OOTP Chapter Nineteen: "The Lion and the Serpent"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

* Brace yourselves, people, this is another Quidditch chapter.

* Ron becomes very excited at the thought of Hermione handing out gold. Seriously, that boy has no dignity or self-control whatsoever.

* The fact that it would look too suspicious if people from different Houses started talking to each other speaks for itself, really.

* That Galleon idea is quite clever, I must admit.

* Hermione “decided to engrave the dates on bits of metal rather than on our members’ skin.” No, she’s saving the engraving for anybody who dares to betray the Army.

* Again, Ron has to complain about not having any money. Yes Weasley, you’re poor, we get it. Now shut up and stop whingeing, it’ll only lose you sympathy.

* Professor McGonagall is letting Harry and Ron off homework to help them prepare for Quidditch. It’s that good ol’-fashioned Gryffindor chivalry at work there.

* Minerva’s become accustomed to seeing the Quidditch Cup in her study. Really of course they should put it in the Firebolt factory. That broom does more to secure victory than any of the players do, after all.

* Snape turns a blind eye to the Slytherins’ misdemeanours. Which is totally different to every authority figure in the first four books turning a blind eye to Harry’s escapades, honest!

* Harry’s worried about Ron’s performance as Keeper. Because that position somehow matters now that JKR needs to throw in some Quidditch-related angst to keep Harry unhappy.

* The temperature’s so low that people have to wear their gloves in the corridors. Just to recap, this is a society which has spells for making jets of wine or flocks of canaries fly out of your wand, but nobody’s invented a warming charm or workable central heating system. Perhaps they’re all just too pissed.

* Luna’s supporting Gryffindor, because how else would we know she’s one of the goodies? It’s totally inconceivable that anybody could both be good and support their own Quidditch team over Gryffindor’s.

* If Ron’s so highly-strung that those Slytherin badges can have such an effect on him, maybe he’s unsuited for a sports team.

* Now Ron needs somebody to help him dress himself. Feel emasculated yet, Weasley?

* Harry and Ron know a lot about Crabbe and Goyle, apparently. Let’s see, they know that they’re big, not very bright, friends with Malfoy and… erm… well, I’m starting to struggle now.

* The Slytherins’ singing is “muffled by cheers and whistles”, because the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs are all supporting Gryffindor. This sort of thing made sense back in PS, when we could believe that people would be glad to see anyone beat Slytherin, but it just seems silly now. If anything, people ought to be resenting Gryffindor for the same reasons that they originally resented Slytherin.

* The Slytherin team are all huge, as usual. Because if there’s one thing that helps you manoeuvre quickly on narrow sticks of wood, it’s huge body mass.

* “I’ve been saying it for years but she still won’t go out with me” – bitter, much?

* Lee’s obviously disappointed when Gryffindor fail to score. Not that he’s biased, or anything.

* Judging by Ron’s reaction to the Slytherin taunts earlier, Weasley is our King is making him quite flustered. Judging by his reaction to the news that Ginny’s going out with Michael Corner, though, a simple “Oi, Weasley, your sister’s a right good shag!” would be even better.

* Gryffindor are losing until Harry’s Firebolt catches the Snitch and renders everything that went beforehand totally irrelevant.

* Remember, kids, hitting somebody with a Bludger because they’ve beat your team = thuggish. Flying into somebody on your broomstick because their match commentary wasn’t pro-Gryffindor enough = hilarious and cool.

* Malfoy’s “Hey Potter, your mum’s so smelly!” routine is enough to make Harry lose control completely, and wish only to “cause Malfoy as much pain as possible”. Fred and George, who are legally adults now, act similarly. Erm, right.

* Funny, in most books I’ve read the three attackers beating up the single small boy would be considered the bad guys.

* Harry wanted to “punch every inch of Malfoy he could reach”. Yeah, that’s right, Harry was just itching to get at the sole of Malfoy’s foot.

* Malfoy is “whimpering and moaning”, the coward. He should take his assaults like a man and not show any pain.

* Fred’s “sporting a swollen lip”. I assume that this is where Harry accidentally punched him, because we all know that JKR wouldn’t ever let Malfoy actually hurt a Gryffindor.

