16 HP Chamber of Secrets
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deathtocapslockThere is chance I won't be able to post this entry tomorrow so you guys get it a day early. Enjoy! :)
Ch16 The Chamber of Secrets
>Kids being bewildered by upcoming exams reminds me the infamous patch note for the Sims 3 stating that in case of meteor strike kids cannot leave school and are going to die.
>IMHO the school shouldn’t stay open. This whole situation is like something straight out of Battle Royale or Danganronpa, only in this case staff and students can leave at any moment...
>Of course it was Dumbledor’s idea... +1 to CC +1 to LOL
>Poor Ron, his teachers and parents are setting him up for failure =(
>I'm not sure if it says more about characters or the author that non of students who are close to the victims asked if teachers are close to curing them
>Also McGonagall is either insane or used to be the most incompetent law enforcer in history of law enforcing. She doesn’t seem to be setting some kind of trap, yet she informs whole student body that soon, potential witnesses will be cured... +2 to LOL
>Ginny: I’ve got to tell you something.
Harry: What is it?
Ginny: I saw you guys going to Forbidden Forest, but don’t worry I won’t tell anyone!
>Percy: Well, er, if you must know, Ginny, er, walked in on me the other day when I was – well, never mind –
Harry: Don’t worry! There is nothing shameful in polishing your own wand!
Percy: Ahhh....yes, I just remembered something. I-I should go! +1 to FWBP
>So, Harry lies through his teeth about not sneaking around and instead wanting to visit Hermione. I must admit that it was remarkably manipulative of Harry. Especially since he doesn't seem to understand why it worked in the first place.
>Considering that at this point boys didn't see their friend for a month, you would expect more enthusiasm from them.
>Woah, Pomfrey's bedside manners are horrible. Sure Hermione might not hear her friends, but it could comfort them. If, you know, they cared, that is.
>”It lay clenched on top of her blankets, and bending closer, he saw that a piece of paper was scrunched inside her fist.” And then boys discovered what Hermione was protecting this whole time in her hand: an Autograph of Lockhart!
Harry: I knew it! Lockhart is responsible for the attacks!
Ron: Let's burn him like Quirrell!
Harry: Let’s stake him first just to be sure he isn't vampire!
>Food for the thought: Hermione not only destroyed school’s property (+1 to CC), but also probably unintentionally halted someone else’s investigation. Good Job!
>I want to point something out: wizards have to have some way of controlling Basilisks. Basilisks aren’t naturally occurring creatures, yet they are important enough to warrant entry in the book Hermione destroyed. The entry consists all most important information about its creation and habits. And yet while Salazar was famous for his paraseltongue ability nobody suspected “Slytherin’s Monster” to be Basilisk. This means that paraseltongue is not default way of handling those creatures.
>It would be more interesting, if Nick did die again and kids had to figure out why Justin isn't dead.
>Heh, at no point of this conversation, boys realize in how much danger they put themselves by plotting and brewing their illegal potion at entrance to monsters' lair. Ah to be young and that blind...
>”‘What’re we going to do?’ said Ron, whose eyes were flashing. ‘Shall we go straight to McGonagall?’
‘Let’s go to the staff room,’ said Harry, jumping up. ‘She’ll be there in ten minutes, it’s nearly break.’” That is... actually pretty mature and responsible thing to do. Especially coming from these two. Which makes following scene even more bizarre.
>”‘No,’ said Harry, glancing around. There was an ugly sort of wardrobe to his left, full of the teachers’ cloaks. ‘In here. Let’s hear what it’s all about. Then we can tell them what we’ve found out.’” *snort* that is the second time in this book when Harry decides to hide in wardrobe. This time he even took his best friend with him! +1 to FWBP
>Ah yes McGonagall once again shows us how to not handle heavy calibre of crisis situation. You don’t wait until morning next day to evacuate! You drag all students out of the building and send in professionals to deal with this kind of shit. +1 to LOL, +1 to CC
>”But it was Lockhart, and he was beaming” Another Red Herring from Jo. No seriously, now I want to read an ff where Lokhart was only pretending to be this oddly incompetent celebrity and in reality was responsible for the attacks. Why would he attack muggleborn students? Well to create situations where he could do some easy heroing!
