CoS Chapter Five
Mar. 9th, 2007 10:47 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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deathtocapslock*It’s difficult for Harry not to feel jealous of Ron after spending time at the Burrow. Remember that any time Ron finds it difficult not to feel jealous of Harry. Bastard, Ron! He’s got it all and still doesn’t appreciate how hard it is to be Harry!
*A last cup of hot chocolate before bed is the international symbol of good mothering and all, but not something I, personally, usually hanker for in August.
*The last dinner is made up of all Harry’s favorite things. Wow, Harry takes over the spot of favored son fast!
*It’s kind of odd that the Weasleys take this car. It’s like just for this one year, Wizards owning cars is normal.
*Molly has a brief moment of admiring Muggles, the joke of course being the thing she’s admiring is Magic. You can’t be cool and follow the laws of physics at the same time.
*My father would probably not have stopped for any of those things Mr Weasley stopped for. The Twins left their firecrackers? Isn’t that a good thing from a parents’ pov?
*I know flying is the magic part, but personally I’m a lot more nervous about Arthur driving than I am about him flying. I can’t imagine he’d pass a driver’s test. Does he even know what a red light means?
*Where do the Weasleys live, exactly? How long does it take them to get to London? It took all night to get from Surrey to the Burrow, didn’t it?
*Ron and Harry are really idiots here. Why on earth do they not just wait for Arthur and Molly to find them? Surely they must have noticed the boys never came through. They’re just on the other side of the wall!
*Okay yeah, I know, they have to be idiots so we can get them flying in the car and all, and sometimes 12-year-old boys are less than logical, but still. I can’t help but wish they had just waited for Molly and Arthur. Then I wouldn’t have to have sat through that interminably boring car flight in CoS: The Movie.
*The Dursleys haven’t given Harry pocket money for about six years. Before that they used to give him coins all the time, hoping he’d choke to death on a 20p piece.
*Seriously, Ron is such an idiot it’s very funny. Let’s steal the car since we don’t know how long it will take Mum and Dad to walk back to it from two feet away from where we are right now. If we arrive at school a few hours late we’d…still be there in time for classes which start tomorrow! And there’s no other mode of transportation in the Wizarding World except trains and flying cars! Certainly no modes of transportation that are faster than trains or flying cars!
*Ron casually announces that underage Wizards can use Magic if it’s an emergency, as we’ll be seeing later. Ron knows the law like the back of his hand. His definition of "emergency" is a little shaky, though.
*I would say that perhaps Ron should grow up to be a Wizarding barrister, but given what we’ve seen they don’t seem to have barristers. (When everyone knows your guilty, you don’t need a defense counsel.) And anyway, Ron’s probably lost all his legal knowledge by now to hormones.
*Harry’s feeling of panic is turning into excitement. Which always means he’s about to do something really really stupid.
*So you can see the Hogwarts Express. Does anyone ever wonder where it goes to? Because you know it’s got to be some big black and red Dickensian steam train that would catch the eye.
*Nice to know long car trips aren’t any more pleasant in the air.
*As always, I like the way Rowling places something important like Ron’s broken wand here at the beginning since she’s going to need it later, but still…nobody at this school can fix a wand better? Years later they’ll understand that students without books need to have substitutes until they get their own, but this year a kid with no wand’s just got to make due even though a wand’s, like, a million times more important to your studies.
*I think I do remember much enjoying Ron and Harry being thrown out of the car in the movie.
*How ancient is that Whomping Willow, exactly? Was it already old when Dumbledore planted it during the Marauders Era? Or do Harry and Ron just consider the seventies ancient times?
*A hat sighting! Everyone is wearing black pointed Hogwarts hats, for now.
*Snape’s disliked by everybody except the Slytherins. And the audience.
*Actually, Snape doesn’t seem to be disliked by everybody in canon either. Just Harry and his friends. So he’s disliked by everybody as far as Harry’s concerned, I guess.
*LOL—as if anybody could hate Snape when he makes this kind of entrance.
*Is it significant that Snape seems to always get the duty of figuring out why Harry isn’t at the opening feast? Does he eagerly volunteer for it so he can annoy him or something? Or is Dumbledore always trying to put them together so they can learn to get along? (Dumbledore=secret Snarry shipper.)
