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deathtocapslock2019-08-03 01:45 pm
18 HP Chamber of Secrets
I'm skipping next week. Next entry from me will be around 16th.
Ch18 Dobby’s Reward
>Hint: Dobby’s reward isn’t pile of gold or a new crowbar.
>All things considering, I’m surprised that Molly didn’t leash out onto Harry. She is highly worried about her missing daughter and here the missing daughter comes in not very good shape with guy who a) already is a bad influence on one of her sons and b) is covered in blood. In other words very suspicious.
>Poor Minnie, she looks like she is about to have a heart attack :(
>”Very well,’ Professor McGonagall prompted him, as he paused, ‘so you found out where the entrance was – breaking a hundred school rules into pieces along the way, I might add – but how on earth did you all get out of there alive, Potter?’” Well that is not the question I would ask if I was adult sitting in that room… It would be closer to “And at no point you thought to grab a back up that wasn’t an incompetent fraud and guy whose wand is public safety hazard??” +1 to LOL
>Apparently Albus has sources telling him where Voldiwraith is, yet he doesn’t, I don’t know, hire an exorcist to hunt down the wraith and trap it in some kind of object… I swear no other character pisses me off nearly as much as Dumbledore.
>Well, I never expected Albus to call Tom brilliant for creating Horcrux… This is getting awkward.
>...Is Albus implying that Tom’s travels were major contribution toward his corruption to the dark side?? +1 to LOL
>”Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain.” Like your Car? Or The Sorting Hat? Or perhaps Portraits? Hmmm? +1 to LOL
>No seriously, it’s no wonder that kids screw up so much. From the moment they enter this school they are given mixed messages.
>Albus once again shows that for a guy who worked with children for over 50 years, he is wonderfully uninformed how to handle children. Especially recently traumatised children.
>No, no, don’t you dare to reward them Albus! You can let them get away with only minor punishment or no punishment, but don’t dare to reward them! +1 to CC
>Dumbledore (and Jo) learned from the last year and gives Harry points under the table.
>Harry forgot about Lockhart being in the room. So did his no. 1 fan Molly Weasley!
>At this point I had whiplash and had to scroll back my ebook just to check- apparently Harry’s retelling was chaotic enough that it omitted Gilderoy’s role in the incident, yet none of 4 adults present question Lockhart’s presence in this meeting? WTH?
>Albus, you knowingly allowed a fraud who loves to use memory charms around children? If I didn’t know already what happens to Lucius in this chapter I would expect him to pounce onto this information like sex-depraved Frenchman onto sexworker’s convention. +1 to CC +1 to LOL
>I wonder, do Horcruxes sense each other? Main soul piece obviously does not or Voldemort would act different towards Harry. Perhaps Voldiwraith's soul piece is too small to sense anything?
>‘I don’t think I’m like him!’ said Harry, more loudly than he’d intended. ‘I mean, I’m – I’m in Gryffindor, I’m …’ easy to anger, reckless, love overcomplicated plans, cruel... do I need to continue Harry?
>Last direct descendant Albus, there is difference. Considering that most of British purebloods are related to each other I wouldn’t be surprised if this talent was widely spread. Most witches and wizards are simply smart enough to not tell anyone about it.
>‘Voldemort put a bit of himself in me?’ Well that sounds perverted even in the context, Jo. +1 to FWBP
>I like to imagine that Albus has “moustache quivering” here, because he is highly amused by Harry actually believing BS he is pushing.
>So your choices only show who you are, not shape you as a person...ugh…
>Yeah only a true Gryffindor would be able to pull out of Sorting Hat this sword. It’s not like Sorting Hat heart Harry’s desperate pleas for help and decided to help…
> I’m starting to imagine this No-Magic AU ff where Albus is crazy ex-professor of sociology who lost his job due to his unethical experimentation on his students and now has to earn his living by writing fortune cookie slips. It would be glorious!
>I ignored it earlier, but what hour it is? Dumbledore said that Pomfrey is still up, because she administered potion to petrified students. This would suggest that it’s at very least 10 pm. Yet he both send off Minerva to organise feat and now tries to send Harry to the feast? Wouldn’t it be better to wait until morning to celebrate? +1 to LOL
>I’m even more annoyed at Albus’ comment that Hogwarts “runs through” DADA teachers.
>”Harry got up and crossed to the door. He had just reached for the handle, however, when the door burst open so violently that it bounced back off the wall.” How did he manage to avoid being hit with it?
