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

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I hate the way Zach's such a strawman! Like, he and Harry don't get along for the fifth and sixth book, and then in the seventh he turns out, suddenly, to be a bad guy (we see him pushing first-years out of the way so he can escape) just so Harry looks validated in not liking him! How childish!

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/Ron sneers at Hermione for being better than him, and Hermione puts Ron down and makes him feel jealous./

This is why I don’t agree when Ron/Hermione shippers try to justify such behavior by claiming that Ron and Hermione are just another one of those “opposites attract, fighting = sexual tension” couples like Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. No, guys, it’s not. Elizabeth never tried to flirt with other people to make Mr. Darcy jealous and neither did Mr. Darcy. That’s because they were mature individuals who saw no need to resort to such petty and childish tactics. Mr. Darcy also never tried to boss Elizabeth around and treat her as if she was incapable of doing anything without his help.

One of the key attractions to this type of couple is the mutual enjoyment that they get from verbally sparring with each other. When do Ron and Hermione ever enjoy their bickering? Either Ron is left sulking or Hermione is left in tears. Plus, they’re supposed to be *best friends.* Best friends don’t treat each other like this, even if they are attracted to each other.

/it’s a pity JKR had to resurrect nervouskeeper!Ron/

And she did it again in DH. Despite the fact that the whole Hermione/Ron/Lavender mess ends with Ron saying Hermione’s name, the two of them still act as if he didn't. And Ron is still horribly insecure. Because the HP series somehow turned into a sitcom without us noticing.

/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./

Well, he did strongly hint that she should date Harry at the end of the fifth book. Maybe that wasn’t the only time that he tried to play matchmaker.

/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./

Erm…maybe you should rephrase that. I know what you’re trying to say, but considering all of the baggage that that word has and how it’s horribly overused in real life as it is and how the HP fandom had quite a number of people who shamed Ginny for dating more than one boy in high school… If people were calling Ginny a “stuck-up showoff,” that would be one thing. But that word…no. I’m sorry, but I can’t agree with you on this.

/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./

And not just that, any *boys* that haven’t had enough sexual experience. Because, you know, it’s not like boys and men don’t already have enough societal pressure to be studs or anything.

/Yes, Ron was rude to her, but her response is really disproportionate and uncalled-for./

Yeah, this really came off as heavy-handed. Ron is the strawman sexist who presumes to lecture his sister about her dating life while Ginny gets to be the righteous, empowered woman by telling him off. And this looks even more contrived by the fact that after this book, Ginny does *nothing.* She doesn’t join the Trio on their search for Horcruxes and we don’t get to see or hear about what she did to defend Hogwarts while they were gone. Furthermore, Ginny will be all righteous when it’s her brother telling her what to do, but when Harry and her mother tell her to stay put? She obeys.

/Ron doesn’t need a nice, friendly girlfriend, he needs a scornful and contemptuous one to keep him down in his rightful place./

Why are we supposed to dislike Lavender? Oh, right, because she’s “girly” and crazy about Divination. That’s so much worse than being a passive-aggressive snot and treating your crush like an imbecile.

/Ginny flies into Zach for his insufficiently fawning commentary/

And yet despite all of Lee Jordon’s blatantly pro-Gryffindor commentary, Draco never attacked him. Amazing.

/Hermione seems rather surprised that Ron got tired of her hectoring and decided to hook up with somebody who actually respects him instead./

Because she’s an idiot. I’m sorry, but it’s true. Both Hermione and Ron are utterly contemptible in this book.

[oryx_leucoryx]

I’m not sure why Harry’s so averse to attending Slug Club meetings.

Because Dumbles warned him that Horace would try to collect him. And Harry already belongs in Dumbly's collection.

“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.

Why would there be an age limit for mild alcoholic drinks? This isn't the USA, this is Wizarding Britain. I thought it was assumed butterbeer was somewhat alcoholic since POA because of its warming effect. In most of the world, at least until recently, kids were (are?) gradually introduced to alcohol, starting from small amounts of drinks with low alcohol content in early years.

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.

Wow, I never remembered this one. So the trio aren't the only good friends who can't help being jealous of each other. But notice that Dean, being Muggle-raised, got all his flying experience at Hogwarts (or at Seamus' home, I suppose). So it looks like kids who aren't on the Quidditch team do buy brooms and practice flying on their own.

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.

Angelina chose Ron last time (and he was the only candidate). This year the only alternative for Keeper was McLaggen.

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.

Sorry, but even horrible girls don't deserve to be slut-shamed. Accepting that some people deserve slut-shaming is accepting that people/society have the right to police individual women's private lives.

Man, Ginny’s just a total bitch in this scene.

She is behaving unacceptably, but gendered insults are not cool. What would you call a boy who behaved the same way?

