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deathtocapslock* So Montague still has to be spoon fed, and yet none of the good guys think to tell anybody what happened to him. I find this to be depressingly unsurprising.
* Professor McGonagall has been transferred to St. Mungo’s, whereas Montague is still in the Hospital Wing. Go figure.
* For those keeping track of Potterverse morality, launching four Stunners at a powerful witch = cowardly. Repeatedly hexing schoolchildren until they resemble slugs, OTOH, = hilarious and righteous.
* Apparently panic was “expanding inside [Harry] like poison gas.” That’s a really odd simile. I can’t say that I’ve ever experienced panic like that.
* Good on you Hermione, actually using reason and logic like that. A pity such concepts are alien to the average Gryffindor male.
* Also, note how violent Harry’s being – he’s shouting in his friends’ faces, wanting to shake Hermione, and Hermione herself is “looking positively petrified at the look on Harry’s face”. Harry’s relationship with Ron and Hermione often seems more like that of an abusive spouse/parent and their family than that of good friends.
* “Hermione, it doesn’t matter if he’s done it to get me there or not” – oh my God, somebody please save me from the stupidity! Harry, you utter flipping moron, of course it matters if Voldemort’s trying to lure you into the Department of Mysteries, because if he is, you’ll be walking right into his trap and playing right into his hands. Now I think I know why Harry was made Head Auror. It was to tie him down with a desk job and stop him ruining missions with his sheer idiocy.
* Luna raises a good point – how are they going to get to London? Especially since Sirius is apparently in such imminent danger that they can’t hang around a few minutes and discuss their plans. But not in such imminent danger that they can’t afford to take several hours at least to fly there. Logic? What logic?
* “OK… Now, we need to keep students right away from her office while we force entry, or some Slytherin’s bound to go and tip her off.” Not “some member of the IS”, that is, or “one of Malfoy’s cronies”, just “some Slytherin”. Because Slyterins are all the same, really.
* Also, note how once again it’s a Slytherins vs. everybody else situation. There’s no chance any Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs or Gryffindors will help Umbridge; it’s just the Slytherins you have to watch out for.
* Fred and George have let Ginny in on their plans to set off Garrotting Gas in the corridor, showing how cool and rebellious she is. Although if Garrotting Gas has the sort of effects its name implies, “cool and rebellious” might not be such a good term as “worryingly sadistic”.
* I find it somewhat surprising that the Order HQ wouldn’t have anybody but Sirius there. Although I suppose they’re not a very big organisation, so maybe everyone’s busy somewhere else.
* Ginny’s still trying the kick the shins of the Slytherin who’s holding her, like a petulant child might try and kick its parents.
* Neville’s randomly here becauseJKR will want him to go to the Department of Mysteries later he tried to stop one of the Slytherins carrying off Ginny. Neville/Ginny FTW!
* The Slytherins are all evil for laughing at McGonagall’s illness. Unlike the twins, whose laughter at what happened to Montague shows that they’re merry tricksters with a rough-and-tumble sense of fun. IOIAGDI, clearly.
* “There was still a member of the Order of the Phoenix at Hogwarts – Snape.” Well done, Harry, you got there in the end. After having the answer practically shoved in your face.
* Harry still doesn’t get that Snape is on his side. Apparently subtlety is too much for our hero to cope with.
* Umbridge’s little “the ends justify the means” speech is rather creepy, made even more so by the fact that I could imagine Hermione saying something very much like it.
* Malfoy was watching “with a hungry expression on his face.” This is probably meant to indicate that he’s a sadist looking forward to seeing Harry get brutally tortured; I, however, will choose to interpret it as a sign that he’s had to skip lunch due to IS-related duties, and is, literally, hungry.
* “‘No!’ shrieked Hermione. ‘Professor Umbridge – it’s illegal.’” Yeah, because Hermione’s always been so concerned with not breaking the law. *rolls eyes*
* Umbridge has her Bond villain moment and randomly confesses to sending the Dementors after Harry, even though she’s got absolutely nothing to gain from doing so.
