18 HP Chamber of Secrets
Aug. 3rd, 2019 01:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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deathtocapslockI'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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Date: 2019-08-14 07:54 pm (UTC)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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Date: 2019-08-17 04:59 pm (UTC)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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Date: 2019-08-17 09:32 pm (UTC)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.