17 HP Chamber of Secrets
Jul. 26th, 2019 06:04 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}
deathtocapslockCh17 The Heir of Slytherin
>Ever read The Evil Overlord List? Well this chapter is like opposite to that. The only things we lack is Storm troopers and wedding with kidnapped princess.
>Somewhere around chapter 6 Jo ran out of her budget for interior design so now we are stuck with pretty anticlimactic place for final boss battle.
>Jo describes Salazar's face as 'monkey-like' with long thin beard. Considering how Jo describes Slytherins and how all of them is either rich or merchant...Well let's hope she didn't intend to sound anti-Semitic...
>Logical error: Harry cranes his neck to look at Salazar's statue from top to bottom and then notices Ginny. Considering Chamber's colour scheme and fact she is on the same level as Harry he should spot her immediately without needing to look at the statue. +1 to LOL
>Aaaannndd now that Harry flung aside his only weapon he lost any kind of respect I had for him. +3 to LOL +1 to DC
>Considering that Harry spend whole book ignoring Ginny, his desperation is strange. Also that is not a proper procedure for handling unconscious, potentially wounded people!
>Once again, Harry acts around suspicious people like baby lemming. A guy who up until this point was trapped in a book is walking around in the same room where you've just found an unconscious girl? Nope, nothing strange here officer! +2 to LOL
>”‘You’ve got to help me, Tom,’ Harry said, raising Ginny’s head again. ‘We’ve got to get her out of here. There’s a Basilisk … I don’t know where it is, but it could be along any moment. please, help me””Well, for once Harry has his priorities right.
>Oh boy, Harry is really slow in this chapter. Probably because he used his annual allotment of brainpower in the previous chapter.
>Sure, Harry won't need his wand, after all even if he had it he wouldn't know what to do with it.
>This whole chapter reads like early 2000's PA warning against 'internet friends'.
>"Hungry looks", huh? It's good thing that HP books are children literature or there would be mountain of slash fanf...oh...+1 to FWBP
>I wonder how power transfer works in this situation. The way Tom talks about it, it seems that he managed to not only figure out how to create a horcrux, but also how to turn it into a dementor so once again he could become Real Boy TM...Just what kinds of books are kept at Hogwarts???
>Dealing with your own mental health problems can be both terrifying and hard. That being said, the fact that even after Ginny connected the odd goings at Hogwarts and holes in her memory she didn’t seek out help is unforgivable to me. To continue ignoring the problem and potentially harming others...it’s selfish, irresponsible and cowardly :( +1 to CC, +1 to LOL
>It’s terribly nice of Tom to expose so thoroughly what was going behind scenes. It’s almost like he is buying himself time, wouldn’t you say Harry?
>Tom, considering you are about 50 years past expiration date you probably should stop eye-fucking a 12 year old. +1 to FWBP
>Rising werewolf cubs under bed? Wrestling trolls? Either Hagrid is even more insane/stupid than I expected or Tom wasn’t the only person at Hogwarts framing Hagrid.
>” But I admit, even I was surprised how well the plan worked. I thought someone must realise that Hagrid couldn’t possibly be the heir of Slytherin. It had taken me five whole years to find out everything I could about the Chamber of Secrets and discover the secret entrance … as though Hagrid had the brains, or the power!” Well Tom, neither Harry has enough brainpower to figure out on his own where the CoS is, so your logic fails flat.+1 to LOL
>Before reading HBP, Albus figuring out that Tom is suspicious was somewhat impressive. Nowadays, not so much.
>Wait, so Dumbledore didn’t keep close eye on Tom after the burning wardrobe incident? Jo, you just love shooting yourself in foot, don’t cha?
>So instead of planning to sneak into school later and stealing Basilisk so you could use it for something more productive than killing off High Schoolers, you decided to create a horcrux out of book in hopes that one day you could continue your glorious days of terrorizing school population??? That isn’t even insane, it’s just plain stupid. And petty. +1 to LOL
>It’s good to see that even dark lords have their own edgy teenager phase. Shame Tom never grew out of his own.
>Knowing Tom’s family background it’s not so strange that he decided to ditch his father’s name, but why the heck he had to keep using a nickname he came up with in High School…
>Wait wait wait; if Tom managed to suck out Ginny’s lifeforce here, could 2 Voldemorts run around or would time travel rules apply here? I have so many questions...