* I’m sure that Twinkly would be amused to hear Hermione described as “Little Miss Question-all”. She never questions Dumbledore.
* Hermione’s acting must be pretty poor if Mr. Unobservant notices something’s wrong. Luckily nobody else realises.
* The Slytherins are described as Umbridge’s “minions” now. That woman’s starting to look more like a Bond villain with every passing sentence.
* I think it’s interesting that Umbridge reserves her most suspicious look for Malfoy. Has he criticised or gone against her before? Is Lucius Malfoy opposing Fudge in certain areas, making Umbridge suspicious of the entire family? Does Umbridge sense the aura of great evil which hangs around young Draco?
* Professor McGonagall has been transferred to St. Mungo’s, whereas Montague is still in the Hospital Wing. Go figure.
* For those keeping track of Potterverse morality, launching four Stunners at a powerful witch = cowardly. Repeatedly hexing schoolchildren until they resemble slugs, OTOH, = hilarious and righteous.
* Apparently panic was “expanding inside [Harry] like poison gas.” That’s a really odd simile. I can’t say that I’ve ever experienced panic like that.
* Good on you Hermione, actually using reason and logic like that. A pity such concepts are alien to the average Gryffindor male.
* Also, note how violent Harry’s being – he’s shouting in his friends’ faces, wanting to shake Hermione, and Hermione herself is “looking positively petrified at the look on Harry’s face”. Harry’s relationship with Ron and Hermione often seems more like that of an abusive spouse/parent and their family than that of good friends.
* “Hermione, it doesn’t matter if he’s done it to get me there or not” – oh my God, somebody please save me from the stupidity! Harry, you utter flipping moron, of course it matters if Voldemort’s trying to lure you into the Department of Mysteries, because if he is, you’ll be walking right into his trap and playing right into his hands. Now I think I know why Harry was made Head Auror. It was to tie him down with a desk job and stop him ruining missions with his sheer idiocy.
* Luna raises a good point – how are they going to get to London? Especially since Sirius is apparently in such imminent danger that they can’t hang around a few minutes and discuss their plans. But not in such imminent danger that they can’t afford to take several hours at least to fly there. Logic? What logic?
* “OK… Now, we need to keep students right away from her office while we force entry, or some Slytherin’s bound to go and tip her off.” Not “some member of the IS”, that is, or “one of Malfoy’s cronies”, just “some Slytherin”. Because Slyterins are all the same, really.
* Also, note how once again it’s a Slytherins vs. everybody else situation. There’s no chance any Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs or Gryffindors will help Umbridge; it’s just the Slytherins you have to watch out for.
* Fred and George have let Ginny in on their plans to set off Garrotting Gas in the corridor, showing how cool and rebellious she is. Although if Garrotting Gas has the sort of effects its name implies, “cool and rebellious” might not be such a good term as “worryingly sadistic”.
* I find it somewhat surprising that the Order HQ wouldn’t have anybody but Sirius there. Although I suppose they’re not a very big organisation, so maybe everyone’s busy somewhere else.
* Ginny’s still trying the kick the shins of the Slytherin who’s holding her, like a petulant child might try and kick its parents.
* Neville’s randomly here because
* The Slytherins are all evil for laughing at McGonagall’s illness. Unlike the twins, whose laughter at what happened to Montague shows that they’re merry tricksters with a rough-and-tumble sense of fun. IOIAGDI, clearly.
* “There was still a member of the Order of the Phoenix at Hogwarts – Snape.” Well done, Harry, you got there in the end. After having the answer practically shoved in your face.
* Harry still doesn’t get that Snape is on his side. Apparently subtlety is too much for our hero to cope with.
* Umbridge’s little “the ends justify the means” speech is rather creepy, made even more so by the fact that I could imagine Hermione saying something very much like it.
