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deathtocapslock2011-08-26 05:13 pm
for-diddled.livejournal.com) wrote in deathtocapslock2011-08-26 05:13 pm
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OOTP Chapter Twenty-Three: "Christmas on the Closed Ward"
* Prepare yourself, people, this is another long, boring chapter in which nothing much happens.
* Harry’s not the most logical of thinkers here. He realises that, if Voldemort’s possessing him, then he’s giving him a view into the Order HQ, without thinking that maybe the fact that he’s allowed to stay means that he’s not being possessed. He also decides that Voldemort could easily transport him from Hogwarts to London and back again, without realising that for the other kids to wake him up he’d have to still be in his bed.
* Harry decides not to return to Hogwarts in case he harms anybody there. Instead he’ll go to Privet Drive, because it’s not like defenceless Muggles are important enough to worry about keeping safe.
* Phineas comes in, and says that “given the choice, we [Slytherins] will always choose to save our own necks.” Because cunning and bravery are two diametrically opposed concepts. You can’t think your way around your problems and still be brave when the situation calls for it, and if you’re brave, you’ve got to just charge in every time and not think about strategy at all
* So how does Dumbledore know that Harry might be planning on leaving? Is he using some form of Legilimency to read Harry’s mental state, or is he just so awesomely good at getting to know people that he can guess what Harry will be doing?
* “‘We won’t bother telling you anything, though, because your tiny little brain might not be able to cope with it!’” Well I hate to break it to you, Harry, but you aren’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed...
* Nice to see Phineas verbally bitchslap Harry like that. The boy probably needs it more often.
* I think it’s funny how Harry’s last thought before falling asleep is that Ron doesn’t want to be alone in the same room as him, and the very next paragraph he wakes up to find... Ron alone in the same room as him! And sleeping, too. Yeah, Harry, everybody’s just terrified that you’ll start randomly attacking people, aren’t they?
* Rowling seems fond of her reverse pathetic fallacies. Whenever Harry’s unhappy, the sun comes out to mock him with its bright cheeriness. Now the Order of the Phoenix are joining in, being all jolly and merry to increase the contrast with Harry’s feelings.
* Whilst the Order aren’t worried about Harry harming them, he seems to me like he’s in the state of mind where he’d be at risk from self-harming. Hopefully they’ve removed all the knives to somewhere where Harry can’t get them.
* Harry seems pretty depressed during the second half of the series. Not only here, but later when he seems completely lacking in motivation to stop Voldemort (he does practically nothing in HBP to help with the war effort, and spends a good portion of DH sitting in a tent), and when he goes off to get killed by Voldemort without much protest. Maybe the constant pressure has finally got to him. Although if we asked JKR, she’d probably blame it on that bit of Voldemort’s soul.
* Hermione’s here, having ditched her parents to stay with Harry for the holidays. This would be bad enough anyway, but after DH it seems even more sinister.
* “‘Lucky you,’ said Ginny coolly.” I’m not really surprised Harry forgot, TBH, given that Ginny never seems to show any after-effects from the possession.
* Apparently JKR feels the need to tell us that Harry “meant it” when he apologises for forgetting that trauma which nobody’s mentioned since COS and which has had no lasting effects on anybody. It’s come to something when the author assumes that any apology the hero makes will seem insincere unless she specifically states otherwise.
* Everybody seems to be assuming that there’s only one way of possessing somebody, and that, if Harry doesn’t have these symptoms, he can’t be possessed. This is one of those situations where it would be nice to know how Potterverse magic actually works, as it’s hard to tell whether they’re correct to assume that possession always has the same symptoms, or whether there are actually several types and they’ve only ruled out one.
* Here comes the obligatory “You can’t Apparate inside of Hogwarts” bit, along with the equally obligatory “You should really read Hogwarts: A History”.
* I assume that God Rest Ye, Merry Hippogriffs was made up by Sirius, because it sounds too stupid for wizarding society as a whole to use.
* The Christmas tree has been “decorated with live fairies.” Didn’t the Weasleys decorate their tree with a live gnome in COS? Looks like wizarding cruelty to animals doesn’t stop even for Christmas.
* Ron’s pile of presents is “rather larger” than Harry’s. Luckily JKR will make up for it by getting him loads of presents he doesn’t want.
* And right on cue, he gets a homework planner from Hermione. But also a broom compass from Harry, which he likes much more. I think we know who Ron’s real soulmate is... :p
* That homework planner does sound incredibly annoying. What happened to the Hermione of POA who got people what they’d actually like?
* F&G think that calling Percy a “humongous pile of rat droppings” is a good way to cheer up their mum. But Percy’s the Weasley who has no people skills, not them. Apparently.
