HBP Chapter Fourteen: "Felix Felicis"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

* First up, I’m not sure what the name “felix felicis” is about. It’s Latin for “happy of happy”, but that makes no sense whatsoever. If I were in a particularly cynical mood, I might suggest she looked up happy in a Latin dictionary, found felix felicis, and didn’t realise that the second word was just the genitive singular of the first.

* Ron correctly points out that Harry’s lessons with Dumbledore aren’t actually teaching him anything useful, although once again we’re probably expected to judge him for his lack of blind faith in whatever his superiors say ought to be done.

* Hermione’s defence, that the lessons help to find out Voldemort’s weaknesses, might be more convincing if Harry ever actually uses something from Voldemort’s childhood against him.

* I’m not sure why Harry’s so averse to attending Slug Club meetings. Yeah, Slughorn’s a bit obsequious, but not so bad as to justify Potter’s constant attempts to avoid him.

* This scene perfectly captures Ron and Hermione’s dynamic: Ron sneers at Hermione for being better than him, and Hermione puts Ron down and makes him feel jealous. If this is JKR’s idea of romance, I’d hate to be her husband.

* Still, at least Harry’s got his priorities right: how will he be affected if they start going out?

* “Under the influence of Butterbeer” makes it sound like an alcoholic drink, but I’m pretty sure we’ve seen no-one (or at least no-one human) get drunk off it before, and there’s never been any indication of an age limit for drinking it. Oh dear, continuity.

* Seamus slams his books and looks sour when Dean gets a place on the team instead of him. For all that fandom has Slytherins down as the Hogwarts drama queens, I think that Gryffindors are definitely the most stroppy.

* I can’t imagine where the rest of Gryffindor house gets the idea that Harry plays favourites from. Except perhaps from the fact that he chose his best friend Ron two years in a row, despite the fact that Ron always goes to pieces whenever there’s a game on. Perhaps that has something to do with it.

* Still, it’s a pity JKR had to resurrect nervouskeeper!Ron. Not only was it tedious enough in the last book, its inclusion here just makes the Quidditch scenes in Phoenix seem even more pointless, and Ron even more needlessly pathetic.

* Ginny, of course, looks even better than usual in this scene: not only does she score most of the goals against Ron (which is probably meant to increase his emasculation – even his little sister is better than him), but she also makes Harry laugh with her sassy put-downs. When she and Harry get married they can both bond over their mutual enjoyment of other people’s discomfort.

* And… here comes the chest monster! Honestly, Harry and his chest monster must be the second-worst romance I’ve ever read (the first, of course, is Ron and Hermione).

* We know Ginny’s going to be awesome in this scene when she begins by “tossing her long red hair and glaring at Ron”. Somebody kill me now.

* What’s with all this “let’s get this straight once and for all” business? Ginny’s choice of words seems to imply that Ron keeps prying into her love life, but we’ve never been given any indication that this is the case.

* I presume the thing Ron doesn’t want people calling Ginny is “slut”? I wish they would. Not because I think it’s true, but because Ginny’s just so irritating that anything which would annoy her is OK by me.

* Ginny has a go at Ron for not having enough experience. Because obviously, modern society isn’t nearly sexualised enough, we need a series of popular books telling children that anybody who hasn’t had enough sexual experience is pathetic.

* Man, Ginny’s just a total bitch in this scene. Yes, Ron was rude to her, but her response is really disproportionate and uncalled-for.

* It’s odd, but Ginny seems to get most worked up about the way Ron tries to get Fleur’s attention. She sounds rather like a spurned lover here. Hmm, maybe all that Weasleycest fic isn’t quite so out there as I’d assumed.

* No, Harry, don’t stop Ron from cursing her! Let Ginny get zapped for once!

* So Ginny flounces off, leaving Ron behind. I suppose he should count himself lucky she didn’t whip out her wand and perform a super-sassy Bat-Bogey Hex on him.

* “She’s Ron’s sister, Harry told himself firmly. Ron’s sister. She’s out of bounds.” Even though Ron practically threw her at him at the end of the last book. Plot-induced amnesia strikes again.

* Harry feels “dazed and confused” the next morning. So do I, after trying to make sense of this book.