>Harry, that speech was so cheesy that local mice population started running around in search of entrance to CoS.
>Waiter: Messier, as you ordered: double Deus Ex Machina with side dish of incompetent villain and broken suspension of disbelief. Bon appetite!
>Description of Fawkes left me wondering about phoenixes diet. On one hand long, sharp beak could suggest fish based diet, but I imagine that a long tail would get in the way…
>For love of balance, Tom just kill the brat and be done with this nonsense. Do you really have time to chit-chat with 12 year old when you could be terrorizing masses? +2 to LOL
>There is something Freudian about Basilisk slithering out of Salazar’s mouth…+1 to FWBP +1 to DC
>Shame Harry didn’t take a towel for this adventure. He could wrap it around his head to protect himself from Basilisk’s gaze. Or challenge Tom to wet towel duel ;P
>Ever helpful Harry describes Basilisk as “thick as an oak trunk”. While we have no way of figuring out measurements of this majestic creature, after the last chapter where Harry commented on 6 meters long molt… Well I’m imagining that Basilisk has grub worm proportions.
>I have to question how Fawkes managed to damage Basilisk’s eyes without getting at least petrified.
> “There was no answering voice. Instead, the Hat contracted, as though an invisible hand was squeezing it very tightly.” And then something long and wooden fell out of the Sorting Hat. And kept falling. Harry lifted it and stared bewildered.
Harry: A stick?
SH: It’s Helga’s quarterstaff. Good for work and self-defense.
Harry: How it’s supposed to help me against Basilisk?
SH: Beats me if I know!
>Silver sword? I hope it’s only coated in silver, otherwise it’s mostly decorative. Also the way the handle is described makes me think that it would be very hard to get a good grip on it. No sane person puts gems into handle, you put them into pommel.
> Mouth “lined with fangs”??? Jo are you sure you weren’t attending biology classes with H.P. Lovecraft?
>Harry you are a moron. You are fighting with monster who has more venom fangs than average household has toothpicks and you decided to stab it through mouth? With a sword? +2 to LOL +1 to DC
>I have sooo many questions about how Basilisk’s venom works.
>That has to be the least effective way of applying anti-venom. Considering that, the fang was about as long as the sword, Harry not only was injected with enough venom to kill majority of Hogwarts’ population, but also is rapidly losing blood.
>Oh for Christ sake. Tom, just toss a few AKs to kill both Fawkes and Harry. You just have shown that casting magic isn’t the problem so why in the seven hells you are just shooing phoenix away. +1 to LOL +1 to SC for Tom
>Darn, in this chapter Fawkes just keeps earning his keep. He brought Harry weapon, nerfed Basilisk, healed the protag and now even fetched the Diary. Jo why do you keep writing pets as more active characters than your protagonist??
>Harry doesn’t take the diary off his lap before stabbing it with the fang. A few inches in wrong direction and we wouldn’t be dealing with next generation of Potters. +1 to LOL
>”Venom sizzled hole” in diary? What the heck Jo?
>BTW if that is how this ”venom” works, half of protag’s arm should fell off before Fawkes intervened.
>If I awoke to blood-soaked guy with a sword standing over me I would freak out. Crushes or not.
>Ginny’s reaction here is somewhat lackluster. Sadly, it isn’t because she is permanently possessed by Tom.
>I’m not sure about expelling, but there should be some kind of punishment. Ginny endangered whole school population and caused a few students to miss a good chunk of school year. Yeah she is a victim in this case, but she had numerous occasions to stop this insanity.
>Harry leaves a mountain of potential priceless potion ingredients to rot in CoS.*sigh*
>Either Ron is pro-lifter or the confrontation took much longer than text would suggest.
>lol Harry crawled through narrow passage with poisoned sword. It’s miracle that he didn’t end up either stuck or poisoned again.
>JKR is in business of poetic justice. Quirrell was (metaphorically) playing with fire so he was burned alive. Lockhart profited from stealing accomplishments and erasing memories so now he doesn’t remember who he is.
>Jo, we get it. Fawkes is stand in for angel. You can stop describing Fawkes’ glowy wings.