>I like to imagine that staff was egging on Lockhart to not only kick him out of the meeting room, but also so by feeding him to the Slytherin's monster they would have more time to deal with this situation. It fits well in HPverse
>The meeting ended and our hero doesn’t try to stop his Head of House and inform her that he does know how to get to the Basilisk. Granted he might be in shock, but to him Ginny is this random girl who happens to be Ron's younger sister. Heck I don't even think they talked directly to each other in this book! +1 to LOL
>Ron: It wasn’t some stupid thing about Percy at all. She-
Harry: You mean she didn't want to talk about Percy's polishing technique?
Ron: *chocks* Get your mind out of gutter!
Harry: What are you talking about? +1 to FWBP
>Good to know that even Ron buys into whole "only targeting muggleborns". If I didn't know who HoS is I would be suspecting that he simply targeted convenient victims. Ginny might be pureblood, but she comes from poor family that has many children. If HoS wanted to do something bolder than before, but still not too risky Ginny could be on his list of potential victims.
>Wait what? Lockhart? The guy who you consider an idiot? The guy you think is either fraud or incompetent? The same guy who turned your BBF's arm into pool noodle? That is guy you want to inform about your findings?
How about Sev or Minnie? Both are more competent and more believable that you would choose (if only to get rid of Sev)+1 to LOL
>I'm surprised that MasterAuror!Minnie didn't just seal the kids up in the tower so they won't go on suicidal missions like this one.
>Where the hell this comes from? Up until this chapter boys treated Lockhart like known fraud. Now they cannot believe he is running away after what he wrote in books. Jo, your editor called and asked me to tell you that he doesn't appreciate you missing your appointments! +1 to LOL
>”‘Do use your common sense. My books wouldn’t have sold half as well if people didn’t think I’d done all those things.” Heh, if Lockhart stopped at this point he could claim that he is fantasy author and had to claim he did all those things because otherwise WW wouldn't buy his books.
>The only reasonable explanation for why Lockhart admits anything is the curse. Heck, he could just lie that MOM asked the school to evacuate everybody so they can enter and search the castle.
>”‘So you’ve just been taking credit for what a load of other people have done?’ said Harry incredulously.” Oh my Harry, you should be quite familiar with this concept! After all it was you who claimed in PS that if you survived Voldie once you might be lucky the second time, as if the survival was your doing in the first place.
>Wait, so information in these books should be reliable, because he gained it from his victims. That means that the werewolf cure should work... WTF Jo??? Could you please at least try to keep consistency within a book? +1 to LOL
>Why the hell are you announcing you are going to wipe their admittedly empty brains? How the hell did this man managed to con his previous victims? Did it go something like this:
Lockhart: I'm truly sorry, you cannot even imagine how much this is going to hurt me, but it is sacrifice I'm willing to make
Victim: It's ok, go ahead Mr. Shiny teeth. +1 to LOL
>Guys you know you could just drag him to Minnie and this way both mobilise teachers and make sure Lockhart pays for what he did to his victims. Heck I bet you could even upgrade his sentence by telling them that he tried to wipe your memories... +2 to CC
>Now million dollar question: when plumbing was introduced to Hogwarts? Either the castle went through major renovations where whole walls were stripped so giant pipes could be put into them (and thus potentially exposing location of CoS) or somehow wizards started using pipes way before muggles. There is one problem with the second option: until 18th century wizarding population was openly living alongside muggle one.
>Now I have to wonder just how much Hogwarts' layout changed after introduction of pipes that were big enough for Basilisk to use. And how the hell the Heir managed to justify using such big pipes? Was he a headmaster? So many questions so little answers.
