Back from the Dead!

[q-spade.livejournal.com]

At long last, another chapter review :)

We begin the chapter with a cringe-inducing exposé of inter-Trio relations as of sixth year. On the surface not much has changed – Harry's still in charge, Hermione's useful for brainwork (or just plain work, really!) and Ron provides an intangible form of moral support. But this chapter lays bare the dysfunctions that uphold and maintain the facade of their "friendship", and it's...disturbing.

Harry knows he has to get that memory out of Slughorn, who's done an excellent job of evading him all chapter. He's been "wracking his brains" all week in fact, and keeps looking over the Half-Blood Prince's Potions textbook in hopes a cunning plan will suddenly appear in the margins. Hermione is deeply aggrieved that Harry isn't automatically coming to her for help & problem-solving, so she nags & bitches at him about how her competition that textbook isn't any good. The first mention of Sectumsempra occurs here – Harry sees it and makes a mental note to try it out sometime. Thank goodness the HPB noted that Sectumsempra was "FOR ENEMIES", or Harry might have used it on Hermione at this juncture!

Ron enters the fray, doing his best to defuse tensions by playing the Helpless Male card to the utmost – he's unable to Apparate, he's having trouble with his DADA essay on Dementors, his quill won't write properly, and he simply can't figure out a way to get rid of Lavender. This behavior works to mollify (pun intended!) Hermione's bruised ego; since she finally feels "needed", she bends over backwards to do Ron's work for him. Ron tells her he loves her, yet given the circumstances it feels more like a Pavlovian reward than a romantic statement. (Funny how Lavender shows a keen interest in Divination, yet she hasn't been able to predict Ron's flagging interest!)

Thank fuck for Kreacher, who bursts into the Gryffindor Common Room with Dobby in hot pursuit. Despite his awareness of Hermione's discomfort with the use of house elves as servants, Harry rubs it right in her face anyway. (I'm reminded of the confrontation between Dumbles and Voldemort in the previous chapter, where Albus tells Tom his "friends" seem more like servants.) What's a Muggleborn girl to do when she's upstaged by two elves and a secondhand textbook??? It's a good thing Ron spills ink on his DADA paper, so she can go clean it up!

"Master Malfoy moves with a nobility that befits his pure blood. His features recall the fine bones of my mistress and his manners are those of..."

Hang on – MISTRESS? Does this mean Harry's not actually in charge of Kreacher? Now I'm really wondering what went down between Severus & Narcissa in Chapter Two as they were giving each other the eye, and how much involvement Dumbles had in that scenario!

Kreacher doesn't give away any pertinent information, but Dobby informs Harry that Draco's been spending lots of time on the 7th floor. Harry's ickle brain finally kicks into gear, and he deduces not only that Draco's been spending time in the Room of Requirement, but that the various students Dobby's seen him with are actually Crabbe & Goyle under the influence of Polyjuice potion. While the idea of C&G as eleven-year-old girls gets used for comic relief here, there's something quite wonderful about the trust they put in Draco, and their willingness to experience such fluidity in outward appearance.

Hermione doesn't want to hear any of this, since she didn't think of it in the first place, and leaves Harry to commence The Solitary Stalking of Draco:

"I need to see what Malfoy's doing in here..."
"I need to see the place where Malfoy keeps coming secretly..."
"I need you to become the place you become for Draco Malfoy..."
"I need to see what Draco Malfoy is doing inside you..."

You need a man-sized Kleenex, Harry darling.

Another DADA class with Professor Snape...there's an interesting parallel between this scene and his DADA class in POA. Inferi aren't like Ghosts – not due to any transparency/solidity issues, but because of a lack of personal willpower. Ghosts are still whoever they were in life, they retain their own personality despite losing corporeal form. Inferi are no longer "themselves", their bodies are controlled from outside. Animagi are still considered human despite their ability to change into an animal form, and they can shift shape at will – their OWN will. Werewolves are considered beasts because they cannot control their change of shape – they are subject, like Inferi, to an outside influence.

This segues nicely into the scene with Myrtle in the bathroom. Myrtle is quite a willful ghost, venturing forth beyond her U-bend and sticking up for the underdog - or in this case the sensitive, bullied fellow who's "not afraid to show his feelings and cry". Harry might have figured out the mystery boy's identity, were it not for Ron's need to take the piss out of Myrtle to make himself feel better. I can't help but notice that Draco is the bullied one – by Voldemort of course, although Harry is clearly stalking him as prey in this chapter – in absentia, while Ron, usually the weakest one, is acting the bully here. (Some idiot is bound to comment that Ron is doing "what any normal teenage boy would do!" by being a nasty little shit; I'd think that the "normal" response of a teenage boy to finding a ghost in a public loo would be brown trousers, but there you go.)

Harry gives the Room of Requirement another go, but finds only that his theory about Polyjuice!Goyle is correct, and that Tonks always seems to show up when he's in a compromised position with regards to Draco. She's picking at her sleeve, which brought up many a Polyjuice!Draco/Polyjuice!Narcissa theory after HPB was released. I'm more partial to Tonks being in thrall to the Blacks, either via Imperius or due to some bloodline-related Black Family Business situation, myself – but I'll survive if that ends up not happening in Book 7! :D

Anyway, Tonks is a mess, she's looking for Dumbedore where he clearly isn't and she's asking Harry if he's heard from any Order Members. Harry wonders if she was in love with Sirius (Would that count as Blackcest?), while Ron figures she's losing her nerve after the Ministry Incident. "Women – they're easily upset!", says Ron; we've certainly had enough unhappy females in this chapter to almost lend that theory some credit.

Comments

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Frankly, daughters often seem to only matter in so far as they can catch a man like their mother. The Fathers/Sons seem to have a totally different dynamic than mother/daughter. Tonks and Ginny both seem more "modern" than their mothers (Molly's domestic and Tonks' mother knew all these cleaning spells), but I don't know if they're important in themselves. Mothers in general are mostly important for how they show love for their sons--Narcissa, Lily, Alice, Mrs. Crouch...