* “‘Well, Sirius said it’s not so much a bedroom, more a kind of – den,’ said Hermione.” For some reason this put me in mind of those upper-class social reformers who manage to sound both concerned about the working classes and incredibly patronising and dismissive of them.
* So the Pureblood-fanatic Blacks have got a boiler? A bit too Muggle for them, surely? Oh, but it’s an old-fashioned boiler. Maybe being ardent Purebloods doesn’t mean that you dislike Muggles, just that you have to be a certain number of decades behind the times. In forty or so years they’ll catch up with the Muggle anti-racism stuff, and then insults like “Mudblood” will finally be discarded.
* Kreacher keeping all those old photographs is rather sweet, IMHO. I wonder what he thinks about Sirius constantly insulting Kreacher’s beloved former masters and getting rid of all their heirlooms?
* Yes, chaps, let’s all laugh at the prospect of Kreacher dying! He’s only a slave, after all. Note that this isn’t at all similar to Draco wishing that one of the good guys might get killed.
* For all that Mr. Weasley talks of Muggles as if they’re little children, he acts like an over-excited little boy whenever presented with anything Muggle. Maybe he’s just projecting his own mental age onto them.
* Actually, that might account for the portrayal of Muggles generally in this series...
* Nice to see how Molly automatically assumes that any Muggle treatments must be bad.
* Hermione seems remarkably nonchalant about people sneering at her Muggle heritage. Maybe she just identifies so much with wizards now that she’s forgotten that she is, in fact, one of them.
* Ron’s so pathetic, even the portraits are humiliating him now.
* Also, I suppose this is what made Ron think of the spattergroit story in DH?
* So Lockhart still gets regular fan-mail, but none of those fans ever think of visiting him? I find that somewhat dubious, I must say.
* Judging from Augusta’s behaviour here, Neville’s probably spent most of his childhood being told how he doesn’t measure up to his parents, which has probably given him some fairly significant self-esteem issues. Maybe the real reason he improves after doing DA lessons is that doing something to help the fight about Voldemort makes him feel like he’s finally measuring up to his parents and cures him of his issues (and, as we all know, confidence is all you need to succeed in fictionland). It’s a more plausible theory than any that rely on Harry being a good teacher, at any rate.
* That Alice/Neville interaction is quite well-done. JKR’s good at setting up relationships between two people in short exchanges like this.
* Now Hermione, Ron and Ginny all need to say “I never knew”, and all need appropriate dialogue tags. Quick, to the thesaurus!
* Harry’s not the most logical of thinkers here. He realises that, if Voldemort’s possessing him, then he’s giving him a view into the Order HQ, without thinking that maybe the fact that he’s allowed to stay means that he’s not being possessed. He also decides that Voldemort could easily transport him from Hogwarts to London and back again, without realising that for the other kids to wake him up he’d have to still be in his bed.
* Harry decides not to return to Hogwarts in case he harms anybody there. Instead he’ll go to Privet Drive, because it’s not like defenceless Muggles are important enough to worry about keeping safe.
* Phineas comes in, and says that “given the choice, we [Slytherins] will always choose to save our own necks.” Because cunning and bravery are two diametrically opposed concepts. You can’t think your way around your problems and still be brave when the situation calls for it, and if you’re brave, you’ve got to just charge in every time and not think about strategy at all
* So how does Dumbledore know that Harry might be planning on leaving? Is he using some form of Legilimency to read Harry’s mental state, or is he just so awesomely good at getting to know people that he can guess what Harry will be doing?
* “‘We won’t bother telling you anything, though, because your tiny little brain might not be able to cope with it!’” Well I hate to break it to you, Harry, but you aren’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed...
* Nice to see Phineas verbally bitchslap Harry like that. The boy probably needs it more often.
* I think it’s funny how Harry’s last thought before falling asleep is that Ron doesn’t want to be alone in the same room as him, and the very next paragraph he wakes up to find... Ron alone in the same room as him! And sleeping, too. Yeah, Harry, everybody’s just terrified that you’ll start randomly attacking people, aren’t they?
* Rowling seems fond of her reverse pathetic fallacies. Whenever Harry’s unhappy, the sun comes out to mock him with its bright cheeriness. Now the Order of the Phoenix are joining in, being all jolly and merry to increase the contrast with Harry’s feelings.
* Whilst the Order aren’t worried about Harry harming them, he seems to me like he’s in the state of mind where he’d be at risk from self-harming. Hopefully they’ve removed all the knives to somewhere where Harry can’t get them.
* Harry seems pretty depressed during the second half of the series. Not only here, but later when he seems completely lacking in motivation to stop Voldemort (he does practically nothing in HBP to help with the war effort, and spends a good portion of DH sitting in a tent), and when he goes off to get killed by Voldemort without much protest. Maybe the constant pressure has finally got to him. Although if we asked JKR, she’d probably blame it on that bit of Voldemort’s soul.
