HBP Chapter Nineteen: "Elf Tails"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

* So Fred and George are so successful with their joke shop that they can afford to buy out Zonko’s after just one and a half years out of school. Riiight.

* Also, note how the wizarding world can apparently support at least two joke shops, but no theatres or concert halls. Go figure, as they say.

* So everybody now agrees that somebody is trying to commit murder… Hmm… Hey, guys, do you think it could have been this Voldemort sympathiser who’s been boasting about how the Dark Lord has given him a special task to do this ye— Actually, no, forget it, I’m sure it can’t be him.

* Ugh, that whole “Person mutters their love’s name in their sleep” trope is so cliché. I thought even Rowling was above it.

* “‘Someone couldn’ have a grudge against the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, could they?’ said Hagrid anxiously.” Yes, Hagrid, I’m sure that’s the reason. I mean, it’s not like there’s anybody else who might want to kill people in Hogwarts, is it?

* Plus, if you were trying to nobble the Quidditch team, Ron’s probably the last person you’d go for.

* Finally Hermione is making logical connexions between things in an attempt to solve the mystery! Apparently the effort’s now too much for her, though, since she promptly stops at the end of the paragraph and never tries again.

* Mrs. Weasley says how lucky her family is that Harry keeps saving them, apparently not noticing that Harry’s usually the reason they need to be saved in the first place.

* If Dumbledore’s really “worried sick”, I’m sure it’s about the prospect of losing his opportunity to indoctrinate children job as Headmaster, not about the people he’s responsible for.

* “‘Don’t try and make me feel guilty, it won’t work!’ said Harry forcefully.” Yeah, as if he’s ever cared enough about others to feel guilty when he hurts their feelings.

* Why would Snape need to make investigations? He and Dumbledore both know that Draco’s behind the attacks.

* Hagrid gets annoyed at Filch, calls him a “sneakin’ squib”. And before you start getting any silly ideas, no, this isn’t at all like Malfoy calling Hermione a mudblood because... erm… because The Great Jo says so, that’s why!

* Seriously, though, calling somebody a squib is actually worse than calling them a mudblood. After all, squibs seem to be worse off than muggle-borns in wizarding society, so bigoted behaviour like this harms them more.

* Harry finds it suspicious that Dumbledore’s lost his temper with Snape. Given his own bad temper, you’d have thought he’d know better, but then I suppose consistency and self-knowledge have never been his strong points.

* “Was it because Dumbledore did not want Harry to do anything foolish, to take matters into his own hands, that he had pretended there was nothing in Harry’s suspicions?” Perhaps. Or perhaps he wasn’t pretending, and there isn’t actually anything in Harry’s suspicions. You see, Harry, when people get annoyed at their colleagues, it’s very rarely because they’ve joined a terrorist organisation bent on overthrowing the government.

* So McLaggen knows that Ron’s been taken to the hospital wing, and his main thought is “Does this mean I get to play Quidditch next week?” I would make a comment about how ridiculously self-centred this is, were it not for the fact that this is pretty much a standard attitude among wizards.

* News of Ron’s poisoning spreads quickly, but doesn’t attract the same amount of interest as Katie’s mishap, or Quidditch, or Harry Potter’s love life. Normally I’d pan this as unrealistic and transparently driven by plot convenience, but since it concerns Ron, it’s actually quite plausible that nobody really cares what happens to him.

* Gryffindors all want to see Zach Smith punished for not toadying up enough to their Quidditch team. Wait, I thought that already happened when Ginny flew into him? Guess that wasn’t enough, he’s got to suffer some more.

* “‘Friends?’ said Lavender scornfully. ‘[Hermione] didn’t talk to [Ron] for weeks after he started going out with me.’” That’s correct, Lavender, but since you’re standing in the way of the Designated Romance, I’m afraid we’ll all be expected to hate you for pointing it out.

* Although “I suppose that she wants to make up with him now that he’s all interesting” seems like an odd thing to say, given that Jo’s just said nobody finds Ron interesting even after he’s been poisoned.

* Don’t worry, Ron, says Harry, “McLaggen could be world-class and I still wouldn’t want to keep him.” Note that favouring your friends over better-qualified people isn’t at all favouritism and is totally fine except when Slytherins do it.

* Ron doesn’t have the guts to dump Lavender, so he just pretends to be asleep whenever she comes to see him. Must be that Gryffindor courage and chivalry showing through.