*I’m sure people have defended Harry and Ron here from Snape’s unjust accusation that they wanted to arrive with a bang because the train wasn’t good enough but, um, Snape is actually perfectly correct. Yes, they were shut out of the barrier, but that just gave them a flimsy excuse to arrive with a bang, which is why they rushed off without waiting for Molly and Arthur. It’s like saying that once you found the front door locked you had to swing in through the second story window on a tree vine because how else would you get in?
*You know, this car thing really should have led to Arthur losing his job, shouldn’t it? It surely would have if Lucius were the one into tinkering with Muggle artefacts. And then the Weasleys would be really poor and it would be Harry and Ron’s fault.
*I still hear people claiming that Snape’s talking about expulsion here is proof he’s ESE. But Harry isn’t in danger of being expelled at all. Snape’s saying he has no power to expel one way or another.
*In general, Snape’s way of speaking threateningly goes by a lot of people, though children seem to get it easily enough. He wasn’t going to poison Trevor or Harry either.
*I kind of love the description of McGonagall here: "Either [Harry] had forgotten how thin her mouth could go, or he had never seen her this angry."
*Faced with the dozen smarter, more logical things he could have done upon not getting through the barrier, Harry gives his trademark dumbass gape.
*Though presumably McGonagall understands that while what Harry did was completely illogical, it was the right thing to do by Gryffindor standards, being the most dramatic and dangerous.
*Harry feels all ashamed when Dumbledore sounds disappointed in him. Ron’s probably glad now that Dumbledore couldn’t care less whether or not he existed.
*Too bad Harry didn’t just explain to Dumbledore, "I know I did something stupid. My brain’s been a bit fuzzy after being starved all summer by those guardians you put me with. So sorry to have disappointed you, though, sir. You never let me down."
*And they don’t even lose points. Which shows how fair and strict McGonagall is, as it surely would if Snape had made that kind of decision for the Slytherins.
*Proving my earlier note about the flying car being the proper Gryffindor way to go, Harry and Ron are applauded when they enter the Common Room.
*One could get seasick following the highs and lows of Harry’s social standing. If they’d lost points would they being shunned or feted here?
*Somewhere in the dungeons, Draco Malfoy is lying awake, staring into the dark and muttering, "Stupid Potter with his stupid car. Everybody thinks he’s so smart. Saint Potter with his stupid car with his broomstick in the boot. "
*Malfoy likes to speak in italics. Especially when he’s talking about Potter.
*Better yet, I’m going to imagine that Snape invited Draco to his office for his own cup of hot chocolate and they complained about Harry together until Draco padded off back to his dormitory in his little green silk dressing gown. And Snape totally put peppermint sticks in their hot chocolate.
Exploitation Filmmakers’ Credo
Come on, these dummies can’t remember their parents are three feet away and can get them to school?
Idiot Picture
This chapter couldn’t exist without this rule.
Misdirected Answering
Thank goodness Ron remembered to ask where his sister was Sorted. Too bad he forgot to mention he’s broken his wand so can’t take class at all.
The Stealth Monster Rule
When Regulus and Lucius worked out Snape’s cape, they also worked on his stealth for entrances like this.
Final score: 4
Signs of things to come: Harry leapfrogs over every sensible idea and lands on the one most dangerous and dramatic. Snape makes an empty threat to scare Harry and Harry takes it seriously. Dumbledore acts real disappointed, we’re told McGonagall’s much stricter than Snape and also more fair, and then Harry and Ron totally get off. Oh, and Arthur gets to break all the laws he wants while his political enemies get targeted.
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Date: 2007-03-09 04:24 pm (UTC)Also, this: Better yet, I’m going to imagine that Snape invited Draco to his office for his own cup of hot chocolate and they complained about Harry together until Draco padded off back to his dormitory in his little green silk dressing gown. And Snape totally put peppermint sticks in their hot chocolate. ... makes me want to write that in a fic. But I don't have time for Snaco fic right now! *wail* ;-)
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Date: 2007-03-09 04:32 pm (UTC)Yorkshire.