>Why Lucius took Dobby with him to Hogwarts? I mean from writer’s point of view this scene ties nicely Dobby’s subplot, but story-wise it’s illogical. +1 to LOL
>This scene makes me think that it was Albus who indulged in threatening and bribing governors. Apparently all 12 governors not only learned that Ginny died, decided that Albus was the best man for the job and claimed that they were threatened by Lucius, but also did so within a few hours from initial Minni’s announcement. Normally such bodies take days to make decisions.
>”‘The same person as last time, Lucius,’ said Dumbledore. ‘But this time, Lord Voldemort was acting through somebody else. By means of this diary.’” I wish you could hear yourself Albus. You wouldn't believe what you just have said, nor would bystanders.
>Lucius: And this damned book is the proof of that? How? Headmaster, when was your last visit to mind healer?
>No Albus, let's face it if Harry didn’t intervene she would be fucking dead.
>”Very fortunate the diary was discovered, and Riddle’s memories wiped from it.” Yes indeed, it’s very fortunate that you have absolutely no proof for your claims Albus. And oh my, one could claim that your insinuations are threats… +1 to CC +1 to LOL
>While Lucius was relatively clumsy in that scene there is nothing aside from Dobby the crazy House Elf that connects Lucius with the Diary. I swear for all clumsiness, Lucius in this book played everything relatively well. I bet the governors can't even prove that he threatened them (if that even took place). Sadly this is Rowling’s Court where words have more power than evidence.
>Harry learns well from Albus, all those accusations with no evidence…
>Also it’s nice of Dumbledore that he further threatens Lucius claiming that any activity resembling Voldemort’s will be connected to him.
>We get it Jo, Lucius is the evil bastard. You don't have to punt the midget to get us to react!
>“‘Professor Dumbledore,’ he said hurriedly, ‘can I give that diary back to Mr. Malfoy, please?’” No, you cannot. This is key evidence in investigation and potentially can lead to other artefacts created by Voldemort. +1 to LOL
>And with this accent Jo opened yet another can of worms that will undermine her magical system. If by tossing at House Elf clothes without intend of freeing them you can free them then it means that in Jo’s magical system intent isn’t as important as actions. In other words if teacher during demonstration of wand movements says incantation, he can accidentally cast the spell.
>Breaking News: distinguished nobleman attacked local child celebrity. Man's servant intervened. More at 7 PM.
>”’Least I could do, Dobby,’ said Harry, grinning. ‘Just promise never to try and save my life again.’” Yup, Harry just released into wild a psychopathic elf who helps people by trying to murder them. And the only thing he asks for? To not try to help Harry. Let’s hope this won’t cause a wave of murders in WW. +1 to LOL
>Dobby’s logic in this sentence is straight out Moon Logic. He would fit well at Sierra Entertainment. +1 to LOL
>The real reason why there are no final exams in book 2 is that Albus doesn’t want to deal with creating exams basing on Lockhart’s materials.
>What about OWLS and NEWTS?
>Darn either Headmaster's position is like master of universe or Albus has way more pull than he shows. Dumbledore's evidence on either threatening governors or Lucius giving Ginny the Horcrux is so flimsy that such influential individual as Lucius should be able to shake off all allegations.
>Just how big are compartments at Hogwarts Express? 6 kids apparently had enough space to practice disarming without poking out each others eyes.
>Darn, and you guys dare to call Slytherins backstabbing? Percy trusted Ginny and did everything in his power when it was clear that something was wrong with her, yet here she not only betrays his secret, but also does it in presence of two guys who regularly bully their family members. As if she didn’t exactly know what they will do with that information.
>Now in the beginning of CoS commentary I said that Harry and co don't do anything to solve communication black out issue. I'm going to stand by it. Sure here Harry gives Durslays’ number to his friends, but that doesn't solve the problem. Unless he manages to make some kind of deal with his relatives they can easily stop him from answering phone or not give him letters send via normal post. The only way to secure communication with magical world during his stay at Durslays is to use magical means that won’t get him in trouble.
Crime Count: 3
Death Count: 0
Freud Would Be Proud: 1
Leap of Logic: 10
Uncovered: 0
Spell Count: 0
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And if that were really an issue, how on earth to the purebloods (or Hogwarts, for that matter) get their laundry done? If the elves can't touch their clothes... Hmm. By the same token, what did Hermione think she was doing with her Knitting for Elves project? Surely other people can't run around freeing your house elves for you. That's just nuts.
> Darn either Headmaster's position is like master of universe or Albus has way more pull than he shows. Dumbledore's evidence on either threatening governors or Lucius giving Ginny the Horcrux is so flimsy that such influential individual as Lucius should be able to shake off all allegations.