* Malfoy makes a dig at Harry, and one of the girls he’s with gives an “unwilling” giggle. Yeah, because it’s not like anybody could find Malfoy’s jokes funny and be OK with people knowing this. Harry hates Malfoy, so everybody else must as well. That’s how these things work, right?

* “So I wanted to know how come he’s up at the Castle with a couple of girlfriends while everyone else is down here…” Erm, really, Harry, you can’t think of any explanation? Oh well, I suppose everybody has to be told sometime. You see, sometimes a man and a woman realise that they love each other very much…

* I know a lot of people think Luna’s being fawning with her “I like Ginny, she’s very nice” routing, but given that she’s just mentioned how Ginny flew into Smith for being rude about Gryffindor, it seems to me more like she’s having a sneaky dig at her.

* McLaggen knocks Harry out with a beater’s stick. Well, at least we got to skip the rest of the match. Yay Cormack!

* Ginny came to visit Harry while he was unconscious. Oh, I’m sorry, Jo, could you pick that anvil up off the floor, please?

* Ron thinks Harry’s getting obsessed with Malfoy, thinking of missing Quidditch to follow him. Not at all like in their second year, when the Trio were convinced Draco was attacking people on far less evidence, and were willing to drug and impersonate two of his friends to try and get him.

* Harry wonders if he could get the DA to tail Malfoy, since obviously they’ll all be at his beck and call even though he hasn’t given them a second thought since last year.

* I never cease to be amazed at how Rowling writes the one freedom-loving elf as far more servile and undignified than those who actually want to be enslaved.

Comments

[dungeonwriter.livejournal.com]

I'm still curious how the Twins are running a business, considering that they have the attention span of Goldfish. Being brilliant inventors (and I won't deny that their invention are cruel, sadistic but quite creative) isn't enough to have a business that doubles in volume in a year and a half. I mean, payroll, inventory of materials needed to create the product, labor, budgets, taxes, unless the twins got a money manager that can handle all of that or some spell "Manageris Money-us", they'd be bankrupt. I know JKR has more money than the queen, but has she ever talked to her accountant about how a business is run?

And the Wizarding World has no theatres, no concert halls, no universities of higher learning, no libraries outside Hogwarts, and very little literature. "Marty the Mad Muggle" comic books do not make for a literate society.

We also have little examples of industry, of experimentation, and a functioning economy. http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Jobs_in_the_wizarding_world Slim pickings for jobs outside government and education, self employ or service sector.

But we have joke shops. Lots of joke shops. Because every society is built on that.

[sunnyskywalker]

Those patented daydream charms sound like they have addictive potential...

Though I think we got another hint as to the main source of their income with the revelation that the Ministry gave them a defense contract. The joke shop was their initial business plan, and is still the public face, but their weapons and defense research is probably the real money-maker. Meaning Fred and George have just founded the wizarding world's military-joke retail complex. (Unless Zonko's got there first, and we missed a whole political scuffle where their contract got cancelled in favor of giving it to the new kids willing to bid lower.)

[dungeonwriter.livejournal.com]

Wow, so basically, they're arms dealers. Not passing judgement but...yeah, harmless little pranksters...

[urbanman1984.livejournal.com]

Of course they pedal drugs. What are the patented daydreams and love potions?

And they must market their products to non-magical folk as well, that really would provide a big market.

[sunnyskywalker]

Didn't JKR even once say that the whole "He Who Must Not Be Named" schtick was based on her reading that the Kray Twins were so feared that people started being afraid to say their names, come to think of it? The story is in the Lexicon, anyway, and I'm sure someone can dig up the interview. There you go - she had the Kray Twins rattling around in her subconscious ideas about the series already, so it isn't actually a huge stretch that some of that (probably unconsciously) seeped over into Fred and George's characterization!

[nx74defiant.livejournal.com]

It's only been a year and a half. They could be successful and mismanaged. They jokes are new and nasty, so sales are good. They are the hot new company. There are plenty of real life examples of companies that come out and are a huge success, then a few years later it all falls apart and the truth about all the bad management comes out. The real test is can they last.

[dungeonwriter.livejournal.com]

I do like the Opium den theory but the "Huge success for a short time" works for me too.

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

Well, this is a society that stops maturing at the age of eleven. So this is a rare case of consistency!

[dungeonwriter.livejournal.com]

I remember reading Harry Potter 2 and realizing how scary and mean this world was. I was like 14 and terrified of a world that seemed to have no rules, all whimsy and fun until you realized logic had no place here.

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

"We also have little examples of industry, of experimentation, and a functioning economy. http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Jobs_in_the_wizarding_world Slim pickings for jobs outside government and education, self employ or service sector."

