09 HP Chamber of Secrets

[chantaldormand]

Ch9 The Writing on the Wall

>The title does not fit the chapter. Just saying.

>”Attracted no doubt by Malfoy’s shout, Argus Filch came shouldering his way through the crowd. Then he saw Mrs Norris and fell back, clutching his face in horror.” Poor Argus :(

>Lockhart lit candles, but since it’s not mentioned how he does it, no Spell Count points for him

>Damn it Albus, you are a wizard! You don’t need to get so close to half dead cat that you almost touch it with your nose. Unless you secretly have supreme sense of smell…

>I imagine Severus has such strange expression, because Minerva and Albus look ridiculous during their examination.

>Harry the paragon of empathy, whose secret power is love, feels “bit sorry for Filch. Not as sorry as for himself”, just to be clear!

>Huh, according to Harry’s inner monologue words trump evidence in court of justice. It’s good that Jo never tried to write a courtroom... oh.

>Of course no student could have done that, it’s not like there is a hidden room full of various magical and non-magical objects. Or a section of library housing illegal books...

>Also is there any spell that can petrify living beings or are we back to “enchantment situation” from PS?

>Why Argus would own up to being Squib in front of students?

>”‘Potter and his friends may have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time,’ he said, a slight sneer curling his mouth as though he doubted it, ‘but we do have a set of suspicious circumstances here. Why were they in the upstairs corridor at all? Why weren’t they at the Hallowe’en feast?’” Wait, why Slytherins would go from the Great Hall to their Common Room through “upstairs corridor”? 

>*Sigh* Why Severus is the only character in these books who is capable of basic logic? Not to mention that narrative is constantly demonising him for it...

>Severus’s proposition is quite reasonable. Harry is straight up lying to teachers and possibly hiding important evidence that could lead authorities to finding the Heir. Perhaps if Hogwarts’ staff stopped bending to Harry’s every whim, he would start acting responsibly? +1 to Crime Counter

>Heh, now I’m imagining what would happen if either Seamus or Percy were Paraseltongue. The story would be either much shorter or way more interesting.

>I would think that hearing voices, while not normal, wouldn’t be that negative in WW.

>”‘Midnight,’ said Harry. ‘We’d better get to bed before Snape comes along and tries to frame us for something else.’” No, before Snape rightfully berates you for breaking curfew! +1 to Crime Count

>*Sigh* Ron for 10 years had a choice between twins and Ginny as playmates. You would think that he would be better at dealing with her, yet out of all Weasleys at Hogwarts it’s Percy who tries to comfort his younger siblings.

>Hey, my best friend hears ‘murderous’ voice that petrified cat and wrote edgy threatening messages on wall! What should I do? Well, according to Harry researching in books isn’t correct answer!

>Hermione had right idea: if you can’t find info about historical event ask an expert.Only her execution is lacking and OOC. If it wasn’t for Jo’s need to expose, Hermione would ask Bins after the class, like normal human being. +1 to Leap Of Logic

>Hogwarts was founded over one thousand years ago? I thought that earliest castles in Scotland weren’t built until 12th century?

>Wait, where in Europe there was a persecution of “witches” during tenth century?

>According to Jo one of the founders of her elite school was petty enough to build secret room with secret biological weapon that only his offspring can unleash on unsuspecting children? And all of this because he disagreed with his colleagues? Oh boy, earning her diploma must have been a living hell for Rowling. +1 to Leap of Logic

>If the Chamber is so secret, why there is a legend?

>Heh, we gladly welcome return of anti-intellectual messages. Hordes of scholars never found evidence of the Chamber of Secrets, yet on two separate occasions teenagers discovered it!

>”‘But maybe you’ve got to be related to Slytherin, so Dumbledore couldn’t –’ began Dean Thomas, but Professor Binns had had enough.” Oh the joys of background character foreshadowing plot.

>”‘People here’ll believe anything,’ said Ron in disgust.” Said guy who a few paragraphs ago automatically believed that Salazar Slytherin started ideology of pureblood superiority.

>Gotta love logic here: Dumbledore can’t cure the cat= culprit might not be human +1 to Leap of Logic

>”‘Scorch marks!’ he said. ‘Here – and here –’”Are those scorch marks red herring or explained later?

>Ron being afraid of spiders is not funny. Especially in the universe where spiders can be horse sized.

