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deathtocapslock2006-09-22 02:18 pm
sistermagpie.livejournal.com) wrote in deathtocapslock2006-09-22 02:18 pm
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HBP Chapter Twenty-Eight
*If you give yourself a fruity little nickname, Severus, you get yourself a fruity little chapter title.
*Of all Snape’s moments in canon, his grabbing Malfoy by the scruff of the neck--the scruff of the neck! has got to be one of my favorites. Years of Snape/Draco moments leading up to Snape seizing him up like a kitten and rushing him to safety.
*Amycus and Alecto are panting excitedly. Now that they’ve killed Dumbledore it’s time to celebrate with soup!
*I’ve read many imo misguided conversations about how Dumbledore wasn’t really killed by Snape here, or that wasn’t an AK, and I swear one of the reasons is that Harry’s still frozen until this chapter. But JKR actually doesn’t say the exact moment he’s unfrozen. She just has him realize it when he’s already unfrozen magically and numb with emo!shock.
*Harry throws the Invisibility Cloak aside immediately, because it’s a real disadvantage to fight Death Eaters when you can see them but they can’t see you.
*The Death Eater buckles from his Petrificus Totalus, such is the force of Harry’s anger. I’ll bet he cast the curse in CAPSLOCK.
*Snape and Malfoy have forced their way through the fight unscathed. It’s kind of wonderfully romantic the way Harry’s trapped on the other side of the fight watching his two most popular slash partners disappear round the corner, possibly never to return.
*So who does petrify Greyback? The line isn’t assigned to a person—or even given an adverb. Harry’s wand isn’t raised and we never hear who saved him. Snape seems to have disappeared. Surely if Ginny did it we’d hear how pretty she was or how sassily she delivered the words?
*Harry’s then distracted by Ginny’s hair flying like flames in front of him—oh for god sakes! Enough!
*Amycus is "locked in combat" with Ginny, by which we mean he’s hexing her and she’s dodging which is a different thing.
*Harry hexes Amycus before he can finish his compliment to Ginny, so I guess we’ll have to imagine what he was going to say. "Pretty Mary Sue who’s stolen my heart?" "Pretty girl with a sassy temper that shows how much you care about others?" "Pretty love interest with a Seeker’s build—I’ll bet you’re great at Quidditch?"
*Jinxes apparently hurt when thrown during dramatic battles. Good to know.
*Harry has no time to answer Ginny’s question of where he came from. But surely he does have time to tell her how her hair dances like flames when she fights.
*McGonagall shouts "take that!" during fights. McGonagall is so old school, yo!
*Ron’s also fighting, his hair dancing like tiny flames.
*The Order seems to totally outnumber these Death Eaters and they’re helped by teenagers with liquid luck, yet the DEs seem to be winning. Guess this is payback for the MoM last year.
*Neville’s semi-tragically wounded but not dead as usual, and directs Harry to Snape and Malfoy running past…why? Did one of them kick him in the stomach? (Hey, Snape might not see him again! He might have.)
*What, doesn’t Neville have any report on how pretty Ginny was in the fight?
*Harry goes on, ignoring the mute cries of the people on the ground calling him to come back. The mute call only total drama queens like Harry can hear.
*The floor is soaked with blood, and yet nobody seems to be bleeding except Bill. Is this blood all from Bill? Did Fenrir hit an artery?
*Harry wonders if the Order has secured the Cabinet, but they actually might not know about the Cabinet. The RoR presumably, but not necessarily the Cabinet. Unless of course they skipped out singing "We came through the broken Vanishing Cabinet" which I honestly would not put past Death Eaters.
*Harry knocks down some Hufflepuffs in pajamas on his way to catch Snape and Malfoy, a moment that seems to pretty much sum up Hufflepuff’s role in the series.
*The doors have been blasted open for dramatic effect. There must be a special Alohamora for nights like this.
*Above the blasted doors the DEs have scrawled GINNY WEASLEY IS ALL THAT in blood.
*Oh, here’s one thing bleeding…the Gryffindor hour glass is leaking rubies, sweet rubies, precious rubies! So I guess the House Cup will be canceled again this year.
