PS Chapter Twelve: "The Mirror of Erised"

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

* I bet muggle children feel so inferior now, when they compare the draughty, ice-cold Hogwarts castle to the central-heated hovels they live in back home.

* “Ron and his brothers were staying too, because Mr and Mrs Weasley were going to Romania to visit Charlie.” Ginny, presumably, has to fend for herself over Christmas.

* I’m not sure why Dumbledore is making Hagrid carry the Christmas trees inside, given that any of the teachers could just levitate the trees and take them in quicker and more easily.

* Then again, Albus does also make Filch clean the castle by hand, when any magic-user could vanish the rooms clean in a trice. Maybe he just gets off on seeing people struggle.

* Harry hates both Malfoy and Snape, inaugurating the long tradition of him trying to work out whom he hates the most.

* The trio have “been through hundreds of books already” without finding Flamel, because apparently card catalogues aren’t whimsical enough for the wizarding world.

* I’m surprised they haven’t yet found any reference to Flamel, though. Even if they’ve only been looking through books of recent magical history, you’d have thought at least one of them would have referenced him, if only in passing.

* Madam Pince seems a bit OTT, kicking inoffensive students out of the library. It’s not like Harry was damaging the books or disturbing other library users.

* Actually, couldn’t Harry ask Madam Pince if there are any books mentioning Nicholas Flamel? He could tell her it’s for a piece of History of Magic homework or something.

* Harry and Ron immediately lose interest in looking for Flamel once the holidays start, because even at this early stage they’re a pair of layabouts who can’t do anything without Hermione nagging them.

* Ron starts teaching Harry wizard chess. This is exactly like muggle chess except more sadistic, and therefore better.

* I hope Ron enjoys beating Harry at chess, because it’s the only thing he’ll be allowed to beat Harry at, at all, ever.

* Ron’s pile of Christmas presents is much bigger than Harry’s. Just to remind us that Harry’s the underdog here, in case his free broom, rule-bending place on the sports team and private hoard of gold have caused us to forget.

* Ron’s fascination with Harry’s 50p is a bit OTT, especially for a kid whose father is supposedly obsessed with muggle artefacts. What, so Mr. Weasley never once brought any muggle money home with him?

* It’s a pity they don’t study Classics in the wizarding world, otherwise Dumbledore might have read about the Ring of Gyges and realised that giving an eleven-year-old the ability to essentially do anything and get away with it is almost certainly going to be a very, very bad idea.

* Harry’s jumper is better than the others’, because Mrs. Weasley obviously makes more of an effort if you’re rich and famous not family. I wonder how her real children feel about this.

* Not only is Ron’s jumper worse than Harry’s, it’s in a colour he hates. No wonder he ends up so insecure.

* The Hogwarts Christmas dinner sounds kind of wasteful – we’re not told exactly how many people stayed for the holidays, but it’s almost certainly not enough to eat “a hundred fat, roast turkeys”.

* The narrative voice pauses for a bit to express contempt for the “feeble Muggle [crackers] the Dursleys usually bought”, because obviously crackers which send live rodents flying through the air are far superior.

* The fact that we need to be specifically told that the balloons in Harry’s cracker are non-explodable says a lot about wizarding society.

* Despite allegedly being a normal human male, teenage Harry never once considers using the Invisibility Cloak to spy on the girls’ changing rooms.

* Dumbledore’s been spying on Harry looking at the Mirror. Because that isn’t creepy at all.

Comments

[penguinsuzie.livejournal.com]

I don't see why there aren't warming spells used all over the castle during winter.

* “Ron and his brothers were staying too, because Mr and Mrs Weasley were going to Romania to visit Charlie.” Ginny, presumably, has to fend for herself over Christmas.

I just assumed she went with them, but that's a worrying point. This is one of the things that make me think the Weasley's aren't as poor as the books tell us they are, but that the main problem is that they are exceptionally bad at handling money. Notice that the very next year Harry sees their vault is emptied and they can't afford a new wand for Ron. We know that travelling must be somewhat costly because they used up most of their prize money going to Egypt.

* I’m not sure why Dumbledore is making Hagrid carry the Christmas trees inside, given that any of the teachers could just levitate the trees and take them in quicker and more easily.

This is one of several times where Snape walks in at the end and witnesses Gryffindor's attacking Draco yet is treated as some kind of monster for taking point for it, as if telling a teacher the person you're trying to hurt said something mean is a reasonable defence.

* Harry’s jumper is better than the others’, because Mrs. Weasley obviously makes more of an effort if you’re rich and famous not family. I wonder how her real children feel about this.

This reminded me of terri_testing's theory about wizarding families requiring children to earn their affection. There's a noticeable difference in how Molly treats her older successful children versus how she treats the others (especially Ron). Meanwhile Harry is believed to have defeated Voldemort as a baby and has therefore earned anything they give him. Same with Neville who talks about his neglect like it's normal and is only rewarded with his own wand when he proved himself by fighting alongside Harry.

