I don't know if this is appropriate here, but I thought it would be appreciated

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I don't know if everybody is enjoying mike_smith's recaps of HBP chapters like I am, but I especially liked today's rundown of Sectumsempra.

AKA, the chapter where Mike's a little dissatisfied with the way Harry makes out: "He grievously wounds Malfoy, is forced to skip out of his big game because of it, and... his team wins anyway? And he gets the girl anyway? There's something very wrong about all this, that Harry's still being treated like a hero instead of the reckless, selfish liar that he is in this chapter. The only comeuppance he's gotten here is the detention thing, which is made to look more like Snape being a jerk than Harry being rightfully punished for maiming a fellow student."

Then there's the added bonus of jim_smith on yes, Harry did know what he was doing: "This is about like stabbing a random part of Draco's anatomy with a knife, and then saying "Well how was I supposed to know the aorta was there?" Except that it's magic, so for all Harry knew the spell would destroy all his enemies, or blow up the entire school and let Merlin sort 'em out."

That's not even the best part of the recap. The best part is Harry's gay self arguing with his inner furry using different fonts. Not to be missed.

Funny, though, that until reading that I hadn't realized how it works exactly like the Quidditch game in OotP, only with more Malfoy sympathy. Harry hurts somebody, gets called in for punishment that he actually would get in any sane world, but the teacher punishing him quickly becomes the substitute bad guy that leaves Harry feeling hard-done-by and we never hear about the poor schmoe Harry clobbered again. So Harry doing something wrong somehow makes Harry more of a martyr.

You can tell Mike hasn't read these books before when he says things like this:
"As penance for his bathroom brawl, Snape gives him detention every Saturday morning for the rest of the year. Um, shouldn't charges be filed? Notify the parents or something?"