PS Chapter Eight

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

*You bet he gets his own chapter title. (Totally forgot today was Friday!)

*I kind of love the solid walls that just pretend to be doors. This is what keeps the Wizarding World in balance. You'd think magic would make things easier but in fact with the ability to do magic comes the compulsion to be as childishly irritating as possible, even if you're architecture.

*Harry runs afoul of Filch on the very first day. He'll get back at him soon enough. Ruddy Squib.

*Btw, remember that third floor they're not allowed to enter? Good.

*The Weasley twins know all the secret passages of the school. All the better to practice their japes and mischief!

*There was a lot more to magic, Harry learned, than waving your wand and saying funny words. Not very much more at all, but more.

*Professor Sprout is called dumpy-you know, the word that's insulting when Vernon Dursley uses it.

*I can kind of understand the theories about some kind of conspiracy behind the boring history classes. I always thought history was one of the most interesting classes and you'd the addition of Goblin Rebellions would just make it all the more so. But in the WW the only history anybody seems to remember is the last time Slytherin pissed them off.

*McGonagall threatens to throw out anyone messing up in her class. If every teacher did that the classes would all be empty.

*Quirrel says his turban was a present for getting rid of a zombie…so they have zombies as well as Inferi?

*Harry displays typical Wizarding logic by deducing that Quirrel's turban could not have been given to him as a reward for getting rid of a zombie, because it might be stuffed with garlic. Um, relevance?

*Ron says Snape favors the Slytherins and wishes McGonagall favored them, which she does not judging by the piles of homework she gives. Something tells me Snape doesn't favor the Slytherins either by that definition.

*Draco, Crabbe and Goyle snigger when Snape calls Harry a celebrity. Because they just have it in for Harry. Nothing to do with Harry insulting them earlier.

*Snape's eyes are dark like Hagrid's but with none of his warmth. All that intelligence really messes them up.

*I love in the movie the way ickle Malfoy seems to get all overly excited by Snape's Potions speech.

*Hermione, of course, just wants to prove she's not a dunderhead.

*Seamus winks at Harry when he sasses Snape. You don't fool me, Seamus. That was far too independent-minded a wink.

*Btw, note that Seamus is totally set up as a potential friend for Harry in this book. What happened, Seamus?

*Hermione's an idiot in this scene. I really like her. I miss this Hermione, the socially inept one. She's a lot more likable.

*I can't believe I'm going to say this but Snape on the first day? Not so bad as I remembered. I've never bought the "Snape's just trying to help Harry" and I still don't-he's being a jerk-but he's within the bounds of regular snarky teachers. I wouldn't be surprised if he always picked out one kid the first day. Or maybe usually he asked three kids one question each.

*Snape sets them to making a simple potion to clear boils. So regular boils, then. Not like the things Marietta Edgecomb's going to be forced to wear the rest of her life for crossing Hermione.

*Malfoy's slugs are perfectly stewed. Not so perfectly as to suggest he could ever get an O on his Potions OWL, of course. Only Hermione can get that.

*Snape's not so bad to Neville, either. Idiot boy isn't a nice thing to say, but it seems within the realm of gruff care.

*It's only taking points from Harry that crosses the line and indicates Snape really does hate him.

*Like Hagrid, Fang was not as fierce as he looked if you're a Gryffindor. Unlike most of Hagrid's creatures, who are indeed as fierce as they look and woe to anyone who pisses them off.

*Hagrid calls Filch an old git straight off, so they do have a rivalry. One that Hagrid naturally wins because he's a Wizard and Filch is a sneakin' Squib. Which is why Hagrid will be rewarded with a teaching position he fills badly while Filch, who seems to do his job fine, will be hexed in the hallways for the rest of his days. It's nice when the natural order of things works out.

*I pause to applaud here. Rowling really is good about introducing information smoothly so that it seems like filler but is really important. The information here being Ron's brother Charlie who works with dragons.

*Harry finds yet another clipping about a Gringotts break-in that still doesn't justify Hagrid's long expositional speech about all the security there.

*I know it's not the next chapter yet, but boy the first sentence of the next chapter's a doozy (my eye just fell on it as I read the end of this one). To prepare for it, you might want to think back on the last eight chapters, specifically on everything Malfoy has actually done to Harry, particularly as compared to Dudley.






Idiot Picture
You can see why Dumbledore trusts Hagrid with his important missions. If he used an actual adult our sixth grader protagonist couldn't easily figure out what was going on.


Final score: 1

Slytherin liquid count: Tell me that Potions speech didn't get the Slytherins all hot and bothered!

Signs of things to come: See the tall kid with the red hair? Look immediately to his left. Malfoy sniggers behind his hand at Snape's jokes in class-this will immediately turn into Snape letting Malfoy run amuck in Potions class in many readers' memories. Hagrid still can't keep a secret. If you open to any page of the Daily Prophet it *will* directly relate to something concerning Harry.

Comments

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Aha! Thanks! They need to teach courses on Wizard logic. It's too complicate for my mere Muggle head.