01 HP Chamber of Secrets

[chantaldormand]

I promised, I deliver.

Ch1 The Worst Birthday

>Such melodramatic chapter title fits our protagonist. Well done Jo.

>Coincidentally CoS was the first HP book I read. It was... really confusing experience for me. Jo reminding reader basic facts like Harry being wizard doesn’t really work.

>We know that we aren’t reading fanfiction, because Harry stupidly kept Hedwig in cage instead of sending her off to Hermione.

>If I was Hedwig, I would take the first opportunity to pull runner and never look back.

>Harry being on purpose antagonistic towards his relatives is extra annoying to me. Yeah they are treating him poorly, but abusing advantage in such petty fashion is really stupid. +1 to Leap of Logic

>If I wasn’t sure that there is serious trauma from magic users in Vernon’s past, now it’s confirmed.

>One would think that Petunia would know that Hogwarts’ students cannot do magic at home. This means that: a) Lily was regularly breaking law; b) this law is recent; c) Jo couldn’t keep track of facts even this early in the game. Take your picks.

>According to Harry, proper methods of deactivating explosive materials include panicky shouting. +1 to Leap of Logic

>Damn, Harry is whining here like a kid who is annoyed that his parents dragged him away from his awesome secret base for dinner. Then again, to him Hogwarts probably is his private super special awesome secret base.

>Harry’s whining about his place on Quidditch team has me wondering: why in seven hells a Quidditch team would pick anyone who lives in urban area? As far as we can see WW is really small, so we probably can forget about hidden areas in cities where kids can train their skills .

>Also, Jo could have easily used this occasion to never ever write another Quidditch match. I bet that in later books she was cursing herself for not taking easy way out.

>Huh, narrative starts to be pretty judgmental about someone not having magic. And here I thought that we had a few more books before this sentiment started.

>Darn, Harry is such bratty drama queen. His main complaint against his abusive guardians? They dare to forget his birthday!! +1 to Leap of Logic

>No seriously, Harry mopes about Vernon preparing for dinner party that can decide his future income, instead of the brat’s birthday. Just how much self-centred can our hero be?

>Also, why Dursleys didn’t just decide to ask Arabella to babysit Harry for one evening? +1 to Leap of Logic

>Harry kicks himself out of house so he won’t be in Petunia’s way when she cleans house. According to fans and FF writers alike, this event never took place and instead Harry was slaving away, so his relatives could have fun.

>Eh, while I can understand Harry’s teenage angst over not hearing from his friends, you would think after this summer the trio would come up with some other way of communicating. +1 to Leap of Logic

>As I said in the last chapter of PS: Harry the most loving and merciful hero in history of literature enjoys tormenting his cousin. What a pleasant boy! +1 to Crime Count for bulling

>Harry has nightmares about escaping Voldemort yet not about Quirrell’s death. I suppose that burning someone alive is nowhere nearly as traumatic as seeing a random student being zapped by pretty lights. Or Quirrell wasn’t pretty enough to be memorable.

>Poor Dudley. He might be a walking caricature of character, but after sitting in Harry’s head for last… half year, I’m way more empathic toward Dudley than Harry.

>What? Tossing frying pan? At head? Jo you can’t ramp up abuse AND have your protag act like an entitled rich brat whose favourite toys were taken away. +1 to Death Count

>Eh, if “two slices of bread and lump of cheese” are “pitiful supper” then both our hero and author never experienced serious financial problems.

>I almost managed to forget Dobby’s existence. Almost. *Sigh*

Crime Count: 1

Death Count: 1

Freud Would Be Proud: 0

Leap of Logic: 5

Uncovered: 0

Spell Count: 0

Comments

[elanor-x.livejournal.com]

// Coincidentally CoS was the first HP book I read.

Me too. May be, it's a partial reason for why it remained my favorite.

// Darn, Harry is such bratty drama queen. His main complaint against his abusive guardians? They dare to forget his birthday!!

I think the complaint should not be taken at face value but as representing the combination of hatred and neglect / ignoring Dursleys heap on him. In later books, I would agree with your points regarding melodramatic exaggerations, but here Harry is still very young, only 12. I read somewhere that abused children may choose even negative attention over being ignored.

Regarding the chapter's title, after Dobby's antics, Dursleys will put bars on his window and Harry may be afraid of being prevented to leave to Hogwarts. I thought "the worst" referred to that development rather than to Dursleys forgetting his birthday.

// One would think that Petunia would know that Hogwarts’ students cannot do magic at home. This means that:

d) Petunia keeps silent on purpose to prevent her husband and son from hurting Harrry too much.

