HBP Chapter Thirteen: "The Secret Riddle"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

* Ron and Hermione feign deafness whenever Harry brings up his DE!Draco theory, but neither of them ever seems to wonder who the actual culprit is. Come on, trio, what’s happened to you? Why this uncharacteristic lack of curiosity?

* Maybe Draco’s just been covering his tracks by putting some chemical into the school water supply which reduces curiosity and overall intellectual ability. That explains why nobody ever mounts a serious investigation into the Katie Bell incident, and why all the characters are so stupid in this novel.

* Harry’s all indignant that Snape cured Katie. Yeah, curse that meanie, going around making people healthy!

* Dumbledore promises to take “all appropriate measures” to find out who might have caused Katie Bell’s accident. Obviously he doesn’t also promise to do anything about what he finds; equally obviously, nobody ever calls him out on this.

* And it’s time for a few episodes of Tom Riddle’s Schooldays again. I’m not sure why Dumbles is so sure that Merope made a conscious decision not to use magic. Even if she did go to Hogwarts, they don’t seem to teach any medical spells, so if she was dying of a disease there’s not much she’d be able to do.

* Still, don’t judge Merope too harshly; she never had Lilly’s courage, after all. Never mind that being courageous isn’t actually much of a defence against illness, or that the kind of courage needed to keep going on in a hopeless situation is different to the kind of courage needed to stand up to a homicidal maniac, making the two cases rather difficult to compare, or that Lilly’s death wasn’t actually that brave in the first place.

* Memory!Dumbledore is drawing many curious glances with his flamboyant purple suit. Actually I’m starting to believe that wizards actually know perfectly well how muggles dress, and just keep wearing really weird clothes because they can’t bear not being the centre of attention.

* Mrs. Cole is “an inconveniently sharp woman”, meaning that she actually wants to know what the strange man come to take one of her charges away is going to do with him. I suppose that when you’ve been living with wizards a while the criteria for being “sharp” tend to diminish somewhat.

* Luckily Dumbledore is able to use magic to get her to do his bidding. Phew! For a moment there I thought he might have had to actually treat that uppity muggle like a human being.

* Although I’m not sure why Dumbledore felt the need to get her drunk as well as zapping her mind. Maybe he fancied a drink isn’t allowed any alcohol while on school business, and this way he can pretend it was necessary to do his job. All in the line of duty, Prof. Dippet!

* It’s not surprising Tom never really gets on with Dumbledore. Hogwarts only has room for one bullying, manipulative psychopath.

* I wonder if JKR intended to have child abuse undertones around the incident in the cave, or whether they were just accidental, like the centaur!rape in OOTP.

* Bizarrely, Dumbledore doesn’t stop to consider whether teaching this disturbed individual dangerous magic might not be a good idea. Nor, for that matter, does anybody else. It’s no wonder the wizarding world has so many dark lords, their education policy is just so lax.

* “There was no trace of the Gaunts in Tom Riddle’s face.” No, it was all in his blood, his filthy, tainted blood.

* “Tell the truth!” yells Tom. Yeah, good luck getting that out of Professor Dumbledore.

* Thieving is not tolerated at Hogwarts during Dippet’s headship. With Dumbledore in control, Luna Lovegood will be putting up posters asking people to return her stolen items. Go figure.

* Given that Ron has to go through COS without a wand, I assume the hardship fund was discontinued sometime in Dumbledore’s reign.

* It’s strange that Dumbledore lets Tom go shopping on his own. I know the man doesn’t generally care much for students’ welfare, but he might want to stop the budding psychopath wandering into Nockturn Alley.

* Ways the later books ruin the early books # 477: Dumbledore’s seeing through Tom now looks rather less impressive, and his not telling anybody about the boy’s personality looks extremely negligent.

* Dumbledore had no idea Tom was going to grow up into a dark lord. Odd, because I imagine most muggle psychiatrists – heck, most muggles in general – would be able to tell that teaching such a child dangerous magic wasn’t going to end well.

