11 HP Chamber of Secrets
Oct. 27th, 2018 04:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chantaldormand posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
deathtocapslockSo after tournament of Prismata and sinking way too many hours into Disgaea 5, here I’m sitting and wondering how deadlines are supposed to work. *shakes head at her own behaviour*
Ch11 The Duelling Club
>Oh boy, this has to be one of the most frustrating chapters in this book.
>Just how big are cubicles in Hogwarts’ bathrooms? I find it hard to believe that three 12 year olds managed to fit into standard cubicle.
>Hermione gets no points for off-screen flame spell.
>Ugh the trio should be sooooo caught. Preferably by Snape. And then spend next 2 hours listening to lecture about safety standards during brewing. And then be forced to help Snape with brewing potions, since they obviously cannot get enough brewing time during classes.
>I know we are dealing here with teenagers, but all this jumping to conclusions left my head spinning +2 to Leap of Logic.
>Considering just how rampant bullying is in this boarding school, it’s surprising that students started to move in groups now.
>Twins’ methods of cheering up Ginny explains so much about Weasleys’ family +1 to Crime Count.
>I would think that a Potion Master would be able to figure out what kind of potion needs those ingredients. If the trio wanted so badly to steal from Snape, they should have stolen them along with some other ingredients to cover their asses. +1 to Leap of Logic.
>Why they are doing this during class? You have friggin Invisibility Cloak! +1 to Leap of Logic.
>Hermione, no matter how good student you are, you are not a celebrity who is being prepared for suicide march. In other words Harry has better chance of not being expelled.
>Is that me or Hermione maxed out her rebel scores during summer? If rule breaking was OOC in PS, now it’s like Mad Max version of Hermione took over.
>So far this has to be the stupidest part of the plan. Setting off fireworks in room full of people, volatile magical substances and fire is...ugh. I cannot even find right words to describe it. +3 to Crime Count (causing panic, disfiguring students, potentially setting off explosion) +3 to Leap of Logic for dangerous and utterly moronic plan with such small gain. +2 to Death Count. I hope you choke on firework Potter.
>If it weren’t for authorial shenanigans, Snape would have to go to office for right potion to correct this chaos. How would you like it, geniuses?
>Did any of them feel guilty for stealing from staff or hurting fellow students? Of course not!
>”Golden stage”? Really Jo?
>I can believe that Snape knows only “tiny little bit” about duelling. There is huge difference between what is allowed in formal setting and what is practical on battle field.
>It’s just like Ron to wish for death of the two characters who make this book bearable.
> Huh, those stances sound like one handed sword stances. With Jo I would half expect her to write stereotypical duel from a Western...wait a moment...Did Jo actually do some research? Somebody call Vatican and tell them that the End days are close!
>+1 to Spell Count for Severus’ Expelliarmus
>Huh, so this spell can send someone flying? Good to know!
>You would think that by this point boys would realise that not making comments about Lockhart around Hermione would be the best strategy.
>Harry might not wear his hat any more, but Lockhart sure does!
>Narrative ridicules Millicent for her jaw now, fast-forward a few years and Harry will compare Ginny's jaw two twins'.
>”‘I don’t think so,’ said Snape, smiling coldly. ‘Mr Malfoy, come over here. Let’s see what you make of the famous Potter. And you, Miss Granger – you can partner Miss Bulstrode.’” I have distinctive feeling that this match up is revenge for firework shenanigans.
>"Harry swung his wand over his shoulder” WTF? That is not how you do spells!
>DING, DING, DING! Harry for the first time on screen casted a spell! I'm so proud of you, it only took you over 1 1/2 books! +1 to Spell Count for Harry for Rictusempra. Also +1 to Spell Count for Draco
>Another plus one to Draco for Tarantallegra
>Organisation of this Dueling Club is horrible, it's like teachers/Rowling never had to work with kids. +1 to Death Count because in this chaos a wayward spell could off our hero.
>+1 to Spell Count for Severus for Finite Incantatem
>The way Severus talks about Neville sounds like he has a problem with control not with power.
>"my wand is a little over excited" is subtext that became domtext +2 to FWBP
>”Snape moved closer to Malfoy, bent down and whispered something in his ear. Malfoy smirked, too.” I bet Severus is whispering a snide comment about Lockhart.
>"What, drop my wand?" It seems that Harry can be funny only when his author doesn’t intend him to be.
