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deathtocapslock2013-09-07 08:52 pm
for-diddled.livejournal.com) wrote in deathtocapslock2013-09-07 08:52 pm
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HBP Chapter Seventeen: "A Sluggish Memory"
* Incidentally, I hope Percy’s still going out with Penelope. He always has so much to put up with from his family, he deserves at least one person who treats him well.
* I’m sure Percy’s spent Christmas with Penny’s family, who (I think?) are muggleborns. Being sensible, he actually got on with them and talked to them like human beings, unlike Arthur, who always saw them as a cross between cute babies and interesting animals.
* Wow, Hermione’s just being so childish here, ignoring Ron when he’s talking directly to her. I’m sure PS!Hermione wouldn’t have acted like this. I guess it’s true that being around magic for too long causes you to regress mentally.
* Incidentally, Ron’s speaking to her like a normal friend, it’s Hermione who’s doing the blanking. Still, I’m sure this argument is all Ron’s fault for daring to go out with another girl. Hermione is totally blameless.
* So presumably the wine in the portraits magically refills itself, right? Otherwise it would all have been drunk over the past thousand years. Or maybe they just get the house-elves to paint new bottles in when the old ones are finished.
* Pre-Christmas!Lavender wouldn’t have shouted “Won-Won!” like that.
* Incidentally, Ron, Rowling’s clearly decided to make you so pathetic that even getting a girlfriend makes you look stupid. I hope you’ve already reconciled yourself to being the author’s least favourite character.
* Harry recounts the Draco-Severus conversation he overheard, and Hermione gets weirdly hyper-sceptical, suggesting that “your master” might have referred to Draco’s father and that Malfoy was making an empty threat when he claimed to be friends with Greyback. What is up with that girl? Why is she so resistant to drawing the obvious conclusion when it’s staring her right in the face? For Heaven’s sake, girl, we know that Malfoy is from a family of DEs, that he’s expressed sympathy with Voldemort’s side, that he claims to be friendly with a known and highly dangerous DE, that Harry overheard him boasting to his friends about getting a mission from Voldemort, that Snape also knows he’s doing something for his “master” (and gee, I wonder which famous dark wizard makes all his followers address him as “master”?), and that at least one person has almost died this year in a botched assassination attempt. FFS, Hermione you little idiot, of course Malfoy’s up to something.
* And I’m not sure why JKR feels the need to go through this little charade of having nobody believe Harry when it seems obvious what’s happening. I mean, it’d be one thing if the evidence were ambiguous and there was a real chance Harry was just letting his personal dislikes cloud his judgement, but here he’s just obviously correct. Maybe it was to add a bit of misunderstood angst for Harry, but given that JKR seems more interested in writing a teenage rom-com than a serious and angsty book, maybe not. Or maybe it’s to add an extra bit of conflict as Harry tries to convince his friends he’s right, but this would be totally pointless, as the early books had plenty of conflict when the trio were in agreement about whom to suspect. Perhaps Rowling was so delusional by this point that she thought her whodunit was actually difficult to solve, and that the readers might find Hermione’s argument at all convincing.
* Why would Charlie’s being big stop the Twins from making jokes about him? Surely physical size should be unimportant in a world where everybody fights with magic.
* The rareness of apparition seems to vary wildly over the series. I think it’s first introduced in POA, when it was spoken of as if it were a really rare and difficult skill and Sirius Black must be a great wizard to be able to master it. In GOF it’s presented as a fairly normal thing, although difficult enough that only skilled wizards bother learning, whilst everybody else makes do with brooms and floo powder. From OOTP onwards it’s something the great majority of adults seem to do, like driving a car, with the sole exception of the current scene, where it’s suddenly rare enough that Harry’s the only one in his year who’s ever had any experience of it.
* The other sixth-years bombard Harry with questions about apparition for the rest of the day, which is more interest than they ever show about the on-going murder attempts in Hogwarts which have already injured one of their fellow Gryffindors. Seriously, what is up with these people? Why do they show so much curiosity about what ought to be quite mundane subjects to them, but not about things that actually are unusual and noteworthy?