* Malfoy was watching “with a hungry expression on his face.” This is probably meant to indicate that he’s a sadist looking forward to seeing Harry get brutally tortured; I, however, will choose to interpret it as a sign that he’s had to skip lunch due to IS-related duties, and is, literally, hungry.
* “‘No!’ shrieked Hermione. ‘Professor Umbridge – it’s illegal.’” Yeah, because Hermione’s always been so concerned with not breaking the law. *rolls eyes*
* Umbridge has her Bond villain moment and randomly confesses to sending the Dementors after Harry, even though she’s got absolutely nothing to gain from doing so.
* I’m sure that Twinkly would be amused to hear Hermione described as “Little Miss Question-all”. She never questions Dumbledore.
* Hermione’s acting must be pretty poor if Mr. Unobservant notices something’s wrong. Luckily nobody else realises.
* The Slytherins are described as Umbridge’s “minions” now. That woman’s starting to look more like a Bond villain with every passing sentence.
* I think it’s interesting that Umbridge reserves her most suspicious look for Malfoy. Has he criticised or gone against her before? Is Lucius Malfoy opposing Fudge in certain areas, making Umbridge suspicious of the entire family? Does Umbridge sense the aura of great evil which hangs around young Draco?
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no subject
Date: 2011-12-19 04:49 am (UTC)And yet extreme Harry/Hermione shippers portray *Ron* as the abusive one. But don’t worry, I’m sure it’s because of the Horcrux that Harry’s acting this way. *rolls eyes*
/“Hermione, it doesn’t matter if he’s done it to get me there or not” – oh my God, somebody please save me from the stupidity! Harry, you utter flipping moron, of course it matters if Voldemort’s trying to lure you into the Department of Mysteries, because if he is, you’ll be walking right into his trap and playing right into his hands./
I thought that this was so stupid and contrived the first time that I read it. Harry really doesn’t think that this might be a trap? He’s just so confident about his visions being true that he can’t imagine that Voldemort might have found a way to take advantage of their mental link? He just doesn’t *think.*
/note how once again it’s a Slytherins vs. everybody else situation. There’s no chance any Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs or Gryffindors will help Umbridge; it’s just the Slytherins you have to watch out for./
Why do Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw even exist? I mean, really, the only characters that we get from that House are side-characters and love interests who barely last a page. The only Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw who’ve gotten relatively large screen-time are Cedric and Luna. Cho does get screen-time, but she’s portrayed as unsympathetic by the end. And really, what is so striking about these characters that they couldn’t be just random Gryffindors or Slytherins, especially considering that Hufflepuff House and Ravenclaw House are never really brought up as a whole? Zacharias Smith could easily be another Slytherin, no problem. Cedric, Luna, Ernie, Cho, and Hannah could be other Gryffindors. The series revolves around the never-ending conflict between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Why are the other Houses even necessary? All they do is sit on the sidelines or help out every once in a while. They automatically side with Gryffindor whenever a fight starts up. They might as well be other Gryffindors, for all the individuality and independent opinions that aren’t shown in the books.
/The Slytherins are all evil for laughing at McGonagall’s illness. Unlike the twins, whose laughter at what happened to Montague shows that they’re merry tricksters/
And unlike Hermione and Ginny, who will laugh at Umbridge while she’s catatonic in the hospital wing.
/Harry still doesn’t get that Snape is on his side. Apparently subtlety is too much for our hero to cope with./
Please, he didn’t get it by the end of the first book. The only way that Harry will understand that just because Snape’s an unpleasant and harsh teacher doesn’t mean that he’s evil is for Snape to shout that he’s on Dumbledore’s side and that he’s trying to protect Harry or to show Harry his memories of his parents humiliating him.
