybe he really is gay.
Well, at least Harry knows whom he'd like to ask, if given a chance. Now that he needs a date, he refuses 4 girls who ask him. Yes, they only care about him because he's famous, but so does almost everyone else, so what's the difference? Even Ron (and Draco!) originally got interested in him because he was TBWL.
The Hufflepuffs are letting Harry be. Which does not mean any of them believe he wasn't a cheat. Aw, Draco's audience has shrunk!
Rita's interview with Hagrid was mostly about Hagrid's opinion of Harry, of course. At least Hagrid acknowledges Severus' criticism about Harry's constant line-crossing wasn't entirely off. Oh, Hagrid will attend the ball. Guess with whom?
Why would Dumbles need to buy 800 barrels of mead for the ball? Buy one bottle and multiply however many times. Unless he wasn't that great at Transfiguration? But he did book the Weird Sisters, the only wizarding band in Britain (as far as we know). Wizarding cultural life is so exciting.
Filius let the students play games in class so he could chat with Harry and praise him. Is he the new Hagrid? Binns still insists on making goblin rebellions boring. That's because goblins are no longer rebellious. Now 'Moody' has them working seriously, he doesn't just impress them with Dark Arts demos. And he's teaching the entire class now, not just Harry. Severus would no sooner let them play games in class than adopt Harry. Little does Harry know. Right, how evil of a teacher to give students until the end of term to prepare for a test. (Which happens to be on a topic that is supposed to be crucial for Ron and Harry's preferred career path, BTW.)
Wizarding cards are cooler than Muggle ones because they explode occasionally, but skrewts are beasts from hell. I follow the logic, almost.
There are only 2 kinds of books Harry ever enjoys reading - Quidditch books and Dark Arts books. Now he is with the former. Despite having a potentially dangerous task to face in some 2.5 months. Hermione is such a spoil-sport to remind him of that.
The twins want Ron's owl to send a letter, but they won't tell him to whom. Fred knows he'll attend the ball with Angelina before he even asked her. Of course for all we know they have been dating since 1st year - Harry wouldn't be able to tell.
Ron wants to attend the ball with the best-looking girl he can manage, and that does *not* mean Hermione. This is his second major personal insult to her (in addition to many minor ones), which is why she made it a life mission to force him to acknowledge his mistake and marry her. Soulmates indeed.
Neither Harry nor Ron have a date, but Harry's fate is worse, because he is a champion. Harry can't get Cho alone. After all these years he finally discovered girls' preference to have company on the way to the bathroom.
A bezoar is a key ingredient of an antidote. Harry will remember this better coming from a younger version of Severus.
Harry manages finally to ask Cho, but he is too late. Oh, Cho would so have agreed if only he had asked before Cedric did! Even when he loses Harry gets affirmation that he really is the best. See, Cedric is pretty and brainless. As opposed to Harry who is not (yet) pretty and, er, well... (let's not discuss his brains here).
Harry's one consolation is that Ron failed even worse than he did, by asking someone who more obviously outclassed him. Ron's consolation is that Neville was refused by Hermione - ie Neville ranks even lower than Ron because the girl who turned Neville down ranks much lower than the one who completely ignored Ron. Of course Ron can't imagine anyone (but Neville) asking Hermione of his own will. Not happening, right? (Notice how Neville is better socialized and braver than both trio boys - he dares to ask a girl before they do, and his choice is based on the girl's behavior rather than purely her looks. Also, he didn't give up when he was turned down. Also, Ginny is so popular that the only one who asked her to the ball was Neville, and only because Hermione refused him.)
Suddenly Ron has the realization of the century - Hermione has 2 X chromosomes! (Do wizards know about chromosomes? Never mind.) But despite her repeated insistence, he can't get that she already had a date. Ron even tries setting Ginny up with Harry - again, too late. Not that Ginny likes Neville, in any way. Not that he was her preference. He was just her ticket to the ball. As she leaves for dinner we part for ever with Ginny V1.0, the one who, among other things, keeps Hermione's confidence.
Finally Harry asks Parvati, who for plot-contrived reasons is still available. Lavender was already asked by Seamus, but Padma might go with Ron. We can all sigh with relief that this messy business was completed in a single chapter.