>Whoever is responsible for creating the entrance to CoS should be fired. That is not very discreet... +1 to Uncovered
>You would think that with Diary!Horcrux sliding down this pipe so often, it wouldn't be so slimy anymore. Also kids didn’t even wait to confirm that Lockhart survived the slide... +1 to LOL
>+1 to SC for Harry
>Jo must think very little of builders of Hogwarts. It's the second time she claims that walls deep under school are wet or even water is dripping down them. This would suggest that the castle is slowly flooded by the lake and at some point in future it will become even bigger safety hazard.
>Wait a moment.... Jo, when snake molts it doesn't tear off his whole skin, just gets rid of top layer of it! It's colourless! +1 to LOL
>So the Basilisk is 6 m long at least? Hmm not as big as the movie makes it look like...
>That is not how explosions work! If the explosion was bad enough to damage the tunnel then shockwave should knock boys down, if not away. For that matter Lockhart should have lost his arm and quite possibly hearing. +1 to LOL
>Darn, usually I don't like movie adaptations, but CoS movie did good job with aesthetics in this part of the book. Or at very least better job than Jo.
>”The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight, and Harry, shaking from head to foot, walked inside.” And then he was promptly eaten by Basilisk. The END +1 to DC
Crime Count: 5
Death Count: 1
Freud Would Be Proud: 3
Leap of Logic: 12
Uncovered: 1
Spell Count: Harry: 1
no subject
Date: 2019-08-01 02:22 am (UTC)Was it everyone, or just Lily? (And Dumbledore, of course.) I can't remember now. I think I blocked it out of my mind because I just could not get it to make sense.
Either way, James would have wanted to make sure Lily found out so she could be suitably impressed. I really wonder what she thought had happened that she didn't ask what the "whatever was down there" was, if only so she could figure out exactly how heroic James had or hadn't been. Either she is the most incurious person in the world, or she thought she already knew but didn't want to tell Sev for some reason. Which makes it possible that she did learn Remus was a werewolf and thought she was helping keep him safe, but in that case it seems very odd that she wasn't furious that his friend(s) had tried to use him as a weapon, which could have gotten him sent to Azkaban. So why would she trust Sirius to the end of her life, if she thought he'd (whether thoughtlessly or premeditatedly) betrayed one of his best friends like that?
And if she didn't know Remus was a werewolf, what did she think was in the tunnel, and why did she think it had to be kept secret? If it were just some random thing, why shouldn't the whole school know all the details? Dumbledore could have awarded James a bunch of points in the entry hall and told anyone passing by what it was for. Horrible thought: maybe she thought it was one of Hagrid's monsters, and she thought she was protecting him, and it was his own fault for wanting to prove his "absurd" idea when "Hagrid's got another pet monster" was the obvious explanation and he really ought to know better than to go messing with Hagrid's monsters by now.
Even in that case, you'd think she'd want to know what Sirius said that made Sev go down there. Did she really think Sirius waltzed up and said, "Yup, you're right about the werewolf thing, and you can see for yourself if you poke this knot on the Willow tonight!" and Sev trusted him and did exactly as he said? There's no way. So it had to be some kind of dirty trick, and she had to have known that, even if she didn't know the details. And just... thought it wasn't that bad, I guess. She'd had five years of Hogwarts Mandatory Brutality Training by that point.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-05 08:23 pm (UTC)"Dumbledore’s silver hair was the only thing in the whole hall that shone as brightly as the ghosts."
And that is in candle light, so I imagine that in proper full moon light ghosts would be very visible.
According to DH:
“They sneak out at night. There’s something weird about that Lupin. Where does he keep going?”
“He’s ill,” said Lily. “They say he’s ill —”
“Every month at the full moon?” said Snape.
“I know your theory,” said Lily, and she sounded cold. “Why are you so obsessed with them anyway? Why do you care what they’re doing at night?”
“I’m just trying to show you they’re not as wonderful as everyone seems to think they are.”
The intensity of his gaze made her blush.