* Hermione’s here, having ditched her parents to stay with Harry for the holidays. This would be bad enough anyway, but after DH it seems even more sinister.
* “‘Lucky you,’ said Ginny coolly.” I’m not really surprised Harry forgot, TBH, given that Ginny never seems to show any after-effects from the possession.
* Apparently JKR feels the need to tell us that Harry “meant it” when he apologises for forgetting that trauma which nobody’s mentioned since COS and which has had no lasting effects on anybody. It’s come to something when the author assumes that any apology the hero makes will seem insincere unless she specifically states otherwise.
* Everybody seems to be assuming that there’s only one way of possessing somebody, and that, if Harry doesn’t have these symptoms, he can’t be possessed. This is one of those situations where it would be nice to know how Potterverse magic actually works, as it’s hard to tell whether they’re correct to assume that possession always has the same symptoms, or whether there are actually several types and they’ve only ruled out one.
* Here comes the obligatory “You can’t Apparate inside of Hogwarts” bit, along with the equally obligatory “You should really read Hogwarts: A History”.
* I assume that God Rest Ye, Merry Hippogriffs was made up by Sirius, because it sounds too stupid for wizarding society as a whole to use.
* The Christmas tree has been “decorated with live fairies.” Didn’t the Weasleys decorate their tree with a live gnome in COS? Looks like wizarding cruelty to animals doesn’t stop even for Christmas.
* Ron’s pile of presents is “rather larger” than Harry’s. Luckily JKR will make up for it by getting him loads of presents he doesn’t want.
* And right on cue, he gets a homework planner from Hermione. But also a broom compass from Harry, which he likes much more. I think we know who Ron’s real soulmate is... :p
* That homework planner does sound incredibly annoying. What happened to the Hermione of POA who got people what they’d actually like?
* F&G think that calling Percy a “humongous pile of rat droppings” is a good way to cheer up their mum. But Percy’s the Weasley who has no people skills, not them. Apparently.
* “‘Well, Sirius said it’s not so much a bedroom, more a kind of – den,’ said Hermione.” For some reason this put me in mind of those upper-class social reformers who manage to sound both concerned about the working classes and incredibly patronising and dismissive of them.
* So the Pureblood-fanatic Blacks have got a boiler? A bit too Muggle for them, surely? Oh, but it’s an old-fashioned boiler. Maybe being ardent Purebloods doesn’t mean that you dislike Muggles, just that you have to be a certain number of decades behind the times. In forty or so years they’ll catch up with the Muggle anti-racism stuff, and then insults like “Mudblood” will finally be discarded.
* Kreacher keeping all those old photographs is rather sweet, IMHO. I wonder what he thinks about Sirius constantly insulting Kreacher’s beloved former masters and getting rid of all their heirlooms?
* Yes, chaps, let’s all laugh at the prospect of Kreacher dying! He’s only a slave, after all. Note that this isn’t at all similar to Draco wishing that one of the good guys might get killed.
* For all that Mr. Weasley talks of Muggles as if they’re little children, he acts like an over-excited little boy whenever presented with anything Muggle. Maybe he’s just projecting his own mental age onto them.
* Actually, that might account for the portrayal of Muggles generally in this series...
* Nice to see how Molly automatically assumes that any Muggle treatments must be bad.
* Hermione seems remarkably nonchalant about people sneering at her Muggle heritage. Maybe she just identifies so much with wizards now that she’s forgotten that she is, in fact, one of them.
* Ron’s so pathetic, even the portraits are humiliating him now.
* Also, I suppose this is what made Ron think of the spattergroit story in DH?
* So Lockhart still gets regular fan-mail, but none of those fans ever think of visiting him? I find that somewhat dubious, I must say.
* Judging from Augusta’s behaviour here, Neville’s probably spent most of his childhood being told how he doesn’t measure up to his parents, which has probably given him some fairly significant self-esteem issues. Maybe the real reason he improves after doing DA lessons is that doing something to help the fight about Voldemort makes him feel like he’s finally measuring up to his parents and cures him of his issues (and, as we all know, confidence is all you need to succeed in fictionland). It’s a more plausible theory than any that rely on Harry being a good teacher, at any rate.
* That Alice/Neville interaction is quite well-done. JKR’s good at setting up relationships between two people in short exchanges like this.
* Now Hermione, Ron and Ginny all need to say “I never knew”, and all need appropriate dialogue tags. Quick, to the thesaurus!
no subject
Dudley will take care of ol' Voldie for him (wait- is Dudley boarded for school, too? I forget). Now it could be a viable plan if the thought process was simple possession and the logic was that there was nobody around Voldemort cared to harm. But Harry thinks that Voldemort transported him, so that's kinda useless. In fact, if the possession/transportation thing were real, it'd be better for him to be far from Hogwarts because he wouldn't be a suspect. Harry's kinda helping ol' Voldie!
