OOTP Chapter Sixteen: "In the Hog's Head"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

 

* So what exactly does Vanishing an animal do? Send
it to another dimension? Send it into oblivion? Because isn’t the latter
effectively killing it (more so, in fact, because it wouldn’t get to go to
whatever passes for an Afterlife in the Potterverse)? I wonder how many
students would be happy with their Vanishing lessons if they knew that they
were actually killing kittens?

* Ron totally refusing to back Hermione up over unofficial
DADA lessons. What a perfect match those two make.

* Oh no wait, Ron was just waiting to be sure Harry
would blow up. Odd, I’d have thought that the image of an angry young man whose
friends are feared of contradicting him would have seemed more likely to apply
to Tom Riddle that to anybody else.

* It’s actually rather easy to do stuff grown
wizards can’t in the HP universe. You just have to be on good terms with the
author, and you can do anything.

* The whole Viktor/Hermione thing is a bit squicky,
really. So an eighteen-year-old wants to go out with a fourteen-year-old, and
nobody seems to think that there’s anything wrong with that (except for Ron,
who is (a) jealous and (b) doesn’t object to it on grounds of age)?

* Also, what is it that first attracted Viktor to
Hermione? He didn’t know her well enough before asking her to the Yule Ball for
it to be her personality, and Hermione wasn’t yet pretty enough for it to be
her good looks.

* Once again, Hermione seems terrified of Harry.
Perhaps she’s just worried that Harry’s overwhelming love might prove too much
for an ordinary person such as her to handle.

* I’d have thought that after Azkaban, living in a
large, stately house would be quite nice. Apparently though Sirius is feeling
cooped-up and reckless. Because a reckless person could totally carry out the
first-ever escape from Azkaban. Totally.

* Hermione stutters when she says “Voldemort” again,
even though she has no reason to. About the only reason I can think of is that
JKR kept forgetting she was supposed to be Muggle-born, and so had her acting
like a Pureblood instead.

* Also, remember when we thought that there was some
proper reason for not saying Voldemort’s name, and Dumbledore seemed really
cool and badass for saying it anyway? *sigh* How I miss those days… :(

* Hermione says that Sirius won’t be free until “the
fools” “accept that Dumbledore’s been telling the truth all along”, as if
Dumbledore’s word ought to be enough for anybody. This doesn’t seem like a
particularly open-minded and enquiring position to take, although I suppose
that Hermione’s open-mindedness has always been something of an informed
attribute.

* Harry’s barely keeping up with his homework,
because he always has to have some problem to angst about. Ron’s doing even
worse, because no matter how bad Harry is, JKR can’t have Ron doing better than
the hero. Hermione’s doing fine, because she’s a total Mary Sue who does fine
at everything.

* Hermione dismisses Harry’s concerns about Umbridge
spying on them on the grounds that “Umbridge is shorter than that woman”.
Because it’s not like Umbridge could have any informants. Or like she could
have taken some sort of potion to make herself look like somebody else. Nope.
No chance of that at all.

* Hermione’s faith that they’ll all be safe because
they won’t be breaking any rules is rather touchingly naïve. Given what they
know of the wizarding attitude to justice, however, it’s also pretty stupid.

* So is the barman who “looked vaguely familiar to
Harry” supposed to be Aberforth, then? If so, this would be one of the few
examples of continuity between DH and the previous Harry Potter books. I suppose the smell of goats is also meant to
be a clue.

* Hermione “snarls” at Ron when he suggests ordering
a Firewhiskey. Not that her constant sneering, snarling and assorted put-downs
will stop Ron from fancying her. Treat ’em mean, keep ’em keen, I suppose.

* Harry doesn’t recognise half the people coming in,
even the ones he plays against in Quidditch matches. I suppose this is part of
JKR’s desire to make the reader learn everything as Harry does, even though by
this stage she could introduce everybody as if Harry already knew them (“Following
Ginny came John Smith, a nondescript Hufflepuff in fourth year”) without
anybody batting an eyelid.

* I think the red-haired girl is Marietta, yes? In
which case, her reluctance to come is clearly meant to be foreshadowing of her
betrayal. Because it’s not like anybody could change their minds about the idea,
and become less enthusiastic as time went on; any traitor would have to have to
be against it from the start.