*Not Hagrid too! Harry prays, trying to drown out the prayers of hundreds of readers saying "Please Hagrid too! Please get Hagrid!"
*Hagrid escapes—this time. We’ve got that red stage of Alchemy coming up in the next book. First Black, then Albus—your days are numbered Rubeus.
*The blond DE is aiming curse after curse at the gamekeeper—oh thank goodness! Someone’s demoted Hagrid back to
*Harry tries to hex Snape with a clear shot from behind and misses. Guess the puppet master drama gods are collecting payment for that improbable rolling-around-without-looking-at-all-but-still-taking-out- two-Death-Eaters-for-good-at-once-with-one hex.
*Snape, who already had me when he grabbed Malfoy by the scruff of his neck, seals the deal by shouting Run Draco!
*A-ha! Harry finally catches up to Snape. He’s got him! Now he can have Snape…err, can have him hand Harry’s own arse to him without breaking a sweat. Oops.
*Hagrid’s yelling about his dog in the background as his house burns. It’s amazing how Hagrid can take a situation guaranteed to get my sympathy, a dog in a burning house, and still annoy me with it.
*As I’m sure everyone realizes, Harry’s "Cruc—" makes it clear he doesn’t have it in him to cast a Crucio because he’s good. Malfoy’s "Cruc—" made it equally clear he could cast it because he’s evil.
*Harry yells at Snape to fight back, probably assuming his not killing Harry here as he clearly could is further sign of his evil. He’s trying to annoy Harry to death!
*In the next book Harry will probably be longing for a chance to fight Snape one on one for once like he was with Malfoy earlier. Fights where Harry does really badly don’t count.
*Harry calls Snape a coward for not fighting back. Err…Harry? I know it goes against your six years of Gryffindor training where older students beat up younger ones who are outnumbered, but generally not attacking someone you can just contain easily is considered the opposite of cowardly.
*Ooh, and Snape makes this point himself using the Gryffindor Marauders as an example. That one’s going to go over Harry’s head, I’m afraid. "What would I call my father? A proud stag of a Gryffindor who hated the Dark Arts, of course. Just like me and my friends when we outnumber people. Is this a trick question?"
*Snape interrupts his final DADA lesson to Harry (God I wish we’d seen more of those, preferably instead of shipping scenes) to yell to the Death Eaters in a frou-frou way: It is time to be gone, my merry men! To Sherwood Forest! The Half-Blood Prince must fly!
*Just in case Harry doesn’t get it, which he doesn’t, Snape then stops a DE from torturing him.
*Not only does this not make any impression on Harry, but he feels no shame in wallowing in the oh-so-terrible-pain of a spell he was about to cast on somebody else. Yeah, I know it was Snape who just killed Dumbledore, but the point is that it’s torture.
*Harry now hates Snape as much as Voldemort himself. Seems like that would require a surge of affection for Snape, doesn’t it? Voldemort’s not the one he fantasizes about torturing.
*So Harry goes for Sectumsempra, his new favorite spell. The one he’ll use when this is all over and he becomes a serial killer who stalks and kills pretty blond boys in men’s rooms, always seeking to capture that first great rush of using it against Malfoy.
*Boy, Snape gets really mad about people using his spells against him, doesn’t he? I kind of hope it turns out his friend Lily taught them to James—bitch.
*One more clue for the DDM!Snape pile—Snape looks at Harry with the same hatred he looked at Dumbledore, only he doesn’t kill him. Cause maybe the first time he hated what he had to do, and did not hate Dumbledore. (No accounting for taste.)
*It’s good Snape delivered those frou-frou lines to the DEs earlier—you can’t just come out with "I, the Half-Blood Prince!" out of the blue. You have to work up to it.
*Harry’s all begging to be killed by Snape, who let’s face it might actually be able to do it, unlike Voldemort. How funny would that anti-climactic ending have been? CHOSEN ONE KILLED BY BITTER POTIONS TEACHER: "He mouthed off in class one two many times!" says killer. With lots of quotes from Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy. And one from Hermione complaining about Harry being a big Potions fake sixth year that she said without knowing she was bitching to a reporter.
