HBP Chapter Sixteen: "A Very Frosty Christmas"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

* So Fred and George were trying to get Ron to make an unbreakable vow at the tender age of seven. Reminds me of one other wizard whose “powers… were surprisingly well-developed for such a young wizard and… he had some measure of control over them, and [had] begun to use them consciously.”

* Yikes, someone call the police, we’ve got a knife-throwing maniac in the Burrow.

* At least Mrs. Weasley seems like she actually misses Percy, which is more than you can say for the Twins.

* Fred and George going to see that muggle girl seems a bit creepy to me. Maybe I’m just over-reacting, but given the wizarding world’s general contempt of muggles and lack of qualms about using love potions and mind-altering magic, any relationship between a wizard and a muggle seems to have some rather worrying rape vibes.

* Well, at least Ron now believes Malfoy is up to something.

* Nobody will believe Snape was actually offering to help Draco, says Ron, because “they’re all convinced Snape’s in the order.” Yeah, because it’s not like any Order members have previously gone over to Voldemort, is it?

* Frankly I’m surprised Harry hasn’t already told Dumbledore what he saw.

* The Weasleys have paralysed a gnome, painted it gold and stuck it on top of their Christmas tree as an angel. There was a time when I’d have been shocked at such a blatant example of animal abuse; now, however, I’m just glad they didn’t turn it into slipper or vanish it.

* So is wizard music exactly the same as muggle music except with more mentions of cauldrons and wands?

* Remus is staring into the fire and hardly hearing Celestina’s song. Probably pining for Sirius and wishing he’d declared his love while Padfoot was still alive.

* It’s odd that everybody seems to dismiss Harry’s story on the grounds that “Snape was just pretending.” Even if you believe that, it still means that Malfoy’s up to something. Or does everyone just assume that Snape must have told Dumbledore what’s going on?

* Harry’s in danger of straying into heresy for a while, till Lupin brings him back to the true Church of Dumbledore. Trust Dumbledore! Don’t question His judgement, no matter what!

* Although Lupin does redeem himself very slightly by displaying a sensible attitude towards Snape. It’s nice to see that at least one person in this world can both not like somebody and be fair about their good qualities.

* Poor old Lupin. It’s bad enough that he to live with the werewolves, but knowing it’s all pointless and the war will be won by three not-particularly-bright teenagers hiding in a tent for several months makes it even worse.

* Still, Remus, it’s not all bad news. At least you aren’t with Tonks.

* I’m surprised muggle society hasn’t discovered the existence of werewolves yet. A group of strange wolf-men who survive by stealing your food and eating your children sounds like the sort of thing you might notice.

* I’ve probably said this before, but it’s quite striking to note the contrast between wizarding society, with its rampant prejudice against all sorts of groups, and Voldemort, who’s willing to reach out and work with traditionally excluded minority groups, albeit so that they can gang up and institute a brutal dictatorship over wizarding society.

* And the moral of the story is: don’t trust people who protest against bigotry, they’re probably just trying to get those shifty minority groups on their side so that they can launch a coup against the legitimate government.

* Yes Lupin, I’m sure that if a teenage boy referred to somebody’s “furry little problem”, all his schoolmates would instantly assume he was talking about a rabbit.

* Harry never thought to check how old his Potions book is? Man, that boy is slow on the uptake. If I were trying to found out who’d owned it, the age of the book would probably be the first thing I’d look at.

* I wish Fleur got more page time. She stands out as a beacon of sanity amidst the various screwed-up psychodramas of the Weasley family.

* Even when I first read HBP, I thought Lavender’s personality was yanked off course after the Christmas present scene. Earlier she seemed like a fairly nice, normal girl; now she gets changed into a dull, airheaded, overly-attached girlfriend stereotype. It seems that even minor characters cannot escape the curse of plot-induced personality transplants. L

* Although now I’m confused: I thought, based on the Weasleys, that tackiness was a sign of virtue in the wizarding world; now it turns out that it’s actually a sign of not being a suitable girlfriend. Maybe its significance changes depending on how important the character is.

* “We find we appreciate you more and more, mum, now we’re washing our own socks.” Yeah, waving your wand and saying “scourgify” must be really difficult. *rolls eyes*

* I doubt Fleur’s shudder was “affected”, actually, as most people would shudder if the person they were sitting next to turned out to have a maggot in their hair. Nor cheerfully pluck it out like Ginny. And nobody thinks to question how it got there. Are wizarding hygiene standards really so low that having insect larvae crawling over you is considered unremarkable?

* So Scrimgeour wanted to see Harry, but Dumbledore has been preventing him. So, clearly Fudge’s departure hasn’t broken his power. Is this a sign that Scrimgeour is actually every bit as weak and malleable as his predecessor was? Or does Dumbledore just have so much power (either through informal patronage networks or some kind of official governmental post – Chief Mugwump, perhaps) that he can obstruct government actions he doesn’t like, no matter who happens to be Minister at the time?

* I’m sorry, Harry, but “yeah” is not an appropriate way to address your head of government. Show a little respect, boy!

* How does Harry know that Stan Shunpike is innocent? He’s had, what, two conversations with the man in his entire life.