* What has Lord Voldemort done to warrant such a
reaction to the mere mention of his name? Going around murdering people is bad,
but not enough to make people shriek every time somebody mentions you.
Especially since mainstream wizarding society seems fine with the idea of
sending people to rot in a castle full of depression-causing monsters without
even a trial, which is arguably worse.

* “‘Well, Dumbledore believes it—’ Hermione began.”
Again, Hermione, that isn’t a good enough reason. A supposedly
independent-minded girl should know that.

* Also: yay Zach Smith! Nice to see somebody
questioning DD’s version of events. A pity his author doesn’t appreciate him
for it.

* Didn’t Harry produce a Patronus at a Quidditch
match in his third year? So why is the fact that he can such a big surprise to
everybody?

* And Harry, just because two people you’re met use
the phrase “Corporeal Patronus”, that doesn’t mean they’re related.

* Harry shows a rare moment of humility and self-knowledge
when he says that he only succeeded because he was helped out by others.

* Hermione dismisses the possibility of Heliopaths
existing, even though at age eleven she found out that magic, goblins, giants
and all manner of other “impossible” things existed. A pity nobody ever points
this out to her, really.

* “But I also think… that we all ought to agree not
to shout about what we’re doing. So if you sign, you agree not to tell Umbridge
or anybody what we’re up to.” And to have your face disfigured for the rest of
your life if you do, but we won’t bother telling you that.

* Seriously, that “protection” is the worst ever. It
doesn’t warn you when you’ve been betrayed, it doesn’t stop anybody betraying
you in the first place, and none of the DA members know about it, so it’s not
going to have any sort of deterrent effect.

* Ginny and Michael first met at the Yule Ball. I
hope when Neville asked her to go with him he meant in a “just friends” sense,
rather than as a date, because otherwise that can’t have been a fun night for
him.

* Ron seems very worked-up about Ginny’s new
boyfriend. Ron/Ginny OTP?

* Of course, this Michael/Ginny/Ron love-triangle
won’t go anywhere, so Hermione quickly moves to more plot-relevant stuff, like
Harry/Cho.

Comments

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

* Also, what is it that first attracted Viktor to
Hermione? He didn’t know her well enough before asking her to the Yule Ball for
it to be her personality, and Hermione wasn’t yet pretty enough for it to be
her good looks.

Her author avatariness, obviously. Or maybe Ron was right, and he did intend to spy on Harry. Harry's insistence on playing by the rules irked me - because he didn't do so at all. Summoning his broom was cheating (imagine if malfoy pulled something like that!), takin Dobby's help was cheating (why didn't Snape just ask him where he got the gillyweed (or, even better, claim that he gave it to Harry and thus get credit for Harry's win - altho Harry's so dumb he'd just yell "NO DOBBY STOLE IT")

* I’d have thought that after Azkaban, living in a
large, stately house would be quite nice. Apparently though Sirius is feeling
cooped-up and reckless. Because a reckless person could totally carry out the
first-ever escape from Azkaban. Totally.

Never mind that he spent over a year after his escape basically hiding, watching and waiting, all of a sudden his character totally changes.

* Hermione says that Sirius won’t be free until “the
fools” “accept that Dumbledore’s been telling the truth all along”, as if
Dumbledore’s word ought to be enough for anybody. This doesn’t seem like a
particularly open-minded and enquiring position to take, although I suppose
that Hermione’s open-mindedness has always been something of an informed
attribute.

Dumbledore's lucky anyone trusts him anymore, after the Quirrell affair, the Chamber of Secrets, employing a werewolf and a half-giant without telling anyone, and whatever funny business there was about the Crouch-Moody thing and the death of Diggory. It's hardly surprising that the "fools" are losing confidence in him and are wary about his closeness to Potter.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Dumbledore's lucky anyone trusts him anymore, after the Quirrell affair, the Chamber of Secrets, employing a werewolf and a half-giant without telling anyone, and whatever funny business there was about the Crouch-Moody thing and the death of Diggory. It's hardly surprising that the "fools" are losing confidence in him and are wary about his closeness to Potter.

Also having a captured escaped prisoner escape out the window of a locked room just after chatting with him.

[stephanie-draws.livejournal.com]

Oh cool, another update! Of course, OotP is especially rewarding for spoofing it^^ Borderline psychotic Harry and submissive friends acting as terrified sycophants (because true friends obviously are never allowed to disagree on anything! Not in JKR's world....) and all. Also sadly the last book with a modicum of continuity.