Heh, reminds me of the old Eastern Bloc countries back in the communist era. Well, I suppose the wizard government's certainly corrupt and inefficient enough for a communist state.

[dungeonwriter.livejournal.com]

It is an incredibly inefficient country. No arts, no music, no culture, no innovation.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/Also, note how the wizarding world can apparently support at least two joke shops, but no theatres or concert halls./

Or orphanages. Or adoption agencies. Or outreach programs to Muggle parents and/or guardians. Which would come in really handy when it came to Harry, Tom, and any other Muggle-born/half-blood without parents. The wizarding world is so concerned about security, but they don’t do anything when it comes to Muggle-borns and half-bloods who are raised by people who have no idea what they are. They only interfere when the kids turn eleven and are ready to go to school or when they cause enough of a disturbance that it may alert the Muggles to magic. They don't think of sending someone to periodically sit down with the Muggle relatives, explain everything, and then keep tabs on them.

/Yeah, as if he’s ever cared enough about others to feel guilty when he hurts their feelings./

Or to feel guilty when he actually *does* do something wrong. Like the Department of Mysteries fiasco last book? All Snape’s fault. Nearly killing Draco in this book? Five minutes of panic and guilt and then he’s happily snogging Ginny and grumbling about getting detention.

/Hagrid gets annoyed at Filch, calls him a “sneakin’ squib”. And before you start getting any silly ideas, no, this isn’t at all like Malfoy calling Hermione a mudblood because... erm… because The Great Jo says so, that’s why!/

Also, the word “Squib” isn’t considered a slur, just like “Muggle” isn’t considered a slur. But it doesn’t matter because if a person deliberately addresses someone by their background (ex. “You Italian,” “Stupid Frenchman,” etc.), it’s still offensive and rude, even if the term they use isn’t an insult.

But yes, the distinction in treatment of Muggle-borns and Squibs is really odd. Muggle-borns can do magic. Squibs can’t. Therefore, Squibs are more like Muggles, who wizards disdain. Therefore, shouldn’t Voldemort and the Death Eaters reserve their deepest contempt for Squibs, right after Muggles? Shouldn’t Squibs be the ones that are pelted with foul names and locked up? After all, they’re practically Muggles. The only difference is that they have magical relatives.

/News of Ron’s poisoning spreads quickly, but doesn’t attract the same amount of interest as Katie’s mishap, or Quidditch, or Harry Potter’s love life./

Oh, that’s nothing. Wait until Draco almost dies a bloody and painful death in the bathroom. Somehow only the Slytherins will care and everyone else will act as if it never happened.

/Wait, I thought that already happened when Ginny flew into him? Guess that wasn’t enough, he’s got to suffer some more./

Ah, now I see why some fans saw Zacharias Smith as a stand-in for Draco.

/“‘Friends?’ said Lavender scornfully. ‘[Hermione] didn’t talk to [Ron] for weeks after he started going out with me.’/

Also, Hermione put him in the hospital wing for daring to go out with someone who wasn’t her. Funny how Lavender didn’t mention that tidbit. I guess that we’re just going to sweep that little incident under the rug until DH?

/Ron doesn’t have the guts to dump Lavender, so he just pretends to be asleep whenever she comes to see him. Must be that Gryffindor courage and chivalry showing through./

The same Gryffindor courage and chivalry that Remus, who was also a prefect, showed when his friends were bullying Snape.

And yet Draco, Snape, and Zacharias are called out as cowards. I guess that it doesn’t count when you’re a Gryffindor or when the lack of bravery that you show is a lack of *moral* bravery and not physical.

[nx74defiant.livejournal.com]

The wizarding world is so concerned about security, but they don’t do anything when it comes to Muggle-borns and half-bloods who are raised by people who have no idea what they are. They only interfere when the kids turn eleven and are ready to go to school or when they cause enough of a disturbance that it may alert the Muggles to magic. They don't think of sending someone to periodically sit down with the Muggle relatives, explain everything, and then keep tabs on them.

Dumbledore was counting on this in Harry's case.

But it is horribly negligent. I doubt the Dursely's were the 1st family to think they could beat the magic out of the magical child. And can you image the exericism and rituals used to free the magical child from the devil or demons blamed for the outbursts of magic? It would be better now. Perhaps the reason there is an increase in Muggleborns is that they are now surviving until eleven thanks to changing attitudes in the Muggle world. But even now how would a fundamentalist family react to a magical child?