>The gang doesn’t even consider that there has to be human friendly exit from CoS. After all the entrance they used to enter the tunnels was really dirty yet somehow Tom made numerous visits to CoS during this book.+1 to LOL
>Why, oh why Jo? If kids grab Fawkes by tail feathers to fly off, the only thing they will accomplish is ripping them out. Why not just fire-teleport them out? If Fawkes cannot do group teleporting then he can go one by one….+1 to LOL
>Ok, so now that I’m done with CoS I can start on PoA...What do you mean there is one more chapter?? Why?? Add one or two pages more and you could nicely tie things up in this chapter!
Crime Count: 1
Death Count: 3
Freud Would Be Proud: 3
Leap of Logic: 16
Uncovered: 0
Spell Count: Tom: 1
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2019-07-26 08:13 pm (UTC)made me snort out loud, so that my cat gave me a freaked out look XD
the fact that even after Ginny connected the odd goings at Hogwarts and holes in her memory she didn’t seek out help is unforgivable to me
i always wonder about the parent/care-taker - child relationships in hp;
because draco who is loved by his parents has a bad family; but the weasley's where the parents allow bulling between the siblings are a good family, because jkr said so;
and at school- nobody EVER goes to the teachers after neville's one failed attempt UNTIL hermione goes to mac g (not that i can remember which book that was)
but at the same time the kids expect the grown ups to know the solutions and to do whats right? and it totally lost me during OotP...
>Before reading HBP, Albus figuring out that Tom is suspicious was somewhat impressive. Nowadays, not so much.
albus has the making of a tyrant - i know everything, but i only choose to act when it suits me and my overall goals... why is he a good guy again? because jkr said so, nothing else
>Wait wait wait; if Tom managed to suck out Ginny’s lifeforce here, could 2 Voldemorts run around or would time travel rules apply here? I have so many questions...
the sad truth is that even with all her tweets and pottermore stuff those questions will NEVER be answered
>Silver sword? I hope it’s only coated in silver, otherwise it’s mostly decorative. Also the way the handle is described makes me think that it would be very hard to get a good grip on it. No sane person puts gems into handle, you put them into pommel.
i betcha all my money that she did next to non research on weapons or actual swords; and it angered me, because back then i was soo fascinated by swords and hellebore, but nobody understood why i was so angry with her description of a sword; utter bollocks that thing!
i am sorry that you have to read though yet another chapter
what i find is impressive is that you not how different the descriptions are -> sometimes very detailed and at least giving you a picture to work with, other times a absolutely fucking mess, that doesnt mean anything; i personally never saw a thick oak tree- where i live they are harvested young so to me the basilisk never was that thick... for example
but yay you made it through another chapter
and the LOLs just keep rolling, and i am still so so much entertained by your writing commentary - you are hilarious!
thanks for moving along with it - it is awesome!
no subject
Date: 2019-07-28 02:57 pm (UTC)Heh, knowing quality of Jo's answers, maybe it's for the best :P
Ah, a fellow weaponry enthusiast! Going off Pottermore the Sword of Gryffindor is made entirely out of silver, which even in fantasy setting is ridiculous. If it had at least core made out of something sturdier, I could accept it. But sword made out of silver? Good joke.
An interesting thing is fact that the between various appearances in media, changes styles. One handed, two handed, curved, straight... Honestly, if it wasn't obviously a continuity failure, it would be much more fitting enchantment for magical sword than absorbing substances :P
Basilisk's proportions are comedic no matter how big oak you use for the measurements. We know that the Basilisk is at least 6 meters long, but it can't be much bigger because in such damp conditions molt would degrade much quicker than normally. Then there are fangs. Let's say that out of rows of those fangs only the biggest ones are as long the sword and let's say that what Harry meant by "as long as sword" was "as long as blade" not "as long as blade, hilt and pommel". Harry held the sword in two-and grip which means it's either 1,5-handed sword (so called bastard sword) or 2-handed sword. Most people who try to categorize swords tend to say that anything with blade longer than 70 cm is either 1,5-hand sword or 2-handed sword.
