HBP Chapter Twenty-One: "The Unknowable Room"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

* Harry finds a spell marked “for enemies”, and can’t wait to try it out. No doubt about it, this boy sure is marked out by his ability to love.

* Also, this is where Hogwarts’ limited curriculum really comes to bite the characters on the backside. If they did a bit of Latin, Harry would know that a spell which begins “sectum-” is probably bad news, and could avoid using it. Or at least save it for people who really deserve it, like men who spit at McGonagall.

* Apparition lessons again, and as per usual, Ron is the worst, Hermione’s the best, and Harry can’t attend due to a technicality, giving him plenty of opportunity to gripe about how unfair everything is.

* Hahahaha, “dugbogs”.  That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard! They really crack me up, those twins. *wipes tear of laughter from eye*

* “‘I love you, Hermione,’ said Ron, sinking back in his chair.” I can’t help but think that if he really did, he’d be a bit less casual in saying so.

* Yeah, Ron, go bitch to your friends about how much you wish Lavender would dump you because you don’t want to do it yourself. That’s not at all demeaning or disrespectful.

* Dobby’s here. Bugger.

* Dobby gets all upset at the idea of Kreacher seeing Harry without him. OK, this Harry obsession is getting seriously creepy now.

* Harry’s owning a slave has always been a touchy subject with Hermione. We’ve never actually seen her complain or suggest that Kreacher ought to be freed, so I guess we should just take the narrator’s word for it.

* Oh, Harry, please let Dobby jump into the fire. Anything to stop us having to listen to his pathetic servility again.

* Dobby can’t speak ill of his old masters four years after being freed, whereas Kreacher has no problem speaking ill of his current ones. Anybody got an explanation for why this might be?

* “‘Yeah, we don’t need to hear about you being in love with Malfoy,’ Harry told Kreacher.” Hearing about Dobby being in love with Harry, OTOH, is perfectly fine.

* Hermione says that Kreacher’s done well in obeying Harry’s instructions, and ends up sounding like a primary school teacher.

* Crabbe and Goyle are “stupid enough to do what they’re told even if [Malfoy] won’t tell them what he’s up to.” Incidentally, Harry, how much has Dumbledore told you about his plans?

* Harry gets all excited about his new Malfoy theory, till Hermione reminds him that he’s supposed to be getting the memory out of Slughorn. Phew! Thanks for that, Hermione, the book was in danger of actually getting interesting. Good thing you were there to head it off and drag us back to the boring and drawn-out subplot du jour.

* You should persuade Slughorn, not trick him, says Hermione. Yeah, I can see why Dumbledore wanted Harry to do this task. I mean, that boy’s people skills are just so good.

* “I need to see the place where Malfoy keeps coming secretly… I need to see what Draco Malfoy is doing inside you…” *snigger*

* Snape and Mundungus are supposed to be on the same side, mutters Harry, shouldn’t Snape be upset he was arrested? Well, I don’t know, Harry, you didn’t seem that upset. Nor did Hermione and Ron, for that matter. And given what we actually see of Mundungus, I doubt he was ever that much help to the Order.

* Lavender comes up and tries to make Ron feel better by abusing Snape. No wonder Ron had to dump her in favour of the callous girl who spends half the book ignoring him and the other half pointing out all his shortcomings. Lavender clearly doesn’t have the moral fibre to let Ron know how just pathetic he is.

* Wait, so Myrtle likes Malfoy? I thought everybody could see that boy’s inherent evilness. Maybe Myrtle’s a Slytherin too, so she doesn’t care about that sort of thing. All Slytherins are the same, you see: they’re all evil and they’re all bigoted.

* Ron acts like a jerk and ruins a good opportunity to find out about Draco. Harry should really ditch the Weasley boy, he’s just holding him back, and God knows Harry’s more than proficient at doing that to himself.

* Erm, Hermione, if Harry doesn’t know how to get the memory from Slughorn, “just keeping at it” is unlikely to help. In fact, it’ll probably just annoy Slughorn, and make him even less likely to hand it over.

* Harry traps Malfoy in the ROR and gains “a most agreeable feeling of power” from doing so. Similarity # 94 between Harry and Voldemort: both like having power over others.

* Wow, Tonks is… kind of over-reacting here. I mean, yeah, I’d expect her to be a bit down after  pining away after Lupin for the past year or so (although I can’t help but question her taste in men…), but still, she ought to at least be able to hold a conversation. It makes me wonder if they ought to have some sort of psychological assessment for would-be aurors.

* Hermione’s been ignoring Ron as he tells Harry how great she was at apparition. By which I mean, she’s pretending to ignore Ron (gotta punish him for dating somebody else, after all), but actually storing everything up in her memory for when she next needs to humiliate him (“You can’t even apparate properly, whereas I’m perfect, Professor Twycross said so, even you admitted it…”).