*Yeah, Snape’s howling like the dog in the burning house really doesn’t make much sense for ESE!Snape.
*Harry gets dazed by Snape’s S&M whip spell. He’ll probably look that one up in the HBP book once he comes to again.
*Buckbeak surprises me by making him dislike him more than I did in PoA or OotP. I hope the ferrets form a food dish army and bring him down. Dook dook!
*Why is Buckbeak screeching at Snape so much? Because once again all animals must adore Harry because they sense his inner-awesome even if he doesn’t like them?
*Hagrid looms above Harry, blocking out the stars…and any hope of getting out of this chapter with dignity. Speak ter me, Harry! Speak ter me!
*It’s good to know Hagrid doesn’t know how to put out fires with magic, what with all the fire-breathing animals he no doubt brings to class.
*Hagrid says something about Dumbledore and Harry feels a searing pain. I suspect the weirdo kind of pain only Dumbledore knows about that you can bleed to death from.
*Harry tells Hagrid Snape killed Dumbledore on page 556. Hagrid smacks Harry over the head with his umbrella for spoiling him.
*Hagrid, Harry and Fang walk towards Dumbledore’s body. I have a sudden wild hope that Fang will rush up to Dumbledore and start chewing on him.
*There’s a crowd around the body. But first they must get through the crowd of admirers surrounding Ginny.
*Harry feels the aches and pains of the hexes that hit him, but in a detached way, as if someone near him was suffering with them. Which having lived with Harry for six books now I know would mean he wouldn’t notice them at all.
*Harry looks down at the greatest wizard he not only has met but will ever meet. Jeez, that’s the most depressing thing in the chapter. Dumbledore really was not that great.
*Harry tries to comprehend that Dumbledore will never again speak to him or help him...in the final two chapters of each book.
*Greatest wizard ever, but didn’t notice that the locket in the bird bath wasn’t the one they were looking for. That’s got to hurt.
*Harry reads a note in the locket from RAB, who already seems like a much greater wizard than Dumbledore. House of Black rulz!!!
*My one regret is that I die never knowing the wonder that is Ginny Weasley. –RAB
*Harry neither knows nor cares what the message in the locket means, which I think we all would have guessed without being told it.
Designated Hero
Mostly it’s Harry himself suffering from this one here, not seeming to realize he’s outclassed by Snape.
"Fruit Cart, Fruit Cart!"
Hufflepuff means "fruit cart" in old English.
Hero’s Death Battle Exemption
Harry trusts this rule so much he doesn’t even notice Snape saving his arse.
IITS
Looking back, you really would think super smart Dumbledore would have noticed that locket had no S on it, wouldn’t you? If he’s going to recognize Tom Riddle’s signature magic and be uppity about the blood?
Informed Attributes
Snape, you coward! Not even brave enough to take out a kid you’ve already beaten with one hand tied behind your back!
Jason’s Rule of Explosive Endings
Before we go, how about we set Hagrid’s house on fire?
Ken’s Second Rule of High Altitude Mortality
I didn’t give this one in the last chapter, but it actually does fit. This is the only AK we’ve ever seen blast somebody off their feet, apparently just so that he can fly over the battlements instead of just hitting the wall.
The Stealth Monster Rule
My, Buckbeak. What dramatic entrances you make!
Final score: 8
H/D cliché count: Snape taking care of Malfoy in a paternal way!
Slytherin liquid count: The floor slippery with blood, blood trickling from Dumbledore’s mouth, the Gryffindor rubies spilling out like blood from a wound, reference to the green goo Potion, Harry’s eyes burning with tears and Harry and Hagrid squirting jets of water out of their wands to put out Hagrid’s burning house.
no subject
Oh, come on, I've given myself worse ones at that age....
No, I won't tell you what.
Invisibility Cloak , Greyback, Ginny, DE v. Order & Hogwarts students
Yes,once the spell is lifted Harry immediately gives a justification to D's using it: if Harry wanted to fight Snape and pass quickly through the battlefield below, a much wiser decision would be use the Invisibility Cloak instead of leaving it at the Tower Top. My words are proved right off the bat when Greyback attacks him.
* So who does petrify Greyback?
