HBP Chapter Eight: "Snape Victorious"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

* “

Harry had never hated Draco more than as he lay there.” I know this has been pointed out a lot of times before, but for a boy marked out by his ability to love, Harry sure keeps outdoing himself with these surges of hatred.

* Harry tries to wordlessly cast Accio Wand. Of course, even if he were already adept at casting non-verbal spells, Harry still wouldn’t be able to do it, because you need to be actually holding your wand to perform magic. Unless JK Rowling’s changed the rules again, that is.

* Tonks “seemed older and much more serious and purposeful”. Normally I’d rejoice at this as an example of character development, or people buckling down appropriately due to the seriousness of the situation, but knowing that she’s actually just pining for Lupin spoils it somehow.

* Harry takes a step towards responsibility by thinking that he was much more responsible for Sirius’ death than Tonks was. Unfortunately this maturing process will be squelched next page when he realises he can just blame Snape instead.

* Speaking of Snape, Harry recognises the potions master “with a rush of pure loathing”. See under “love, power of”.

* Incidentally, does anybody know why Snape is the potions master rather than just potions teacher of head of potions? Perhaps the title’s a relic from Hogwarts history, like the titles of some university professors in the muggle world.

* Y’know, if patronuses can be intercepted by people other than their intended recipients, they don’t seem like a very good communication method for an organisation of super-secret spies.

* Harry blames Snape’s taunting for Sirius’ death. Odd, because I seem to remember that Sirius got far more upset when the Twins accused him of hiding in safety than when Severus did. Not to mention that if Harry had displayed a modicum of sense and not gone rushing off to the Ministry, the whole chain of events leading up to Sirius’ death would never have happened. Still, much easier to blame Severus, isn’t it Harry?

* Actually, I don’t mind this so much, as it’s not exactly uncommon for people to be in denial about their responsibility for unfortunate events. I do get kind of annoyed that Harry’s never forced to confront his responsibility, though.

* Hermione and Ron have been “terrified” about Harry. Not terrified enough to leave dinner early and go look for him, though. Hey, eating enough food is impotant! Gotta keep your priorities straight, and everything.

* The Sorting Hat’s been advising everyone to unite in the face of their common enemy. Good job nobody bases their strategy on a piece of headgear, then, as the right course of action is clearly to expel all the Slytherins as potential fifth columnists.

* Ron’s speaking “between frenzied mouthfuls of gateau”. Just to remind us that he’s greedy, and therefore the lowest member of the Trio.

* Reading the later HP books, I do seriously wonder what Rowling had against Ron. She seems so eager to do him down – he’s greedy, insecure, and always outshone by Harry – that I genuinely think he’s just around so that Harry and Hermione can show their charity by being friends with someone who’s so obviously beneath them.

* “What [Harry] would not give to fight Malfoy one-on-one…” Erm, Harry, that just happened, remember? Malfoy won and totally humiliated you.

* Harry hopes that the DADA jinx will kill Snape. Erm, Our Hero, ladies and gentlemen?

* Ron still refuses to believe that Malfoy’s up to something, even though Harry heard him boast about being given a task by the Dark Lord. Yeah, right. *rolls eyes*

* Still, it’s not like Voldemort would care about a schoolchild, is it? Other than his sixteen-year-old nemesis, that is, who’s already defeated him several times before, and whom he spent most of last year trying to get at.

* And actually, given that wizards’ intelligence seems to drop noticeably as they grow older, using schoolkids would probably be quite a good strategy.

* Grawp’s got a new home, “up in the mountains”. Hopefully now that he’s in a more remote location, Hagrid’s at least decided to stop chaining him up all the time.

Comments

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/Harry had never hated Draco more than as he lay there.” I know this has been pointed out a lot of times before, but for a boy marked out by his ability to love, Harry sure keeps outdoing himself with these surges of hatred./

And he doesn’t forgive anybody either. He manages to feel a little pity for Draco and save his life, but he doesn’t forgive him. He doesn’t forgive Marietta, Peter, Umbridge, or Voldemort. He doesn’t really forgive Snape either; he just learns that Snape was trying to protect him along and amends his opinion of him accordingly. And that’s after Snape is safely dead and Harry doesn’t have to interact with him.

/Of course, even if he were already adept at casting non-verbal spells, Harry still wouldn’t be able to do it, because you need to be actually holding your wand to perform magic./

Aren’t Dumbledore and Voldemort able to perform wandless magic? As was Lily, when she was a young girl?

/I do get kind of annoyed that Harry’s never forced to confront his responsibility, though./

That’s the thing; Harry’s determination to blame Snape wouldn’t be so bad if it was only an immediate reaction after Sirius’ death as a way to deny his own responsibility. But he never learns from it. He never cools down and thinks, “No, it wasn’t Snape’s fault, it was mine.” Or if he still doesn’t want to blame himself, he doesn’t even think, “I should stop blaming Snape because Bellatrix was the one who killed Sirius, so I really should be blaming her.” Sirius’ death just seems like another excuse for Harry to hate Snape.

/Not terrified enough to leave dinner early and go look for him, though./

Hermione and Ron are so weirdly unconcerned about people in danger in this book. They don’t bother to look for Harry after he fails to show up, they ignore Harry whenever he brings up the reasonable claim of Draco being up to no good, and Hermione spends more time trying to figure out who the Half-Blood Prince is than who the would-be murderer is. Because the plot says so.

/I do seriously wonder what Rowling had against Ron. She seems so eager to do him down/

Wasn’t Ron inspired by a good friend of hers? I wonder what happened.

/“What [Harry] would not give to fight Malfoy one-on-one…” Erm, Harry, that just happened, remember?/

He thinks the same thing in DH, after Snape has also won and totally humiliated him.

/Harry hopes that the DADA jinx will kill Snape./

And this is completely different from Draco wishing that the Heir of Slytherin’s monster would attack Hermione.

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

Wasn’t Ron inspired by a good friend of hers? I wonder what happened.


I think she didn't like that everyone liked Ron more than Harry or Hermione.

He thinks the same thing in DH, after Snape has also won and totally humiliated him.

I think that is the most unintentionally hilarious bit of Harry Potter. It's like something out of Don Quixote.