Ron and Harry are having a sword-fight with fake wands. At least Minerva criticizes them. She announces the Yule Ball, where 4th years and up (as well as any younger guests some of them might invite) have a chance to socialize with the 24 guests. Because the guests are living on their respective vehicles and hardly have a chance to socialize with anyone. Unless you count Viktor ducking his fans in the library.
The champions and their dance partners traditionally open the ball. Now Harry has a task to distract him from preparing for the second task (something he hasn't thought about yet, despite his experience with the danger of the first one). Well, now he thinks of the dragon as a fun diversion, so maybe there is no contradiction.
Molly was right - at least among the 4th years and higher everybody is staying for Christmas, regardless of how they rank their prospects of getting a date to the ball. (Did Ginny think of going home before she got an invitation or was she counting on someone inviting her?) Harry suddenly notices the girls at Hogwarts, now that he needs one as a date. Until now he only noticed boys like Ron, Cedric, Viktor and Draco. Maybe he really is gay.
Well, at least Harry knows whom he'd like to ask, if given a chance. Now that he needs a date, he refuses 4 girls who ask him. Yes, they only care about him because he's famous, but so does almost everyone else, so what's the difference? Even Ron (and Draco!) originally got interested in him because he was TBWL.
The Hufflepuffs are letting Harry be. Which does not mean any of them believe he wasn't a cheat. Aw, Draco's audience has shrunk!
Rita's interview with Hagrid was mostly about Hagrid's opinion of Harry, of course. At least Hagrid acknowledges Severus' criticism about Harry's constant line-crossing wasn't entirely off. Oh, Hagrid will attend the ball. Guess with whom?
Why would Dumbles need to buy 800 barrels of mead for the ball? Buy one bottle and multiply however many times. Unless he wasn't that great at Transfiguration? But he did book the Weird Sisters, the only wizarding band in Britain (as far as we know). Wizarding cultural life is so exciting.
Filius let the students play games in class so he could chat with Harry and praise him. Is he the new Hagrid? Binns still insists on making goblin rebellions boring. That's because goblins are no longer rebellious. Now 'Moody' has them working seriously, he doesn't just impress them with Dark Arts demos. And he's teaching the entire class now, not just Harry. Severus would no sooner let them play games in class than adopt Harry. Little does Harry know. Right, how evil of a teacher to give students until the end of term to prepare for a test. (Which happens to be on a topic that is supposed to be crucial for Ron and Harry's preferred career path, BTW.)
Wizarding cards are cooler than Muggle ones because they explode occasionally, but skrewts are beasts from hell. I follow the logic, almost.
There are only 2 kinds of books Harry ever enjoys reading - Quidditch books and Dark Arts books. Now he is with the former. Despite having a potentially dangerous task to face in some 2.5 months. Hermione is such a spoil-sport to remind him of that.
The twins want Ron's owl to send a letter, but they won't tell him to whom. Fred knows he'll attend the ball with Angelina before he even asked her. Of course for all we know they have been dating since 1st year - Harry wouldn't be able to tell.
Ron wants to attend the ball with the best-looking girl he can manage, and that does *not* mean Hermione. This is his second major personal insult to her (in addition to many minor ones), which is why she made it a life mission to force him to acknowledge his mistake and marry her. Soulmates indeed.
Neither Harry nor Ron have a date, but Harry's fate is worse, because he is a champion. Harry can't get Cho alone. After all these years he finally discovered girls' preference to have company on the way to the bathroom.
A bezoar is a key ingredient of an antidote. Harry will remember this better coming from a younger version of Severus.
Harry manages finally to ask Cho, but he is too late. Oh, Cho would so have agreed if only he had asked before Cedric did! Even when he loses Harry gets affirmation that he really is the best. See, Cedric is pretty and brainless. As opposed to Harry who is not (yet) pretty and, er, well... (let's not discuss his brains here).