I read an opinion that Neville was the one to petrify Greyback, since all others were busy fighting. Another (more likely, imo) theory states that the enormous blond DE's spell accidentally hit the werewolf, saving Harry's life. Additional example of DE's ineptness.
* Amycus is "locked in combat" with Ginny, by which we mean he’s hexing her and she’s dodging which is a different thing.
Despite drinking FF Ginny only barely manages to dodge Amycus's hexes, while FF-free Harry, running after Snape, still in shock from D's death effortlessly slams the DE into the wall with one carelessly thrown jinx. Ginny somehow is both the girl!power embodiment & the classical damsel in distress from 16 century novel, needing her hero to save her. Has she forgotten about the old favorite bat-bogey hex?
At least, it gives me hope that we will be spared the happy reunion, after which Ginny would join the Trio for the last book's adventure. This is one of the few things able to make me not want to read the book at all.
* A thought: DE-s use hexes, jinxes & curses (including unforgivable ones) yet the Order members seem only try to drive DEs away, without catching or killing them. Why?
May be I am bloodthirsty, but a front page article "15 DE killed by Hogwarts staff during a surprise attack" with a throwaway mentioning that D was absent at the time attracts me immensely. It would considerably dampen the other side's morale & make people think twice before recruiting to DE or even agreeing to help them out of fear.
*Harry knocks down some Hufflepuffs in pajamas on his way to catch Snape and Malfoy...
Oh, here’s one thing bleeding…the Gryffindor hour glass is leaking rubies, sweet rubies, precious rubies!
A huge battle has been going for quite a long time, the Dark Mark is in the sky, DE run through the school, students hear a noise ... After all that Harry meets 'bewildered' Hufflepuffs, standing in the corridor. It just seems so strange & unbelievable. I would think the whole school would be awake by now. Why did Hermione, Ginny, Neville, Ron and Luna rush into the battle themselves without waking up other students (DA members f.e.)? They wasted enough time calling Snape, so it wasn't the time problem. Also, I understand why they didn't do it, but not coming into the RoR & destroying the cabinet was very foolish and dangerous. What if additional DEs, werewolves, dementors, Inferi and whatnot would come for support a bit later? This is even higher priority than destroying the escape rout to DE, who already infiltrated school.
* Continuing his mad chase Harry sees several terrified students still cowering with their arms over their faces & the broken Gryffindor hour-glass with its rubies falling, with a loud rattle. Deep Symbolism! The utter destruction of normal life is cleverly symbolized by Gryffindor points slowly vanishing one after another.
Btw, who are those terrified students first- years or cowards? Their fear is understandable, but it makes one wonder whether Hogwarts students wouldn't turn into a lamb to the slaughter in case of attack. It shouldn't be so in this world, where sheer physical strength decides nothing & theoretically at least the older students should be better than some DE, who strangely are characterized as both pathetic and hard to defeat.
Re: Invisibility Cloak , Greyback, Ginny, DE v. Order & Hogwarts students
Re: Invisibility Cloak , Greyback, Ginny, DE v. Order & Hogwarts students
no subject
LOL. Don't forget that at the same time, Harry is a Marked Man, more mature than anyone could know, while Draco's still a bratty child fixating on shallow things.
Harry was able to cast Sectumsempra without even knowing what it did with no problem. Plus, since when was Bellatrix held up as a prime reliable source here?
Not to mention the endless 'Harry couldn't cast Crucio!' snowjobs are totally inaccurate (I'll give the canonwhores this one, as I do a bunch of their dodgy arguments, as it's apparently supported - and rather unsubtly - by JKR): he didn't finish it, but he says it; Bellatrix is knocked off her feet, she screams, she stops laughing immediately.
It's like saying Fake!Moody didn't cast Imperius on Harry in GoF, since Harry threw it off: the spell may have failed (in that case thanks to Harry's amazing strength of will, blah blah, whereas the Crucio is done to Harry's amazing power to love - he's so layered!), but it's not really the same as, say, what he describes in GoF, where the whole class could say 'Avada Kedavra' to him, and nothing would happen.
If anything, Harry took to the Crucio, and indeed, the Sectumsempra, fairly quickly - it took him a term or so to learn Accio, in comparison.
no subject
I have no idea what you're talking about, but I like the sound of it.
