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

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/Such melodramatic chapter title fits our protagonist/

Also, when you look back on it, it doesn't make sense. None of the birthdays that Harry had before he found out that he was a wizard and made friends at Hogwarts were worse than this? Is this like how Draco is somehow worse than Dudley now?

/One would think that Petunia would know that Hogwarts’ students cannot do magic at home/

Except that in the first book, she ranted about how Lily was turning teacups into rats. Unless Lily did those things before she got her Hogwarts letter, I presume that she was doing that at home while still a student. So, I think that any of the three options that you suggested would work.

/WW is really small, so we probably can forget about hidden areas in cities where kids can train their skills/

How are Muggle-born students supposed to train their skills during the summer when they can't perform magic in front of the Muggles that they live with? This just points to another advantage that pureblood students (theoretically) would have: they live away from Muggles so they don't have to worry about secrecy laws when practicing and they presumably live in rural areas where they could practice Quidditch.

/Harry mopes about Vernon preparing for dinner party that can decide his future income/

Except why is Vernon conducting a business dinner at his house? Why isn't he meeting them at a fancy restaurant instead?

/why Dursleys didn’t just decide to ask Arabella to babysit Harry for one evening?/

Because then Arabella would've taken one look at Dobby and kicked the house elf out of her home before reporting him to Dumbledore.

/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/

And this happens again in OOTP, only in that book, Harry gets on his high horse and screams at Hermione and Ron for not mailing him.

/I suppose that burning someone alive is nowhere nearly as traumatic as seeing a random student being zapped by pretty lights/

Yeah, that's why I never took the excuses for Harry's caps-lock rages in OOTP seriously. "It was after he just watched someone die!" Yeah, and he also watched and heard someone painfully die in front of him way back in the first book. Where were all his nightmares about Quirrell? He hadn't heard from Ron and Hermione all summer? He didn't hear from Ron and Hermione all summer in COS because Dobby was confiscating his mail. He'd nearly escaped from Voldemort killing him? Voldemort had tried to kill him twice before then, in PS/SS and COS. No, Harry was throwing temper tantrums left and right because JKR wanted OOTP to be the 'dark, gloomy, and angsty' book. Not because it was 'realistic.'

[smirkingcat.livejournal.com]

and so it goes on!!
i knew it was coming because you said it would but it is still awesome to see it
and this is yet another really good assasement of a chapter
the first sentiment is already spot on!

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.
this is so true, and i myself am making this mistake, because it is said that harry was abused, in hindsight there is very little actual evidence for that.

Eh, if “two slices of bread and lump of cheese” are “pitiful supper” then both our hero and author never experienced serious financial problems
oh boy can i attest to that, makes me wonder about all the jkr ‘was so poor’ while writing hp...

thank you so much for keeping this up! and for entertaining us with your spot on assessments of what is really being told

[flibbertygigget.livejournal.com]

I'm going to admit that I have always been a bit kinder to the title of this chapter than you are :) For me the title is hyperbolic, yes, but it also shows how Harry's gone from a place where he has friends and a sense of belonging to a place where he is at best ignored. Coupled with the isolation of not being allowed to contact and not being contacted by his friends, not to mention the fact that his last birthday was pretty magical, I can totally see how he would consider this a terrible birthday.

[themightyflynn]

I've always wondered about the whole "Harry is a malnourished abuse survivor" line fandom has come up with. Yes, he was treated worse than he should have been. No one is denying that. But with all the ranting they do, you'd think he was dealing with broken bones that wouldn't heal and cuts that got infected. All JKR has shown is that they yell at him, occasionally throw things, which he does right back, and lock him in his room.
Also, that child is NOT malnourished! They feed him enough to keep him from being taken from them by child services. If things really were as bad as fandom makes out, he would have been taken from them.

In short, I totally agree with you on so many things! XD

[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.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

>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.

Harry and Hermione are both Muggle-born. They both have a physical address the post office can find. They can use the regular mail to communicate, and Hermione can be a go-between between Harry and Ron.

The only problem I can come up with here is that the Dursleys might hide Hermione's letters. If Harry beats them to the mail slot, that could be circumvented.