- I think Sirius' decline was actually triggered by the return to his hated childhood home! Grimmauld Place seeming to him more like a prison than the actual one. He might have been better off still on the run! Fleeing from Azkaban, he had nothing to lose - and a goal and someone to direct his destructive energy against: catching traitor Pettigrew and avenging James. Notice he didn't plan anything in that year for proving his own innocence; it was all about retribution, not about getting his reputation cleared and getting his life back. In OotP he had nothing to lose - AND nothing to achieve anymore, being relegated to the sidelines and relegating himself to them too with his irresponsibility. In addition he had the Black mental instability (trying to murder someone at 16 using your friend as the weapon of destruction?! Only regretting not having succeeded, regardless of consequences?! Telling that to 14 year olds?!) already against him, plus the Dementor-damage.
Also remember, now the Order expected him to act like a responsible adult: structure, discipline and all - definitely not Sirius' strong suits. Plus the forced inactivity, which is harmful to someone of his personality. Add more than a few hints of alcohol abuse. By the time he died he found it more important to clown around with and taunt cousin Bella than to actually help supposedly beloved Harry and get him to safety! His self-destruction and the inevitable end was actually imo one of the most believable and psychologically sound characterizations JKR wrote. Even if she didn't do it deliberately, given her interview statements....

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

catching traitor Pettigrew and avenging James.

Neither of which he attempts in goblet of Fire, presumably because it wasn't plot-convenient.

[stephanie-draws.livejournal.com]

- Viktor: did it say anywhere he was 18? I somehow always thought he'd been 17, though nothing was mentioned. But Hermione turned 12 not 3 weeks into her first year: she's if not the oldest, then clearly one of the oldest students in her year. She was 15 years old three weeks into year 4 already! Making it 3 years age difference at the most.

But I don't find 4 years necessarily as squicky: girls mature earlier during puberty, both emotionally and physically. It depends on the individuals involved imo and their personality and maturity. (At my horrible posh private school I had a classmate who, while only a year older than me, looked and acted like an adult at age 13, without make-up or any adult dressing needed: she was regularly mistaken as a young teacher when she was with us! Of the three boyfriends she had from then on I knew not one was under 18. And I don't think they took advantage of her, she seemed very much an equal partner. She was precocious in looks and behaviour and would've looked and felt silly with a 15 year old boyfriend acting/looking his age. I initially was squicked too: age of consent is 14 here, and with her first boyfriend they were definitely violating laws. And there was an additional squick for 12 year old me: what was she doing with boys? Why would she want to?! They were for playing football with^^)

Viktor has been presented as spending a lot of time in the library. Where he'd see and meet Hermione regularly - who doesn't have friends with an intellectual bend reaching beyond Quidditch Through the Ages. He was also written as often fleeing his eager fan-club and being glad to escape their attention: so he's not into pretty groupies and taking advantage of his fame sexually. He seems to be a Quidditch-sensation because he likes to play and is very gifted at it. For the love of the game, not its side-effects and perks: not for popularity and glory like Ron is so attracted to.
Viktor isn't canonically handsome, far from it: he might simply be attracted to physically "equal" partners, rather than those massively outshining him in regards to beauty.

Character- and interest-wise Viktor seemed much more similar to Hermione than Ron. He also chose her, a muggleborn, as a date despite Durmstrang's pureblood/dark magic-reputation: I doubt Karkaroff was happy! And the fact that he didn't ditch her even post-GoF and had a lasting pen-relationship speaks rather against sexual predation as his motive, doesn't it?

It was probably Hermione's healthiest, sanest and most equal relationship of her life, given what followed. Even with Hermione clearly also choosing Viktor initially to get back at Ron. Wow, and now I sound like a Hermione/Viktor-shipper without ever having shipped them! Or any pairing, really. Their relationship - below the authorial focus as it was - seemed just so much more realistically written and likable than all those following....

[harpsi-fizz.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was about to pipe in with the Hermione age thing as well. It's one of the things I'm most grateful for, the fact that Rowling at least didn't make her "nearly 11" when first boarding the train, therefore a young genius. She really isn't a genius; magic just happens to be relevant to her interest. Take any Harry Potter fan and put them in Hogwarts, and you know we'd be all over that library, trying to see what we could do with our new power (kinda like me and Google). It's just novelty. And we know how fixated Hermione gets when she has something in mind.

