14 HP Chamber of Secrets

[chantaldormand]

Ch14 Cornelius Fudge

>This is the chapter where we meet walking stereotype of politician. I’m sure Jo will flesh him out in the next book...

>It’s so nice of Harry to remember Fluffy and Norbert, yet forget Quirrell.

>”‘Riddle does sound like Percy – who asked him to grass on Hagrid, anyway?’” Who asked him to tell on Hagrid? If Tom wasn’t the real culprit then it would be his duty to report Hagrid. God damn it...

>The translation still goes with “something for slimes eating his lettuce”. Good job translator guy, you are more consistent that the author!

>So trio gained potentially valuable information and instead of trying to verify it or do anything with it, they decide to SIT on it. Ladies and sirs this is the future government of British WW. +1 to Leap of Logic

>I’m kind of afraid to ask how plants throw party.

>While scene where students are choosing subjects is absolutely ridiculous it’s so true. Reminds me of myself while choosing high school. :)

>Aww, at least some people in Neville’s family care about his future.

>Huh, Percy’s advice is actually very good. Well aside from Divination.

>”Wood was insisting on team practices every night after dinner, so that Harry barely had time for anything but Quidditch and homework” Either Wood is the only maniacal Quidditch captain who forces his team to train or other teams agreed that there is no point in trying to compete with Gryffindor and Slytherin.

>Darn, that was one mighty panic attack. But why did Ginny wait so long? She noticed the diary on Valentine day, and now we are past Easter holls. Easter Monday was on April 12 in 1993! That means this scene happens about two months after Valentine day! If Riddle wanted to spill beans about your crush he friggin would do so ages ago... UGH. +3 to Leap of Logic +2 to Crime Count

>Yup Harry, your pocket boyfriend is missing. What are you going to do? +1 to FWBP

>”‘But – only a Gryffindor could have stolen – nobody else knows our password …’” Yeah, only Gryffindor students would know… along with teachers, potentially students who befriended with one of your house mates, boyfriends/girlfriends, students who were stalking Gryffindors/found a secret entrance to the common room, students who flew through windows on brooms… Yep, the possibilities are truly limited. +3 to Leap of Logic.

>I would think that slightly cloudy weather would be better for Quidditch than full on sunshine.

>LOL, Harry doesn’t want to report theft, because he is afraid of incriminating Hagrid instead of being worried what teachers might think about thinking book. +1 to Crime Count +1 to Leap of Logic

>Boys critically fail their rolls for perception. Hermione splits from the party and as such cements her time out.

>The plot is once again prolonged for stupid reasons.

>Sooo petrification of Hermione was coincidence or done to halt trios investigation?

>I swear Jo did another attack just to not write more Quidditch.

>”Harry was just mounting his broom when Professor McGonagall came half-marching, half-running across the pitch, carrying an enormous purple megaphone.” I see that Sonorus wasn’t invented yet.

>”All students will return to their house common rooms by six o’clock in the evening.” Pshhh. I see that auror!McGonagall didn’t learn much during her training or she would know that the best time to strike is in middle of the day!

>”I need hardly add that I have rarely been so distressed.” Nor she went through much of teacher training. Kids will eat you alive for less than admitting you are “distressed”.

>”‘Haven’t any of the teachers noticed that the Slytherins are all safe? Isn’t it obvious all this stuff’s coming from Slytherin? The heir of Slytherin, the monster of Slytherin – why don’t they just chuck all the Slytherins out?’” but what if Heir of Slytherin is Gryffindor/Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff and trying to push blame onto Slytherin?

>Poor Percy is in shock =(

>Sooo Harry’s main problem with attacks is that he would have go back to muggles. Oh my, you truly are not similar to Tom. At all.

>”Harry had inherited just one thing from his father: a long and silvery Invisibility Cloak.” Pff you mean that all money sitting in bank does not count?

>Instead of feeling safer with all those people risking their lives to keep students safe, our hero complains.

>If Hagrids’ tells are anywhere as bad during card game as in this scene, then I wonder why he even bothers trying to play card games.

>Fudge looks and sounds like he is reanimated political caricature. He probably came here straight from the Sun’s offices.

>Sometimes I wish that somebody like Havelock Vetinari was MoM. 4 kids, a cat and ghost lay petrified in hospital wing and no matter how you look at it Albus does nothing to stop this madness.

>”Ministry got to do something” is stupid argument. Why not just say that you want to question him due to his involvement in previous incident? +1 to Leap of Logic

>So let me get this straight: you can legally toss somebody into jail without proper trial and evidence? Watch out Potter, in 30 years you might end up in Azkaban because you cut your high school rival into ribbons.