Harry's one consolation is that Ron failed even worse than he did, by asking someone who more obviously outclassed him. Ron's consolation is that Neville was refused by Hermione - ie Neville ranks even lower than Ron because the girl who turned Neville down ranks much lower than the one who completely ignored Ron. Of course Ron can't imagine anyone (but Neville) asking Hermione of his own will. Not happening, right? (Notice how Neville is better socialized and braver than both trio boys - he dares to ask a girl before they do, and his choice is based on the girl's behavior rather than purely her looks. Also, he didn't give up when he was turned down. Also, Ginny is so popular that the only one who asked her to the ball was Neville, and only because Hermione refused him.)
Suddenly Ron has the realization of the century - Hermione has 2 X chromosomes! (Do wizards know about chromosomes? Never mind.) But despite her repeated insistence, he can't get that she already had a date. Ron even tries setting Ginny up with Harry - again, too late. Not that Ginny likes Neville, in any way. Not that he was her preference. He was just her ticket to the ball. As she leaves for dinner we part for ever with Ginny V1.0, the one who, among other things, keeps Hermione's confidence.
Finally Harry asks Parvati, who for plot-contrived reasons is still available. Lavender was already asked by Seamus, but Padma might go with Ron. We can all sigh with relief that this messy business was completed in a single chapter.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Re: Comment #1 of 2
Date: 2011-06-19 10:38 pm (UTC)And yet that's exactly what Draco did. He deferred it. While cowardly not intending to turn up.
Oryx, if I say "I'm not scared of you, I'll beat you up [this way]" and then I show by my actions (or lack of actions) that I was lying from the start, then I'm clearly a coward. If I lied about the "I'll beat you up [this way]" part then I also lied about the "I'm not scared of you" part too.
Facing up to one's fear is bravery. Saying you don't have fear .. but then showing that you do ... and not facing it - that's cowardice.
Not if turning to Greg would have left Vince free to attack the trio.
But that's not the case at all. In fact:
a. Draco could have let Crabbe be safely stunned (if Draco was on Harry's side);
b. By *not* facilitating Crabbe's stunning Hermione was almost killed!; and
c. It's clear from the passage that none of this interaction had any impact on Goyle's actions; he's "aiming at Harry" a couple of seconds later. Absolutely NOTHING in the text showing how Draco and Crabbe had any influence on him one way or the other; in fact -
d. Goyle IS 'attacking the Trio' right after Draco pulls Crabbe out of the line of fire. But you're saying that Draco *didn't* allow Crabbe to be stunned because that would have left Goyle free ... to attack the Trio?!?!???
Sorry Oryx, it does not compute. You're desperately trying to conjure excuses out of thin air to save Draco on this one.
Any emotion besides really wanting to cause the pain would have failed the curse.
And we see absolutely no sign of any such saving emotion. And it's a safe assumption to believe that Draco's face was 'contorted' through anger.
Re: Comment #1 of 2
Date: 2011-06-20 06:53 am (UTC)No, he did not run. Physically. That's what wouldn't have worked. Deferring the fight was a good choice. It is wrong to fight just because not fighting would make some people whose opinion shouldn't count think of you as a coward. It is stupid to fight. Stick to words. Don't make it physical (or magical). If the other side escalates to physical/magical try to defuse it. If you don't know how distract. Or a tactic Draco learned well in their later encounters - make sure it happens when a teacher is looking. Your rival will either be deterred or caught.
Facing up to one's fear is bravery. Saying you don't have fear .. but then showing that you do ... and not facing it - that's cowardice.
Showing up for a fight isn't facing one's fears. It is surrender to the greater fear of social consequences. It is being physically brave but morally craven. It would be saying that people can get you and manipulate you, put you where they want you and hurt you by threatening your self-esteem. If you behave like you don't care if anyone thinks you are a coward you win - you stay in control.
For evidence see 'Back to the Future' parts 2 and 3. Marty McFly ends up suffering an injury leading to lasting disability, loses his job (and perhaps was going to face criminal charges) and nearly got himself killed in a stupid unnecessary gun fight, simply because he couldn't stand being called 'chicken'. Learning to control that, turning away from the fights is what reversed his fate and saved him.
To quote Salvor Hardin, violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. In the Potterverse more often than not, the Gryffindors are the incompetent ones. Except for GOF chapter 13 (ferret incident) Gryffindors are the ones who escalate an exchange of insults to a fight. Just makes them come across as dumb jocks.