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Date: 2007-03-09 06:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-09 08:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-09 09:06 pm (UTC)I believed that the general idea is that Spinner End is in some old industrial area in the North of England. Since all of the other Muggle places in the books really exist, it make sense for Spinner's End to be real as well.
I noticed that since when Snape has been revealed as a Northerner, some people respect him a lot less. And find him more of a social climber. Is that weird for someone else but me?
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Date: 2007-03-09 09:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-10 12:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-10 04:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-10 11:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-12 02:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-12 03:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-09 04:40 pm (UTC)And Ron is so jealous! How dare he be jealous of the chosen one who has taken over his chosen family spot.
*Is it significant that Snape seems to always get the duty of figuring out why Harry isn’t at the opening feast? Does he eagerly volunteer for it so he can annoy him or something? Or is Dumbledore always trying to put them together so they can learn to get along? (Dumbledore=secret Snarry shipper.)
Either that, or Dumbledore was still thinking Harry maybe Riddle's mini-me, and may have dark desires. So here ya go Snape, rape the little tyke's mind.
*Somewhere in the dungeons, Draco Malfoy is lying away, staring into the dark and muttering, "Stupid Potter with his stupid car. Everybody thinks he’s so smart. Saint Potter with his stupid car with his broomstick in the boot. "
He probably did do that. Poor Draco.
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Date: 2007-03-10 01:41 pm (UTC)And Ron is so jealous! How dare he be jealous of the chosen one who has taken over his chosen family spot.
Yeah right, like Ron was ever the "favored son" in the first place. He's probably the one Molly (and Arthur) had PPD over because he wasn't the precious girl they had always longed for.
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Date: 2007-03-11 06:09 pm (UTC)I got the feeling that Ginny was a bit of an afterthought for most of the family. Which is why she liked Harry so, it would make her noticeable.
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Date: 2007-03-16 04:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-09 06:50 pm (UTC)Two years later the Weasleys can afford to travel to London in two Muggle taxis. It's so awful being poor.
*Ron and Harry are really idiots here. Why on earth do they not just wait for Arthur and Molly to find them? Surely they must have noticed the boys never came through. They’re just on the other side of the wall!
But what if Molly and Arthur can't get back through the barrier! (Apparition only works on alternate Tuesdays.)
*Somewhere in the dungeons, Draco Malfoy is lying away, staring into the dark and muttering, "Stupid Potter with his stupid car. Everybody thinks he’s so smart. Saint Potter with his stupid car with his broomstick in the boot. "
*loves*
*Better yet, I’m going to imagine that Snape invited Draco to his office for his own cup of hot chocolate and they complained about Harry together until Draco padded off back to his dormitory in his little green silk dressing gown.
... to sleep between his green satin sheets, as he does every night. And, just like every night, the other boys wish they could vote Draco out of the dormitory. The constant thumping noises Draco makes when he hits the floor are a tiny bit distracting. Snape is pleased, though, because Lucius pays handsomely for the anti-bruise salve Snape supplies Draco with.
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Date: 2007-03-10 08:57 am (UTC)I hate to say that, but do we actually see the Muggle drivers getting paid? This is the same book where the Muggle guy at the campsite keeps getting Obliviated every time he gets suspicious, and no-one, including Arthur, the supposedly greatest friend of Muggles ever, seems to have a problem with that, so I wouldn't bet on in.
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Date: 2007-03-11 06:11 pm (UTC)I also don't think they paid all those memory-obliterated railroad workers who toiled on the Hogwarts Express either.
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Date: 2007-03-09 09:06 pm (UTC)You may ask for a Patronus, in the original sense of the word, to be with you at your trial. But then a Patronus must be rich, powerful, respected, or all three. Or be Dumbledore, it's easier.
*How ancient is that Whomping Willow, exactly? Was it already old when Dumbledore planted it during the Marauders Era? Or do Harry and Ron just consider the seventies ancient times?
It makes sense if it was already a grown tree when it was planted. A Flopping Sapling wouldn't have worked. It didn't work anyway, but... (It was Snape the one who called the Willow 'old and valuable', by the way)
*I kind of love the description of McGonagall here: "Either [Harry] had forgotten how thin her mouth could go, or he had never seen her this angry."
I kind of love how she enters Snape's own office and lit a fire in the fireplace so Harry and Ron can sit in a warm place. With lots of sandwiches. On Snape's desk.