Sadly, my interpretation seems to be OOC for canon Petunia.

[sunnyskywalker]

I read somewhere that abused children may choose even negative attention over being ignored.

Harry does seem to have gone the route of defiance rather than keeping his head down, which is definitely a thing. And since from everything I've read, emotional abuse does just as much (or more) damage as physical abuse, I don't find it particularly meaningful that they don't beat him (I mean, I'm glad they don't, but it doesn't mean everything's fine). I think JKR laid a lot of groundwork for Harry dealing with significant emotional scars, and then just... never really followed up on it? Other than having him being increasingly difficult after every year of getting jerked around and stressed by the latest plot to kill him, which is about what you'd expect. But he never gets to the "healing" stage (or even "beginning of healing" stage) that you would expect from this kind of story arc. I think that's what really bothers me. Either don't have him so damaged, or let him start to heal, but don't just leave him hanging like that!

I like your option (d), and it probably could still fit, since nothing explicitly contradicts it. And Lily's rat-teacups might have been Zonko's joke teacups rather than unauthorized underage Transfiguration, so she might not have gotten in trouble since technically she didn't do magic. So it could still work with the law against underage sorcery (which we know existed since little Sev and Lily talk about it).

[chantaldormand]

I must admit that I really, really don't like discussing Harry's abuse.
To me it's clear that Jo's idea of what is considered abuse is old fashioned and she has no idea how abuse influences abuse victims.
Cartoonish abuse like in this chapter, could have been easily excused in first 3 books as a trope, but by the time when more "serious" books roll in we still have Vernon trying to choke Harry in Simpsons-esque fashion.
Even when we encounter physical abuse in the books it's either for laughs or quickly dismissed.
Emotional abuse? Author doesn't want her characters to develop, so it has minimal impact on them.

I wish that d) would be correct answer, but considering that Harry spend the last few weeks tormenting her traumatised son, I don't think that Petunia would do something like that :(

[sunnyskywalker]

Her handling of it is very frustrating. She lays all the groundwork for showing how emotional abuse can be terrible, shows Harry acting in ways that could be consistent with suffering long-term effects--and then just never follows up, or makes it cartoonish.

So you technically can read it as definitely happening and being a major force shaping Harry, but as a story, it isn't at all satisfying because that part of the story is basically just, "Harry has emotional scars which grow worse thanks to further trauma and then he never overcomes or even recognizes them, then end." Which is incredibly bleak, and doesn't mesh well with the way I think the ending of DH is pushing us to think that he's overcome and the wizarding world is going to be better soon.

Like, I do not expect 17-year-old Harry to have miraculously overcome all his problems five minutes after Voldemort has died. Who would? That's just not how people work. But showing some signs that he's recognized the ways all his experiences have harmed him and that he at least plans to try to find a way to heal seems like a minimum requirement for even a vaguely hopeful ending.

[jana-ch.livejournal.com]

JKR does a good job of depicting characters who behave like they’ve been abused. Those characters are Severus Snape and Neville Longbottom. Harry Potter himself is apparently too brave for mere abuse to affect his character.

[sunnyskywalker]

She has a much easier time when she isn't in the character's head, doesn't she? Sigh.

Harry's utter lack of curiosity makes sense given how the Dursleys drilled "don't ask questions" into him for ten years, and his difficulty making friends--or even noticing people around him--could have gone somewhere, as could his black and white approach of "you're either with me or against me." If people don't believe whatever he says, then they're being horrible and unreasonable to accuse him of lying, just like the Dursleys!

But yeah, traits like that conveniently disappear whenever Jo needs them to.

[chantaldormand]

I find it interesting that Jo's characters act the most natural when she doesn't focus on them. It's like she writes stories by inserting herself into shoes of certain characters, but because she doesn't understand so many things (being attracted to women, effects of abuse, etc.) she ends up distorting those characters.
So we have Severus who hangs onto his highschool crush through his whole life, Harry whose character is all over the place and many other examples when interesting characters suddenly act OOC.

[vermouth1991.livejournal.com]

Like, I do not expect 17-year-old Harry to have miraculously overcome all his problems five minutes after Voldemort has died. Who would?

Well don't forget that later in this book, "On the other hand, Ginny Weasley was perfectly happy again." This before the end of year feast!

Anyone remember that fanfic where the author actually delved into how fucked up the Tom/Ginny bond would be?

[nx74defiant.livejournal.com]

Petunia mentions enchanted things. Since Mrs. Snape is a witch, as long as Lily does the actual spells close to Severus' home there would be no letters from the ministry.