I remember reading a fanfiction of a Slytherin Harry where the Malfoys use Harry's experience at the Dursleys to win him over. They had Harry agreeing that magical children need to be removed from the Muggle families to protect them. Lucius Malfoy put the Death Eater's in a good light. They cared about Muggle borns, that was why the Muggles needed to be cut out of their lives. Unlike Dumbledore who placed a magical child with Muggles who abused him.

[sunnyskywalker]

I think the difference between Squibs and Muggleborns is that the occasional Squib can just be quietly pitied or despised along with everyone else born with something "wrong" with them, but they're still part of wizarding society, born and raised, and have places of a sort. Whereas Muggleborns are outsiders bringing in outlandish foreign ideas, and also upset the whole narrative about what kinds of people are best (because they have magic passed down through generations of their superior family line). Unless there are suddenly a lot of Squibs visible, or particular families start producing lots of them, they aren't a threat to wizarding society as a whole. And they aren't very visible, because as far as we can tell, most of them probably either have menial jobs like Filch (easy to just "not see" those people) or have left the ww, like the Weasley accountant cousin. So everything looks fine on that front, whereas there are visibly a fair number of "invading" Muggleborns.

On moral vs. physical bravery, it occurs to me that Dumbledore singled Neville out for the rare courage to stand up to his friends. Now, he was trying to pad the points... but maybe he also revealed something about Gryffindor House in the process: they are not known for their moral bravery. And perhaps never have been, no matter what Harry's impression is. "Chivalry and daring" doesn't necessarily translate to having the courage of one's convictions, does it? At least, it sounds a lot more like being brave in battle while wearing a token from one's lady-love* than, say, calling a friend out for bad behavior or risking your job to protest government policy.


*Who is probably married. Okay, to be fair, that was a bit later than Gryffindor, but maybe he was just ahead of his time...

[hwyla.livejournal.com]

Note also that while giving Neville points for 'moral courage' that he only gave him 10 points instead of the 50 each of the other received. So 'moral' courage is defined as 'worth' only about 20% as much as 'physical' courage.

[sunnyskywalker]

Ack, that is terrible. Though I wonder what the points would have been if Neville had been risking more with his opposition than the Trio being displeased - he was already a social outcast and someone the Trio usually ignored, and he could probably expect them not to do him major damage (either physical injuries or deliberately spreading nasty rumors about him and such). Not that that necessarily made it easier for Neville, but Gryffindors do seem to value risk. If Dumbledore had awarded points for it, how many would Hermione have gotten by risking her only friendships by turning in the Firebolt in PoA?

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

On moral versus physical bravery, I just realized something while I was thinking about a scene in another book. They are closely connected. And there are times in this saga when Harry is truly brave - at the end of PS/SS, and also at the end of GOF, to give two examples. But it's also true that, as often as not, what passes for bravery among the Gryffindors is mere recklessness and/or thoughtlessness. You can find the essays on bravery at my livejournal, if you're interested.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

Yes, I did read your essays on moral bravery, thanks! They were very interesting to read. :)

[sunnyskywalker]

The wizarding world has at least one band (the Weird Sisters) and at least one solo performer (Celestina Warbeck). Where do they perform, normally? Does Celestina only do studio recordings which are broadcast on the radio? The Weird Sisters play at the Yule Ball, and unless that's their first-ever public performance, they must normally play somewhere to have become a popular band. Do the Leaky Cauldron and the Three Broomsticks do live music nights? (What kind of bands does the Hog's Head book?) Do they set up in deserted fields with warming charms and canopies and whatever other comforts? Do Quidditch matches have shows before or after? What about Ministry shindigs? Weddings and bar mitzvahs?

Rowling lost a prime opportunity to tie Ron and Hermione's reluctance to investigate Draco to the mess in CoS. Harry, last time we went to illegal lengths to spy on Draco, he turned out to be completely clueless about what was going on, and Hermione ended up in the hospital wing. You want to drag us through that again because he's still got a big mouth? Now, here are some other, more likely-sounding culprits...

Of course that assumes a rewrite in which they actually have alternate culprits. Given that they don't, I'm leaning toward Dumbledore zapping them with a curiosity-suppressing charm.

I like the theory that Luna's actually taking a sneaky dig at Ginny.

[hwyla.livejournal.com]

Well Stubby Boardman and the Hobgoblins apparently played the Little Norton Church Hall before quitting show biz. I'm still a bit peeved over that name-dropping that led nowhere.

[sunnyskywalker]

I wonder if that's a Muggle church they take over when convenient, or whether there is actually a wizard-operated church? Do they have a church hierarchy with bishops and everything?