* I suppose Dumbledore interprets the idea of “keeping an eye” on someone very narrowly, so as to exclude actually intervening if the person goes off the rails or gets into trouble. Either that or he was just lying through his teeth when he said he kept an eye on Tom.

* Tom was “highly self-sufficient, secretive, and, apparently, friendless,” and “preferred to operate alone.” So basically he was like Dumbledore Jnr., then.

* I’m not sure what it was about the mouth-organ that made Harry think it was significant in some way.

* As diverting as these Voldemort flashbacks are, I don’t see why Dumbledore couldn’t have just told Harry the information they contain. He could have got it over and done with in one or two sessions, leaving the rest of the year free for practical information, such as how to recognise and destroy horcruxes.

Comments

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/I’m not sure why Dumbles is so sure that Merope made a conscious decision not to use magic./

Not to mention that this is the only book where this is mentioned. Neville never loses his magic because he has poor self-esteem or because of his grandmother’s treatment of him. Harry doesn’t lose his magic either, even during all of those years of misery with the Dursleys. I get that this was probably supposed to foreshadow the reason for Tonks’ depression as well as explain why Merope didn’t just use magic to make herself better, but it still comes out of nowhere.

/Never mind that being courageous isn’t actually much of a defence against illness, or that the kind of courage needed to keep going on in a hopeless situation is different to the kind of courage needed to stand up to a homicidal maniac/

Yes, don’t judge Merope too harshly, but now let’s unfavorably compare her to Lily, whose situation was nowhere near Merope’s. Also, I don’t think that all of the thousands of women who have died in childbirth perished because they weren’t “courageous” enough.

/I’m not sure why Dumbledore felt the need to get her drunk as well as zapping her mind./

Maybe JKR based Mrs. Cole on Miss Hannigan from “Annie.”

/I wonder if JKR intended to have child abuse undertones around the incident in the cave, or whether they were just accidental/

I’ve always assumed that Tom just brain-damaged them with magic, either on purpose or by accident. Tampering with people’s memories is, after all, a common habit of his.

/Dumbledore doesn’t stop to consider whether teaching this disturbed individual dangerous magic might not be a good idea./

Yes, even after hearing Ms. Cole’s accounts of Tom’s behavior and hearing the truth from Tom’s own mouth, Dumbledore still has no problem with Tom going to school to learn magic and find out even more ways to hurt other children. Why? Does he consider it a disgrace and shame for a magical child to not be taught magic, no matter what the circumstance? Is he still hung up over Ariana and sees Tom as a do-over (i.e. Tom’s the Ariana who actually got to go to school)?

/“There was no trace of the Gaunts in Tom Riddle’s face.” No, it was all in his blood/

Yes, even though Merope married outside of her family, thus reducing the chance of her child inheriting the curse of inbreeding by half, Tom still wound up just like the uncle and grandfather that he never knew. Somehow.

/It’s strange that Dumbledore lets Tom go shopping on his own. I know the man doesn’t generally care much for students’ welfare, but he might want to stop the budding psychopath wandering into Nockturn Alley./

Not only that, but Tom is only 11 years old. Who lets their 11-year-old kid just wander off alone in a big city to shop? At least Harry had Hagrid with him. Dumbledore didn’t even bother to go with Tom or send someone else to supervise him. No, the eleven-year-old will be perfectly fine buying his own things with money that he’s never seen before in a place that he’s never visited.

/Dumbledore’s seeing through Tom now looks rather less impressive, and his not telling anybody about the boy’s personality looks extremely negligent/

Did JKR just not realize how this scene made Dumbledore look? How is it a surprise when Tom winds up being the Heir of Slytherin and Voldemort? He told Dumbledore everything that he needed to know right here!

