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deathtocapslock* This one’s called “The Beetle at Bay” because “The chapter where Hermione reveals that’s she’s been illegally imprisoning and blackmailing someone” doesn’t sound so good.
* Apparently “Algernon Rookwood” was convicted of leaking Ministry secrets during the last war. Is this the same Rookwood who was mentioned in the Pensieve scene in GOF? Only I’m pretty sure his first name was “Augustus” back then.
* “‘I don’t believe this,’ snarled Harry, ‘Fudge is blaming the breakout on Sirius?’” Erm, Harry, why is this so outrageous? Everybody still thinks that Sirius is a powerful and fanatically loyal Voldemort supporter. The idea that somebody like this would want to break out other powerful and fanatically-loyal Voldemort supporters from prison is quite plausible, actually.
* Also, on doing this read-through, I can’t help but notice how many times Harry’s described as “snarling”, “spitting”, and generally acting like a jerk.
* Harry’s looking-down on the other pupils for not reading newspapers is a bit grating, given that he never reads them himself, and only finds out what’s going on thanks to Hermione.
* “Here they were, talking about Homework and Quidditch and who knew what other rubbish, when outside these walls ten more Death Eaters had swollen Voldemort’s ranks.” Yeah, because of course, Harry would never bother himself with trivial rubbish whilst Voldemort is gaining power outsi— no, wait a minute.
* Umbridge has put Hagrid on probation, so she clearly can’t be all bad.
* Teachers are no longer allowed to give pupils information not strictly related to their subjects. I’m guessing Hogwarts now has no revision skills sessions, if it ever did.
* Umbridge is shadowing all the COMC and Divination classes, as well as taking DADA. She must be using a Time-Turner or something.
* Why can’t Trelawney just make up predictions? Harry did it in POA and got away with it, and Umbridge doesn’t give the impression of being enough of a Divination expert to notice somebody faking.
* Harry would feel sorry for Trelawney, but if one of either she or Hagrid had to lose their job, he’d rather it were her. Erm, why does he assume that one of them will inevitably get fired? Can’t he feel sorry for both of them, and hope that they both get to keep their jobs?
* Also, note how Umbridge puts an incompetent human on probation, but not a competent part-goblin. You’d almost think she were concerned with the teachers’ ability, rather than their species.
* Neville’s doing good spellwork now he’s got somebody to hate. Maybe that’s why Harry starts cursing people in the next book: he’s trying to build up his levels of hatred in order to make himself a better wizard.
* Harry “often felt lurches of annoyance or cheerfulness that were unrelated to what was happening to him at the time.” Don’t worry, Harry, everybody goes through that. It’s called “puberty”, and you’ll grow out of it soon enough.
* Hermione shoots down Ron’s theory with a “Shut up, Ron”. Sounds a bit like she’s trying to convince herself here, as much as Ron.
* Also, note how her reasoning is “Dumbledore trusts him, he’s in the Order, therefore he’s OK”. Yeah, ’cause it’s not like she knows about any other Order members who switched sides. *coughWormtailcough*
* “Harry found it very hard to be sympathetic to Ron’s plight...” No change there, then.
* Harry feels a horrible pang because he can’t play Quidditch, and instead has to go on a date with the girl whom he’s been crushing on for two years now. Yeah, right. It’s things like this that make people think that Harry is in fact gay.
* You can just tell that Cho’s been leading Harry to this café. Rather sweet, I think.
* For “a teashop that Harry had never noticed before” read “a teashop that JKR had never thought of before, but needed to add because she wanted Cho to take Harry somewhere pink and frilly to show her appalling lack of taste and consequent unworthiness”.
* “Perhaps Cho would expect him to hold her hand,” thinks Harry, dismayed. Yup, that boy’s clearly gay as a fruit bat.
* Although Harry worrying about measuring up to the standard set by the other couples is rather cute in an awkward kind of way.
* Then Harry blows it by inviting Cho to come along with him to the Three Broomsticks to meet Hermione. Almost like he were purposefully trying to make it sound as if he’d rather be there than hanging out with Cho. Although he doesn’t seem to have enjoyed this date much so far, so...
* Well, Harry, I really don’t know why somebody would want to discuss their dead boyfriend with the only person she knows who was there when he died.
* Also, what’s all this about her “always” bringing up the subject? As far as I can remember, she’s talked about it twice now in the whole book. That doesn’t seem particularly excessive, especially given that she’d have interacted with Harry quite a bit during the DA meetings.