* Unless, I suppose, attempted murder is quite a mundane occurrence in Hogwarts, which given the lax approach to discipline can’t be ruled out entirely.
* Does anybody here believe Dumbledore’s tears on hearing about Harry’s loyalty are genuine?
* Dumbledore wants to deflect Harry’s suspicions about Snape and Malfoy, but instead of taking a sensible approach to doing this – such as saying “Thank you, Harry, I’ll look into it,” or even “I already knew about this conversation, but thank you for telling me anyway” – he just tells Harry not to worry, making it look like all the adults in Hogwarts are idiots and Harry’s got to sort things out himself.
* “Ah, Harry, how often this happens, even between the best of friends!” Actually, Dumbledore, no, I don’t think that many people would manipulate and deceive their best friend and declare certain lines of questioning off-limits because “I trust so-and-so, and no, I’m not going to tell you why, I’m smarter than you so shut up and do what I say.”
* Dumbledore’s “tendency to trust people in spite of overwhelming evidence that they did not deserve it” clearly doesn’t extend to sharing his plans with any of them. Or to not manipulating them into doing his bidding, because obviously you can’t run the risk of asking them up-front and having them make the wrong decision and refuse. Other than that, though, yeah, he totally trusts other people.
* Voldemort’s hangers-on at school were “a motley collection, a mixture of the weak seeking protection, the ambitious seeking some shared glory, and the thuggish, gravitating towards a leader who could show them more refined forms of cruelty”… So how exactly did this gang of misfits acquire the “kind of dark glamour” they supposedly had?
* The Gaunts’ house was “indescribably filthy”. I wonder if this is what the Dursleys think of Harry’s bedroom.
* The Ministry “rely on witch and wizard parents to enforce their offspring’s obedience [to the under-age magic laws] while within their walls.” Yeah, like that’s ever going to happen, given the cavalier attitude wizarding society shows towards the law.
* Harry recognised Riddle at once by his handsome face. Watch out, Draco, I think you’ve got competition.
* Slughorn gives Dumbledore an obviously tampered with memory which is sure to make the Headmaster redouble his efforts to find out what happened. Harry, being a bit thick, doesn’t realise that the memory was tampered with at all.
* Dumbledore sets Harry the task of extracting the information, telling him that Slughorn “has his weaknesses like the rest of us”. Wow, really, Professor? C’mon, Slughorn’s pretty much all weakness. Cutting off his supplies of crystallised pineapple would probably be enough to make him ’fess up.
* Apparently, though, Harry is “the one person who might be able to penetrate his defences”. Given the pervy!Slughorn interpretation of his character, I can’t help finding this a bit… creepy.
* Really, though, I’m not sure why Slughorn’s actually bothering to hide the memory at all. It’s not particularly damning.
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So, this past summer I was at an internship where myself and one of my friends played the sixth Harry Potter book-on-tape to help pass the time. And this really jumped out at me--Dumbledore doesn't even TRY TO PRETEND that he values Harry's opinion or input here; he all but says outright "I'm smarter than you so you'll do what I say and pay attention only to what I think is important."
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Once Draco has been seen to actually appear to fail, Snape hHAD to step in and kill Albus or drop dead. One of the DEs on the tower actually mentioned that it 'seemed' Draco couldn't do it - 'seem' being the operative word in the Vow. Draco COULD fail without the Vow becoming active - as long as no one knew for certain that it was Draco failing.
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Yes, but they suspected the wrong people: Severus, Draco, Hagrid, maybe Percy, Sirius, Igor Karkaroff. This time there are no red herrings, so how to generate conflict? IOW - Rowling wrote this book lazily. (And this is a reference to the theories about the seven mortal sins in HP - book 6 is the book of sloth.)