So how does Dumbledore know that Harry might be planning on leaving? It's Harry. It's what he does with problems. He does the most brash, martyr-ish, pity me thing he can.
“‘Lucky you,’ said Ginny coolly.” I’m not really surprised Harry forgot, TBH, given that Ginny never seems to show any after-effects from the possession.
This. Sad that this is the first taste we get of bratty HBP-Ginny.
And right on cue, he gets a homework planner from Hermione.
According to "Scrapnotes: The Annotated, mostly Scrapped side notes of Harry Potter", every single page was charmed so that when an assignment was written in it, the book automatically added the work to Hermione's own homework planner. Also, it zapped Ron if he tried to do the work himself or tried to write himself encouraging notes. I won't even tell you what it did if he tried to write down an extra credit assignment.
In forty or so years they’ll catch up with the Muggle anti-racism stuff, and then insults like “Mudblood” will finally be discarded.
But not "muggle" ;)
Nice to see how Molly automatically assumes that any Muggle treatments must be bad.
And people wonder why Ron finds muggles funny? He didn't get his belief systems from nowhere, folks! Children learn what they live.
JKR’s good at setting up relationships between two people in short exchanges like this.
She's extremely good at the sides and scenery. That's why, despite us snarking the books, we in the community still like her and still call ourselves fans. The world she built was great and it's great fun to play in. And it sparks such great discussion and speculation. When she leaves things alone and doesn't try to micro-manage, it's just glorious. The people who get cranky about this community just don't get that. Ah well; if they wanna be insecure, crappy fans, they can go cry in their butterbeer :P
no subject
Exhibit A: the Hogwarts school song.
no subject
Don't diss Slytherin! (Phineas's comment unpacked)
Harry naturally utterly missed the full implications of this remark, but I expect rather more of you, for_diddled. (Shame!)
What Phineas is saying is:
If NOT "given the choice," any proper Slytherin will unhesitatingly die for whatever s/he values more than hir own neck. Whether person or principle.
(How long did Severus hesitate before promising Albus "anything" for Lily's protection? How did Bella respond to the Dementors she'd earned by her attempt to restore her beloved Master and promote his agenda? Did not teen-age Regulus walk knowingly into a cave full of Inferi and into some unspecified worse horror, for the sake of his house-elf's honor?)
But a proper Slytherin will look first, always, to see if s/he might possibly do both. Achieve the objective worth more than one's life, without being killed in the process.
Rather than diving in, eyes closed, to die in unthinking glory.
no subject
They didn't remove his wand.
Hermione’s here, having ditched her parents to stay with Harry for the holidays. This would be bad enough anyway, but after DH it seems even more sinister.
Nodding in agreement. (So did she or didn't she spend the early part of the previous summer in Bulgaria?)
Everybody seems to be assuming that there’s only one way of possessing somebody, and that, if Harry doesn’t have these symptoms, he can’t be possessed.
As we will see at the end of this book, this isn't so. Ginny has those memory gaps because Tom Obliviated her after each 'session'.
The Christmas tree has been “decorated with live fairies.” Didn’t the Weasleys decorate their tree with a live gnome in COS? Looks like wizarding cruelty to animals doesn’t stop even for Christmas.
Filius also uses fairies for Christmas decoration at Hogwarts. But fairies are just pretty insects. It would be like using fireflies for decoration.
That homework planner does sound incredibly annoying. What happened to the Hermione of POA who got people what they’d actually like?
This is the Hermione who gives people (and elves) what she thinks they need, regardless of their choices.
F&G think that calling Percy a “humongous pile of rat droppings” is a good way to cheer up their mum. But Percy’s the Weasley who has no people skills, not them. Apparently.
Yes, how sensitive of them.
Yes, chaps, let’s all laugh at the prospect of Kreacher dying! He’s only a slave, after all. Note that this isn’t at all similar to Draco wishing that one of the good guys might get killed.
So far they have wished death on Severus, Draco and Kreacher. Anyone else?
Also, I suppose this is what made Ron think of the spattergroit story in DH?
Yes. The only aspect of the second hospital visit that was significant to the plot of a future book. Despite Rowling's claims about how important every bit of OOTP was. And some of us thought there was some clue for the location of a Horcrux somewhere...
So Lockhart still gets regular fan-mail, but none of those fans ever think of visiting him? I find that somewhat dubious, I must say.
Do they even know where he is? All they know is they are addressing owls to Gilderoy Lockhart and they are getting back his signature on the item of their choice.
no subject
As opposed to evil Draco Malfoy - remember when they met, Draco said sorry when Harry told him his parents had died. We are told Draco didn't sound sorry at all.
JKR show don't tell