>I don’t care if Lucius is behind CoS plot, considering how Albus seems to sit on his ass and doing nothing, he deserves suspension.

>Hagrid: “‘An’ how many did yeh have ter threaten an’ blackmail before they agreed, Malfoy, eh?’”
Lucius: Non! In fact Augusta Longbottom organised the meeting. She was worried that her grandson who is “almost all muggle” will be the next victim.

>Hagrids’ freak out makes him look even more guilty.

>Albus’ speech about loyalty sounds so pretentious.

>Aaaand this way Hagrid earns the title of educator of year 1992. A round of applause, please! Sending 2 kids into forest full of hungry beasts to speak with giant man eating spider is epitome of irresponsibility! Even his mentor, one Albus-too-many-names-too-many-titles-Dumbledore couldn’t do it better!+2 to Crime Count +2 to Leap of Logic

>Also Hagrid comes off as a total nut case. :D

Crime Count: 5

Death Count: 0

Freud Would Be Proud: 1

Leap of Logic: 11

Uncovered: 0

Spell Count: 0

Comments

[smirkingcat.livejournal.com]

Yep, the possibilities are truly limited.
that is so often the case thhough that there was the point i think in book six where i thpught why even bother at all...

Sooo Harry’s main problem with attacks is that he would have go back to muggles. Oh my, you truly are not similar to Tom. At all.
it makes me wonder if it was intended or a happy accident she somehow managed to use later... because all her macguffins disregard to chekov's gun and so on i am more inclined to think of accident

almost a muggle
makes me believe that while she tried she never really thought that much about blood-status/purety either; i am no longer surprised that all the other attempts from her flopped because this book only got so far due to kids not caring about the fine details; i am however thankful because i would never have passed english without hp, still she cant write XD
and hagrid comes across as a danger to EVERYONE, so i dont undestand how harry could took such a shine on him- if a half giant tries to abduct me he can tell me 1000 times over i am a wizard, i stll would stick with the devil i know- i have read greek mythology and giants there liked human meat a LOT especially young tender one...

thank so much for amazing chapter review again <3

[chantaldormand]

I really try to not be hard on the kids, because they are teenagers; prone to jumping to conclusions and making horrible decisions. The problem with that is fact that they are 3 different kids with very different backgrounds. Ron should be one to point out that this is not the only option. Not only he is supposed to be this chess champion, but also he lived his whole life with 2 trickster brothers.

Hmm the whole flip-flopping over blood status is actually very easy to explain. She is type of writer who writes by seat of her pants. She has only vague idea about what she is going to write. She never sits down and thinks "hmm I want this story to have this and this theme, how can I show it?". To make it even worse she really doesn't like to do research. It's stuffy and takes her out of the zone - that is the reason why the most vivid images she creates are either those that purely come straight from her imagination or those that come from her experiences (I can't remember in which one of post-HP books is this but one about celebrity's suicide if I remember correctly). She is passionate writer and while there is nothing wrong with that, she needs an editor that won't bend to her, so together they can clean up the mess she creates.
Well that and a good criticism in beginning of her career so she would be forced to develop more as a writer :P

[sunnyskywalker]

McGonagall really doesn't do well under stress, does she? Cracks every time.

I am dying at the thought of Lucius saying Non!. The wizarding world has hung onto enough outdated Muggle bits and bobs that I can totally see the Malfoys being like, of course we speak French, all educated people do.

I am really curious why Percy has such a positive view of Divination, given Trelawney's ineptness. Do you learn more if you really study the textbook instead of drowsing and making stuff up like Harry and Ron?

[chantaldormand]

I partially blame her inability to enduring stress on Albus. She has at least 3 full time jobs (Albus' being one of them) and unlike our dear Headmaster she doesn't dick around. Adding to this the sheer workload a normal teacher at Hogwarts faces and we have a recipe for a disaster. That being said she should petition the Governors Board to rise schools budget so she could employ more people to run this school or quit the job so someone competent could take up the mantle.

Yeah, Malfoys strike me as type of family that would torture their offspring with French and Latin lessons from the young age :P

I like to think that Trelawney's alcoholism is more recent development. Perhaps she acted more normal in classes that Harry didn't attend and she hams up her performance in his classes, because he is magical Justin Beiber xP
Now Rowling, like usual, doesn't explain how Divination is supposed to work. I like to think that for people who don't have the gift Divination works like in our world: it can either be scheme to run away with your money or in case of less malicious practitioners, helping you straighten your head out. After all we don't see anything like psychologist in WW and using for example Tarot cards to help you make decision could be useful.

