HBP: Chapter 4: Welcome to the Harry & Dumbledore Show!

[pacoman.livejournal.com]

In Which Dumbledore shows how good he is at manipulating people while putting an eccentric front.


- Right off the bat, the link between Harry and Voldemort is severed, as V is tired of listening so much teen angst and is therefore applying Occlumency against him. Harry, for one, is not missing the flashes of insight into Voldemort's mind, which a)proves that he gives higher priority to his needs than the needs of others, and b)serves as ironic foreshadowing.

- Harry's impression of Apparition sounds a bit like being forced back into the womb. When Dumbledore asks him how it was, Harry replies, and I quote, "I'm fine. But I think I might prefer brooms..." Meanwhile, HP slashers file this as Evidence #183.

- Harry: "Professor, why couldn't we just Apparate directly into your old colleague's house?"
Dumbledore: "Because it would be quite as rude as kicking down the front door. Courtesy dictates that we offer fellow wizards the opportunity of denying us entry."

Given that there have been a couple of GoF re-reads elsewhere lately, surely we're all wondering, "and what about when the Weasleys used the Dursleys' fireplace without permission?" Of course, Dumbledore covered that part already with the "fellow wizards" bit. Or maybe the Weasleys are just that rude.

- Dumbledore gives Harry (and us) the definition for Inferi. While it might sound a bit like zombies, remember that saying Inferi are just zombies will cause Snape to Apparate on the spot, verbally bitchslap you and go on a 10-minute diatribe on just how Inferi are different from zombies.

- "There was no need to stick the wand in that hard," he said gruffly, clambering to his feet. "It hurt." I hereby declare this to be the single dirtiest line in HP canon.

- Let me get on the record that I like Slughorn as a character. Yes, he's a bit creepy in that pedo kind of way, and yes, the constant harping on his weight gets old faster than on nearly anyone else (probably because Vernon and Dudley, our resident fat stereotypes, only appear a couple chapters per book on average), but he's probably the only character on the series who treats Dumbledore as an equal and not as some sort of father figure to worship or to rebel against. Plus, he's living proof that Harry is prejudiced against the Slytherins.

- Harry and Dumbledore have a heart-to-heart inside the Weasley broom-shed (this is where I point out how dirty that sounds) regarding the tragic parting of Sirius Black. Here we learn that after moping his way through the last chapter of OotP and the two interim weeks, Harry has decided to choose life and live. Dumbledore commends him on his choice, noting that Sirius is dead but their love lives on. H/D shippers ponder whether love can bloom, even on the battlefield. [/extended MGS reference]

- Harry mentions how Sirius wouldn't have wanted him to mourn his loss for long; he would have wanted Harry to find someone with whom to vicariously relive their loving relationship of sending each other mail and making Angst competitions.

Comments

[merrymelody.livejournal.com]

I think Harry's comfortable with 'back-scratching', personally, as long as he can classify it in his mind as something other than that. I mean, he tends to assume he deserves any/all of the many privileges he recieves, rather than being grateful/resenting the corrupt system he recieves much of it by (of course, the alternative is that Rowling doesn't see it as corrupt/comparable when Harry benefits from favouritism, since he's her Hero and all.)

[shadefell.livejournal.com]

Hm, that's a good point.

If he gets something because he deserves it, that's one thing... if he gets something because somebody else is being kind and doing him a favor (and he'd be in their debt) that's another.