* Hagrid appears, and gets all whiny and self-pitying. Although given that he’s spent all his adult life in stable employment despite being expelled from school aged thirteen for committing manslaughter, I think he should actually count himself quite lucky.
* Hermione’s treatment of Rita seems to have more than a bit of wish-fulfilment about it. I’m sure JKR would love to have a few real-life tabloid journalists like this. Although knowing the state of tabloid journalism in the UK, I can’t really say I blame her.
* Having said that, though, there is a reason why wish-fulfilment often makes bad fiction. Hermione’s actions seem somewhat creepy, to say the least.
* Everybody seems to recognise that the Daily Prophet is influenced by the government, but nobody ever seems to do anything about this beyond trying to make sure that they’re the ones doing the influencing. The idea of having a free press seems totally foreign to these people.
* It’s also odd that the general public seem to believe what they read in the Prophet. No-one apart from the heroes seems to consider that, since the paper always publishes what the government wants it to, the stories which appear there ought to be taken with a pinch of salt.
* Seeing as Luna’s already agreed to get the story published, why do they need Rita at all? Couldn’t Harry just write it up himself?
* And given that the Quibbler seems to be almost universally considered rubbish, why would people believe it? Wouldn’t they be more likely to say “Oh look, loony Potter’s got himself an article in the Quibbler. Well, I suppose that’s about the only rag that would publish such nonsense...”?
* If Hermione were to alert the authorities to Rita’s animagus status, that might raise some interesting questions about her own behaviour. Why she waited so long before telling them, for example.
* Apparently “Algernon Rookwood” was convicted of leaking Ministry secrets during the last war. Is this the same Rookwood who was mentioned in the Pensieve scene in GOF? Only I’m pretty sure his first name was “Augustus” back then.
* “‘I don’t believe this,’ snarled Harry, ‘Fudge is blaming the breakout on Sirius?’” Erm, Harry, why is this so outrageous? Everybody still thinks that Sirius is a powerful and fanatically loyal Voldemort supporter. The idea that somebody like this would want to break out other powerful and fanatically-loyal Voldemort supporters from prison is quite plausible, actually.
* Also, on doing this read-through, I can’t help but notice how many times Harry’s described as “snarling”, “spitting”, and generally acting like a jerk.
* Harry’s looking-down on the other pupils for not reading newspapers is a bit grating, given that he never reads them himself, and only finds out what’s going on thanks to Hermione.
* “Here they were, talking about Homework and Quidditch and who knew what other rubbish, when outside these walls ten more Death Eaters had swollen Voldemort’s ranks.” Yeah, because of course, Harry would never bother himself with trivial rubbish whilst Voldemort is gaining power outsi— no, wait a minute.
* Umbridge has put Hagrid on probation, so she clearly can’t be all bad.
* Teachers are no longer allowed to give pupils information not strictly related to their subjects. I’m guessing Hogwarts now has no revision skills sessions, if it ever did.
* Umbridge is shadowing all the COMC and Divination classes, as well as taking DADA. She must be using a Time-Turner or something.
* Why can’t Trelawney just make up predictions? Harry did it in POA and got away with it, and Umbridge doesn’t give the impression of being enough of a Divination expert to notice somebody faking.
* Harry would feel sorry for Trelawney, but if one of either she or Hagrid had to lose their job, he’d rather it were her. Erm, why does he assume that one of them will inevitably get fired? Can’t he feel sorry for both of them, and hope that they both get to keep their jobs?
* Also, note how Umbridge puts an incompetent human on probation, but not a competent part-goblin. You’d almost think she were concerned with the teachers’ ability, rather than their species.
* Neville’s doing good spellwork now he’s got somebody to hate. Maybe that’s why Harry starts cursing people in the next book: he’s trying to build up his levels of hatred in order to make himself a better wizard.
* Harry “often felt lurches of annoyance or cheerfulness that were unrelated to what was happening to him at the time.” Don’t worry, Harry, everybody goes through that. It’s called “puberty”, and you’ll grow out of it soon enough.
* Hermione shoots down Ron’s theory with a “Shut up, Ron”. Sounds a bit like she’s trying to convince herself here, as much as Ron.
* Also, note how her reasoning is “Dumbledore trusts him, he’s in the Order, therefore he’s OK”. Yeah, ’cause it’s not like she knows about any other Order members who switched sides. *coughWormtailcough*
* “Harry found it very hard to be sympathetic to Ron’s plight...” No change there, then.