Evidence schmevidence. The whole darn series is a string of wild assertions people randomly believe or not as is convenient, mostly to the plot.
Also bonkers.
> Darn, and you guys dare to call Slytherins backstabbing? Percy trusted Ginny and did everything in his power when it was clear that something was wrong with her, yet here she not only betrays his secret, but also does it in presence of two guys who regularly bully their family members. As if she didn’t exactly know what they will do with that information.
This isn't the only time she does that either, and it's one of the reasons I don't like Ginny. When it serves her purposes, she spills your secrets. In HBP she tells Ron about Hermione kissing Krum, much to Hermione's detriment, because Ron (the jealous knob) then goes off to make a super public display of snogging Lav everywhere and anywhere, and pretty much tromps all over Hermione's feelings for the rest of that year. But it suited Gin, so, no sweat right? And there never seems to be any in story fallout, that people look at her and say: um, no. I'm not entrusting you with X, or you aren't trustworthy. Hers aren't traits I'd look for in a friend. Is it just because she's impulsive? Doesn't really explain her selling out Percy here.
Plus she's happy to bully as well, Or act out, or be violent or inappropriate towards fellow students when she feels like it, but that's all cool because she's a Weasley (other than Percy) and a Gryffindor... Right.
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That's why I think that the change that the filmmakers made in the movie version was better: Harry hid the sock in the diary so that Lucius didn't realize that he was giving a laundry item to Dobby when he gave him the book. Maybe there's a way for house elves to do laundry without actually touching the clothes (ex. by levitation) and their masters keep a close eye on them while they're doing it? I'm not sure.
/And there never seems to be any in story fallout/
I think that may be because, like Lily, Ginny is ultimately more of a plot device than a character. In this book, she's the damsel in distress that Harry has to rescue from the villain. Despite being possessed by Tom all year, she's fine and giggling at the end of the book when she tells everyone Percy's secret. The only time that her possession is brought up is in one brief moment in OOTP and even then, that's only there to snap Harry out of his self-absorption (temporarily). We don't ever get to hear Ginny tell her side of the story, heck, the only time we get a sense of how frightened and desperate she was is when *Tom* tells Harry.
And then her transformation from OOTP onwards is all about making her Harry's 'ideal girlfriend.' She's athletic, pretty, and aggressive. She doesn't cry easily and she throws over all of her other boyfriends for Harry. She defends Harry over the Half-Blood Prince's book, she willingly lets him go at the end of HBP without a word of complaint, and she helps take care of things at Hogwarts for him while he's out searching for Horcruxes. So, I don't think that there are any consequences for her, because that would imply that she was a character with flaws, which would suggest that she was a person with her own motivations and problems that didn't revolve around Harry.
And it's the same thing with Lily: sure, we see her childhood, but what does it ultimately revolve around? Snape. And her harsh treatment of Snape isn't meant to be seen as harsh because it's supposed to be the impetus for his growth. So, there's no consequences for her either, because she's just fulfilling her role as a plot device.
You could even extend this to Dumbledore in a way: he hired Lockhart, but that's okay, because Lockhart was an obstacle that Harry and Ron eventually saw through and overcame. It was another test for them.
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I like to think that Dobby is exception. There obviously is something wrong (mentally) with Dobby, because he justifies his attempts at Harry's life as saving his life. Not to mention logic he gave Harry: "‘I’ve just got one question, Dobby,’ said Harry, as Dobby pulled on Harry’s sock with shaking hands. ‘You told me all this had nothing to do with He Who Must Not Be Named, remember? Well –’
‘It was a clue, sir,’ said Dobby, his eyes widening, as though this was obvious. ‘Dobby was giving you a clue. The Dark Lord, before he changed his name, could be freely named, you see?’" So perhaps he was freed, because the chain of event made sense in his mind, because he is short of a few marbles?
Darn, don't rub this into my face. I was so excited for murder mystery >:(
All jokes aside, yeah in JKR's books evidence means nothing.
The funny thing is, that this behaviour starts after the Diary debacle so I was hoping that either she was permanently possessed or was twisted by Diary. But knowing Jo that is not the case.
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If Vapormort is using all his willpower to hold himself together and occasionally possess animals, would he be easy to Imperius? Dumbledore could just do that and then ask him exactly what steps he's taken to stay not-dead and how to reverse them. If it worked, he could have destroyed all the non-Harry Horcruxes years ago!