* It’s interesting that McGonagall’s first comment is “Two on one! Explain yourselves!” IOW, she doesn’t mind the actual assault, just the disparity in numbers. If they’d only taken turns to hit Malfoy, that would be OK.

* Note how the enlightened, tolerant McGonagall uses “Muggle” as a term of deprecation.

* Just when Harry was in danger of having to reflect on his disgraceful behaviour, along comes Umbridge to give him a ridiculously over-the-top punishment to make him into the victim again. Phew! Good job he avoided that nasty self-reflection!

* Also, even if Umbridge had power over all punishments for Hogwarts students, that power would no longer be relevant once Harry graduated. So she can’t ban him from playing “ever again”, just for the rest of his school career.

* “No Seeker and no Beaters… what are we going to do?” Get some spares, you idiot, like any real sports team would do.

* Harry doesn’t feel like Gryffindor have won. Funny enough, I doubt Malfoy feels like Slytherin have won. Odd, that.

* Crabbe “just got lines”. I presume these are normal lines, rather than Umbridge!Lines, as this is clearly meant to be a ridiculously light punishment, and being forced to cut your own hand open isn’t most people’s definition of “ridiculously light”.

* Hagrid being back might cheer up the Trio, but it makes the poor readers’ hearts all sink.

Comments

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

* The temperature’s so low that people have to wear their gloves in the corridors. Just to recap, this is a society which has spells for making jets of wine or flocks of canaries fly out of your wand, but nobody’s invented a warming charm or workable central heating system.

Or the Muggleborns and Halfbloods at least would have written to their Muggle parents and asked them to send those little packets of chemical hand and feet warmers...which those students then could have smugly used in front of their amazed -- and still freezing -- Pureblood compatriots.

;-)

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/* The fact that it would look too suspicious if people from different Houses started talking to each other speaks for itself, really./

Yet Voldemort is so evil for wanting to get rid of the House system in DH. *rolls eyes* It's one thing to encourage competition, but when it gets to the point where students rarely have friends in other Houses, then it's just ridiculous.

/* Hermione “decided to engrave the dates on bits of metal rather than on our members’ skin.” No, she’s saving the engraving for anybody who dares to betray the Army./

Oh, yes, this is the part where we're supposed to think that Hermione is so much better than Voldemort because even though she got the idea from him, she's only engraving objects, not people. Until Marietta spills the beans and all of a sudden, scarring people's skin isn't so bad anymore. Again, what is the difference between Hermione's hex and Peter's silver hand?

/* Remember, kids, hitting somebody with a Bludger because they’ve beat your team = thuggish. Flying into somebody on your broomstick because their match commentary wasn’t pro-Gryffindor enough = hilarious and cool./

Can you imagine what would have happened if Draco had flown into Lee Jordan during the Quidditch Final in PoA?

/* Malfoy’s “Hey Potter, your mum’s so smelly!” routine is enough to make Harry lose control completely, and wish only to “cause Malfoy as much pain as possible”. Fred and George, who are legally adults now, act similarly./

This is what made me so disgusted with this chapter. I just could not believe the complete overreactions of everyone involved. Up until now, Harry's been telling Ron to not get mad whenever Draco insults Molly, he didn't attack Draco in PS/SS when Draco insinuated that the Dursleys didn't want Harry, and Harry's heard much worse things about his parents from Voldemort, Snape, and Lucius Malfoy. Yet he flips into a violent rage all because of a childish "Yo Momma" joke? *That's* his breaking point?

What about the Twins? Aren't they supposed to be a pair of merry pranksters? Weren't they the ones who flippantly hexed Draco along with Harry, Ron, and Hermione in GoF? Didn't they scoff at Draco for being scared of the dementor on the train in PoA? Why do they care about this scrawny little fifth-year who barely interacts with them? If anything, I'd think that they'd just laugh at him. I don't understand how one stupid insult can drive all three of these people into a blinding rage.