>+1 to Spell count for Draco
>This has to be one of the most convoluted ways of revealing main heroes superpower in entirety of literature. It would be much simpler for Harry to pick a pet snake. This would add nice tension in Harry’s friendships and make Harry-is-Heir-of-Slytherin claims much more believable. But nope, snakes are evil slimy creatures and saint protagonist can’t have any real association to them.
>The longer I observe Lockhart, the more I wonder if his wand isn’t damaged.
>Interesting to note: Harry was carried by his feet and not knowing why he is sure that snake won’t attack. Is that Horcrux interference?
>”Snape, too, was looking at Harry in an unexpected way: it was a shrewd and calculating look, and Harry didn’t like it.” Darn, what I wouldn’t give for taking a peek at Severus mind right now.
>+1 to Spell Count for Severus for getting rid of snake.
>The snake-speech-is-dark-magic always confused me. Yes, Snakes are negative symbol in Christian theology, but in many cultures-that European wizards should have basis for their culture- snakes are symbol of wisdom and healing. Heck I wouldn’t be surprised if Asclepius in this setting was paraselmouth.
>Somewhere between PSch4 and now, Harry once again flipped his opinion on whole setting-snake-on-Dudley incident.
>”How can I speak a language without knowing I can speak it?” I don’t know Harry, but it’s still more believable than Ron learning to speak hereditary magical language.
> I have to ask, how does somebody goes about getting snake speech? Obviously this is not Spiderman situation… I just REALLY hope it’s different from how creating a new species works in Jo’s mind.
>And so the second Ostracising Potter campaign started. Is that me or is this the yearly occurrence?
>Ya know Harry, I’m sure that Potters as noble family would keep their family well documented in case of marriage negotiations. If only you knew where the documents could be kept...
>If Hat wouldn’t put somebody with Slytherin blood into Gryffindor, at this point Gryffindor would be mostly muggleborns and some halfbloods with occasional pureblood.
>Hogwarts has whole section of library dedicated to invisibility? And we don’t hear about any shenanigans?
>While friendship between main characters is very unconvincing, background characters do care about their friend. Aww.
>You know, Hufflepuffs’ logic is more sound than anything the trio came up with during PS and COS. And those guys base it only on coincidences. Ernie for the main character!
>Ernie’s theory about Voldemort’s attack on Potters is more sound than BS Albus has been spouting... I am amazed!
>”‘It’s not possible to live with the Dursleys and not hate them,’ said Harry. ‘I’d like to see you try it.’”Oi Potter, I can still see top of your head! Keep digging that grave! +1 to Leap of Logic
>Hagrid is caring around dead rooster, because even he knows how unreliable is his word.
>Why a coop in magical school isn’t already magically secured?
>For a man who is supposed to take care of grounds Hagrid is wonderfully uninformed on how real animals act. Why the heck a fox would leave dead rooster in coop? +1 to Leap of Logic
>Why Basilisk’s gaze works on dead??? And how are you supposed to de-petrify a ghost??
>”In the end, Professor McGonagall conjured a large fan out of thin air, which she gave to Ernie with instructions to waft Nearly Headless Nick up the stairs. This Ernie did, fanning Nick along like a silent black hovercraft.” Excuse me? How exactly does this work? And why trust student with this?? +1 to Leap of Logic
Crime Count: 4
Death Count: 3
Freud Would Be Proud: 2
Leap of Logic: 10
Uncovered: 0
Spell Count: Severus: 3 Harry: 1 Draco: 3
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2018-10-29 01:26 pm (UTC)Which is probably why the filmmakers of COS didn't include this scene.
/Did any of them feel guilty for stealing from staff or hurting fellow students? Of course not!/
I think that this may be a combination of things: 1) we're still in school story for children, so events aren't supposed to be that dark and serious yet and 2) magic solves everything. Yes, they made students' faces swell up like balloons, but Snape was there to quickly fix the situation, so they didn't have to deal with the consequences. It's just like with Neville and his family: his great-uncle dropped him from a great height, but Neville bounced, so it's okay. The implications of what would have happened if Neville hadn't bounced or if Snape hadn't been there to quickly defuse the situation aren't thought about or brought up.
/It’s just like Ron to wish for death of the two characters who make this book bearable/
But Draco is irredeemably evil for wishing that Slytherin's monster would attack Hermione.