Dumbledore agreeing with Harry that Red vs. Green maps on to Good vs. Evil is so wrong. Would it have killed him to say that all four Houses have good and bad aspects, and one of the things that distinguishes Harry from Voldemort is not being a mass-murderer? But he thinks the Sorting Hat would have ignored a Hufflepuff's desperate pleas for help. They really take their personality test too seriously.
I think Dobby interpreted Lucius's earlier order to shine his shoes excessively literally, as in, "I can't stop until the shoes are shined, even if it means Apparating wherever he's going," because that is the kind of rules-lawyering he's good at. (And Kreacher, who used the order to "get out" creatively.) Which is a logical skill for house-elves to develop. Likewise, I wonder if the accidental freeing wasn't actually true until Lucius agreed that he'd actually given him the sock by saying Harry had lost him his servant? Dobby said he was free, but maybe if Lucius had said, "Don't be ridiculous; you know that's not how it works," he wouldn't have been. Lucius was just too upset to think straight.
Breaking News: distinguished nobleman attacked local child celebrity. Man's servant intervened. More at 7 PM.
Surely there's a young, hungry reporter who wants to get the scoop before Rita and take her place as "best inside gossip" columnist? Between this and the headmaster's shocking criminal negligence in knowingly hiring a criminal mind-wiper, their careers would be made. Where are all the yellow journalists when you need them?
You know, between Dumbledore threatening Lucius and possibly threatening the Governors, I'm now deeply suspicious why he hasn't bothered to try to undo the DADA curse. Or, you know, have the course cancelled forever and a new "Magical Defense" course created in its place to see if that works. Voldemort has a good reason for wanting to sabotage the magical combat skills the entire nation, obviously. Maybe Dumbledore is also happy with the arrangement. The students, of course, are poorly taught. Whatever circumstances drove the teachers out for the past 30 years were probably less severe than what happened to Quirrell or Lockhart, but they might at least have been hampered somehow, so he's also sabotaging adults with developed skills.
Poor Percy. Good deeds never go unpunished.
Albus the sociology professor sounds chilling. Psychology would be terrifying too. And he admits to reading Muggle stuff occasionally, so how do we know he didn't find just the wrong book and go, "Hm, this Stanford Prison Experiment sounds intriguing... and Milgram's seems to call for further investigation..." Interesting side note: the FB movies have him teaching DADA before (presumably) switching to Transfiguration, and he does Lupin's boggart lesson (or rather, Lupin must have heard about it and copied it, in the movie-verse). And it shows what a terrible idea it is. We see students slavering to find out their enemy's fear so they can bully her, and that the fear is a very serious one that would be positively obscene to joke about. So, Unethical Psychological Experiment Dumbledore is movie canon.
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Pfff I have even better proposition for you: trap Voldiewraith in enchanted mirror/jar/whatever McGuffin and Dumbledore can take his time interrogating Tom for however long he wants. Want some drama? Have Harry have a tantrum in OotP style and accidentally release Voldie from his prison. Or have one of Voldie followers break into Hogwarts to free him.
On side note, if Albus was really vindictive he could shove trapped Voldemort into the same closet/wardrobe he keeps his magical portrait (*coughcoughPottermorecoughcough*) and let the portrait torture the Dark Lord. Imagine being trapped in small dark space with Albus pushing his bullshit 24/7 at you, all while you cannot do anything. *shudders*
Yup, Albus approach through this whole chapter gives me creeps. If either Albus or Jo weren't teachers at some point in their lives, I could probably explain away situation- lack of training/experience on either writer's or character's part. But as it is? It's very suspicious.
I like that explanation, but I'm still miffed by this whole scene. I love when characters use subtle/smart solutions to big problems instead of charging at them and by Harry's standards it was smart. But by my 12-year-old-self standards it was facepalm worthy :(
I imagine it would be the same journalist that wrote about boys grand thief auto adventure :)
Seriously, about half of plot of this series would be smashed into dust by a few well written articles by a young nosey journalist. The rest would collapse on their own :P
I have a lot of not so good things to say about Albus as headmaster.
I've already ranted about clubs in comment section of Chapter 15, so I won't repeat myself.
I agree with you about DADA position; it's damaging to both students and adults' careers.
But let's look at other teachers he employs:
Severus: to me it's obvious that the man should be either University professor or independent researcher. Teaching middle school and high school kids requires character traits that the man lacks. So obviously this hire was not for benefit of students.
Firenze: political hire. While centaur's knowledge of astronomy could be useful for Hogwart's students, the man lacks (like all centaurs) proper communication skills.
Trelawney: another hire not beneficial for students. Just because someone managed to give one or two true prophecies it doesn't mean they are good educators.
