17 HP Chamber of Secrets

[chantaldormand]

Ch17 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

Comments

[smirkingcat.livejournal.com]

>"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
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!

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

Hooray, this chapter is up! :)

/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.

[sunnyskywalker]

A "monkey-like" evil foreign guy associated with snakes (like that wily serpent, you know...) and a swarthy, bloodthirsty race of international bankers in the same series sounds anti-Semitic to me whether Rowling intended it or not. Probably she just unconsciously drew on old tropes, and those old tropes were intentionally anti-Semitic. Regardless, I can totally see anti-Semitism being one of the forces behind the anti-Slytherin bias in-universe, because whether Salazar was Jewish or not, he had traits (like being ambitious, maybe connected to merchants, and from the Iberian Peninsula where "heretics and infidels" were in power) which those who didn't like him would have used to accuse him of being Jewish.

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.