So yeah the longest Basilisk's fangs compared to the rest body are 1/10 of length... it's like Angler fish :D
Nah, it isn't that bad, but last few chapters of each HP book are always frustrating for me. Must be amount of BS JKR keeps pushing.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-29 08:58 am (UTC)ohh gosh, really? i mean everybody and their dog knows that silver is rather soft as a metal... so what would be the use? good thing i do not do pottermore, the rage would not have been worth it
—> i didnt know you that in english the 1,5- handed sword had an extra name as in german there are different criteria for the name- thanks for that bit of trivia
and loool i will never take the basilisk serious again after reading that it looks basically like an angler fish :D
no subject
Date: 2019-07-29 03:25 pm (UTC)There is a lot of insistences in English terminology for white weapons, but in most cases bastard swords are 1,5-handed swords. Honestly I came to conclusion that if I have any questions about white weapons I'm better off talking with local HEMA members than with historians. They tend to have more useful (for me as writer) information.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-29 01:49 pm (UTC)/This whole chapter reads like early 2000's PA warning against 'internet friends'/
Yes, I think I read somewhere that JKR came up with the diary after being worried that her sister or friend was spending too much time with her own diary or that it could make her vulnerable.
/"Hungry looks", huh? It's good thing that HP books are children literature or there would be mountain of slash fanf.../
*snorts* I don't think that JKR intended for a 16-year-old to look hungrily at a 12-year-old in a sexual way, but...yeah. It's similar to how Snape is described as looking at Lily 'greedily' in "The Prince's Tale" when he's only a kid; it's meant to make you think negatively of the characters described as such.
/figure out how to create a horcrux/
The problem is that this Horcrux acts nothing like the others. It has its own free will and is capable of possessing and sapping the life out of a person in order to give its host a new body. Even the Locket Horcrux just acts as a tempting force, it's not its own character like the Diary Horcrux. It didn't drain the life out of Umbridge and take over her body, even though she was wearing it for months. Even Nagini only acts like an obedient pet. What was so different about this Horcrux? …Unless it wasn't intended to be a Horcrux at the beginning and was retconned to be one later.
/Rising werewolf cubs under bed?/
And since when do werewolves have cubs in this universe? I guess that was something that JKR changed later.
/I thought someone must realise that Hagrid couldn’t possibly be the heir of Slytherin/
Especially when Aragog doesn't match up with Myrtle's description of her killer, which the staff would know if anybody asked her.
/Knowing Tom’s family background it’s not so strange that he decided to ditch his father’s name/
Really, when you think about it, later books undid a lot of what this chapter implied. Dumbledore saw through Tom – well, given what we saw in HBP, it's no longer impressive that he did, since he knew that Tom was a bad apple from the beginning. Voldemort hates Muggles and promotes a pureblood agenda because he hated his father for abandoning his mother and is trying to hide his own mixed heritage – no, it turns out that he has no tolerance for anyone, not even his pureblood followers, and his father ran away from his mother because he woke up from her brainwashing, not because she was a witch.
I think that this may be why some fans liked this version of Voldemort more than the present-day one (and not just because he's better-looking :P). He's ruthless enough to manipulate a little girl, has a clear motivation and personality, and is a genuine threat. He also may fit in more with the school story trappings, because even though he has ambitions of becoming a Dark Lord, right now he's a schoolboy who's lashing out at his classmates and teachers because of his own personal issues that also tie into the series' theme of bigotry.
/why the heck he had to keep using a nickname he came up with in High School/
Especially when his future Death Eaters knew him by that name and so could have identified him. And yet decades later, Ginny has no idea that Tom Riddle is Voldemort's real name.
/Or challenge Tom to wet towel duel/
No, Harry's not a teenager yet. That's why we haven't heard multiple descriptions of how handsome Tom is. :P
/Jo why do you keep writing pets as more active characters than your protagonist?/
Still, consider this book in the context of the series. Harry has received information and help from others, but he still actively decides to go to the Chamber, kills the basilisk, and stabs the diary. He does show initiative and action, unlike in DH, where his sacrifice is dependent on his passivity.
Although, the way that he does these things does showcase the series' focus on initiative and good luck. Harry didn't figure out what the monster was himself; Hermione did. Harry didn't plan to carry the Sorting Hat with him to draw out the sword; Fawkes brought it to him. Even Harry's choice to stab the diary isn't based on his knowledge that the fang will destroy it, it's described as an instinctual, spur-of-the-moment decision.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-29 04:12 pm (UTC)In story explanation:
Perhaps Horcrux's behaviour is partially connected to amount of soul used in it's creation? Books seems to imply that with each Horcrux Voldemort became more and more unstable, so perhaps this also is reflected in quality of Horcruxes?