Hagrid: I don't think that I have to say anything on this matter.
Ghost Binns: History can be both the easiest subject to teach and the hardest. All it takes for a good teacher is to be either a good storyteller or to be charismatic. While I cannot speak about Human Binns, Ghost Binns fails spectacularly.
Honestly it's like Albus tries to dumb down WW society by lowering teaching standards in the only British magical school. :P
Well we know that whatever muggle materials he read, he didn't read Spiderman comics or he wouldn't be sitting on all those titles and doing nothing :P
I can see Dumbledore as Sociology or Psychology professor. Perhaps even neuropsychology. Certainly not Philosophy or Political Sciences. But yeah, Hogwarts at times read like one big experiment.
I cannot speak much about FB movies because I swore to not support Jo's madness (though I might break my word just to enrich the discussion :P), but even without this titbit I though that PoA's Boggart lesson sounded like a nightmare in class setting. Especially in Hogwarts.
The idea itself could work in 1-on-1 setting, especially if you wanted to use it as a catalyst for character development, but in larger group it's recipe for disaster.
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Snape teaching middle school is like that bit in The Good Place where Eleanor says her parents could be used to torture each other in the Bad Place. It's torture for Snape and the kids. Oh no, now I'm going to start looking for more parallels...
Don't forget "Moody," already known to have a hair trigger, who starts the school year by slamming a student repeatedly against the stone floor while the student squeals in pain and fear... so Dumbledore lets him go on to mind-control and hex the students for the rest of the year.
Trelawney's comment about Hermione's "mundane" mind is arguably a barely-concealed anti-Muggle(born) slur, too. So, she's a poor educator and a bigot.
Poor Binns. When students ask him questions, he wakes up a bit and actually sounds interesting for a minute. I think this means that he has the potential to be a more engaging teacher, and no one ever helps him reach that potential.
Dumbledore could argue that dumbing down the curriculum is a safety measure, because look what happens when you have higher standards: Tom Riddle and Albus himself! (Not to mention the Marauders and Severus, who all do way more advanced magic than Harry in their day.) Er, not that he'd explain that to anyone else. But not letting kids learn too much dangerous combat magic or too many "confusing" historical debates for their own good, sure. No wonder Fudge thought Umbridge would fit in at Hogwarts.
It would be so easy to just conjure a curtain for that boggart lesson. Now we're supposed to believe it took seventy years for anyone to realize that wait, maybe not all fears are appropriate for public viewing, even after that very clear demonstration? Making it worse, Jo... (How she blew up McGonagall's entire timeline is far less awful by comparison.)
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Yeah, but it can be even more dangerous to release that elf into wild. Now not only nothing stops it from getting revenge on his former masters, but also he can spill secrets about all suspicious activities/objects Lucius had in his house.
The only option that makes sense is that Malfoys and Dobby cooperate; Malfoys for some reason wanted a House Elf in the castle and either manipulated or convinced Dobby to go on with their plan.
Yup, that situation sounds like something straight out Dante's Inferno: the child friendly edition.
I didn't mention Moody, because in my mind he falls under separate category: DADA teachers, but yeah Moody is extra special case. Even if Dumbledore wasn't employing imposter, a war veteran (with potentially PTSD) as a teacher for self-defence class seems like ill-fit.
I took Trelawney's comment as parody of people who follow new-age gurus like Deepak Chopra. They often tell sceptic that they aren't enlighten or awaken so they can't do/see things the way NA crowd see. But yeah, a good educator shouldn't say things like that, instead they should either try resolve whatever conflict there is or subtly direct the student towards other class.
Perhaps it's habit born out of bad practices? The only time he sounds engaging is when he talks about what he considers a fiction/gossip material. Considering he started teaching somewhere in XIX century, he might simply using methods that were popular in XIX century Britain.
Considering that Albus is both educator and politicians, his opinions on truth and knowledge never cease to piss me off. But yeah I can see Dumbledore dumbing down curriculum for safety of WW. It would be in his style.
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Since no one seems to think the fake Moody's behavior is remarkable, that probably means real Moody would have acted much the same, so... yeah. Scary hiring decision. I keep imagining some poor first-year sitting in his class, waiting to be hexed "for educational purposes" and wondering whether he'll suddenly take offense to something and brutalize them.
Binns probably would have been very good at getting kids to recite their Latin declensions back in the day. And then heading off to the staff room to gossip. What a shame that they never thought to ask him for information again--he probably knows things.
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Heck we could explore whatever compulsion was placed onto House Elves this way. It would be way more interesting than what JKR cooked for us.