It’s amazing how Hagrid can take a situation guaranteed to get my sympathy, a dog in a burning house, and still annoy me.
Didn't the guys coming to arrest him in OotP accidentally curse Fang? OMG baddies taunt orphans and hurt puppies (well, fully grown dogs, but still!) - subtle! I'm waiting for someone to steal a cookie from a starving child, personally.
And one from Hermione complaining about Harry being a big Potions fake sixth year that she said without knowing she was bitching to a reporter.
MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF OUR OWN - Second Daily Prophet reporter in three years went missing, presumed kidnapped or mutilated...
Jason’s Rule of Explosive Endings Before we go, how about we set Hagrid’s house on fire?
What was the Death Eater even going for, here (if I start a fire, I might get a credit in the movie!)? I don't know if he's trying to set Harry/Hagrid on fire (surely an Avada would be quicker?) or aiming for the house, but really, what is the point?
Hagrid cracks me up with his 'ZOMG, my dog, you evil mofo!' bit. Um, yeah, this is going to be the thing that makes this random guy irredeemably bad - reckless endangerment of one of Hagrid's pets, not the fact the dude joined a murderous terrorist group intent on serving a would-be baby killer.
Amycus is "locked in combat" with Ginny, by which we mean he’s hexing her and she’s dodging which is a different thing.
What a shame she has nothing good up her sleeve. (What, no PWNing the DEs with the marvellous Bat Bogey Hex? Size is no indication of strength, you know!) Of course then Harry couldn’t rescue her.
I swear one of the reasons is that Harry’s still frozen until this chapter.
Did we know before this that some spells only release when their caster dies? (It just reminds me of this wicked drabble I read, where the Potters asked Peter to be their secret-keeper and then killed him so the secret couldn’t be spread.)
Harry’s then distracted by Ginny’s hair flying like flames in front of him—oh for god sakes! Enough!
I think my favourite Ginny moment is next chapter, where after a sweaty battle for her life, she still smells of
Love Potionflowers. Ginny's coolness - it's stronger than biology!Buckbeak surprises me by making him dislike him more than I did in PoA or OotP.
I think he annoyed me more in POA, just because we had to constantly hear how cute and endangered he was.
By now I feel everyone has come to accept in their hearts that
Hagrid has a rare field of competency – training his pets to attack Teh Meanie House!1!Buckbeak is the series avenging angel, attacking the unworthy; rather than the snowjob we got about his poor injured pride.Harry yells at Snape to fight back, probably assuming his not killing Harry here as he clearly could is further sign of his evil. He’s trying to annoy Harry to death!
He’s disgusting Harry and his machismo with his revolting Slytherin cowardice.
Why on earth is Harry yelling at Snape to fight back, anyway? What, six books and twenty-eight chapters in, and he’s suddenly incapable of hexing someone who’s not immediately a threat to his life?
the Gryffindor rubies spilling out like blood from a wound
The pain of not winning this year’s cup (and who’s going to fix it now that Dumbledore’s gone? WHO? Oh, right, McGonagall.) is going to be like an icy knife.
Harry hexes Amycus before he can finish his compliment to Ginny
It’s hardly fair. This is probably Amycus’s first exposure to the Wonder that is Ginny. How could you expect him to be on his game? He’s lucky to still be capable of vowel sounds!
Why is Amycus trying to Crucio her, anyway? So he could see her panting, gasping, flat on her back, hair streaming back from her forehead as she writhes and jiggles? Or because the DEs are so sadistic it’s overwhelmed common sense and practicality? Or because we can’t have more than one major death per book?
Re:slinkhard
See this link: http://www.mugglenet.com/editorials/spinnersend/se07.shtml
Hagrid 1
Why doesn't this DE just aim AK? It would be so easy. Also, Dumbledore apparently hasn't bothered to prove Hagrid's innocence & let him use magic openly again, despite appointing him a teacher and expecting him to fight DEs as an Order member. How can Hagrid survive without using magic in the war? IITS Hero’s Death Battle Exemption.