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

"But Hermione turned 12 not 3 weeks into her first year: she's if not the oldest, then clearly one of the oldest students in her year. She was 15 years old three weeks into year 4 already!"

Well, I suppose that makes it a bit better.

"- Viktor: did it say anywhere he was 18? I somehow always thought he'd been 17, though nothing was mentioned."

I think it was someone on DTCL who said it, though I can't remember who/where. Now that you mention it, though, I don't think I ever read anything about it in canon, so he might be seventeen...

[oryx_leucoryx]

Viktor had to have been 17 by Halloween of GOF to participate in the Triwizard Tournament. So if he is still 17 it won't be for long. He can be anything from almost 2 years older than Hermione to slightly more than 3 years older (assuming Durmstrang uses the same cut-off date as Hogwarts). OK if his Quidditch playing got in the way of his studying that he is repeating a year he can be even older, I suppose.

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

----Viktor has been presented as spending a lot of time in the library. Where he'd see and meet Hermione regularly - who doesn't have friends with an intellectual bend reaching beyond Quidditch Through the Ages.

It kind of mystifies me that Hermione was so interested in Ron. Even as a young teenager, I was most attracted to boys whom I found to be intellectually stimulating. Even if there had been some sexual chemistry present, I would have gotten bored with someone like Ron after a few weeks of dating.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

I think that this is one of your best chapter analyses. So much is spot on!

I wonder how many students would be happy with their Vanishing lessons if they knew that they were actually killing kittens?
Just one of the many creepy moral issues that are never adequately dealt with in this series. I choose to believe that they are sent to an alternate universe in which every kitten finds a loving home and wizards aren't such total d-bags.

Odd, I’d have thought that the image of an angry young man whose
friends are feared of contradicting him would have seemed more likely to apply to Tom Riddle that to anybody else.
The two seem more and more similar the more I think about it. Nice power of love there, Harry.

Once again, Hermione seems terrified of Harry.
Perhaps she’s just worried that Harry’s overwhelming love might prove too much for an ordinary person such as her to handle.
WIN.

Hermione’s faith that they’ll all be safe because they won’t be breaking any rules is rather touchingly naïve. Given what they know of the wizarding attitude to justice, however, it’s also pretty stupid.
Psssh. The right to a fair trial is for muggles. We wizards have a better system of favoritism and inconsistency! Yay!

A supposedly independent-minded girl should know that.
Well, she is the author avatar, after all. We had best not question her. As a sidenote, considering that fact, doesn't it make Hermione's mindrape of her parents all the creepier? *shudders*

Seriously, that “protection” is the worst ever. It doesn’t warn you when you’ve been betrayed, it doesn’t stop anybody betraying you in the first place, and none of the DA members know about it, so it’s not going to have any sort of deterrent effect.
I always took it as simple, cruel revenge. (see the above comment. JKR scares me more and more when I think about it)

[oryx_leucoryx]

Viktor-Hermione: In the teen-culture I grew up with, a 9th grade girl with a 12th grade boy (who is supposed to be tutoring her in math, of course) is a classical, albeit sexist pairing. That would be the equivalent of 4th year with 7th year, just like Hermione and Viktor in GOF. And the fact that she is the oldest in her year makes the gap even smaller.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Apart from my disagreement on Hermione/Viktor (and I agree with Stephanie on why they got together and why they are a much better match than Hermione/Ron) I agree with your comments most enthusiastically.

So Marietta is a red-head? There are evil red-heads in this universe? I thought red hair was the sign of awesomeness. Or at least goodness.

Neville invited Ginny only after he was turned down by Hermione. So I doubt it was more than an 'as friends' invitation.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

So Marietta is a red-head? There are evil red-heads in this universe? I thought red hair was the sign of awesomeness. Or at least goodness.

I get confused by the color symbolism too. Green is another one: green is a sign of Super Speshul Awesomeness and Saintliness or something like that when it's Harry or Lily's eyes, but it's also the color of House Evil and of the Killing Curse.