It's hard to say how different original Moody is from Barty's impersonation, since we don't have a lot of scenes with him, but I suspect that original Moody wouldn't shown teenagers how to cast Unforgivables. After all one less person who knows how to cast it is one less person who can effectively go after him :P
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It's unbelievable that we never found out more about house-elf bindings when they're so important to the books. Just think if they'd been able to free all the elves at once somehow! Chaos! Confusion! Possible spies and defectors!
I suspect that elves naturally want to bind themselves to a place, but originally weren't bound to the humans there and could play pranks on them as in folklore. Then wizards passed the Statute of Secrecy and started clamping down on magical creatures as part of the enforcement. They figured out how to take control of the elves' bindings and moved any of them in Muggle areas to wizarding properties. So, it's a twisted, artificial mockery of a natural process.
Also interesting: the goblins spent the century leading up to the SoS rebelling, and apparently stopped after that. Maybe that's when wizards made a deal to give them exclusive control over the entire financial system in exchange for not trying to kill wizards anymore and staying away from Muggles? I don't think either side ended up entirely happy with that bargain, if so.
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No, Percy is the Designated Bad Sibling, so he's the only one to object to Harry's relationship with his siblings.
/Albus has sources telling him where Voldiwraith is, yet he doesn’t, I don’t know, hire an exorcist to hunt down the wraith and trap it in some kind of object/
I mean, storywise, we know why he didn't: Voldemort had to be able to get a body again so that he could duel Harry for the final showdown. But that's another issue with making Dumbledore so knowledgeable: he knows that Tom is a bad apple from the start, he knew that Voldemort's real name is Tom Riddle, he knew that Tom had made Horcruxes (he just wasn't sure how many), etc. And yet for all these years before Harry enrolled in Hogwarts, he did nothing. He didn't tell anybody else; he didn't send anybody else to hunt down Voldemort while he served as headmaster.
/Like your Car? Or The Sorting Hat? Or perhaps Portraits?/
Or, in the next book, the Marauder's Map.
/Harry forgot about Lockhart being in the room. So did his no. 1 fan Molly Weasley!/
Good catch!
/Albus, you knowingly allowed a fraud who loves to use memory charms around children?/
I think that this comes down to Hogwarts being the center of the universe in HP. The Philosopher's Stone can't be hidden somewhere else, no, it has to be hidden at Hogwarts because it's 'the safest place.' Lockhart can't be handed over to the authorities; he has to face his comeuppance at Hogwarts. Voldemort declares war on wizarding Britain, but it's really Hogwarts where the final showdown happens.
/I wonder, do Horcruxes sense each other?/
In the DH movie, Harry is able to sense where Horcruxes are and to sense when they've been destroyed (as is Voldemort).
/I’m in Gryffindor/
Yes, because no Gryffindor has ever done or can do anything horrible. That's Slytherin's domain. Because Hagrid told you that all Dark Wizards come from Slytherin and his word is gospel.
/So your choices only show who you are, not shape you as a person/
Except that as far as we know, Tom didn't make any choice when it came to his House. He probably was as much in the dark as Harry was when it came to the Sorting Hat Ceremony. Harry made a choice (based purely on his dislike of Draco and blind belief in Hagrid) to tell the Sorting Hat not to put him in Slytherin, but did Tom say, "Yes, I want Slytherin"? Or did the Sorting Hat sort him instantly like it did with Draco? We never find out. So, no, Tom's choices didn't have anything to do with his House, as it's being presented here. He chose to open the Chamber of Secrets because of his own personal ambitions and issues, not because he wore a green tie.
/only a true Gryffindor would be able to pull out of Sorting Hat this sword/
So, why did the Sorting Hat take so long to sort Harry? Why did it say that he would've done well in Slytherin if he was a 'true Gryffindor'?
/in Jo’s magical system intent isn’t as important as actions/
But according to Bellatrix, you have to mean it when you're casting the Cruciatus Curse...unless you're Harry in DH, where you can throw the curse at a jerk who spat at your teacher.
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Storywise I can work out a plot where it would work: Albus traps Voldemort in enchanted mirror/jar/whatever McGuffin and attempts to interrogate him to learn what means Voldemort used to attain quasi-immortality. Voldemort is stubborn and Albus is busy man so things are going slowly. Then either Voldemort manages to manipulate someone into releasing him or one of his followers learns of his predicament and infiltrates Hogwarts (because this is HP book and it always has to be Hogwarts) and helps his master. BOOM. Rowling has set up for Voldemort's rebirth, Albus doesn't look as bad as he looks in the books and we have interesting plot.