Also, we are told that his "immense strength, and the toughened skin... inherited from his giantess mother seemed to be protecting him". I understand the giant skin part [it seems that giants aren't just big, stupid muggles after all, sistermagpie, if they have special anti-magic skin- they seem to be more like magical creatures then] , but why and how would 'immense strength' help? It doesn't add up logically, since the natural conclusion the- stronger -the -muggle -the- more- difficult - is -to -hex- him is bluntly untrue...
* I can't sympathize at all with Hagrid here. His line "Fang's in there, yeh evil-!" to DE, who happily came to kill people is the dumbest thing he has ever said in 6 books. Very characteristic of him to call somebody evil because of hurting an animal when people get injured and killed. Btw, why isn't Hagrid with other teachers fighting? Did D decide not to ask him patrol the corridors too? Why didn't McGonagall send somebody to fetch him (she did send Flitwick to fetch Snape)? Are his abilities hold in such low regard?
Also Hagrid starts to talk about 'poor little things', referring to... Bowtruckles, and not, say, to young (or not)students or teachers, who could have been killed/injured. Such possibility mysteriously doesn't cross his mind at all, since he is in no hurry to ask Harry whether somebody has been hurt. His words "Nothin' D won' be able to put righ'... " refer to his house [again, what about the damage to school, human lives?]. Hagrid seems to me extremely self-absorbed here and stupidly childish [Daddy D will fix my house in a minute= everything will be fine, without considering the implications of DE successfully breaking into the school, which would be enough to close the school even without D's death.]
Slughorn says in the next chapter that "I don't think we're in more danger at Hogwarts than we are anywhere else" & that mothers' desire to keep families together is "only natural", implying imo that it's irrational, but I disagree. Keeping numerous children together during war is always dangerous (in our world, what if a bomb falls on school and kills all the children?), specially when the villain is obsessed with the headmaster, one of students (obviously Harry) and even the building itself (in many fics the authors made V to attack Hogwarts/live in it; in one fic he even became a new headmaster, raising his slaves since childhood, brainwashing children to admire him). So, not closing Hogwarts is more dangerous than teaching children in a war zone in our world in a sense. What if he decided to kidnap all children & threaten the minister with killing them, if he didn't step aside? Much more frightening than those muggle killings, isn't it?
* Can't stop myself from quoting another example of Hagrid's dimness "See it, Harry? Righ' at the foot o' the Tower? Under where the Mark... blimey... yeh don' think someone got thrown-?". All this AFTER Harry told him the infamous 'Snape killed... D'. After all complaints about Harry's stupidity, sistermagpie, just be grateful that JKR hasn't chosen Hagrid or Hagrid-like character as a hero. He would demonstrate even better than Harry the ideas:
1) pure heart is the only weapon against evil (as his intelligence is negligible and magic powers approach zero, the pure (or not) heart is the only thing left; his love for all living creatures would be a wonderful demonstration of the purity of his spirit).
2) we have to unite against the enemy or we'll crumble from within (since alone he is more helpless than Harry, so other people's doing his work, sorry, help is the only way to survive).
Re: Hagrid 1
And why didn't Dumbledore include Hagrid in the patrols? There must be a conspiracy theory about this somewhere.
no subject
Yes. Ginny Weasely and her womb of Secrets is the Tabula Rasa of the Harry Potter series.
*Hagrid escapes—this time. We’ve got that red stage of Alchemy coming up in the next book. First Black, then Albus—your days are numbered Rubeus.
Well if she follows this Alchemy motif as doggedly as she has done in the past, we may have a good chance. But I kind of think Ginny will steal the noble injury spotlight. We are all going to have to mourn the loss of Ginny's awesome snot spell.
*Hagrid, Harry and Fang walk towards Dumbledore’s body. I have a sudden wild hope that Fang will rush up to Dumbledore and start chewing on him.
Too bad Edgar Allen Poe isn't around anymore. He could have been a good ghost writer for this series. We could have had Harry walling up Slughorn and burying Dumbledore alive. Yeah!
no subject
Oh, God! Cross your fingers! We'd probably have a nauseating inner monologue from Harry about how noble and wonderful Ginny was and how no one could ever measure up to her. I want both Harry and Ginny alive, married to each other, and totally miserable.
no subject
Re: sistermagpie+slinkhard
JKR got too excited due to writing the battle, lost track and unwittingly let us know what she really thinks about him.