/I imagine most muggle psychiatrists – heck, most muggles in general – would be able to tell that teaching such a child dangerous magic wasn’t going to end well./

Lucius didn’t even have to go through the Chamber of Secrets and Buckbeak plans to discredit Dumbledore. All he needed to do was write (or get Rita Skeeter to write) one long article disclosing Dumbledore’s history with Voldemort to tell the governors, “This is why you shouldn’t trust this man to guard children!”

/or he was just lying through his teeth when he said he kept an eye on Tom./

Too bad that Harry didn't call him out about the whole Chamber of Secrets fiasco. "Oh, you kept a close eye on him, did you? So, why did Myrtle die?"

/I’m not sure what it was about the mouth-organ that made Harry think it was significant in some way./

Now that I think about it, the mouth-organ would have made a pretty funny Horcrux.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Did JKR just not realize how this scene made Dumbledore look? How is it a surprise when Tom winds up being the Heir of Slytherin and Voldemort? He told Dumbledore everything that he needed to know right here!

The odd thing is she could have had an easy out with very few pieces that needed moving. Since she already had Albus showing Harry memories of other people - just have some other teacher be the one who visited the orphanage. Then Albus can be the brilliant one who saw through deception. Instead he is the deceiver who hid the truth from his colleagues.

Too bad that Harry didn't call him out about the whole Chamber of Secrets fiasco. "Oh, you kept a close eye on him, did you? So, why did Myrtle die?"

But Myrtle is annoying and not a Gryffindor so Harry can't be bothered on her behalf.

[malic-ba.livejournal.com]

Re: Albus - Absolutely. One more reason it's hard to believe that Dumbledore the Manipulative - to mention only part of the dystopia - wasn't deliberate. But if we are to believe the interviews, it totally wasn't. In fact, it totally doesn't exist and there's something wrong with us for thinking of it.
I don't get it.

[maidofkent.livejournal.com]

Although I’m not sure why Dumbledore felt the need to get her drunk as well as zapping her mind.
Maybe JKR based Mrs. Cole on Miss Hannigan from “Annie.”

The mind-zapping piece of paper was just to convince Mrs Cole about Hogwarts, because she was asking reasonable awkward questions about how Tom had managed to get a place. The lashings of gin look like Dumbledore getting Mrs Cole to open up about Tom's history and parentage. Is Dumbledore always this curious, one wonders. Given what Mrs Cole says about being just a few years younger than Merope and having just started work at the orphanage when Tom was born, she can only be in her twenties, with probably a fairly basic education. Despite this, she suspects when children under her care are being bullied and abused and tries to get expert help to deal with the perpetrator. Obviously not Hogwarts material.

Yes, even though Merope married outside of her family, thus reducing the chance of her child inheriting the curse of inbreeding by half, Tom still wound up just like the uncle and grandfather that he never knew.

Don't worry, his Muggle family were wrong'uns, too. The Riddles are described in GoF as 'rich, snobbish and rude'. Where did Tom get that charm from exactly? and fancy those Slytherins thinking blood and inheritance might be important.

wonder if JKR intended to have child abuse undertones around the incident in the cave, or whether they were just accidental/

It read that way to me.

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Oh, that makes sense of Albus getting her drunk--softening her up for interrogation.

And It might not have been just gin, after all, in her glass.

But afterwards, if she wonders why she was so uncharacteristically loquacious with an odd and rather disturbing stranger about one of the children in her care, she has an excuse for her unusual behavior--I was drunk!

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

"Yes, don’t judge Merope too harshly, but now let’s unfavorably compare her to Lily, whose situation was nowhere near Merope’s. Also, I don’t think that all of the thousands of women who have died in childbirth perished because they weren’t “courageous” enough."

If anything, the decision to go through with a pregnancy that you have every reason to think will kill you is brave and self-sacrificing in and of itself. I don't know if I'd say it'd always be the best way (depending on the circumstances) but there'd be nothing cowardly about it.