(Also, because this has been bugging me lately and there's no more relevant place to comment about it: is it just my memory playing tricks on me, or does Voldemort threaten during the battle to make everyone Slytherin once he wins? Because I remember that happening, and I just want to headdesk *so much* every time I think of it. Because wearing a green scarf really makes you evil. Ignoring the obvious incompatibility with Slytherin being the snobby house.)

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

Yay spork!

So what exactly does Vanishing an animal do? Send
it to another dimension? Send it into oblivion? Because isn’t the latter
effectively killing it (more so, in fact, because it wouldn’t get to go to
whatever passes for an Afterlife in the Potterverse)? I wonder how many
students would be happy with their Vanishing lessons if they knew that they
were actually killing kittens?

Why doesn't someone try Vanishing Voldemort, or at least some of the DEs? Or a horcrux? (Or Harry. Please, please!) Because, if they can Vanish kittens, whytf can't they just Vanish their opponent?

I should just stop trying to make sense out of these bloody books.

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

The HP Lexicon has some interesting thoughts about Vanishing Magic (http://www.hp-lexicon.org/magic/magic-vanishing.html). They say that it's similar to the magic used in apparition, so whatever is vanished doesn't cease to exist, it just goes somewhere else on the planet.

[oryx_leucoryx]

I just figured a great spell to use in combat - Lockhart's deboning spell. Your rival loses control of hir limbs and falls down, quite useless. It can't be undone by a simple Finite, so s/he stays down. But the damage is reversible within hours by drinking skellegrow (or however that's spelled). Either you capture your opponent (heck, you can promise the skellegrow in exchange for information if you want to be nasty) or hir friends do, in which case caring for hir as s/he heals compromises the enemy further for a while.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

Why doesn't someone try Vanishing Voldemort, or at least some of the DEs? Or a horcrux?

O. M. G. Amazing suggestion. I can't even begin to process how simple this makes things. Why even AK things when you can wipe them out of existence?

Although this page (http://www.hp-lexicon.org/magic/magic-vanishing.html) at the HP lexicon suggests that things that are vanished do NOT cease to exist, but it's not all that convincing.

[harpsi-fizz.livejournal.com]

This doesn’t seem like a particularly open-minded and enquiring position to take, although I suppose that Hermione’s open-mindedness has always been something of an informed attribute.
This trope among fans has got me riled up beyond belief because they use the "Hermione's word is gospel" thing to make unfair assumptions about other characters: Ron's "emotional range of a teaspoon" thing comes to mind, and right after that, Lavender supposedly being silly about believing Trelawney abut her dead pet (Hermione never considered that maybe the thing Lavender was dreading was bad news from home or bad news about her pet).

I think the red-haired girl is Marietta, yes? In
which case, her reluctance to come is clearly meant to be foreshadowing of her betrayal. Because it’s not like anybody could change their minds about the idea, and become less enthusiastic as time went on; any traitor would have to have to be against it from the start.
It's following with Rowling's cardboard model of all good or all bad. If she was portrayed in a slightly sympathetic light, then scarring her face with "sneak" would make the readers conflicted about her. And that takes away from the rule that Hermione is Always Right.

Seriously, that “protection” is the worst ever. It doesn’t warn you when you’ve been betrayed, it doesn’t stop anybody betraying you in the first place, and none of the DA members know about it, so it’s not going to have any sort of deterrent effect.
My God, I didn't even think of that... it's just a mostly useless spite curse. I suppose she might have thought that it would inform them if they had a spy... but no, then wouldn't it have made more sense to have something subtle, something the spy woulnd't notice when s/he betrayed the group?

Another one for the "would be great if it wasn't so obvious that the reader is being told to feel good about it."

Ron seems very worked-up about Ginny’s new boyfriend.
The Canon Thumping OBHWFers kepy dismissing it whenever someone brought it up because it really threatened their OBHWF.

[oryx_leucoryx]

The Canon Thumping OBHWFers kepy dismissing it whenever someone brought it up because it really threatened their OBHWF.

I think I need an explanation for that. While overprotective, barely older brothers are annoying, why are the canon-shippers threatened by Ron's behavior here?

[xerox78.livejournal.com]

Seriously, that “protection” is the worst ever. It doesn’t warn you when you’ve been betrayed, it doesn’t stop anybody betraying you in the first place, and none of the DA members know about it, so it’s not going to have any sort of deterrent effect.
My God, I didn't even think of that... it's just a mostly useless spite curse. I suppose she might have thought that it would inform them if they had a spy... but no, then wouldn't it have made more sense to have something subtle, something the spy wouldn't notice when s/he betrayed the group?