* Harry feels a horrible pang because he can’t play Quidditch, and instead has to go on a date with the girl whom he’s been crushing on for two years now. Yeah, right. It’s things like this that make people think that Harry is in fact gay.
* You can just tell that Cho’s been leading Harry to this café. Rather sweet, I think.
* For “a teashop that Harry had never noticed before” read “a teashop that JKR had never thought of before, but needed to add because she wanted Cho to take Harry somewhere pink and frilly to show her appalling lack of taste and consequent unworthiness”.
* “Perhaps Cho would expect him to hold her hand,” thinks Harry, dismayed. Yup, that boy’s clearly gay as a fruit bat.
* Although Harry worrying about measuring up to the standard set by the other couples is rather cute in an awkward kind of way.
* Then Harry blows it by inviting Cho to come along with him to the Three Broomsticks to meet Hermione. Almost like he were purposefully trying to make it sound as if he’d rather be there than hanging out with Cho. Although he doesn’t seem to have enjoyed this date much so far, so...
* Well, Harry, I really don’t know why somebody would want to discuss their dead boyfriend with the only person she knows who was there when he died.
* Also, what’s all this about her “always” bringing up the subject? As far as I can remember, she’s talked about it twice now in the whole book. That doesn’t seem particularly excessive, especially given that she’d have interacted with Harry quite a bit during the DA meetings.
* Hagrid appears, and gets all whiny and self-pitying. Although given that he’s spent all his adult life in stable employment despite being expelled from school aged thirteen for committing manslaughter, I think he should actually count himself quite lucky.
* Hermione’s treatment of Rita seems to have more than a bit of wish-fulfilment about it. I’m sure JKR would love to have a few real-life tabloid journalists like this. Although knowing the state of tabloid journalism in the UK, I can’t really say I blame her.
* Having said that, though, there is a reason why wish-fulfilment often makes bad fiction. Hermione’s actions seem somewhat creepy, to say the least.
* Everybody seems to recognise that the Daily Prophet is influenced by the government, but nobody ever seems to do anything about this beyond trying to make sure that they’re the ones doing the influencing. The idea of having a free press seems totally foreign to these people.
* It’s also odd that the general public seem to believe what they read in the Prophet. No-one apart from the heroes seems to consider that, since the paper always publishes what the government wants it to, the stories which appear there ought to be taken with a pinch of salt.
* Seeing as Luna’s already agreed to get the story published, why do they need Rita at all? Couldn’t Harry just write it up himself?
* And given that the Quibbler seems to be almost universally considered rubbish, why would people believe it? Wouldn’t they be more likely to say “Oh look, loony Potter’s got himself an article in the Quibbler. Well, I suppose that’s about the only rag that would publish such nonsense...”?
* If Hermione were to alert the authorities to Rita’s animagus status, that might raise some interesting questions about her own behaviour. Why she waited so long before telling them, for example.
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no subject
Date: 2011-09-10 02:36 pm (UTC)In my edition (Scholastic paperback) he is still Augustus.
Umbridge is shadowing all the COMC and Divination classes, as well as taking DADA. She must be using a Time-Turner or something.
I doubt this is doing her sanity any good.
Why can’t Trelawney just make up predictions? Harry did it in POA and got away with it, and Umbridge doesn’t give the impression of being enough of a Divination expert to notice somebody faking.
I think you found the evidence that Hermione was wrong about her being a fraud. She really believes in her art and her typical predictions are what she really sees in her tea leaves. She is not used to faking, and she takes her art too seriously to think of what it would look like to an outsider.
Neville’s doing good spellwork now he’s got somebody to hate.
I prefer to read it as Neville improving because he needs to protect others from suffering the fate of his family. I need to believe someone among the students is a decent person.
Seeing as Luna’s already agreed to get the story published, why do they need Rita at all? Couldn’t Harry just write it up himself?
And since Rita already heard Harry's version on the train, why does she need to conduct this interview?
If Hermione were to alert the authorities to Rita’s animagus status, that might raise some interesting questions about her own behaviour. Why she waited so long before telling them, for example.
That's Hermione following in Albus' footsteps.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-10 05:40 pm (UTC)My Bloomsbury hardback has Algernon - I guess the editor woke up at some point.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-12 10:17 pm (UTC)I have the Scholastic hardback, first print, and he's Augustus in there, too. Which is odd, because it was released at the exact same time as the UK version.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-14 03:34 pm (UTC)The fact that Hermione thought this at all kind of bothers me. It seems profoundly immature to assume that because she isn't naturally good at a subject it must be because the teacher is faking it. Also arrogant as all get-out.