The biggest problem with Albus is that Jo accidentally stumbled onto Epicurean Paradox while writing Dumbledore, but she cannot work out a sensible answer to the question :P
/I think that this comes down to Hogwarts being the center of the universe in HP./
You know, it would do JKR's verse wonders if she took her protagonist outside Hogwarts and explored magical shenanigans in other parts of WW. Sure in this book we had Weasleys' house, in PoA Diagonal Alley, in GoF Qudditch Championships, in OotP Sirius' house and Ministry etc., but in most of those locations we spend chapter, maybe two chapters.
I mean, take kids for school trip or explore those weeks Harry spend in DA in PoA or something...
Honestly, the books greatly suffer from 1 school year= 1 book format :(
Well at this point Harry didn't hear about Peter and Sirius, so he doesn't have any examples of bad Gryffindors. Then again after two hate campaigns against himself, you would think he had learned the lesson.
Don't you know, Tom from the start is evil, because from the start he was ambitious and proactive. It wasn't until he servery dumbed himself down via multiple Horcruxes that he attained acceptable level of passivity. But by then it was too late for him :P
/But according to Bellatrix, you have to mean it when you're casting the Cruciatus Curse...unless you're Harry in DH, where you can throw the curse at a jerk who spat at your teacher. /
Well on the other hand we have this gem from PS:
"“Now, don’t forget that nice wrist movement we’ve been practicing!” squeaked Professor Flitwick, perched on top of his pile of books as usual. “Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too — never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said ‘s’ instead of ‘f’ and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest.”"
So yeah, in theory you can accidentally cast AK or Cruciatus Curse just because you have cold or stiff tongue after your dentist had to remove your tooth :P
In all honesty I wouldn't be surprised if the Cruciatus in OotP didn't work, because Harry mispronounced the incantation and Bella was only pulling his leg. After all why would she be teaching the enemy how to properly cast spell?
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It would have helped even more if young Tom had phrased his boasts a little differently, just enough so that it sounded like he could only semi-direct magical outbursts against people who tried to hurt him and make Dumbledore think he might be a mildly troubled kid in a tough environment who would straighten out with a little support. That he hadn't really done much worse than, say, Harry or any other Muggle-raised wizarding kid who realized they made "funny things happen" when they were scared or angry. Tom seemed to do well once he was accepted and had the promise of a better future, and there was nothing to connect him to the nasty incidents because there are tons of nasty kids at that school, and it was only much later that Dumbledore realized he'd been conned.
He could have been clever and good at magic, but not so all-knowing that he's enabling horrors by keeping silent. And we'd get to worry what else he doesn't have enough information to figure out yet--there could be threats anywhere!
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But then again, he had perfect occasion in PS to trap Voldemort during let's say staff meeting and yet he sat on his ass during whole school year waiting for Tom to visit the corridor of doom.
Indeed. It kinda makes me wonder how the Pensieve works. Human mind has tendency to edit memory each time you recall it using information and feelings available at that point in the time. Does that mean that in Pensieve old memory would be shown in way it was originally recorded or in current state? If the second option is true then the memory we see in HBP could be misshaped by how Albus perceives Tom. After all there was nothing Albus could do for him, right?
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PS could have been Albus Dumbledore and the Tricky Exorcism, yeah. Or better yet, The Hogwarts Senior Staff and the Tricky Exorcism.
If Pensieve memories can be unreliable, we've got some real narrative problems... But then, they can't be entirely based on what the person remembers, because you can see and hear things that person couldn't at the time, or at least didn't consciously remember (and so would have edited out if the memories were based on how they perceived it). For instance, if little Sev had heard James and Sirius planning to attack him at the time, he wouldn't have been reviewing his notes, he'd have been drawing his wand and maybe running away. And if Pensieve memories could be so unreliable that, say, Sev could have inserted the Marauders' actions and dialog into his memory based on what he knew of them in general, why would Dumbledore bother trying to retrieve memories from people? Morfin had been probably Obliviated and then Azkaban-addled, so how would his memory help anyone discover whether he had or hadn't met Tom Jr. that night? Why wouldn't Slughorn have softened the memory of what he said to Tom over the years to the point where it wasn't that bad really, and so the memory he gave Dumbledore wouldn't be obviously faked and that whole subplot wouldn't have happened?
So... it doesn't make a lot of sense, but apparently Pensieve memories capture everything in a certain range around the person like a virtual reality recording. Unless it is all an incredibly elaborate charade, the purpose of which was never explained, but there are limits to how much fanwanking anyone should have to do to make these books make sense. "Perfect VR recordings" is, sadly, the least headache-inducing for me.