/This has to be one of the most convoluted ways of revealing main heroes superpower in entirety of literature/
The weird thing about this scene is that once Draco has fulfilled his purpose of forcing Harry to talk to a snake, he just...vanishes. We don't see what his reaction is to Harry speaking Parseltongue. As soon as Harry talks to a snake and everyone is shocked by this, the duel is cut short and we cut to the next scene.
/It would be much simpler for Harry to pick a pet snake/
As he's done in many AU fanfics.
/snakes are evil slimy creatures and saint protagonist can’t have any real association to them/
Even when it could possibly help him. Harry's a Parselmouth, he has the same ability as his archenemy, and yet he never consciously takes advantage of it, except when he tries to get into the Chamber in this book and when he encounters the Horcruxes in DH (I think). Fanfics have tried to come up with spells linked to Parseltongue, but no such thing exists in canon. Harry doesn't try to use snakes for anything.
/it’s still more believable than Ron learning to speak hereditary magical language/
I'll say. *grumbles*
no subject
Date: 2018-10-29 08:14 pm (UTC)The same thing happens in Book Six when Harry almost kills Draco, apparently for the sole purpose of revealing that the mysterious Half-blood Prince is not a good guy, and Draco vanishes from the rest of the book. Harry is too busy worrying about losing his cheat-sheet and not being allowed to play Quidditch to think about the fact that only Snape’s quick action kept him from becoming a murderer. Our coming-of-age story, everyone. Watch as the hero grows and matures and learns from his mistakes, now that he’s about to lose his mentor and launch into his career as an adult hero.
no subject
Date: 2018-10-30 01:24 pm (UTC)Was that the purpose of the chapter? Because considering that nobody ever brings that incident up again, I didn't know what the point of the Sectumsempra scene was. Readers already hated Snape, why did Harry have to almost nearly kill Draco to give another reason for them to hate him for creating the Sectumsempra Curse?
/Harry is too busy worrying about losing his cheat-sheet and not being allowed to play Quidditch to think about the fact that only Snape’s quick action kept him from becoming a murderer/
Just like Harry is too busy worrying about getting the ingredients for the Polyjuice Potion to think about the fact that only Snape's quick action kept everyone from having to go to the hospital wing in this chapter.
no subject
Date: 2018-10-30 09:15 pm (UTC)It should have been about Harry realizing he was just as capable of evil as any Slytherin ever spawned, leading to his development of moral principles that extended beyond, “People I like are good and people I don’t like are evil.” But that never happened, which essentially killed the whole saga as Harry’s coming-of-age story.
no subject
Date: 2018-10-30 10:26 pm (UTC)Showing Harry once again that knowledge sources not approved by Hermione are dangerous and shouldn't be trusted. Honestly, for a series of books that are praised for encouraging young people to read, HP books have peculiar attitude towards written word. We have screaming book in Restricted Section in PS, Riddle's Diary and Lockhart's books in CoS, those pseudo propaganda texts written by Bathilda in PoA where author tries to convince us that an unprepared/uneducated magic user was never caught and roasted by muggles, starting from GoF Prophet articles, in OotP Education decrees, Hermione's contract and Umbridge's Blood Quill, in HBP Snape's annotated textbook and in DH Rita's book on Albus. It's almost like JKR is trying to encourage distrust towards books in her readers.
Magic might solve everything, but I find it troubling that all characters in the series who show empathy are mocked and/or punished for it. If at least Hermione (who seems to come from normal family) said something along lines "Ouch that looks painful. I don't like causing them pain even though I don't like them" I wouldn't comment. But it's a series of books that starts out as children's literature and ends up YA- that is demographic easily influenced, you need to be careful what you write.
/The weird thing about this scene is that once Draco has fulfilled his purpose of forcing Harry to talk to a snake, he just...vanishes./
I think that in both CoS and HBP JKR was trying to emulate a panic attack, but failed to communicate it properly to readers. In CoS there is this wave of judgemental looks and fear from fellow students for something that Harry doesn't understand. In HBP Harry almost killed student and latches on concern closest to himself: what if Snape discovers how I have learned the spell and what happens to my sports team! In both instances Draco disappears because Harry is freaking out.