Sometimes I am surprised that I loved Hermione so much as a kid. Really, her obnoxiousness even in the early books is pretty dire- akin to Lisa Simpson, another childhood idol of mine that I really can't see the charm in now. And don't get me started on her mindraping her parents in book 7.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-14 03:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-14 04:15 pm (UTC)What's weird is how there was a nod to her mellowing out in the first book after the troll incident. It seemed like she was going to become nicer and more considerate towards others, but it didn't really go anywhere.
I too mourn what she could have been. I expected her to become a wise, mature and brilliant person whose muggle background gave her a special empathy for non-wizards and a determination to reform things so that wizard imperialism and cruelty might finally become a thing of the past. This was pretty much the opposite of how she turned out. *sigh*
no subject
Date: 2011-09-10 05:48 pm (UTC)This sound surprisingly like a criticism I've heard of the extreme right, in that they think privilege, social acceptance, not being persecuted, etc is a zero sum game. Which maps well onto how desperate Gryffindors are to keep Slytherins in their proper place.
* Harry “often felt lurches of annoyance or cheerfulness that were unrelated to what was happening to him at the time.” Don’t worry, Harry, everybody goes through that. It’s called “puberty”, and you’ll grow out of it soon enough.
Voldemort should never be described as "cheerful". It gives me visions of him frolicking merrily about on some flower-covered, butterfly-infested hillside.
* Harry feels a horrible pang because he can’t play Quidditch, and instead has to go on a date with the girl whom he’s been crushing on for two years now. Yeah, right. It’s things like this that make people think that Harry is in fact gay.
What are you talking about? Just because Harry would rather grasp firmly the long, hard shaft and make it rise into the air...
* Also, what’s all this about her “always” bringing up the subject? As far as I can remember, she’s talked about it twice now in the whole book. That doesn’t seem particularly excessive, especially given that she’d have interacted with Harry quite a bit during the DA meetings.
As we know, the right way to deal with the death of a loved one is to get over it in a couple of weeks and fixate on hating someone who was maybe mildly indirectly to blame*. Cho's just wallowing in it, and probably seeking attention.
*Unless you're a Slytherin, in which case it's the only think that makes you even vaguely a worthwhile human being.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-10 06:19 pm (UTC)But that doesn;t make much sense. Is she just harassing Trelawney to be a sadist - or, more likely, to undermine Dumbledore.
* Neville’s doing good spellwork now he’s got somebody to hate.
Sounds like he's turned to the dark side. "Use your aggressive feelings, boy. Let the hate flow through you."
* Everybody seems to recognise that the Daily Prophet is influenced by the government, but nobody ever seems to do anything about this beyond trying to make sure that they’re the ones doing the influencing. The idea of having a free press seems totally foreign to these people.
Nor do we get any idea of who writes the thing, or how Fudge is able to pressure it, or why no-one tries to set up an opposition paper.
* Seeing as Luna’s already agreed to get the story published, why do they need Rita at all? Couldn’t Harry just write it up himself?
The villainous woman must be punished. Like Umbridge's centaur-rape, discussed on cracked.com recently. http://www.cracked.com/article_19397_the-5-most-depraved-sex-scenes-implied-by-harry-potter.html
no subject
Date: 2011-09-14 03:29 pm (UTC)Does anyone else see a surprising amount of anti-feminism here, in that women are considered unworthy if they have any liking for things traditionally associated with them? Because only fiesty, spunky (read: b*tchy) women are worth appreciating!
Hermione’s actions seem somewhat creepy, to say the least.
So glad I'm not the only one who thinks that. I think it was supposed to come off as being feisty (there's the "f" word again, so to speak) and clever, but it mostly just made her look cruel and manipulative. I mean, reporting incorrect things is a serious ethical violation, but it isn't really a young girl's right or place to do something about it.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-14 04:08 pm (UTC)(And she should have told Albus that Rita had listened in to his war council back in June 1995.)
no subject
Date: 2011-09-14 04:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-14 11:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-15 01:52 am (UTC)Also, in books like you are talking about, such drastic measures are usually reserved for people evil enough to need it- villains, criminals and other people dangerous enough that stopping them is necessary to the wellbeing of others. Not mildly annoying people that bother the main characters. To use another children's book as an example, it would be the equivalent of Laura Ingalls kidnapping and blackmailing Nellie Olson for badmouthing her publicly.