>The first attack happened near Myrthle’s toilet and Dumbledore DIDN’T seal it off! I would understand it if he didn’t teach during Tom’s years, but this... I’m out of words... +2 to Crime Count +1 to Leap of Logic

>Elite school where one of bathrooms is always out of order and looks like average bathroom in hypermarket. Wonderful!

>Somehow I have feeling that OOTP!Harry took lessons from Myrthle on behaving like a bratty teenager.

>LOL do all Weasley boys have this “girls’ bathroom is unholy territory” attitude?

>”Get – away – from – there –’ he said, striding towards them and starting to chivvy them along, flapping his arms. ‘Don’t you care what this looks like? Coming back here while everyone’s at dinner …’ ‘Why shouldn’t we be here?’ said Ron hotly, stopping short and glaring at Percy. ‘Listen, we never laid a finger on that cat!’

‘That’s what I told Ginny,’ said Percy fiercely, ‘but she still seems to think you’re going to be expelled; I’ve never seen her so upset, crying her eyes out. You might think of her, all the first-years are thoroughly over-excited by this business –’

‘You don’t care about Ginny,’ said Ron, whose ears were reddening now. ‘You’re just worried I’m going to mess up your chances of being Head Boy.’”
Percy is absolutely right. Ron is already of thin ice thanks to the car stunt and here he is doing suspicious things and acting like jerk towards his family. No wonder that a few books later Percy considers Harry to be bad influence on Ron.

>So for the second time in this chapter Hermione goes out of her character. This time she decides that trying to research answer to this mystery is no-go and she has to break at least dozen laws to try get answer in highly convoluted and ineffective way, going only on hunch. Slow down girl, this is not a competition! +3 to Leap of Logic +1 to Crime Count for planning this crime spree.

>Let’s analyse current form of the plan before kids start to execute it:
1. Get illegal book of illegal potions by tricking teacher into signing permission slip.
2. Brew the illegal potion. +1 to Crime Count
3. Steal someone’s identity to interrogate fellow student. +2 to Crime Count
And this is only the outline of this moronic plan!

>In all fairness I’m surprised that kids didn’t decide to complete their Crime Bingo card by forging Lockhart’s signature.

Crime Count: 8

Death Count: 0

Freud Would Be Proud: 0

Leap of Logic: 7

Uncovered: 0

Spell Count: 0

Comments

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/Harry the paragon of empathy, whose secret power is love, feels “bit sorry for Filch. Not as sorry as for himself”, just to be clear!/

And this will be repeated in HBP, where Harry feels only the "slightest drop of pity" for Draco after he finds out about Draco's predicament.

/‘Midnight,’ said Harry. ‘We’d better get to bed before Snape comes along and tries to frame us for something else.’” No, before Snape rightfully berates you for breaking curfew!/

If anything demonstrates Harry's lack of growth, it's Snape. It doesn't matter what he found out about Snape at the end of PS/SS, Harry will forever act like that eleven-year-old boy who thinks that Snape hates him and therefore he is fully entitled to hate Snape and think the worst of him in return.

/Ron for 10 years had a choice between twins and Ginny as playmates. You would think that he would be better at dealing with her, yet out of all Weasleys at Hogwarts it’s Percy who tries to comfort his younger siblings/

And who gets no thanks for it.

/According to Jo one of the founders of her elite school was petty enough to build secret room with secret biological weapon that only his offspring can unleash on unsuspecting children? And all of this because he disagreed with his colleagues?/

Apparently, he was supposed to be that much of an anti-Muggle/anti-Muggle-born bigot.

/Said guy who a few paragraphs ago automatically believed that Salazar Slytherin started ideology of pureblood superiority/

And who believes that all Slytherins are evil and that Snape is a wicked monster who's out to frame/kill/torture/expel/betray the Trio.

/Ron being afraid of spiders is not funny. Especially in the universe where spiders can be horse sized/

Just the way that Ron describes it makes it sound like a scene in a horror movie. A small child holding onto his teddy bear that suddenly grows bigger and bigger and sprouts legs... And yet Hermione finds this hilarious.

/The first attack happened near Myrthle’s toilet and Dumbledore DIDN’T seal it off! I would understand it if he didn’t teach during Tom’s years, but this... I’m out of words.../

Not only that, but despite Myrtle being the victim of Tom's attack, nobody bothers to ask her about what happened. She tells the Trio that the monster had a pair of "big, yellow eyes." Apparently, the authorities hadn't heard this description when they suspected Aragog of being the monster.

