CoS Chapter Nine

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

*You can tell Filch is truly evil. Why isn’t he assuming a Slytherin froze his cat?

*In case anybody forgot about Dumbledore’s official announcement of favorites last year, he immediately gathers up Harry and his friends for a private consultation about the cat.

*Hee. I like Lockhart’s portraits with their hair in rollers so much I won’t ask where they get the rollers, why their hair would need rolling, etc.

*Is Snape really trying not to smile here? If so, why? Could somebody please write some serious Meta on Snape in CoS for me? He’s kind of fascinating.

*Harry does feel sorry for Filch’s loss of his cat, though not so much that he doesn’t create an even worse fantasy situation where he’s the real victim here.

*Certainly much better than that nasty Malfoy boy who is not at all moved by Hagrid’s blubbing over Buckbeak. And I’m sure it has nothing to do with the animal attacking him.

*I don’t know if I believe any of Lockhart’s portraits would forget to remove his hairnet. I’m actually not sure why he’s wearing a hairnet. Can portraits cook? Do they work in cafeterias?

*No second year could have done this, says Dumbledore. Excuse me, Albus. We happen to be talking about the Chosen One here! And his friend Hermione! Let’s not get insulting in our defense!

*Snape’s pretty quick, isn’t he? I don’t know if I’d have thought to ask why Harry was up in that corridor.

*Imagine how suspicious three Slytherins would look in this scene.

*This is also the scene where JKR introduces the idea that whatever you teach is what you do outside of teaching. Snape will make the Potion to cure the cat because he’s the Potions Master, so Lockhart will have to kill the monster.

*Harry immediately asks for reassurance that he shouldn’t have told the truth, and Ron’s happy to provide it. Ron and Harry are batting a thousand in this book when it comes to coming up with bad ideas between them.

*Ron’s shows off his healthy Wizard arrogance by sniggering over Filch being a Squib and gloating over Filch’s bitterness at being a second class citizen.

*This scene is really weird. Hermione’s there, and you’d think she’d have strong opinions on all these things, but she doesn’t say a single word.

*Well, we’ll fix that in the movie by giving her all of Ron’s lines.

*Harry ends the scene by claiming Snape’s tried to frame him for something. Which Snape totally tried to do here. And Harry would never do to Snape, obviously!

*For days, no one can talk of anything but the attack of Mrs. Norris. Mrs. Norris’ attack attracts about a hundred times more interest than the near-murders of Katie or Ron.

*Ron invents a love of cats for Ginny to explain her caring about Mrs. Norris. As if Ginny could really care about any animal that wasn’t snot-based.

*I suppose H/G-shippers love this scene for the way it shows Ginny and Harry being soulmates. They both conceal important information they have about attacks if it makes them look bad. (It’s almost like Lupin’s hear already!)

*Harry’s about to say hello to Justin Finch-Fletchly, but Justin turns around and speeds away. Wait, what the hell is going on here? Harry was going to say hello to a student outside his circle of friends?

*Continuing in his single-handed education on how Wizards behave, Ron reminds Harry that he shouldn’t care if Justin says hello to him or not, because he’s been judged an idiot. (This is one part of Ron’s personality I don’t mind seeing sucked out and given to Ginny later.)

*Hermione emerges from the stacks and finally looks ready to talk to them. That’s kind of a relief, actually. Hermione has been totally muzzled since the moment they saw the cat. It was beginning to get a little weird.

*Ron still has inches to go in his composition for History of Magic. I wonder if there’s spells that work like changing the font choice and size.

*Regardless, I hope nobody misses the painful symbolism of Ron’s always being a few inches short. I’m sure Harry’s essay is just a bit longer than average. Not too showy, but befitting a Chosen One.

*Btw, total tangent, but I remember this one fic where Harry and Draco were in a threesome and when Harry sees Draco he has this big moment of relief that Draco is normal-sized, because he’d always had this secret fear that Malfoy was hung like a horse. I so totally believe that.

*Hermione asks Binns if legends don’t always have a basis in fact. Except when they’re coming out of Luna Lovegood’s mouth.

*Note to self: Binns, who deals in facts, says that Wizards were much persecuted. He also gives an actual rationale behind Muggle-born prejudice, one that actually makes a bit of sense. They’re supposed to be untrustworthy because they’re not born into Wizard families. It’s kind of odd that this idea seems to have become less popular as the paranoia about Muggles and secrecy has gotten more popular, isn’t it? It’s like the secrecy counteracted the suspicion.