/* Fred’s “sporting a swollen lip”. I assume that this is where Harry accidentally punched him, because we all know that JKR wouldn’t ever let Malfoy actually hurt a Gryffindor./

Not until HBP anyway. :P

/* Note how the enlightened, tolerant McGonagall uses “Muggle” as a term of deprecation./

And people wonder why Death Eaters exist and why many wizards are prejudiced against Muggle-borns. It's not just because of Voldemort. His death alone isn't going to make this go away.

/* Also, even if Umbridge had power over all punishments for Hogwarts students, that power would no longer be relevant once Harry graduated. So she can’t ban him from playing “ever again”, just for the rest of his school career./

I thought that this were weird the first time that I read it. Okay, she can ban Harry from playing Quidditch at Hogwarts. But how can she ban him from playing Quidditch *for life?* Is she going to follow him around and spy on him to make sure that he doesn't ever pick up a broom again?

/* “No Seeker and no Beaters… what are we going to do?” Get some spares, you idiot, like any real sports team would do./

The Slytherin team had no problem finding a substitute player for Draco in HBP. Maybe most Quidditch teams do have the sense to have spare players and postpone games due to awful weather and tampered equipment, and it's just the Gryffindor team that refuses to be sensible.

[harpsi-fizz.livejournal.com]

Competition is seriously the worst thing in the world for Ron. He's got wa-a-ay too much baggage. Do well so they'll love you. Do well so they'll notice you. If they notice you, you'll get praised. And tormented by Fred and George. Then if you fuck up, you'll have let everyone down. My brothers never let anyone down. That's the standard. Oh God, I can't live up to that. Which do I want to chose- being ignored or scorned? I could do well. Then I'll be good enough to be called "just like them"!

JFC, When's it ever going to be "Good like Ron"? Chess. Literally everyone else has one thing they shine in, even Neville with his Botany and Dean with his art (and... and I'm going to ignore the fact that Hermione and Luna are the only two I can think of with non-appearance based special stuff... someone please help me out? I guess Tonks' doesn't really count as a shallow one because it makes her a master of disguise...)

*Is on the Ron Pity chair again* I need to stop doing that. Gonna draw pictures of Ron being happy, like my icon...

I shall think happy thoughts, like Ron being mad because "Weasley is Our King" with different lyrics is the love song Draco made up for him in the singing Valentine he sent to him that year. :) There. I feel better.

*I wonder who everyone cheers when Gryffindor plays Hufflepuff. Or Ravenclaw Vs. Hufflepuff. *Imagines an empty stand* Aww... :/ I made myself sad again.

*Remember the days when McGonagall was chiding Lee for his bias commentary? That's all I want, personally. People behaving in a silly way and getting told off for it. That's what made the books fun. The school-like aspect.

Note how the enlightened, tolerant McGonagall uses “Muggle” as a term of deprecation.
Actually, this was where the series started to really bug me with the Wizard-Muggle distinctions. I wrote it off the first time I saw it in book one, but later on, it became way too commonplace. This and Wizard Rock pushed it over the edge. the first item of this list (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCpHS6ip-5c) (Youtube link "Top 5 Messed up things about Harry Potter") sums it up.

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

Imagine how they'd react to the use of ballpoint pens or real paper, let alone computers.

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

The Slytherin team had no problem finding a substitute player for Draco in HBP. Maybe most Quidditch teams do have the sense to have spare players and postpone games due to awful weather and tampered equipment, and it's just the Gryffindor team that refuses to be sensible.

The possibility of losin a player due to injury becomes much more angst-worthy if there's no replacement. gryffindor just love drama.

[majorjune.livejournal.com]

Imagine how they'd react to the use of ballpoint pens or real paper, let alone computers.

Well Rowling has stressed that electricity is impossible at Hogwarts, even battery-powered electricity, so there couldn't be computers or cellphones or anything.

But yeah, not only ballpoint pens but felt-tipped ones, Magic Markers (no pun intended), even lead and mechanical pencils!

[nx74defiant.livejournal.com]

* The temperature’s so low that people have to wear their gloves in the corridors.

Why is the Wizarding World better? Wearing gloves is better than central heating? I never had to wear gloves due to cold corridors at school and I grew up in Minnesota.