* his grabbing Malfoy by the scruff of the neck--the scruff of the neck! ... Snape seizing him up like a kitten and rushing him to safety.
This seizing him up like a kitten thing sounds so cute!!!
* McGonagall shouts "take that!" during fights. McGonagall is so old school, yo!
This 'old schoolness' has made me root for her. Go McGonagall!!!
* Did one of them kick him in the stomach? (Hey, Snape might not see him again! He might have.)
I thought Snape&Draco stepped on him, while he was lying on the floor.
* Harry wonders if the Order has secured the Cabinet, but they actually might not know about the Cabinet.
In the next chapter McGonagall says: "I still don't know how the DEs can possibly have entered...", which made me wonder whether she knows about the RoR at all & not just about DEs entering the school. After all, D despite Harry's and Snape's(?) warnings D didn't tell his underlings to pay special attention to the RoR. McGonagall tells that his only instruction was to patrol the corridors. Interesting, why? Did he underestimate Draco? For plot purposes?
* Snape interrupts his final DADA lesson to Harry (God I wish we’d seen more of those, preferably instead of shipping scenes)
I had never been a shipper, but this book made me hate this concept. Otoh, if those lessons would consist of 'There's no need to call me "sir", Professor' you are lucky for still being able to imagine something more interesting and enjoy the IC-since-we-weren't-given-smth-lame-in-canon fanfic.
* Harry now hates Snape as much as Voldemort himself. Seems like that would require a surge of affection for Snape, doesn’t it? Voldemort’s not the one he fantasizes about torturing.
LOL, my favorite for this chapter. It's just so true. V should really become a teacher for one year to make Harry able to gather enough hate to kill him.
Btw, I always imagine V as a wonderful teacher (if he would want it, of course). May be he would be more successful as a teacher than as an evil overlord. Besides, books about evil (or not) or just interesting teachers are much more original & fewer in numbers than the old evil overlord cliche.
* Harry looks down at the greatest wizard he not only has met but will ever meet. Jeez, that’s the most depressing thing in the chapter. Dumbledore really was not that great.
LOL again... and I think JKR has made a mistake here. Obviously Harry will become at least as great as D, when he grows up.
* I'm waiting for someone to steal a cookie from a starving child, personally.
LOL, slinkhard! We have already got it, as I suspect, V stole things from other orphans and during the war they didn't have food!galore (specially at the orphanage), so... Unlike Harry, who starving himself, gave his food to Hedwig in CoS, if I am not mistaken.
* It just reminds me of this wicked drabble I read, where the Potters asked Peter to be their secret-keeper and then killed him so the secret couldn’t be spread.
It would be a truly wonderfully intelligent & secure way of hiding forever, though!
* Buckbeak is the series avenging angel, attacking the unworthy; rather than the snowjob we got about his poor injured pride.
My opinion is that the beast was so frightened by the noise of the battle that it attacked the first close to it person. Harry's luck just made sure that that unlucky person was Snape & not, say, Harry himself.
no subject
Want to bet that the DE who set his house on fire personally knew Hagrid from school? Draco’s probably too busy running like hell, but it’d be freaking sweet if it was he who set Hagrid’s house on fire.
It’s good to know Hagrid doesn’t know how to put out fires with magic, what with all the fire-breathing animals he no doubt brings to class.
This pisses me off to no end. Come on, Dumbledore. I sure as hell would not hire an English teacher who didn’t know what a noun was, but you’re fine hiring this dimwitted near-squib to teach in a school of magic and conduct a class with lethal animals?
Harry looks down at the greatest wizard he not only has met but will ever meet. Jeez, that’s the most depressing thing in the chapter. Dumbledore really was not that great.
Its like how on Krypton everyone is superman; considering how other wizards view potential danger and politics, Dumbledore probably was the best…I shivered, just now.
no subject
Just the other day I was reading Switchknife's recs page, and came across this wonderful gem:
You can imagine the depth of my amusement.