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

This is one of the things that make me think the Weasley's aren't as poor as the books tell us they are, but that the main problem is that they are exceptionally bad at handling money.

Especially since by this time, all but one of their children either have jobs of their own or are spending three quarters of the year getting free board and lodging at Hogwarts. Even if they were just barely staying solvent trying to look after seven children, you'd expect their financial situation to have improved considerably by now.

[hwyla.livejournal.com]

While I agree, it is however also the first year that they have to pay tuition for 5 kids. However, this doesn't change the fact that they knew darn well the previous year that they'd be paying another tuition when they spent the money to visit Charlie.

Obviously, JKR had to think of a way to have Ron stay at Hogwarts for Christmas. However I think it is even worse that it isn't even as if they had not seen Charlie in a long time. This would have been his first Christmas away from home, so rather than not see him for it, they decide to miss seeing 4 of their other kids?

And wouldn't it cost more for Arthur & Molly to visit Charlie (we could either presume Ginny was sent to Aunt Muriel's or add her to the traveling costs) than to send him the money to come home?

So is it more important somehow that they see where Charlie lives?

[fdsfd (from livejournal.com)]

Excellent, more sporkings, my weekend is going great :)

/Christmas Trees/
- Not only why is Dumbledore making Hagrid carry the trees inside, why are they chopping down real trees when they could just transfigure them? Would they not smell as piney? Is Hagrid & Flich's manual labour a crucial part of the aesthetic? Probably yes, actually.

/Flamel/
- Lol these books are really starting to show their age; instead of "going through books" or using a card catalogue normal, muggle children would google Flamel and find his wiki page in less than 5 seconds.

/Ring of Gyges/
- Its gross that Dumbledore gives Harry the cloak as a present, when in actual fact the cloak belongs to his family and Dumbledore has been committing theft by keeping it, so Dumbledore can reap the kudos when he tells Harry he gave it back. Like he's doing it to make Harry grateful when it actually belonged to him all along. Like its almost grooming imho. Also gross that Dumbledore took it from a vulnerable family when they could have used it to hide from Voldemort and prevent their senseless murder.

/Hogwarts Christmas Dinner/
- (lol I'm just imagining the one (1) jewish student and the non-existent muslims also in attendance). You're right it does sound really wasteful... a hundred fat, roast turkeys. Yuck. JK has a really weird fixation on food, where everyone eats so much but no-ones a glutton unless they're morally deficient. I wonder what they do with the scraps? Feed them to the house-elves? Food for the thestrals?

/Dumbledore's been spying on Harry/
- Yuck. Dumbledore is such a creep jesus. The only upside to his ghosting Harry around is that presumably other students can deal with personal or family issues in dignified privacy.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/Ginny, presumably, has to fend for herself over Christmas./

It's really odd when you consider how much in the background Ginny seems to be in earlier books and it makes me wonder just how much of the Harry/Ginny romance was planned in advance. She's not given much attention in this book, she does gain a more prominent role in the second book, but then after the whole Chamber of Secrets adventure is over and done with, Ginny just slides back into the background until OotP. That's really why her larger presence in HBP seems so sudden. Her avid interest in Quidditch was never focused on in GoF (in fact, as many people have pointed out, she fell asleep during the Cup), her experience with Tom Riddle is only mentioned once in OotP, she seemed to be over Harry to the point of no longer stuttering in front of him, and was overall treated as a minor character. If Harry/Ginny was endgame all along, then why was Ginny such a minor character?

/Harry hates both Malfoy and Snape, inaugurating the long tradition of him trying to work out whom he hates the most./

And Voldemort, the man who *killed his parents* and was thus indirectly responsible for Harry's childhood with the Dursleys, is never on that list. Heck, I think that Harry showed more anger towards Sirius when he thought that Sirius had betrayed his parents than he did towards Voldemort.

/I hope Ron enjoys beating Harry at chess, because it’s the only thing he’ll be allowed to beat Harry at, at all, ever./

And even then, it's not like Ron's skill at chess will feature prominently in any of the books afer this. He beat Harry once, in one thing, in one book, and that's it. It's not like each book has a chess-related challenge where he turns to Harry and Hermione and says, "Don't worry, I've got this."

/Harry’s jumper is better than the others’, because Mrs. Weasley obviously makes more of an effort if you’re rich and famous not family. I wonder how her real children feel about this./

Ron is the only one whom we see be insecure about this. We don't see the reactions from any of the other Weasley kids. Also, I think that at this point, it's supposed to be a nice gesture: treating an orphan kid like he belongs to a family by giving him gifts. But when the series goes on and Mrs. Weasley consistently favors Harry over Ron, then it's no longer sweet and just looks unfair on her part.

[kahran042]

Despite allegedly being a normal human male, teenage Harry never once considers using the Invisibility Cloak to spy on the girls’ changing rooms.

That's probably because he's more interested in the boys' changing rooms. ;)