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

I think that given the choice between Rowling-magic and the Internet, I'd choose the latter.

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

Note how the enlightened, tolerant McGonagall uses “Muggle” as a term of deprecation.

Didn't she do the same in the first chapter of the first book? ;) srsly, McGonagall is the worst character in the series. Acts stern and clever but utterly useless and unhelpful in every crisis.

IOIAGDI

[urbanman1984.livejournal.com]

>> * Remember, kids, hitting somebody with a Bludger because they’ve beat your team = thuggish. Flying into somebody on your broomstick because their match commentary wasn’t pro-Gryffindor enough = hilarious and cool.



* Funny, in most books I’ve read the three attackers beating up the single small boy would be considered the bad guys. <<

You may have forgotten - IOIAGDI!

[oryx_leucoryx]

* Professor McGonagall is letting Harry and Ron off homework to help them prepare for Quidditch. It’s that good ol’-fashioned Gryffindor chivalry at work there.

I wonder if she also gave extra homework to the Slytherins.

* Now Ron needs somebody to help him dress himself. Feel emasculated yet, Weasley?

Last year Harry had ridiculous trouble getting dressed on the morning of the First Task. But at least he managed on his own, eventually. So even when Rowling uses the same ridiculous technique to show nervousness, Ron turns out worse than Harry.

* The Slytherin team are all huge, as usual. Because if there’s one thing that helps you manoeuvre quickly on narrow sticks of wood, it’s huge body mass.

Well, the only one who really needs to be quick is the Seeker. Draco is on the small and thin side - and just as he hits his growth spurt he is replaced (we thought it was because of the cabinet business, but that may not have been the only reason). The other players are big and heavy for stability, to be the last one sitting in a crash.

* It’s interesting that McGonagall’s first comment is “Two on one! Explain yourselves!” IOW, she doesn’t mind the actual assault, just the disparity in numbers. If they’d only taken turns to hit Malfoy, that would be OK.

And a magical assault would have been better than 'Muggle dueling'.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

But central heating would totally lose the cool medievally image Hogwarts is going for! ;-)

I'm really liking the handwarmer idea. Despite apparently being idiots, muggles at least invent stuff that's practical. ;-)

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

Really, it seems to me that most Quidditch players ought to be built like jockeys.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

Minerva’s become accustomed to seeing the Quidditch Cup in her study. Really of course they should put it in the Firebolt factory. That broom does more to secure victory than any of the players do, after all.

You know, I am kind of surprised that nobody in the WW has made this correlation and thus tried to standardize quidditch equipment so that everybody would be on equal footing. What's the point of even playing a game if you know who's going to win because they have the better brooms? Of course, we can always assume that it's Gryffindor, but can we at least have some semblance of tension here?

[fishinginthemud.livejournal.com]

This sort of thing made sense back in PS, when we could believe that people would be glad to see anyone beat Slytherin, but it just seems silly now. If anything, people ought to be resenting Gryffindor for the same reasons that they originally resented Slytherin.

But Slytherin is evil. Seriously, who uses a snake as their mascot besides cartoon villains?

Draco's "your mom smells" taunts and the white hats' rage at them really hammers home that these books are for eight-year-olds and are written with no consideration for anyone else. All the disingenuous crap about racism and slavery and genocide really is just false advertising.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

I hate how McGonagall is perceived as so much better. I mean, she still uses Muggle as an insult, whereas Snape's learned that his prejudices are wrong and tries to atone for his mistakes. But then again, Muggle-borns are cool 'coz they have magic while Muggles suck 'coz they're mundane, so I guess her prejudice is acceptable.

But seriously, all this stuff about how McG is so fair sets my teeth on edge- fair is buying a kid his own broom (top of the line in PS/SS, iirc, the best broom available at that time) to give him an unbeatable advantage when he shouldn't have even been allowed on the team at all?! Bending the rules is awesome when it comes to Harry and his friends! Snape ignoring his students' misbehavior is just plain EVIL, though.

Then again, you know that if Harry were a Slytherin, we'd be told to view his behavior as justified and righteous, while that horrible, biased McGonagall would be crucified for letting her lions get away without homework.