And the DA members knew they were supposed to kept the DA quiet, but Harry, Ron, Ginny, or the twins could have easily gone to Grimmauld Place and said to an Order member, "Guess what? We have this great secret club at school called 'Dumbledore's Army'...What? Why are you staring at me like that?"

And what about Seamus Finnegan, who joined after the DA was in full swing and he went groveling to made up with Harry? Who told him about it so he could join? His best friend Dean or any of the other DA members couldn't have invited him to join without triggering the jinx. Did he somehow guess that there was a secret group in a secret room that met at a certain time just show up? It backs up my theory that Hermione never signed the parchment and she was the one who invited Seamus.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/Odd, I’d have thought that the image of an angry young man whose
friends are feared of contradicting him would have seemed more likely to apply to Tom Riddle that to anybody else./

*mock-gasp* How can you say that? Harry is in Gryffindor, so there's no way that he could be anything like that slimy Slytherin, except for the dead parents, black hair, and Parseltongue!

/Because a reckless person could totally carry out the first-ever escape from Azkaban./

There are some people out there who say that Sirius' death was actually a mercy-killing, given the amount of destruction that his character underwent in this book.

/Hermione “snarls” at Ron when he suggests ordering a Firewhiskey. Not that her constant sneering, snarling and assorted put-downs will stop Ron from fancying her./

So, Lavender is a ridiculous girlfriend whom Ron is ashamed of because she's nice to him, wishes him luck in Quidditch, and stands up to Snape for his sake. Yet Hermione is his True Love because she does nothing but berate and belittle him (and later abuse him with vicious birds)? Tell me that this pairing wouldn't get more of a incredulous reaction if the genders were switched.

/Going around murdering people is bad, but not enough to make people shriek every time somebody mentions you. Especially since mainstream wizarding society seems fine with the idea of sending people to rot in a castle full of depression-causing monsters without even a trial, which is arguably worse./

I wouldn't be surprised if there was a fanfic out there where somebody (Harry, Hermione, etc.) confronted Voldemort about the murders that he committed and he'd fire back by saying that at least he killed his victims quickly and painlessly with the Avada Kedavra Curse, whereas wizarding society has no problem with slowly torturing and killing people with imprisonment in Azkaban.

Perhaps people are so uncomfortable with Voldemort because, like Mr. Hyde, he embodies everything that is wrong with their society? It doesn't explain why nobody is afraid to say Grindelwald's name, though. Or is it because they've just forgotten about him?

/* Hermione dismisses the possibility of Heliopaths existing, even though at age eleven she found out that magic, goblins, giants and all manner of other “impossible” things existed. A pity nobody ever points this out to her, really./

Nobody refutes Hermione about anything. She's proven to be right in the end about Ron's rat in PoA, so nobody has to take her to task for showing no sympathy for Ron and stupidly insisting that Crookshanks couldn't have done it even though there was ample evidence that he could have. Lavender never takes her to task for loudly pointing out that Trelawney couldn't have been right about Lavender's rabbit when Lavender was mourning him. The most that anybody does about SPEW is to just ignore her or refuse to join. When she lectures everybody about needing to study, nobody tells her to just shut up and leave them alone. And, of course, nobody turns on her for hexing Marietta.

She's just so self-righteous and overbearing by this point that the only reason that I can think of for why she hasn't been targeted by Fred and George or by other students is because she's a powerful witch and they don't want to risk incurring her wrath.

/* Seriously, that “protection” is the worst ever. It doesn’t warn you when you’ve been betrayed, it doesn’t stop anybody betraying you in the first place, and none of the DA members know about it, so it’s not going to have any sort of deterrent effect./

Earlier you said that Harry resembled Tom Riddle. Now, doesn't Hermione resemble Tom a bit? I don't think that he told Peter that the silver hand that he gave him would strangle him if he even *thought* about helping Harry. Well, okay, Hermione's hex didn't *kill* Marietta, but it was designed with the same intention: punish the traitor.

