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deathtocapslock* 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!
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no subject
Date: 2011-08-28 11:21 pm (UTC)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
Date: 2011-08-29 12:24 pm (UTC)