*Malfoy likes to speak in italics. Especially when he’s talking about Potter.
Still better than talking in CAPSLOCK, expecially when talking about MALFOY. Or worse, SNAPE.
*Better yet, I’m going to imagine that Snape invited Draco to his office for his own cup of hot chocolate... And Snape totally put peppermint sticks in their hot chocolate.
I'm feeling fuzzy and warm inside.
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Date: 2007-03-09 09:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-10 12:32 am (UTC)Ron is impetuous, you know. It's that red hair. We're just lucky he's not sassy. (Has sudden picture of Ron, that smart-mouthed redhead who everyone in Hogwarts fancies.)
God, little duckling Harry makes me so sad, imprinting on the Master Manipulator like that. I mean, I see why Dumbledore's a master manipulator and all, I would just like to see someone care about little Harry, bless his heart. I love that he has the trio, but his Mentor is just greasing and pointing his Chosen Weapon and his girlfriend would clearly have gone for anyone with That Famed Scar. (Sure, Harry, if it'd been Neville's mum who made the sacrifice your mother would be kissing you at the train station, but Neville Orphan Hero Longbottom would be getting allll those sunlit days.)
Look, McGonagall is Justice Personified. I'm sure she was the one who bought the Slytherin teams those new brooms really. She just lives to give. Especially to people who already have money. It's more - enigmatic that way.
Hey, I call the Whomping Willow a Flint - I mean, how could it have been transplanted? It hits people!
You know, that car in CoS and that dragon in GoF could have had a great, dull, endless epic romance. Dare I say - countless sunlit days?
Lovely, as ever.
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Date: 2007-03-10 02:53 am (UTC)*Better yet, I’m going to imagine that Snape invited Draco to his office for his own cup of hot chocolate and they complained about Harry together until Draco padded off back to his dormitory in his little green silk dressing gown. And Snape totally put peppermint sticks in their hot chocolate.
Now that's just adorable.
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Date: 2007-03-10 03:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-10 03:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-10 11:49 pm (UTC)Seriously, why does she underestimate Muggles so much? I can understand her mistrusting them or not liking them because of being a pureblood, but acting like they don't know squat when she sends her kids off to school on a steamtrain that was invented...by a Muggle...makes absolutely no sense.
It’s like saying that once you found the front door locked you had to swing in through the second story window on a tree vine because how else would you get in?
You mean there's another way in? :O I could've saved my feet from a lot of glass back then.
Nice to know long car trips aren’t any more pleasant in the air.
I feel motion sickness coming on just from reading that scene. It's even weirder when you remember that JKR doesn't drive. She has some sort of phobia about driving, apparently. She still let her friend Sean (aka Ron) cart her around in the Ford when they were teens though.
Proving my earlier note about the flying car being the proper Gryffindor way to go, Harry and Ron are applauded when they enter the Common Room.
Ah, the pack mentality. I'm surprised Ginny didn't make them a 'WELKOME GUISE!' banner, but I guess she was too busy writing to Tom in her own blood.
Somewhere in the dungeons, Draco Malfoy is lying awake, staring into the dark and muttering, "Stupid Potter with his stupid car. Everybody thinks he’s so smart. Saint Potter with his stupid car with his broomstick in the boot."
Aww. He's such a woobie. X3 I can imagine the Slytherins discussing it late into the night with their brandy and cigars and smoking jackets.
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Date: 2007-03-11 01:06 pm (UTC)Heh, I don't think it's ever even occurred to her to wonder who invented that train, or a million other things the WW uses. In a way, I think the contradiction makes perfect sense. No one ever accused bigots of being logical.
I think that scene is supposed to be funny, but it really gives me the creeps. The Good Guys' attitudes toward the Muggles aren't really all that different from the Bad Guys'. They just don't want to kill them.
Ron's wand
Date: 2010-07-12 05:31 am (UTC)Re: Ron's wand
Date: 2010-07-12 01:59 pm (UTC)Though really I don't think the Weasleys are ever supposed to be so poor they couldn't afford a wand if they needed one. I could believe it as partly passive-aggressive on Molly's part, punishing Ron for breaking the old one.