Starting from GOF Apparition is supposed to be a lot like driving - in Britain, where it is not uncommon for adults to not drive. Except book 6 is where driving someone else is first introduced, making much of previous books look weird. Why didn't Arthur, Bill, Charlie and Percy Apparate the 6 children to the QWC? Why didn't the Order Side-along Harry from 4PD to 12GP in OOTP?
Really, though, I’m not sure why Slughorn’s actually bothering to hide the memory at all. It’s not particularly damning.
Terri had that one figured out. Because Horace didn't know Tom's past as a budding terrorist in the orphanage. He thought that by telling Tom about Horcruxes he initiated him to the path to become a terrorist. IOW it was Dumbles' fault Horace thought the memory was something to hide in the first place.
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It drives me out of my tree when potter fic writers cast the Weasleys over and over again as the perfect family. They're menaces! I think it might have been swythyv or perhaps red hen or jodel perhaps who pointed out that Bill and Charlie got FAR away from home as soon as they could.
And I absolutely LOATHE potter fic that has Percy groveling back to his family and asking for forgiveness. THEY should be asking HIM and he's under NO obligation to give it. They made his life a misery and for no good reason.
I don't know if Percy and Penelope stayed together. If I ever writer a Percy fan fic, I'll match him up with somebody who comes from a WAY better family than his and have him take HER name. That will put paid to the Weasley curse on his life.
As for Slughorn's memory, my own theory is that he actually outsmarted Dumbles because they STILL never got to the real memory. I hardly doubt that's the first or last conversation Tom and Slughorn had about the deep dark arts. And I think it ties into why Slughorn was so important to the DEs. But that's based on my own theory which also incorporates ( w/ swythyv's permissions ) some of swythyv's theories and can basically functionally be seen as having been made up of whole cloth.
But I digress. Sorry for butting in. Tawk amongst yourselves...
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Oh, yes, because throwing food at a relative not only in front of the entire family, but in front of his boss? Totally something to be proud of. That’s not extremely rude or childish or embarrassing at all.
Good thing that the Malfoys weren’t there to see it. I’m sure that that one incident would’ve given Draco plenty of ammo to use against Ron once they were back in school.
/Still, I’m sure this argument is all Ron’s fault for daring to go out with another girl./
To be fair, I think that Ron also gave Hermione the silent treatment, both in GoF when she went with Viktor to the ball and in this book when Ginny told him that Hermione kissed Viktor. But yes, note how Ron’s relationship with a person other than his True Love renders him pathetic whereas Hermione’s relationship with a person other than her True Love makes her cool and desirable.
/Pre-Christmas!Lavender wouldn’t have shouted “Won-Won!” like that./
Pre-HBP!Lavender wouldn’t have shouted “Won-Won!” Or gone gaga over Ron at all. Did she call Seamus by silly nicknames when he was her date to the Yule Ball?
/Hermione gets weirdly hyper-sceptical, suggesting that “your master” might have referred to Draco’s father/
Yes, because people refer to their fathers as “master” all the time nowadays. *head-desk* Hermione, if Snape meant Lucius, he would’ve said, “your father,” and you know it. Unless she’s a closet Lucius/Draco shipper.
/he just tells Harry not to worry/
Oh, yes, because Dumbledore did so well the last time that students were being randomly attacked. Don’t worry, Harry, it’s not like Dumbledore has a track record of students dying on his watch or anything.
/Actually, Dumbledore, no, I don’t think that many people would manipulate and deceive their best friend and declare certain lines of questioning off-limits because “I trust so-and-so, and no, I’m not going to tell you why, I’m smarter than you so shut up and do what I say.”/
And Dumbledore says that Tom is the one who doesn’t regard anybody as an equal or friend and who keeps everything to himself.
Also, Albus, kids hate it when you say (or say a variation of), “I said so.” You’d think that after decades of working with children, he’d know that already.
/a mixture of the weak seeking protection/
Protection from what? What or who was Tom offering to protect them from? Other bullies?