/Malfoy was watching “with a hungry expression on his face.” This is probably meant to indicate that he’s a sadist looking forward to seeing Harry get brutally tortured;/
Moments like these are just weird. On the one hand, you had people arguing that Draco really is a sadistic bigot. This scene, as well as the scene in GoF when he’s described as being “totally relaxed” when the Roberts are assaulted by the Death Eaters, could be used to support that view. On the other hand, you have JKR abruptly changing her mind for some reason and portraying Draco as somebody who cannot stand seeing others in pain or inflicting pain. In HBP and DH, he’s often described as ‘white’ or ‘shaking,’ whether he’s confronting Dumbledore by the end of HBP or when he’s forced to Crucio a Death Eater in DH.
/Umbridge has her Bond villain moment and randomly confesses to sending the Dementors after Harry, even though she’s got absolutely nothing to gain from doing so./
I don’t even remember what her reason was. Was she trying to shut Harry up about seeing Voldemort come back again? This revelation was just random and bizarre.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-19 06:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-19 12:38 pm (UTC)It also occurs to me that, living in a universe that is contrived to work against him at every turn, Draco could have easily become very bitter and even sadistic towards people like Harry, and not without reason. And yet the kid has no stomach for violence. I'm sure JRK thinks that makes him a coward, but it just makes me wonder why I'm supposed to like Harry and co more than him.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-19 04:49 pm (UTC)"Very well," [Umbridge] said, and she pulled out her wand. "Very well... I am left with no alternative... this is more than a matter of school discipline... this is a matter of Ministry security... yes... yes..."
She seemed to be talking herself into something. She was shifting her weight nervously from foot to foot, staring at Harry, beating her wand against her empty palm and breathing heavily. As he watched her, Harry felt horribly powerless without his own wand.
"You are forcing me, Potter... I do not want to," said Umbridge, still moving restlessly on the spot, "but sometimes circumstances justify the use... I am sure the Minister will understand that I had no choice."
Malfoy was watching her with a hungry expression on his face.
"The Cruciatus Curse ought to loosten your tongue," said Umbridge quietly.
So, Umbridge is clearly talking herself into something unusual, something more serious than normal school punishments, and something which some people might disagree with. Personally, given what we see of wizarding society, I can't imagine that many of them would have to talk themselves into caning somebody like this, and I don't think Draco would either. Then again Umbridge did have this sweet, girlish little persona, and as far as Draco knows (probably, though I don't think we're ever told just how much the IS know about Umbridge's punishment methods) the only punishment she gives out is doing lines and banning people from playing Quidditch, so perhaps he might have thought she was talking herself into corporal punishment. Perhaps he thought she was going to take a leaf out of Filch's book and hand him up by his ankles till he confesses, or something.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-19 05:01 pm (UTC)To give the Gryffindors someone to rule over, of course!
"Moments like these are just weird. On the one hand, you had people arguing that Draco really is a sadistic bigot. This scene, as well as the scene in GoF when he’s described as being “totally relaxed” when the Roberts are assaulted by the Death Eaters, could be used to support that view. On the other hand, you have JKR abruptly changing her mind for some reason and portraying Draco as somebody who cannot stand seeing others in pain or inflicting pain."
We're probably still supposed to view him as a sadist, just a cowardly one, who doesn't have the guts to inflict suffering himself. Harry, on the other hand, is superior because he can both enjoy his enemies' pain and torture them himself, rather than getting other people to do his dirty work.
"I don’t even remember what her reason was. Was she trying to shut Harry up about seeing Voldemort come back again? This revelation was just random and bizarre."
It goes:
"The Minister wouldn't want you to break the law, Professor Umbridge!" cried Hermione.
"What Cornelius doesn't know won't hurt him," said Umbridge, who was now panting slightly as she pointed her wand at different parts of Harry's body in turn, apparently trying to decide where it would hurt most. "He never knew I ordered Dementors to go after Potter last summer, but he was delighted to be given the chance to expel him all the same."
"It was you?" gasped Harry. "You sent the Dementors after me?"