Another explanation is provided by Tom himself in this chapter: this Horcrux was apparently created with special mission in mind so it had to be more interactive.
Out of story explanation:
Jo already admitted that she doesn't reread her books so I'm not surprised she once again wrote herself into corner.
Jo did the same with James-saving-Severus. When you read books 1-3 you get vibe that James was this great popular guy and Severus is petty antisocial man who cannot let go of grudges. Then you learn about Maruders and Werewolf Incident and suddenly it turns out that James and his bros are assholes and Severus is outcast who tries to fight his bullies.
As much as I complained in this chapter analysis I actually prefer Tom to Voldemort. And yeah you pretty much outlined all of the reasons :)
Then again Dolores is both way more interesting and more fitting villain for the setting :P
It's even better: Ron says in PS that everybody knows that Voldemort was in Slytherin and yet according to this book nobody knows his real name... What, Hogwarts don't have yearbooks?
Well, Dumbledore calls Tom handsome in chapter 18. Is that enough? :P
Well, I'm not sure we can say he actively decides to go to chamber: Ron says in chapter 16 (after teachers meeting) that they should go to Lockhart. Harry doesn't see any other option so he agrees. Then there is confrontation and Lockhart pulls his wand on them and Harry seems to on instinct use his own to disarm.
Same goes for Basilisk fight. One moment Harry is panicking and almost gets knocked out by Sorting Hat delivering him the sword next he is dodging Basilisk attack and attacking Basilisk. Harry has no experience in sword fighting or in fighting itself so it reads like automatic/instinctual response.
Honestly the only reason that Fawkes didn't stab Basilisk with the sword is his anatomical incomparability with the sword :P
no subject
Date: 2019-07-29 06:48 pm (UTC)The diary also doesn't fit with the theme of the other Horcruxes: they're all fancy artifacts that were owned by the Founders. I suppose that you could argue that the diary was Tom's first attempt, before he got it into his mind that his Horcruxes had to be important objects (even though Nagini doesn't fit that pattern either), but I remember someone in this community suggesting that it would be cool if Tom's trophy was the first Horcrux.
/When you read books 1-3 you get vibe that James was this great popular guy and Severus is petty antisocial man who cannot let go of grudges. Then you learn about Maruders and Werewolf Incident and suddenly it turns out that James and his bros are assholes and Severus is outcast who tries to fight his bullies/
It's the same thing with Lily and Petunia. You think that Lily was wonderful and Petunia was just a jealous jerk who hated her sister for being magical, and then DH rolls around and you learn that Petunia had wanted to go to Hogwarts and tried to reach out to Lily after she married James, while her hypocritical and self-absorbed sister mocked her gift. It's like it was impossible for JKR to make Snape and Petunia sympathetic without making James and Lily look horrible, because she didn't realize how awful she made the Potters look.
/What, Hogwarts don't have yearbooks?/
Tom's old teacher has been headmaster at Hogwarts for decades, and yet students come and go without ever learning that the dreaded Dark Lord is a Hogwarts alumnus. Dumbledore, Harry, the Weasleys...nobody ever makes an effort to make Voldemort's true identity public knowledge.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-01 03:14 am (UTC)Poor Harry. He really has trouble believing anyone who was nice to him could be bad. That should have gotten him in a lot more trouble than it did.
I would not be surprised if the goblins rolled their eyes and said, "Of course it's not silver. It's what one of your fiction-writers calls mithril. Obviously."
Hey, Tom is probably planning for that diary to kill schoolkids to cause trouble for Dumbledore and clear his way to power, not just for kicks. He was clever at this age! More than later, anyway.
You know, given that Ginny doesn't ask for help in this book and Lupin doesn't mention the secret tunnels he and the escaped murderer know all about in the next book, it looks like something--or someone--at school actively encourages people to keep secrets which could get hundreds of people killed. They all know that you can practically get away with murder at Hogwarts and not get in trouble, so why are they so reluctant to tell the Great and Forgiving Dumbledore about lesser crimes in order to prevent worse? He'd probably award points!