/the ambitious seeking some shared glory, and the thuggish, gravitating towards a leader who could show them more refined forms of cruelty/
So, in other words, all of Tom’s ‘friends’ were just bad people. None of them were misguided, none of them were driven by outside forces, none of them genuinely liked him. They were just bad people. Therefore, nothing about Tom’s rise has anything to say about wizarding society and all will be well once the big, bad Dark Lord is dead.
/Harry recognised Riddle at once by his handsome face. Watch out, Draco, I think you’ve got competition./
*snorts* Well, at least Harry never tried to stalk Tom. Unless you count trying to use the Dark Lord Mental Broadcasting Network as stalking.
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A half-giant who insists on raising monsters as pets (and was suspected of having killed Myrtle?)
swythyv once compared the Marauders to Tom's friends.
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/Hermione gets weirdly hyper-sceptical, suggesting that “your master” might have referred to Draco’s father/
Yes, because people refer to their fathers as “master” all the time nowadays. *head-desk* Hermione, if Snape meant Lucius, he would’ve said, “your father,” and you know it. Unless she’s a closet Lucius/Draco shipper.
<i>/Hermione gets weirdly hyper-sceptical, suggesting that “your master” might have referred to Draco’s father/
Yes, because people refer to their fathers as “master” all the time nowadays. *head-desk* Hermione, if Snape meant Lucius, he would’ve said, “your father,” and you know it. Unless she’s a closet Lucius/Draco shipper.</i>
<What sort of fanfic is the girl reading?> We are meant to suppose that Hermione is so spooked by the Prince being better than her at Potions that she is completely engrossed in trying to find out the Prince's identity, in order to prove that he was really a princess. Then of course there's the whole Ron/Lavender business. Both these explanations suggest really deep insecurity in Hermione.
The other explanation is that Dumbledore has told Hermione to try to slow Harry down on his pursuit of Draco.
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>>The other explanation is that Dumbledore has told Hermione to try to slow Harry down on his pursuit of Draco. <<
The fans do have to work to plug JKR's plotholes, even in the first six books. That is certainly the only way it would make sense. Hermione was ready to suspect Draco of being the Heir of Slytherin on a bare minimum of circumstantial evidence.
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Snape probably wasn't alone in seeing joining the Death Eaters as a protection from the Mauraders.
Dumbledore showed no interest in reining them in.
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On that note, we've already seen Hermione Confund someone once for Ron-related purposes. I wonder if she did something to make Lavender so clingy and annoying all of a sudden when she wasn't like that before?
This whole plot could become much more tense and dangerous if we had figured out relatively early that at least one person was running around modifying memories or Confunding students, and Harry realized he couldn't even trust his friends - or possibly himself. And he doesn't know whether it's Draco doing it, or Snape, or Slughorn, or... (and then it would be a horrible shock to find out at the end or in the next book that it was Dumbledore all along). Most of the pieces are there already! She could have done it!
I can't even fathom how JKR could write the Twins and Ginny throwing food at their brother - in front of their head of government, no less - and not at least wonder whether that made them look the opposite of cool. Good grief. Even if he had been horrible, throwing mashed food is something most people give up after about age three.
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I like Percy. He has a tough row to hoe, and is never appreciated by anyone. I hate the way he has to grovel for forgiveness (before the twins, of all people) on the day of the Battle of Hogwarts. I assume he has decided that, now that battle is being joined, the important thing is maintaining a unified front among the opponents of Voldemort, so he is willing to sacrifice his pride and his principles in order to reconcile with his family quickly.
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Considering that Arthur continued working for the same fascist government I don't think the Weasleys have any standing on that front.
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Personally, I like the fanfic where Percy was sending off the final drafts of the Mudblood extradtion treaties with such touches as being written in English (to the French) and impeccalby translated into multiple languages but containing the argument that extradttion would be for the Greater Good, to the Eastern European Wizarding Union.....
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But yeah, the story contained a wonderful description of how a bureaucrat commits sabotage!
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