/‘You don’t care about Ginny,’ said Ron, whose ears were reddening now. ‘You’re just worried I’m going to mess up your chances of being Head Boy.’”/

Yep, Percy doesn't care about Ginny. That's why he was the one to notice that there was something wrong with her and told her to take cold medicine.

I wonder if Ron's assumption is due to the twins' influence or if we're really supposed to believe that Percy would throw everyone under the bus for his reputation. Because his actions in this book really don't bear that out. If Percy is supposed to be this ambitious, self-absorbed social-climber, why is he the one who brags about Ron to his classmates in PS/SS, who rushes after Ron during the second task in GOF, and who's worried about Ginny in this book? Are we supposed to see all of those things as superficial, as a veneer that foreshadows his break-up with the Weasleys in OOTP?

[elanor-x.livejournal.com]

>*Sigh* Ron for 10 years had a choice between twins and Ginny as playmates. You would think that he would be better at dealing with her, yet out of all Weasleys at Hogwarts it’s Percy who tries to comfort his younger siblings.

I think the family dynamics here are a bit diffferent.

Percy is Molly's favorite responsible son who decided to play a parent's role for all younger siblings. Later in GoF he will write Ron a letter advising to drop Harry as a friend which also suits my theory.

Ron knows Molly gave birth to him because she was trying for a daughter Ginny, so he may feel not only unwanted by Molly but also jealous and resentful of his sister which is perfectly in character for Ron.

[smirkingcat.livejournal.com]

i find it amazing that you point out how out of character hermione is- it took one summer for her to go from: i like rules and school to i break all the laws because now that i started with lawbreaking i can already stick with it....
but then i will be so much more angrier at hermione as the books go on, so i need to rain in my temper XD
thanks for amazing analysis again!
<3

[sunnyskywalker]

Wait, why Slytherins would go from the Great Hall to their Common Room through “upstairs corridor”?

OMG Hogwarts is the Winchester Mystery House! That... actually seems completely in character for wizards. Of course you have to go upstairs from the ground floor and around and down again to get to the dungeons. That's the shortest way. Obviously.

The 10th century is definitely early for big castles like that. I think they were post-Norman, at least. So... maybe the Founders built a big stone hall and maybe the wall around the grounds, added on a tower or two later, and subsequent generations have just kept adding on until it turned into the Winchester Mystery Castle? That would mean Rowena didn't actually build the moving staircases, but she could have come up with the idea and worked out the spells and it was actually her students who eventually built the stairs. And anyway, I think that's only supposed to be a legend, so there's wiggle room.

And no, witch hunts were not a bit thing at this time. As I recall, the laws were more along the lines of, "There's no such thing as witches, burning them is pagan and wrong, and also believing in magic is wrong so maybe we'll burn you if you believe in it." With, er, a lot more nuance, obviously. It would allow for some localized incidents of particular witches being attacked, no doubt. But there wasn't a widespread witch persecution movement like there was a few centuries later.

So I tend to believe that the actual issue was much more complicated, and possibly related to the politics of the day. Lots of warring kingdoms around, you know? Hogwarts at that time would have been an international school. Probably witches and wizards were used as advisors and heavy weaponry by the various kings and lords and whatnot. So any students whose allegiance was more to their non-magical family/kingdom/etc. would be (one of?) the cause(s) behind all that "clash of friend on friend" the Hat talks about when it says all four Founders got in a fight over running the school. And it wouldn't be entirely paranoid to wonder if any of those students would go home and lead an army to Hogwarts to wipe out the "enemy" magicals and leave their own kingdom as the only one with powerful magical subjects. Maybe Salazar's "pureblood" fixation wasn't about purity, per se, but rather allegiance to other magical folks over the shifting political factions. There are so few of them with the talent; what a waste to keep killing each other off! That would slide pretty easily into "well, maybe if magicals marry other magicals more often, we won't have this problem with divided loyalties..." and it all went downhill from there. Once the real witch persecutions started up a few centuries later, that could have reinforced the existing slight isolationist tendencies and created a snowball movement that ended in Secrecy.

[nx74defiant.livejournal.com]

>*Sigh* Why Severus is the only character in these books who is capable of basic logic? Not to mention that narrative is constantly demonising him for it...

When you start applying logic a lot of what we are suppose to just accept falls apart.