Stubby Boardman was a disappointing road to nowhere.

[hwyla.livejournal.com]

Yeah - Boardman = Bored Man. I thought for sure it meant SOMETHING about Sirius! I suppose it was only meant as a comment on his frustration.

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

So Fred and George are so successful with their joke shop that they can afford to buy out Zonko’s after just one and a half years out of school.
That's once again the Rowling series regressing into infants' tales - the lowly maid had a beautiful dress and the king married her. they had a funny shop and became very rich...

* Ugh, that whole “Person mutters their love’s name in their sleep” trope is so cliché. I thought even Rowling was above it.
Hahaha - remember Harry's saccharine line at the end of the second movie "Hogwarts wouldn't be Hogwarts without you"? Then I thought Rowling would never have written something like that. Little did I know what lay in store for the suffering public...

* Finally Hermione is making logical connexions between things in an attempt to solve the mystery! Apparently the effort’s now too much for her, though, since she promptly stops at the end of the paragraph and never tries again.
That's my main problem with DTC analysis - in theory, the text has to stand on its own, meaning you should assess characters according to what you see them doing. But like in this case it is glaringly obvious Hermione's utter idiocy (and everyone else's) is just due to the author's inability to come up with a convincing plot. Ascribing this to Hermione's character is like closing your eyes, stuffing your ears and chanting "I'm in the Hogwarts universe, nothing makes sense, but I'm determined to pay no attention to big J behind the curtain!"

* Mrs. Weasley says how lucky her family is that Harry keeps saving them, apparently not noticing that Harry’s usually the reason they need to be saved in the first place.
And kindly forgets to mention how come she always rattles on about how her kids and everybody else is safe provided Good Daddy Dumbles is there.

* Hagrid gets annoyed at Filch, calls him a “sneakin’ squib”. And before you start getting any silly ideas, no, this isn’t at all like Malfoy calling Hermione a mudblood because... erm… because The Great Jo says so, that’s why!
Hm, I just wondered if we have another class thing going on here. Muggleborn are those who come from perfectly respectable environments (Hermione's parents are dentists, Justin was supposed to go to Eton...) but from outside one's own realm of experience. LIke foreigners belonging to the upper echelons of their own society. Of course they have to be treated as equals (because they ARE as far as class/ culture is concerned, just as Muggleborns have got the same abilities as other wizards, only narrowminded idiots wouldn't see that). Squibs, on the other hand, seem more like the unwashed masses of one's own society who often don't warrent the same political support by liberal freethinkers. It has been said on this board before - it seems idiotic to give the job of caretaker to someone with no magical ability as most of his tasks could be taken care of in a literal second by waving a wand if he could only do it. Whereas we don't see any squibs in an academic capacity (there is no reason why Muggle Studies shouldn't be taught by a Squib or History of Magic for example.

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

Don’t worry, Ron, says Harry, “McLaggen could be world-class and I still wouldn’t want to keep him.” Note that favouring your friends over better-qualified people isn’t at all favouritism and is totally fine except when Slytherins do it.
You still haven't got it: It's Harry's look into McLaggen's fiendish heart that makes him say that. BTW - do we know anything about McLaggen in the final book, how he fared in the battle of Hogwarts or anything?

* “So I wanted to know how come he’s up at the Castle with a couple of girlfriends while everyone else is down here…” Erm, really, Harry, you can’t think of any explanation? Oh well, I suppose everybody has to be told sometime. You see, sometimes a man and a woman realise that they love each other very much…
Question to the native speakers here: Does "girlfriend" always have a romantic meaning? I thought so but am not sure. If it has this really makes Harry sound like an eight year old.

* Ginny came to visit Harry while he was unconscious. Oh, I’m sorry, Jo, could you pick that anvil up off the floor, please?
At least Harry didn't moan her name...

* Harry wonders if he could get the DA to tail Malfoy, since obviously they’ll all be at his beck and call even though he hasn’t given them a second thought since last year.
Well, unlike you he knows which universe he's in!

[oryx_leucoryx]

McLaggen isn't in DH. He finished Hogwarts at the end of HBP, and not being part of the DA/Order he had no idea that a battle was fought until after the fact.

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

Just as well, or we'd probably have been treated to the sight of him screaming in terror and pushing first-years out of the way in his haste to escape. Maybe wetting himself too, just to complete his humiliation.

[urbanman1984.livejournal.com]

Yes, "girlfriend" would have a romantic meaning in British English, as long as it applies to the "girlfriend" of a male person.

I read it as Harry being flippant.