The whole Paraselmouth thing is epic failure on editors part. Authors often fail to notice alternative ways of solving conflicts in their stories, That is where beta readers/editors come into picture. Any competent editor should have spotted this issue. So a) JKR's editor for some reason didn't notice/ignored it; b) JKR managed to convince her editor that she would solve this later in the series; c) she went full on Paolini and claimed that every detail contested by editor would be important later in the series.
no subject
Date: 2018-11-04 11:23 pm (UTC)Ooh, maybe they're bigger on the inside! That would actually be a really good use for magic. The stalls all fit in a relatively small space, but each is comfortable and roomy on the inside. I don't think Hogwarts has any wheelchair users, but logically, there should be at least one irreversible magical condition that can make people lose enough mobility to need one. (Or wizard crutches, or various other mobility aids.) So this would be a great way to retrofit for accessibility.
I suspect Snape has at least a dozen potions stashed in his pockets at all times. Antidotes for whatever they're brewing in class, of course, because things probably go horribly wrong at least once a week. Pain relievers, because given the injury rate at Hogwarts, non-Gryffindors must go through those by the gallon. Wideye (which seems to be the magic equivalent of 5 Hour Energy or something), because the poor teachers never get to sleep. Probably a few more depending on what's going on that day. And maybe Draught of Living Death, because... um... you never know when that might come in handy. Always be prepared!
I really wish we found out what Snape was thinking when Harry talked to the snake. He supposedly didn't know about Horcruxes, let alone the Harrycrux, until HBP, so it isn't that. Is he mentally reviewing genealogy charts to see whether the Potters might have a Parselmouth ancestor? Wondering whether someone in the Potter family tree had different paternity than the official records claim, and if so, who the real father was? ("Maybe James Potter was a bastard literally as well as metaphorically. Ha!") Does he have an entirely different idea of how that sort of power might be magically transferred between people via attempted murder, and what on earth would that be? Like, if there really is a way to transfer magic, at least Umbridge's later claims about Muggleborns "stealing" magic would be... well, they'd still be absurd, but at least you could see why she would pick that lie rather than something else.
no subject
Date: 2018-11-07 05:36 pm (UTC)Heh, in ff I wouldn't be surprised if Severus had some kind of expansion charm weaved into his pockets, but in books depending on plot all characters can be soooo dumbed down that I felt a need to point it out.
If I had to place bets, he probably was reconsidering the infamous Harry-Potter-is-the-next-Dark-Lord theory that was supposed to be included in the books. But then again Snape is very well versed in Dark Magic, perhaps he has some kind of theory about what happened during that Halloween night.
no subject
Date: 2018-11-08 04:50 am (UTC)If you go by what's in the actual books instead of whatever words fall out of JKR's mouth when she's put on the spot in an interview, that is. Since in this case the books are consistent enough on this point to stand on their own, I'm going with that ;-)
Ooh, or maybe Snape is reconsidering possession as a possibility! I mean, Voldemort possessed someone else just the previous school year, and then he "disappeared" only to leave Harry in a coma for three days. Sure, Harry seemed fine when he woke up... but are you sure? Really, really sure? I'd worry. And if he's picked up on Dumbledore's uneasiness, he might think that even Dumbledore suspects some kind of possession or other mental influence. If there's some connection to Halloween 1981, maybe it's that whatever he thinks happened made Harry more receptive or connected or something, which allowed Voldemort to possess him more easily and with less damage to his body than with Quirrell's. And maybe to stay "hidden" within Harry more completely somehow. Hm. Can we work out a working wrong-but-plausible hypothesis here for Snape to worry about?
And in fact, someone is possessed and can temporarily speak Parselmouth as a result. It just isn't Harry possessed by present-day Voldemort; it's Ginny possessed by teen Voldemort. He couldn't have guessed that just from what happened. And then there's the Harrycrux, which isn't classic possession, but is kind of similar. And it is probably responsible for some of the weird "unconscious" actions Harry takes during the series, like fighting off the Imperius Curse (Moody only puts it on Harry, not on the other bit of soul, which is still free to pipe up with suggestions that jumping is a stupid thing to do), casting Protego and "accidentally" breaking into Snape's memories during the Occlumency lesson, and maybe even whatever the hell happened with his wand in the Battle of the Seven Potters. Oh, and it makes the name Tom Riddle seem familiar.
So, if that's what Snape's thinking, he's on the right track. He just doesn't have quite enough information to work it out all the way.
no subject
Date: 2018-11-08 02:38 pm (UTC)If you can, say make possession a definite possibility, then the Harry-as-new-dark-lord theories would be boosted. Imagine having the new Dark Lord possessed by the old one, adding new evil to old, etc.