CoS Chapter Seven

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

*OMG, JKR used the equivalent of the n-word on the title of a chapter!!

*Ron’s wand continues to publicly malfunction and nobody cares.

*Colin shows Harry a magic picture he took, having already explained that it’s the developing solution that makes it magical. Didn’t JKR totally forget this in an interview and claim Colin was always trying and failing to take Muggle photos?

*Colin’s never flown? Shouldn’t he have had his first flying lesson by now? Or is that only for years that have hidden prodigies in them?

*At least Colin’s on schedule other ways. By this point Harry had found someone at school he hated more than his greatest hate. Colin’s found somebody he loved more than he thought he could love before, which is much the same thing.

*Speaking of loving as you never thought you could love, Malfoy’s slacking off here. He should totally get himself some Polyjuice, pretend to be Colin and follow Harry around getting him to brag about himself or listen to himself be praised so he can make fun of him later.

*Harry, as resigned as you are to explaining the complicated rules of Quidditch, we’re resigned to hearing them. Again.

*Unsurprisingly, the game makes no more sense upon second explanation than it did on the first.

*Katie Bell is nodding off, which I guess is why she’s the kind of player who needs to tryout for the team every year, unlike Harry.

*Harry shifts guiltily in his seat, reminding everyone that after winning their previous games single-handedly, he was unable to attend the last one because he was recovering from saving the world again.

*I don’t think Gryffindor can blame Harry for suffering their worst defeat in 300 years, if they were too stupid to stick somebody else on a broom and make him a Seeker. I guess Harry hasn’t invented that solution yet.

*Ron and Hermione are sitting in the stands watching. Stop trying to pretend to know when Quidditch practice is, Hermione. You’re only embarrassing yourself.

*Harry can hear Colin’s camera from way up in the air? Is he sure Colin’s not actually shooting at him with a gun?

*Marcus Flint has trollish cunning. Meaning too stupid to be truly cunning, like our hero.

*He’s also wearing a patch that says TEAM EVIL on his robes.

*There are no girls on the Slytherin team. Because the good guys are so totally feminist. Really.

*Why would a note from Snape give the Slytherin team the right to the pitch anyway?

*Marcus did say he meant to share the pitch at first, at least.

*Not that the Weasleys care about blood or anything, but Fred wants to know if this kid isn’t Lucius’ son.

*Malfoy is smirking so broadly his cold eyes are slits. In other words, he’s not smirking, but grinning with joy. And probably pretty cute. JMO.

*Ron and Hermione, who have even less business being there than the Slytherins, show up to cause trouble.

*Ron sets himself up as usual, acting as if it’s strange that Malfoy should be there.

*Not condoning the racist talk, but if Hermione wants to trash talk so bad, she’ll get trashed back.

*I haven’t read this whole scene in context for a while, and you know, it really doesn’t seem at all like Draco’s bought his way onto the team. I know the brooms and the new Seeker and all, but Draco’s too damn happy to have just bought his way onto the team. He’d be broadcasting that kind of trick all over the place. The slit eyes say THIS IS THE BEST DAY IN MY LIFE BECAUSE I MADE THE TEAM AND MY DAD SHOWED THAT WAS GOOD AND I’M POPULAR!

*Nice that Fred and George were ready to jump on Malfoy even in CoS when Malfoy is twelve and they are two fourteen year olds.

*Funny how the Gryffindors don’t react this violently to slurs like "sneakin’ Squib." I guess cause that’s just funny. Especially when it’s Filch.

*Wait, Harry, where are you going? Is practice over? Why are you just walking away?

*Nice heads-up on what’s going to happen to Lockhart with the slugs, but it does make you again wonder why nobody fixes Ron’s wand.

*That was quite a nasty curse Ron was going to throw at Malfoy. Jeez. Sounds far worse than the famous Bat Bogey.

*Yeah, take him to Hagrid. He’ll be…of no use at all.

*Hermione says there’s nothing to do but wait for it to stop. And if Dr. Hermione says so it must be true.

*They’re only starting to think the DADA job is jinxed? Hasn’t it been jinxed since the 1960s?

*Ron says Malfoy called Hermione the most insulting thing he could think of. Yup, that’s the idea. Though of course to her it’s not insulting at all, not having any sensitivity about being a Mudblood. Tons more things Malfoy could have said. He never picks on Hermione the way he could. (D/Hr shippers take note.)