Argh! Why does Ron care about Hermione and Viktor? It's not even like Hermione was seen writing to him for almost a year. Why does he care about Ginny and Dean? But Hermione's canaries are the absolute worse in this chapter.

[sunnyskywalker]

"Ron’s sister. She’s out of bounds.”

I never quite understood why dating a friend's sibling was supposed to be such a horrible, unthinkable thing. What is Harry planning to do that would make Ron feel he had to protect his sister, exactly? Does he think Ron sees Ginny so much as kissing/being kissed as horribly degrading to her, even if she's totally happy and an equal partner in the kissing?

Well, in this book, he probably does, at least when she chooses to kiss someone not on Ron's list of approved partners for his sister. Which is all kinds of twisted.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

I’m not sure why Harry’s so averse to attending Slug Club meetings.

He doesn't like being 'used'? Plus he's never liked people going on about his fame, right, he's always been humble that way.

You'd think he'd want to question Slughorn about his memories of his mother, though. But that lack of curiosity is consistent with all the books up to the very last, with Rowling having Harry artificially have absolutely no interest in his family, background or parents until he suddenly decides he has to visit their graves. Because she wanted to keep that for the last novel. Such horrible writing/plotting.

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 ...

Rowling's portrayal of romantic love is just horrible; almost the only paint she has to draw it is jealousy-green. Ron's jealous of Hermione's suitors for half the books. In HBP he and Hermione are jealous of each other. Harry's feelings for Ginny spring from jealousy. In DH Ginny's every second appearance is marred by her being jealous of any female around Harry.

It's horrible. Thank goodness for superior fan fiction that actually have these characters LOVE each other!

Ginny, of course, looks even better than usual in this scene -

That's the rule for the entire novel, isn't it? HBP IS GINNY'S BOOK. Rowling only had the one tome to boot her up into "suitable for the hero's love interest" status. If you look closely you can see the rocket strapped to her back. :-)

I presume the thing Ron doesn’t want people calling Ginny is “slut”? I wish they would. Not because I think it’s true -

The 'Ginny is a slut' thing seems to be pretty common in the anti-Ginny side of the fandom. I'm anti-Ginny and several times I've had pro-Ginny fundamentalists accuse me of calling her a 'slut' when I never have.

Ginny's not a 'slut' - she doesn't sleep around, there's none of that hanky-panky in Rowling's child-rated books - but she IS The-Girl-Who-Dates. Half her character is defined by her dating activity. Because she's a one-dimensional character whose only purpose/dimension is to be a love interest, but still. She dates Michael, the very last scene of book 5 - the VERY LAST SCENE, this is IMPORTANT - is that she's IMMEDIATELY switching boyfriends, no pause, her dating is VITAL to her, to Dean; and then dates with barely a pause in this book, the focus squarely on The-Girl-Who-Dates.

She's not a slut, but she's the child-rated Rowling equivalent.

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

Ha ha ha!!

Gawd, I remember the one time I read this book. The EYE-ROLLING as Rowling wrote some clumsy, artificial, in-your-face scenes to promote Ginny. It's just such bad writing/timing, isn't it?

“Oi, Harper! How much did Malfoy pay you to make you come on instead of him?”

I really wonder about Rowling sometimes. She was absolutely determined to give Harry no great intellect, no extra 'powers', no abilities of a 'hero'. She made him totally passive, winning in the end by a series of flukes and dei ex machina.

But in Quidditch, at least, she'd given him actual *talent*. (After manufacturing the game so his role was the only important one.) And yet, in this game, she only has him win through a non-sportsmanlike insult?!?!

And then she writes Ginny as such a brat, in both books 6 & 7, totally at odds with what she *tells* us she wrote in her desperate post-publication interviews. Rowling's a bad author, but sometimes I wonder if she was even trying at all with the last two books, once she knew they were best-sellers regardless of the effort put into them.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Man, Ginnys just a total bitch in this scene ... Hermione's feeling hurt and bewildered by Ron's icy, sneering indifference ... I think were supposed to assume he's just upset at finding out Hermione had snogged Krum two years ago.

Most people forget that ALL OF THE R/Hr STUPIDITY in this book - all of the jealousy, the 'using' of partners to make the other jealous, the canary attack - ALL of it - chapters and chapters and chapters of it - was kicked off by Ginny's act of selfishness in this scene. I'm speaking of Ginny's betrayal of Hermione's 'secret'. Whether Ginny is Hermione's *best* friend or not, she's still a friend ... and in this scene she betrays Hermione's secret - of kissing Krum - just to selfishly get her brother off her back.

Ginny Weasley, ladies and gentlemen. The girl who's responsible for most of the stupid puerile juvenile idiocy that we had to wade through in HBP.

Is it any wonder that 99% of the HP fandom hate and detest her? :-)