[sunnyskywalker]

I am continually appalled by the Hogwarts teachers' workload. It does explain a lot of things, though. Like, the bullying isn't just out of control because their culture is cavalier about it (though that's a factor). It's also because the staff just don't have the time to even catch most of it, let alone deal with it. Gah!

I can so see Tarot readers being the wizarding world's of counselors! That's how some of them work in the Muggle world anyway, and wizards wouldn't go for anything as Muggle as magic-free psychology, so that would be a good way get the job done.

I also imagine some Squibs going into psychiatric-related professions to figure out their screwed-up families and ending up as psychiatrists and marriage counselors and whatnot. They could be really helpful for counseling mixed magical/Muggle families--no Secrecy violations.

[chantaldormand]

Back when I was teenage writer I was fascinated with Tarot cards and Jung's psychology. I met this kind older woman who was professional Tarot reader. She didn't believe that there was some kind of magic to the cards, but she genuinely wanted to help people. To quote her "Some people are too embarrassed or don't have big enough problems to go to professional. I hope to help those people find what they need."
I can absolutely imagine pureblood/halfblood magicals being resistant to going to professional Squib psychologist, but consulting their important life decisions with Divination practitioner.

A lot of people who have some kind trauma/serious psychological problems go into psychology/psychiatry in hopes to solve their own problems. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of Squibs from pureblood families went into the field.
If JKR was actually a good writer I would expect a sequel where we could explore post-Voldemort world and all of it's problems. But then again, I'm huge fan of cyberpunk so I probably shouldn't voice my opinions :P

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/Who asked him to tell on Hagrid? If Tom wasn’t the real culprit then it would be his duty to report Hagrid/

No, no, because then he'd be like nasty Draco, who dared to be a snitch and tell McGonagall that the Trio had a dragon. Or he'd be like Marietta, another nasty snitch who dared to be more worried about her mother than a study group that she was roped into attending. No, if you're a snitch, then you're a traitor and beneath contempt.

Never mind that if Tom had had a snitch, someone who'd 'grassed on him' to the staff and authorities, then maybe the wizarding world wouldn't have had to worry about Lord Voldemort.

/other teams agreed that there is no point in trying to compete with Gryffindor and Slytherin/

Maybe that's the real reason why the other Houses cheer Gryffindor on, despite their winning streak. Gryffindor now wins all the time, but at least it's not Slytherin who's doing it.

/Harry doesn’t want to report theft, because he is afraid of incriminating Hagrid/

Yep, just keep protecting Hagrid, because he's done such a great job protecting you from his monsters. He's grown and changed from the days where he illegally kept Aragog, which is why he illegally kept a baby dragon last year and didn't protect you from the punishment that you were given for his sake.

/Instead of feeling safer with all those people risking their lives to keep students safe, our hero complains/

This is something that I've seen before in cop dramas and other media, and it annoys me. This reminded me of this one stupid episode where a detective was being framed for murder by an escaped convict who had a grudge against her and, consequently, her partner assigned another cop to watch her apartment while he investigated the case. So, of course, when he called to check how she was, all she did was whine and complain to him about how she didn't need a babysitter, she didn't need people protecting her, she was fine.

And, what do you know, the escaped convict ended up breaking into her apartment and kidnapping her. *eyeroll*

For every character who moans and groans and whines about this scenario, I feel like saying: Your 'babysitters' are there for a reason. Why don't you be grateful that you're even able to have bodyguards in the first place, instead of being all on your own with nobody to help you? Stop posturing, stop making this all about your ego. You are in a dangerous situation and it doesn't hurt to be careful.

/Sending 2 kids into forest full of hungry beasts to speak with giant man eating spider is epitome of irresponsibility!/

And yet Harry and Ron will still be friends with him after this.

[jana-ch.livejournal.com]

In a fanfic I'm reading right now, Severus has just found it necessary to apologize to a muggle woman for dealing forcefully (without obvious magic) with an abusive stalker she was clearly too traumatized to be able to handle herself. Yes, it would be wonderful if every single one of us was invariably so strong and competent that we never needed rescuing from difficult and dangerous situations. But when that is not the case, I for one am perfectly willing to be grateful to any Severus Snape who comes along and takes care of things.

[nx74defiant.livejournal.com]

if you're a snitch, then you're a traitor and beneath contempt

That is the standard in this world. We never see any acknowledgement that sometimes it is necessary to speak up.

Never - not to save lives, remain silent even if it helps evil to flourish.