“They don’t use Dark Magic, though.” She dropped her voice. “And you’re being really ungrateful. I heard what happened the other night. You went sneaking down that tunnel by the Whomping Willow, and James Potter saved you from whatever’s down there —"
Snape’s whole face contorted and he spluttered, “Saved? Saved? You think he was playing the hero? He was saving his neck and his friends’ too! You’re not going to — I won’t let you —””
So it's hard to say what Hogwarts' student population thought about situation, but Remus-is-werewolf theory was on Lily's radar even before she married James.
Whole situation is fishy and smells of Albus' manipulation.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-05 10:36 pm (UTC)Albus is definitely involved somehow. I mean... Lily knows there was something dangerous in the tunnel, and she knows Sev thought it would be a werewolf. But she doesn't think to ask, "So, was my counter-hypothesis right and they were really just sneaking out to feed some monster Hagrid's keeping there? Don't you feel silly now?" So, either she knows Sev was right but won't say so (maybe because she doesn't understand exactly what happened and thinks she's protecting Remus), or she thinks it was something else but also won't say so, or she is so incurious that she just accepts "something dangerous" and doesn't wonder at all what it was, not even so she can admire James more. The last sounds too unlikely even for incurious Hogwarts kids, unless Albus or one of the Marauders magically induced her lack of curiosity. If she thinks it's something else, then "Hagrid's latest monster" might explain why she doesn't say so--she thinks she's protecting Hagrid by shutting down all conversation about it. And if she has found out Sev was right and Remus is a werewolf, she must be confused about exactly what happened or she'd be at least a little more wary of the Marauders' version.
Albus is well placed to cause the confusion in all cases. The fact that he didn't step up security on the tunnel or on the Marauders during full moon nights would seem like evidence to her that Remus couldn't possibly be a werewolf, because if he were and Sev really had almost been mauled/killed, the headmaster would do something. Therefore, it couldn't be true, QED. That alone makes him complicit in lying to Lily on James's behalf, amongst other problems (like, oh, risking the rest of the student population by not upgrading his security measures after they were proven inadequate).
If he guessed James or his friends would blab to impress Lily, he could get in first to dampen her curiosity, so she just accepted whatever vague bullshit they said. If he realized after James dropped too many hints, he could drop his own misleading hints to Lily to help her conclude either that it was Hagrid's monster or that fine, Remus was a werewolf, but Sev was definitely at fault somehow.
I hope that James only dropped his hints to Lily (or arranged for her to overhear a conversation between him and his friends, maybe) and the whole school hadn't heard that "Snape ran into something dangerous under the Willow and Potter rescued him." Because otherwise we'd have to figure out why hundreds of students wouldn't try to find out more. There should be all kinds of theories! Lots of students should have tried to find a way into the tunnel! Or maybe they did all figure out out, and... uh... everyone forgot by PoA? No, I can't see how that would work. No one knowing anything happened but the Marauders, Sev, and Lily would be the easiest to explain away.
I wonder who the "they" in "they say he's ill" are? The other Marauders? The staff? Other students speculating?
no subject
Date: 2019-08-17 05:29 pm (UTC)Hmm, what about mist or concentrated dry ice vapours? They should have similar consistency and colour to ghost.
/Or maybe they did all figure out out, and.../
...they are polite enough to not mention it? :P
Honestly the whole incident is one big headache. Just like majority of incidents where Albus is involved. Perhaps by this point it's his habit to meddle and toss around mind magic when he spots opportunity? :P
IMHO the most probable scenario is second one. She either was manipulated by Albus or told by someone else that the incident involved something other than Remus the werewolf. Once she learned the truth she was in no position (nor her pride would allow that) to tell Sev "you were right".
If we take Harry's classmates as a standard year at Hogwarts then either Marauders are only guys who sleep in their dormitory or they have one maybe two other dormmates whom they bribe. So I would say "they" are either Marauders or their dormmates. I mean why Lily would ask teachers about Remus when in HPverse authority figures are universally hated :P