Draco in the ROR:
All you can claim is that he wasn't the most efficient support Harry could have had. But there is the fact that he stopped Vince from torturing Harry - something completely unnecessary if his intent was as he claimed, to bring Harry alive to Voldemort in order to be rewarded by him. (Read Terri's fic for a possible reason for his inefficiency.)
And it's a safe assumption to believe that Draco's face was 'contorted' through anger.
So? Anger may equal 'I'd like to hurt you' but not necessarily 'I want to hurt you so much that seeing your suffering won't cause me any regrets' which is what is needed to sustain a Cruciatus, what Harry lacked in the Ministry but had when he faced Amycus. The proof of the pudding is in the eating and the proof of the Cruciatus is in the sustained pain. This case remains unproven.
Re: Comment #1 of 2
Date: 2011-06-20 07:43 am (UTC)That's a good example which shows how Draco is a coward, by seeing the differences between him and Marty.
See, when Marty was challenged - 'chicken!' - he chose to 'turn away from the fight', as you say. And so he did. Right then and there.
Draco, though, did NOT do this. No, he cowardly pretended that he would *accept* the fight ... only to not turn up.
Marty Malfoy would have said, then and there, "no, I'm not going to fight, that's silly".
Godric Gryffindor would have said "yeah, let's get to it!" and brought out his sword.
Draco took neither of these courses. He pretended he was brave ... but he was not.
Re: Comment #1 of 2
Date: 2011-06-20 03:42 pm (UTC)So in total, in this situation Draco makes me almost smile (as I said, I'm not happy he chose a time after curfew), Harry makes me despair. Both over escalating the name-calling into a fight and for taking Draco's bait.
Challenges, Empty or Otherwise
Date: 2011-06-20 03:29 pm (UTC)I wonder if it might not be akin to the exact same thing that happened to me in high school...
For some reason a bunch of girls -- a clique known for being "tough", and who'd had fights with others before -- challenged me to meet them behind the school (the usual place for fights) that afternoon.
I don't even remember anymore what precipitated the whole thing, but after school *I* showed up at the designated "dueling" location, alone. None of my friends would dare come with me, because this gang of trouble-making girls were known to have caused some physical harm to their previous victims.
But as it turned out, I was completely alone! None of the gang showed up! In fact, the whole schoolyard (a very LARGE schoolyard) was eerily empty that afternoon!
So I just schlepped home by myself. My friends called me later to find out what had happened, and I told them that nothing had happened, that the ringleader who'd issued the challenge and her gang never showed up.
No one ever accused them of cowardice (altho I suppose they MAY have gotten wind of how I single-handedly defeated the school bully and his two buddies -- yes, a very Draco Malfoy dynamic there -- back when I was 7 or 8. But I doubt it.
I think the ringleader and her gang thought that *I* was going to chicken out. Scuttlebutt over the following day or two had it that they had been inside the school and surreptiously checked to see if I showed up, because what they really wanted to do was publicly humiliate me afterwards by letting our classmates know that I hadn't showed up.
So perhaps they WERE cowards, in that if they really did see me and chose not to take me on, there must have been SOMETHING that made them think that 4 to 5 against 1 still weren't good enough odds in their favor. But I never found out for sure that they indeed were hiding in the school and sneaking peeks to see if I showed up, like I said, it was just a rumor that circulated the next day or so.
Again, these girls hadn't hesitated to beat up others, so to this day I really think they just didn't plan on having a fight with me at all, the plan was that they expected me to immediately go home after school, and then they would have claimed victory by default and labled me as the coward.
So it wasn't so much that they were afraid of fighting me -- the odds were overwhelmingly in their favor, so I don't see why they'd have been afraid of taking me on -- but rather it was a matter of strategy, the plan all along was to not fight me, just to turn around and crow that I'd been chicken.
So I wonder if Draco might not have been playing the same game -- it was never a matter of actually fighting a duel with Harry, but rather to have it common knowledge, at least amongst his fellow Slytherins, that he'd challenged Harry to a duel but that Harry had been too afraid to show up.
The fact that Harry did show up and got caught for breaking curfew was just an unplanned bonus for Draco.