* “‘I don’t want to be used,’ said Harry.” Except by Dumbledore. Dumbledore’s twinkly and eccentric, so being used by him is totally fine.

* Maybe Scrimgeour should have tried offering Harry a sherbet lemon before he asked, that might have tipped the scales in his favour.

* Harry’s final line about being “Dumbledore’s man through and through” would be quite inspiring, if Dumbledore didn’t consistently repay people’s trust in him with lies, secrecy and manipulation.

Comments

[hwyla.livejournal.com]

You didn't specifically mention it, however, one of the things in retrospect that really bugs me in this chapter is Remus' pointing out the date of the book means the 'Prince' couldn't possibly be James. Not only is it a huge red herring - since the book does turn out to have belonged to someone from that same time period - but I now question that Remus didn't recognize that book.

I cannot decide whether Remus 'knowing' that SectumSempra was Snape's 'trademark curse' means that he had read the book or not. I can see no other way that Remus would know Snape used SectumSempra. We see him 'probably' use it in SWM, but non-verbally. IF he can successfully use it non-verbally, why would Sev ever use it verbally. And IF he really invented it (which you all know I don't believe) AND always used it non-verbally, then Remus wouldn't have any way of knowing what the curse was called. Unless he had read the book.

But if he had read SectumSempra in the book, then wouldn't he warn Harry about never using it? So, I then question whether Remus HAD or had NOT read it.

Of course, this also tends to suggest that Remus had heard if SectumSempra from somewhere other than the book - which tends to support the idea that Sev merely copied it down. Not trying to get off-topic here. I'm aware that many disagree with me on this.

It just keeps going in circles for me. Did the Marauders ever steal the book? And if so, why wouldn't Remus tell Harry that they HAD read it (only of course they 'found' it) and used it, giving Harry one more connection to his dad. We can be sure the book eventually got back to Sev, since some of the potions reworkings are from 6th year. So I cannot decide.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Evil Lupin solves your problems! Seriously, even if you think the man is merely weak, not evil, the one thing that's crystal clear about Lupin is that he does not always tell the truth. And he most often lies to defend himself, or the Marauders.

[oryx_leucoryx]

But Severus did shout 'Sectumsempra' in the 7P battle. Maybe he wanted to cast a stronger spell. Or maybe he was having trouble concentrating on the casting while flying. So it is possible that was the only time Remus heard the name of that spell, and realized that it was the same as the spell Severus used to cast silently back in their school days. In this case, Remus didn't need to have seen the spell in the book.

[hwyla.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I missed that. Tho' I still find it unbelievable that Sev could have been casting it at Hogwarts and not get expelled. So, I still have trouble with what Remus said about it being Sev's 'signature spell' - but it does somewhat solve the question of whether or not the Marauders stole his book. As long as the Crabbe & Goyle equivalents in Sev's time were casting his spells verbally, then the Marauders could easily pick his spells up without needing to get ahold of his book.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Remember that after the 7P battle Remus is speaking of 'Severus the traitor who killed Dumbledore' - everything he says is colored by that. Severus likely did cast Sectumsempra non-verbally at least once at Hogwarts, and he cast it in the battle at George who was impersonating Harry. So to Remus it looked like after killing Dumbledore, killing Harry was the next logical step for Severus. He just proved himself to be utterly evil. The fact that he used that very spell at school (regardless of context and difference in severity of the casting) only proved that he was utterly evil since a young age. I think we can ignore the 'signature spell' part as the words of a distressed man.

[dorea-ysleen.livejournal.com]

I agree with both of you. I'm also not sure how much having read the book would help with identifying the spell - there are no notations here, and judging from Levicorpus, the effects of the spells weren't generally mentioned even in the spells Severus definitely did invent himself. So even if you can guess some things from the Latin, I'm not sure Lupin & co. would necessarily have associated a little cut that apparently healed well enough not to inspire further mention with Sectumsempra.

The spells that really became popular, like Levicorpus, probably did leak through his friends, but he seems to have been cautious about a potentially dangerous spell like Septumsempra and only shared it selectively, if at all.

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

Tho' I still find it unbelievable that Sev could have been casting it at Hogwarts and not get expelled.

Maybe he threatened to tell everybody what really happened in the Shrieking Shack... hmm... maybe Sev wasn't quite so shafted by Dumbledore as we all think...

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's possible that Snape invented the spell, taught it to some of his friends, they used it verbally (being not as good as Snape at casting non-verbal spells), and the Marauders learnt about it that way?

[hwyla.livejournal.com]

This is what I had previously figured (pre-DH) for LeviCorpus. However, it still throws me that kids could be casting it around all over the school without getting expelled. There's loads of reasons why I cannot see Lupin as being truthful about it being Sev's 'signature spell'. But, just one student casting it in a memorable way could cause Remus to remember it later - without the book theft.

[wolf-willow31.livejournal.com]

... and the Marauders learnt about it that way?

Or maybe James learned about it while using his invisibility cloak to spy on Snape. He probably spied on Snape - and Lily - often. If you have a Deathly Hallow, you should use it for really important things like that, you know? Not just for nicking food and sneaking into Hogsmeade.