Unless his reactions are a lot more inconsistent, and they know it. Maybe only on a gut level. Lupin seems very invested in believing Dumbledore is a great person who helped him out of the goodness of his heart, and he knows his friends got away with attempted murder and at least one of them got rewarded for it. Yet he's terrified of letting Dumbledore down. Maybe he's just so wracked with conflicting feelings of guilt and not wanting to admit he and his friends were in the wrong because they're some of the only happy memories he has that he can't bear to talk about any of it. Or maybe there's more to it. I mean, the very morning after Dumbledore finds out that Lupin lied to him about a lot of things, his trusted lieutenant reveals his werewolf secret. Snape's revenge, possibly (though very limited given how much else he knew), Dumbledore's war strategy, possibly (yay for spy cover stories!), both, possibly. But maybe also Dumbledore's revenge. If that's the case, maybe Lupin saw things in the past which made him feel instinctively that it was too dangerous to ever tell Dumbledore that you've been keeping secrets. (Maybe one thing was that his friends kept secrets and didn't obey Dumbledore in every detail, and look what happened to them...) But what about Ginny? I've been so appalled by how Dumbledore looks worse and worse the more you examine his actions that I'm tempted to say she did tell him, and he Obliviated her memory of that and left her possessed as a training exercise for Harry or something awful.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-05 07:18 pm (UTC)But humans being written as caricatures of stereotypical Jews? Especially if they are led by pseudo-Hitler? Well that takes the cake.
You would think that after Tom-shouldn't-tell-on-Hagrid and Hagrid-was-innocent dramas Harry would be more wary of the Diarycrux.
Weeeeeell according to Pottermore the sword is entirely made out of silver. I certainly would hope that goblins would know better than craft any weapon out of silver. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if wizarding money was made out of copper, silver and gold because those materials are useless for a warrior race like goblins :)
Diary!Tom could have planned so, but 16 year old Tom who is terrified of death? Or 70 year old paranoid Voldemort? No, they wouldn't risk their immortality just to kick Dumbledore out of the Hogwarts if there were less risky methods.
When it comes to reporting incidents to Albus there is a lot of fishy situations, but I would expect Ginny to start reporting by talking to either Minnie or Pomfrey. Does that mean that Albus meddled with their memories too?
no subject
Date: 2019-08-05 10:13 pm (UTC)Translation difficulties. Wizards think goblins have several different words for different grades of silver, but not all of the words actually mean silver. Some are silver-colored-metal-with-different-properties, and some are technically-silver-but-magicked-to-hell-and-back. So Pottermore can be technically correct, in that the sword is made out of something which wizards translate as silver, but it's either not really silver or silver with so many magical modifications that it might as well be a different metal. That's my story.
Well, who says Voldemort can't change his mind or dither about plans? (Maybe that's why some of them take forever...) He might think that logically, risking one Horcrux out of several is no real risk, since he probably won't even lose that one and has multiple backups even if he does--but keeps putting it off for emotional reasons. Voldemort has been trying to get rid of Dumbledore for decades, with no luck. He really ought to send the diary to Hogwarts via Lucius, since it's the next-best thing to being there himself... but he delays and delays about giving the order, telling himself it isn't quite the right time yet. (He definitely isn't having second thoughts or feeling anxiety about it. Honest.) He's finally gotten to the point where he thinks, well, he'll kill the prophecy babies, and then deploy the diary and tell Barty Jr. to be on standby to kill his dad as soon as Dumbledore's dead or in prison. If he'd succeeded in killing Harry and Neville, he might have carried out that plan, or he might have decided that no, he'll have Barty Sr. killed first, and then wait to kill Dumbledore because maybe a string of high-profile deaths will keep people terrified longer than if they're taken out all at once.
Or Albus has his staff well-trained to sound really discouraging when a student mumbles something about how they might know something but aren't sure they should say but... Maybe Ginny started trying to tell one of them, the way she kinda-sorta almost told Harry and co., but gave up when she got snapped at to spit it out already if it's that important.
Though given how Harry and Ron suspiciously give up on their plan of talking to McGonagall for no reason at all, and given Dumbledore's probably-a-joke comment that he won't have truly left the castle (he probably had Fawkes take him to the Room of Requirement or something), I can't rule out the idea that he actively stops kids from telling other teachers important things. Ugh.