*As gross as the slugs are, I’m so happy listening to Ron explaining about Pure-bloods and Mudbloods because it’s not the scene in the movie where Ron’s stuck belching the things while Hermione has a dreadful, tearful speech about how her blood is dirty. Shut up, Whitey!Hermione.

*Nice the way Ron automatically goes from explaining the Malfoy view to promoting himself as a good liberal. "The rest of us know that blood doesn’t mean anything. Why, look at Neville who sucks."

*Ron doesn’t see blood. People tell him he’s Pureblood and he believes them because his dad gets to make the laws and no-name Muggleborns start angling to marry him when they’re 13, but he can’t see it himself.

*Hagrid steps in to condescendingly point out what a brilliant Muggleborn Hermione is, and she sucks it up.

*Ron goes on with how mad blood prejudice is, and how Wizards would have died out. There’s such a thing as protesting too much, Ron. Somebody stop him before he starts showing us pictures of Arthur with his Muggle-born friends.

*Hee! Now I’m picture Arthur in that classic Stephen Colbert "friend" picture with some annoyed looking Muggle-born.

*Actually, I should probably just give Stephen Colbert credit for this whole run of commentary.

*Hagrid, eager to show he’s just as affronted by prejudice, tells Ron he doesn’t blame him for wanting to curse Malfoy. Though to be fair, Hagrid would have said the same thing if Ron had tried to curse Malfoy for just being Malfoy.

*Hagrid says if Ron had cursed Draco Lucius would have come marching up to the school. No, Hagrid, Lucius only gets involved when he thinks there’s an incompetent teacher wasting everyone’s time. Draco can get cursed all he wants with no interference from Lucius.

*So does Hagrid, at this point, think that Myrtle was killed by Aragog? Which btw, totally could have happened? Because he’s amazingly guilt-free over that. What am I saying—guilt-free is Hagrid’s middle name. Right after Drunken Menace.

*Engorgement charms on the pumpkins? Somehow sounds like the equivalent of the sort of biological engineering that will make them flavorless.

*And just when we’re all about to give this chapter up for a loss, something actually HAPPENS!

*So can nobody else hear the hissing? Because shouldn’t Harry just be hearing a snake hissing that he understands?

*I do kind of love investigating in a magical world, so they can accept that sure, there might have been an invisible person murmuring to Harry, but an invisible person would have had to open the door. That’s what makes it odd.





Exploitation Filmmakers’ Credo
Ron, your wand is broken. You can’t hex anything.

IITS
No, McGonagall, you may not do something about Ron’s wand because we’ll need it later. Jeez, work with us, people!

Informed Attributes
God, prejudice is just so awful! Ron thinks so. And Hagrid thinks so even more than Ron! Imagine the idiocy of people being prejudiced. Everyone knows Hermione’s the best Muggle-born ever. And what about Neville? He’s Pureblood and not good at all! How could anyone know those examples and be prejudiced? Not me, certainly. I’m disgusted at the thought. I don’t even get prejudice. We’d have died out without Muggle-borns for breeding stock.

Selling Wood
Can’t help but use this one here.:-)

Final score: 4

Signs of things to come: And so is born the Mudblood stuff, and the Weasleys and Hagrid as rather ironic symbols of tolerance.

Things that didn’t come: Hexing Malfoy makes no difference to Lucius. Quidditch here clearly does not have try-outs every year, and once you’re on the team you’re on the team for good.

Comments

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

Draco never drops gratuitous insults towards females. Not like the Twins or Ron do practically all the time.
Mmm - makes it look like it's just different groups they pick on - Draco on muggle(born)s ("race"), twins on females and anybody weaker than themselves. But only the first form is deemed to be politically incorrect - sadly enough just like with us muggles. I mean, can you even imagine what would happen, if the Roman catholic church refused to accept priests with coloured skin under the argument that Jesus had been white? Yet that is the reasoning for not accepting women as such...

[kaskait.livejournal.com]

The books are strange with the female issues.

On one hand we have women in important positions and they seem to live with no limits. But when anything gets dangerous, the attitude is, "let the menfolk handle it".

There are women in the history background of the WW with power but we don't seem to see actual examples of it in the HP present.

The last female with some power in the HP series we saw was suffering from mousy brown hair and screeching at her lover in a sick room.

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

Yet that is the reasoning for not accepting women as such...

No, it's that Jesus only called male apostles.

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

Interesting - two priests told me what I said in my comment and I didn't bother to research the topic on my own afterwards. Still, even if the argument runs along the apostle line, it doesn't change the point: arguing you have to have male priests because the apostles were male - well, then why have apostles of black skin, because the apostles certainly were no black men.