* Hermione’s feeling “hurt and bewildered” by Ron’s “icy, sneering indifference”. If this was a semi-believable book, I’d say that Ron had finally had enough of Hermione’s constant passive aggressiveness and undermining, but as it is I think we’re supposed to assume he’s just upset at finding out Hermione had snogged Krum two years ago.

* Incidentally, why is this supposed to be such a big and shocking revelation? Surely when two teenagers go out, the natural assumption is that they’ll end up snogging?

* Luckily for Ron, he’s got no need to worry: Hermione’s just getting her necessary practice in to hone her technique for her true man.

* FOR GOD’S SAKE ROWLING SHUT UP ABOUT THAT SODDING BAT-BOGEY HEX GINNY IS COOL AND SASSY WE GET IT ALREADY STOP RAMMING IT DOWN OUR THROATS AAARGH… *takes deep breaths*

* Lavender’s trying to make Ron feel better. Keep away from him, you hussy! Ron doesn’t need a nice, friendly girlfriend, he needs a scornful and contemptuous one to keep him down in his rightful place.

* Well, at least the Slytherins are sensible enough to have substitute players.

* Harry gets his hand crushed by the Slytherin captain, and I seem to recall Flint used to do the same thing to Oliver Wood. Is hand-crushing a typical Slytherin trait then? Maybe all their parents told them about the importance of a good firm handshake, and they just take it a bit too far.

* Harry dislikes Zacharias heartily… presumably because he can just sense the latent evil in the boy, even though he hasn’t done anything yet which would merit such dislike. If anything, surely Harry ought to feel friendly towards a fellow DA member?

* Ginny scores four of Gryffindor’s six goals. Colour me shocked.

* The game goes pretty much unremarkably: Gryffindor score a few goals, and then Harry’s broom wins the game, rendering everything which came before totally pointless.

* “Oi, Harper! How much did Malfoy pay you to make you come on instead of him?” I’d say that distracting an opposing seeker like this was a very Slytherin thing to do, were it not for the fact that we hardly ever see Slytherins actually doing cunning and sneaky things like this.

* Not that playing on superior brooms and deliberately psyching out opponents makes the Gryffindors any less chivalrous, you understand.

* Ginny flies into Zach for his insufficiently fawning commentary, placing the crowning turd on the mountain of raw sewage that is this Quidditch game.

* “I never said you couldn’t [save goals]!” No, Hermione, you just implied it really, really strongly, such that nobody could miss that that was what you were thinking.

* Ron “looks like he’s eating [Lavender’s face],” unlike Ginny, who daintily glues herself to her boyfriend’s mouth.

* Unfortunately Ginny’s probably right: most first romances in these books seem to be for people to “refine their technique” before moving on to their true love.

* Hermione seems rather surprised that Ron got tired of her hectoring and decided to hook up with somebody who actually respects him instead. Maybe she’s been getting all her dating advice from The Game or whatever the wizarding equivalent is.

Comments

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

The problem as you say comes when it's reveled that Ginny never got over Harry. That everyone else were basically stepping stones to her one true love, because the people she dates aren't people to her; they're tools. And that since she bases her behavior on getting a specific partner, along with her 'spunky' put-downs so people will be impressed with her, implies that she may seek validation for herself not from her own internal self-love, but from what others think of her.

Yes, I could see something like that being at work in Ginny's mind possibly. It'd be interesting to look at that in relation to her being the youngest and the only daughter, or the WW's attitudes towards women in general. (The books are not nearly as feminist as JKR seems to think they are, really.)

It's not that Ginny has multiple partners over a span of time that is the problem. It's how she treats the people she's with, and how she treats herself if she is looking so desperately for external validation. I'm not 100% sure how much the latter is the case yet, but I definitely can see it being a possibility given how the WW encourages people that way in general, and women in particular. Also Molly seems to gain much of her sense of self from her role as wife and mother, in a way that doesn't seem to truly make her happy, so Ginny doesn't have the best model there. (That is, there's nothing wrong with enjoying being a wife and mother when that's freely chosen and truly fulfilling, but Molly seems more insecure and controlling in those roles than happy.)