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

"So, Lavender is a ridiculous girlfriend whom Ron is ashamed of because she's nice to him, wishes him luck in Quidditch, and stands up to Snape for his sake. Yet Hermione is his True Love because she does nothing but berate and belittle him (and later abuse him with vicious birds)? Tell me that this pairing wouldn't get more of a incredulous reaction if the genders were switched."

If Ron had acted towards Hermione like Hermione does towards Ron, people would be saying that he's a jealous, possessive, abusive, violent thug whom Hermione should avoid at all costs. They'd be right, too. I suppose this comes back to the old stereotype that there's no such thing as woman-on-man violence, or if there is, that's just because the man's too pussy-whipped to stand up for himself. It's also similar to the love potion thing: if, say, Draco had slipped some into Hermione's pumpkin juice, people would (rightly) be criticising it sooner than you can say "date rape", but because it's a girl using it, it's apparently a source of humour.

"It doesn't explain why nobody is afraid to say Grindelwald's name, though. Or is it because they've just forgotten about him?"

Who cares about Grindlewald? He was foreign, after all. Nothing to do with us. The only thing people remember about him is that he was beaten by Dumbledore.

"Earlier you said that Harry resembled Tom Riddle. Now, doesn't Hermione resemble Tom a bit?"

Oh, I think the whole Trio resembles Riddle in at least some respects. Even Ron is fine with the idea of betraying people once they're no longer needed.

[xerox78.livejournal.com]

/Hermione “snarls” at Ron when he suggests ordering a Firewhiskey. Not that her constant sneering, snarling and assorted put-downs will stop Ron from fancying her./

So, Lavender is a ridiculous girlfriend whom Ron is ashamed of because she's nice to him, wishes him luck in Quidditch, and stands up to Snape for his sake. Yet Hermione is his True Love because she does nothing but berate and belittle him (and later abuse him with vicious birds)?

Her behavior is justified by shippers that she was violent toward him because she just LUVS him so much. And her snapping and snarling at him was because she was just so frustrated with his cluelessness and throwing hints to make him get together with her. I've never seen an explanation as to why a literal know-it-all like Hermione thought that being a nasty snot to someone as "clueless" and "stupid" as Ron would make him think, "Hermione is being rude to me again. She must be frustrated because I haven't caught on that she fancies me. Let me declare my undying love to her" rather than "Hermione is being rude to me again. She can't stand me. She fancies Krum/Harry/whoever, not me. But Lavender seems to really like me."

Nobody refutes Hermione about anything. She's proven to be right in the end about Ron's rat in PoA, so nobody has to take her to task for showing no sympathy for Ron and stupidly insisting that Crookshanks couldn't have done it even though there was ample evidence that he could have. Lavender never takes her to task for loudly pointing out that Trelawney couldn't have been right about Lavender's rabbit when Lavender was mourning him. The most that anybody does about SPEW is to just ignore her or refuse to join. When she lectures everybody about needing to study, nobody tells her to just shut up and leave them alone. And, of course, nobody turns on her for hexing Marietta.

And she's never called out for leaving the DA member list lying around for the Inquisitorial Squad to find and for Umbridge to know every DA member. If Harry or Ron had done that, she would have let them have it, then given them the silent treatment and the other DA members would have been angry, too. Oh, and taking the OotP text literally, there's no indication that Hermione ever actually signed the parchment she made everyone else sign.

[xerox78.livejournal.com]

It was brought up on another site a few days ago that Ginny is partially to blame for the DA being found out. Since Ginny needed to show up Cho in every way in OotP because she is Harry's soulmate, they chose her name "Dumbledore's Army" over Cho's "Defense Association". Ginny's name told everyone the exact purpose of the DA -- supporting Dumbledore, learning to duel, etc., while with Cho's more vague name they could have passed it off as a DADA study group when they were caught.

[stephanie-draws.livejournal.com]

I found the name stupid, self-aggrandizing and careless even reading the first time. Though perfectly in character for Gryffindors admittedly^^
But I had totally forgotten that it was Ginny's pick - and that Marietta's, traumatized by boyfriends murder, friend Cho whose name was over-ruled. Thanks for pointing it out here!

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

"although I suppose that Hermione’s open-mindedness has always been something of an informed
attribute."

Tell me about it. She's about as closed-minded as they come, really....

Informed attributes

[urbanman1984.livejournal.com]

It's even more of a Jabootu score than Austin Powers' charisma/ sexual magnetism and Austin Powers is a spoof!