DOUBLE STANDARDS, ARGGGHHH.

[night-axe.livejournal.com]

Prejudice against Muggles is only bad when it leads to impinging on a wizard's rights. Like killing the Muggle Studies teacher, or denying Arthur Weasley promotion because of his Muggle interests (you just keep telling yourself that, Arthur).

I think McGonagall got her rep for fairness after PS/SS, when she took a gajillion points off her own House for what most readers would see as a minor infraction. (It hadn't yet percolated that at Hogwarts, students out after curfew might get eaten.) Snape never punishes a student he likes that harshly, if at all. In fact Harry, our POV character, seems to believe Snape gets a kick out of letting his students get away with as much misbehavior as possible. Casual readers don't notice that he never favors the Slytherins as shamelessly as McG does Gryffindor.

One thing Rowling said post-canon that I liked was that McGonagall isn't Headmistress. mmmarcusz is right, she'd be useless. Fic writers take note plz.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Competition is seriously the worst thing in the world for Ron. He's got wa-a-ay too much baggage.

Following my thoughts about earlier political theories about Wizarding Britain I scrolled through some old posts by Pharnabazus.

And here I found the following quote:

And Hermione was right. Ron's Quidditch "did" improve no end the moment the twins disappeared from the team! They were undermining him "far" more than Draco's gang did. Once the twins were gone, he could ignore the Slytherin jeerers.

[oryx_leucoryx]

What about the Twins? Aren't they supposed to be a pair of merry pranksters? Weren't they the ones who flippantly hexed Draco along with Harry, Ron, and Hermione in GoF? Didn't they scoff at Draco for being scared of the dementor on the train in PoA? Why do they care about this scrawny little fifth-year who barely interacts with them? If anything, I'd think that they'd just laugh at him. I don't understand how one stupid insult can drive all three of these people into a blinding rage.

They are just following their father's example. See COS at the bookstore.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Minerva's character is so contradictory she can't be said to have one. She is so angry with the kids in PS for being out at night in dangerous times, and to punish them she sends them directly into the path of danger by assigning the detention in the forest. (And Severus is the mean one for assigning detentions preparing ingredients or cleaning bedpans.)

She does have moments when she is sensible, like when she points out to Harry that he could have sent his owl to notify the school about the trouble at the train station barrier rather than steal a magical car or when she tells Harry not to antagonize Umbridge needlessly and to no purpose.

As to her treatment of bullies - we don't know she ignored the Marauders. Someone gave them all those detentions. I doubt it was Slughorn. My interpretation is that when they became even more adept at hiding their crimes in 5th year (with the aid of their map, and with Peter's rat form to be their hidden lookout) she mistakenly believed they had made a turn-around, and all the previous efforts to keep them in line were suddenly paying off. So with such a success story she applied the same methods to the twins - to no effect.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/fair is buying a kid his own broom (top of the line in PS/SS, iirc, the best broom available at that time) to give him an unbeatable advantage when he shouldn't have even been allowed on the team at all?!/

And yet Draco "bought his way" into the Slytherin team because his father bought him and the rest of the team new broomsticks. I suppose that because Lucius is his father, it's easier to view that as favoritism rather than a professor giving a student a new broom. But yeah, Harry got a brand new broomstick from a teacher even though first-years aren't allowed on the Quidditch team and we already saw that Draco could fly well in PS/SS. He didn't have to buy his way in, yet there are still people who think that he did.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

Grr, I think it's actually MORE viewable as favoritism- a parent has every right to splurge on their kid, that's understandable (only HP has this 'RICH PEOPLE ARE EVIL' thing going on, except for Harry, because he doesn't touch his vault, making him noble as opposed to people who like money), but a professor has no place buying things for a student! That's blatant favoritism. It makes me really angry. What about Ron? He's the one who doesn't have dead parents that left him a fortune, he could've done with a new broom, that'd've done wonders for his confidence, but nooooo, just Harry Speshul Snowflake Potter gets the awesomesauce broom. UGH.

[kahran042]

Seriously, who uses a snake as their mascot besides cartoon villains?

The Order of the Silver Serpent, in the Ultima series. :)