ETA: And yeah, I hear you about the reasons fandom goes after Ginny. I don't really like her that much, but that's due to her having the sort of hex-happy, practical-jokester, not very empathetic personality type that turns me off of most of the Weasleys and many Gryffindors in general. Though I could imagine a decent fanfic showing this as the result of the CoS debacle changing my mind a bit. But hating her because of how many boys she dates? Just, no.

[mage-989.livejournal.com]

Yes the idea that Ginny's personality was affected by the events of CoS has always been my headcanon when dealing with the switch over from Ginny 1.0, who I really identified with as shy young girl myself, and Ginny 2.0. The change started to happen in OoTP and what happened just before that? Dumbledore announced that Voldemort had returned. I always imagined that that put Ginny in a state of terror and she thought 'I can't be anything like I was when Tom possessed me. I have to be totally different person otherwise he'll use me to hurt people again.' So she works to be the exact opposite of who she really is. Now whether or not she really likes being that hex-happy person is another thing entirely.

[borg-princess.livejournal.com]

I love this comment- that ties into my head!canon as well. JKR doesn't do the best job at realistically showing how the trauma the kids suffer would affect them in the future (it's kind of like 'yay, break for the holidays and now that's done, I'm all good now, no probs whatsoever!') but I completely agree with your analysis of Ginny's change.

It makes a lot of sense- I mean, the only person who noticed something was up with Ginny that entire year was her stuffy older brother nobody really likes! It must've been awful to have been so alone and friendless that nobody noticed what was going on- I can see her thinking she needs to change, she needs to be outgoing and forceful and make herself noticed, because being meek and shy and a loner was what made her an easy target the first time round. She's not going to be the lame antelope singled out by the lion next time round, oh no.

I also really liked and identified with Ginny v 1.0, as I was the shy type myself, it's too bad she was done away with.

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear.

That would actually be quite an excellent reason NOT to wait between boyfriends, wouldn't it? Needing to know at all times that one person at least is paying attention to you (and would hopefully notice if anything were going wrong).....

And one might use sex or flirtation to purchase that level of attention. It's a not uncommon reaction among abused adolescents.

Ouch. Remembering that Ginny is a surviror of quite horrific abuse (and that her only apparent therapy was a cup of hot chocolate) does rather change the dynamic, doesn't it?

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

In fact, that also makes her continued fixation on Harry more understandable.

He's the one who saved her from Tom; according to Albus et al, he's the only one who can.

If she's using her body to buy protection, he's the ultimate protector. Never mind his personality; it's really irrelevant to her purposes.

And of course she'd have to make herself into someone, not just noticeable, but preferably desirable. To him.

All this, of course, is not conscious at all.

No wonder she snaps at Dean for helping her through the portrait hole, but obeys Harry unblinkingly when he tells her to do something she doesn't like "for your protection."

That's what their relationship is all about, for her.

[oryx_leucoryx]

So what happens once Tom is gone?

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

It's certainly worth considering the long-term effects of Diary!Tom's abuse upon Ginny. However, I'm not sure that Ginny's dating behavior, by itself, is necessarily a sign that something was wrong. If Ginny were ten years older, I might be more concerned, but her relationship behavior is really pretty normal for a teenager.

It's quite normal for teenagers to have a few different boyfriends or girlfriends during high school. It's quite normal for teenagers to not be all that emotionally invested in each of their relationships (nor would you want them to be). It's quite normal for teenagers to be interested in more than one person at the same time. And it's quite normal for teenagers to get into relationships for the "wrong" reasons or to "use" each other. (When I was 15, I dated a certain boy for a few months because I was trying to get over a previous boyfriend and because he drove his own car!)

Really, the only thing that isn't quite normal about Ginny's relationship history is that she wound up marrying a boy whom she started dating when she was only 15.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

The change started to happen in OoTP and what happened just before that? Dumbledore announced that Voldemort had returned.

Wow, that's a neat theory. Way over Rowling's head, I reckon, and sadly not the way it turned out - Ginny 2.0 was an artificial construct built to attract her crush!hero!target.

There are so many ways Rowling could have used Ginny's possession to generate maximum drama and angst, as well as provide reasons for Harry and her to get close. But Rowling ignored it all. :-(