"Somebody had to act," breathed Umbridge, as her wand came to rest pointing directly at Harry's forehead. "They were all bleating about silencing you somehow -- discrediting you -- but I was the one who actually did something about it... only you wriggled your way out of that one, didn't you, Potter? Not today, though, not now--" And taking a deep breath, she cried, "Cruc--"
"NO!" shouted Hermione in a cracked voice from behind Millicent Bulstrode. "No -- Harry -- we have to tell her!"
So yes, it is a bit random, especially admitting it in front of all those IS members, and especially given that she apparently doesn't trust Malfoy at least. Maybe she just got carried away by the prospect of torturing Harry? If I were being unkind, I'd suggest that JKR couldn't think of a realistic way for us readers to find out what happened.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-19 07:34 am (UTC)*Umbridge* has appeared to be concerned with what is and isn't the law, though, even if it turns out she actually doesn't care. So 1) that's a reasonable thing for Hermione to say to try to stop her, and 2) that's another thing that Umbridge and Hermione have in common.
Seriously, though, what else could Hermione say? "Don't do it; it really hurts and it's a nasty thing to do"?
* Malfoy was watching “with a hungry expression on his face.” This is probably meant to indicate that he’s a sadist looking forward to seeing Harry get brutally tortured; I, however, will choose to interpret it as a sign that he’s had to skip lunch due to IS-related duties, and is, literally, hungry.
To be fair to Draco, this was the line *before* Umbridge mentions the Cruciatus. So he's certainly expecting and looking forward to *something* unpleasant to happen to Harry, but probably not outright torture. Between that and the fact that Harry's already beaten Draco up in this book, I don't see this as a particularly damning line.
(Especially since, as detritius points out, when Draco really learns what evil looks like, he decides he isn't actually a fan.)
no subject
Date: 2011-12-19 05:25 pm (UTC)That actually reminds me of a discussion I saw for this one rather strange movie. There was a scene in which a couple of children with psychic powers gang up on a teenager with similar psychic powers by sending attack toys after him (in a scene which is generally much scarier than it sounds). One theory about the scene that a poster on the IMDB board suggested was that the children are trying to kill the teenager, but since they're only children (and very sheltered children at that) they only have a vague idea about what death is- and this idea is supported by the fact that when the children are actually confronted with blood and the reality of dying they freak out (in fact, they call off their attack as soon as the teenager cuts his foot on a piece of broken glass).
So Draco is a sheltered child (i.e., a young wizard) who knows that Daddy and his friends kill and torture every so often, but doesn't actually have much ability to understand or empathize (and magic has the ability to make pain and death glamorous in any event, not to mention easily reversible in some cases)- until he's called upon to torture as well.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-19 11:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-19 05:02 pm (UTC)Given the other times people looked hungry in this series (Severus spying on Lily from the bushes, ResurrectionStone!Lily viewing her sacrificial son), I choose to interpret the "hungry expression" as Draco's undeniable love for Harry!
Great, thought-provoking summary.
Draco and Harry
Date: 2011-12-20 07:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-19 08:30 pm (UTC)Compare and contrast with Ariana's fate. Although... I can barely bring myself to reread DH, but even with Little Miss Poignant, wasn't most of the focus on how bad it was for Aberforth, and how guilty Albus felt? And then we have the fridging of Neville's parents... these books just seem to shove mentally ill people to the side until they're needed as really scary villains. Plea for tolerance, everybody!
* “OK… Now, we need to keep students right away from her office while we force entry, or some Slytherin’s bound to go and tip her off.” Not “some member of the IS”, that is, or “one of Malfoy’s cronies”, just “some Slytherin”. Because Slyterins are all the same, really.
* Also, note how once again it’s a Slytherins vs. everybody else situation. There’s no chance any Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs or Gryffindors will help Umbridge; it’s just the Slytherins you have to watch out for.
If you'll excuse me, I think my wall needs some more head-shaped cracks put in it.