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More so, if using Pensieve was normal procedure Fudge would have problems explaining why he doesn’t want to use it during Harry’s trial. The moment somebody asked “Cornelious, why don’t we solve this argument swift and easy? Let the boy show us what we saw. After all he is just a teenager not master of mind arts…” no matter what Fudge would say or do he would either look incompetent or suspicious.
Now in the series we are shown memories by 4 people: Albus, Severus, Horace and Tom.
Severus is accomplished in mind arts enough to not only teach it, but also to interact with Voldemort, without giving him any sensitive information on platter. His memories could be clearer, because of that skill level.
Horace is skilled enough to apparently do some editing.
It’s Albus and Tom whom I absolutely don’t trust on this matter. While the memory seems to be genuine, Tom was trapped in a book for 50 years. That had to have a serious impact on his mental health.
Albus on the other hand had motives to show Harry a skewed version of events. He knew he was dying and he had to make sure Harry won’t try to back out once he learns what is expected of him. Thus he had to make sure Harry was emotionally attached to idea of killing Voldemort. The whole memory collecting side quest? That was to keep Harry busy and make him feel “included” in Albus’ plans. After all wasn’t about half of OotP’s drama/angst caused by Harry being kept in dark? And look what the boy ended up doing: running paramilitary group and breaking into governmental buildings. Nope, it’s best to keep him busy with meaningless work and make him feel important with small gestures.
A lot of what we learn about Voldemort in HBP has only one source: Albus himself. He keeps saying things that he would have had hard time learning/proving. For example: did Merope really used love potions on Tom Sr.? By the time Albus got idea to investigate this, all main actors are dead. It could be easily a case of rich man having romance with poor woman and leaving her after either money run out or he learned of her being witch. Then when he came back he spread rumors about Merope so locals won’t accuse him of leading on Merope. Yet if I remember correctly Albus sounded quite certain.
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Especially during Sirius's trial. Yes, Sirius might have believed that he killed Peter, but since the Pensieve allows the viewer to see things that the memory-holder couldn't (as was the case with Snape and the Marauders), they could have seen Peter with the wand behind his back.
/It could be easily a case of rich man having romance with poor woman and leaving her after either money run out or he learned of her being witch/
The latter is what Voldemort believed to have happened and that could have been a parallel to Seamus's parents, since Mr. Finnegan also didn't learn that his wife was a witch until after they were married.
/Then when he came back he spread rumors about Merope so locals won’t accuse him of leading on Merope/
Except that when he comes back home, he apparently never remarried. When Tom Jr. kills his family, Tom Sr. is with his parents by himself. There's no wife mentioned (and we don't hear of a widow or any remaining family after the Riddles have been killed). Which, considering that he's the only child of wealthy parents, is strange, because he probably would've been expected to marry by that point.
Also, given that we see him with a girlfriend already in Morfin's memory, the whole exploitation angle doesn't make much sense to me. If he wanted to fool around with Merope before returning to his 'respectable' fiancée (I think that her name was Cecilia?), he would have done so quietly and discreetly. Running away with Merope and thereby causing a scandal in the village would ensure that Cecilia's family would never allow him near her again, no matter what he said about Merope when he came back. The fact that he publicly jilted his rich fiancée for a poor girl would've damaged his reputation enough. In fact, that could have been a reason for why he's still single by the time that Tom Jr. arrives (of course, another reason that I had in mind was that he was traumatized by what happened to him, but that paints him in a more sympathetic light than I think that JKR intended).
I understand that Dumbledore doesn't provide much proof for his assertions about Merope and Tom Sr., but I've seen enough people in the HP fandom dismiss what happened to Tom Sr. because he's described as a "snobbish and rude" man in GoF to be a bit wary of alternative interpretations. Honestly, I think that Voldemort's version of what happened is a lot more straightforward and lets Tom Sr. stay a jerk without bringing in all of these uncomfortable implications of date rape and exploitation. It also kind of parallels Harry's situation: the Dursleys mistreat him because they hate and fear magic and Tom's father abandoned his wife because he hated and feared magic. There's also the fact that in GoF, nobody ever mentions the Gaunts. When people are discussing who could have killed the Riddles, nobody ever brings up the crazy weirdo who lives alone in a shack. Nobody mentions Cecilia or Merope or anybody introduced in HBP. As far as everyone is concerned, the Riddles were just a bunch of rich snobs who kept to themselves. Which is why Frank, who had no motive as far as anyone could tell, was the only one suspected and arrested.