*Ooh, another nice little line from Binns. Just because a Wizard doesn’t use Dark Magic doesn’t mean he can’t. I was having a conversation about the eternal mystery of who uses Dark Magic and what it is the other day.

*Ron’s totally on a roll in this book. He always knew Slytherin was a twisted old loony! Can’t trust ‘em! Bad blood! And he started all the Pure-blood stuff single-handedly! God knows nobody I know in any way encourages prejudice against people who are different!

*Harry takes a moment to misremember his own Sorting as the hat seriously considering putting him in Slytherin, when in fact what happened was the Hat responded to his frantic plea not to be in Slytherin by trying to point out it wasn’t so foreign or bad for him. This is why I’m a Sorting Hat fangirl.

*Also—gee, this book has some good stuff in it—note how the bias against Slytherin drives even Harry to have to be ashamed of himself. Too bad this is going to all lead up to Dumbledore assuring Harry he really belongs in Gryffindor. We’ll have to wait until HBP for Dumbledore to encourage Harry to embrace his inner Slytherin, and even then he never says in so many words that’s what he’s doing.

*Hee. "People here’ll believe anything," says Ron, who, along with his two friends, is pages away from deciding Malfoy is Slytherin’s Heir.

*Hermione says if Dumbledore can’t cure Mrs. Norris than whatever petrified her must not be human. Just cause.

* Fred really missed his calling. He should have been a character in a Stephen King novel with that instinct for revenge.

*H/R moment here, I think, btw, with Hermione giggling at Ron’s Arachnophobia.

*I love that Harry’s surprised that someone’s mopped up the water that was on the floor.

*It’s kind of weird the school puts so much effort into making a nice Great Hall with gold cups and a sky that imitates the weather, but they can’t be bothered to fix a broken bathroom stall.

*Actually, it’s not weird at all. Whoever designed the school knows teenagers have a natural affinity for melodrama. Just as the sky in the Great Hall should be stormy, like the sky, the bathrooms need to be chipped, flaked, dirty and broken, like the heart of the students who go in there to cry.

*Percy swells like Mrs. Weasley. There’s a lot of people who are Molly-like. I can’t think of any Weasleys that ever seem like Arthur.

*Ginny’s apparently afraid Ron will get expelled. Not afraid enough to, like, tell anybody her diary’s possessed, but afraid.

*Ron tells Percy he doesn’t care about Ginny. Actually, Ron, Percy does seem to care about Ginny. Which is why it’s only fitting he’ll turn out to be a dirty traitor and Ginny II will abuse him for it.

*Wait, who said anything about Slytherin not liking Squibs? We know Pure-bloods blast them off the family trees, but what do they have to do with the Chamber of Secrets? Since they can’t do magic, they’re hardly being taught it in the school.

*Ron reminds us you only have to look at Draco’s foul rat faced to know he’s the Heir of Slytherin. Go Ron! Bring it on home!!

*I love that apparently in order to be a descendent of Slytherin one would have to be evil enough. Because Slytherin was made of evil.

*Ron suggests the Malfoys could be handing down the key to the Chamber of Secrets for centuries, from father to son. Well, right there we know Draco isn’t doing it. Lucius would never trust him to the key to the men’s room, much less the key to the Chamber of Secrets.

*Ron’s being a liberal Pureblood’s kind of against him here. If he were a Black he’d know whether the Malfoys were direct Heirs of Slytherin. Of course, Draco would probably have told everyone that anyway, if he was. Not to mention, I’m sure there are places to look up stuff on the Malfoys.

*Notice I didn’t say the Blacks, because this is before anyone thinks of Draco as being anything other than a Malfoy.

*Hermione’s already worked out a plan that’s dangerous (to appeal to Harry) and breaks about 50 school rules (to appeal to her own bad girl self).

*Hermione says they’ll have to use Polyjuice to pretend to be Slytherins, as Malfoy is probably boasting about being the Heir openly in their Common Room all the time. Good idea, Hermione! Use Polyjuice! Or maybe look for something that would make you invisible and just sneak into the Common Room and listen to what he says to his real friends when he’s boasting. If only you had some way of being invisible. Like an Invisibility Potion!

*Just kidding with that last one. We all know how dangerous Invisibility Potions can be, all black roses and purple prose and the next thing you know they’re all handcuffed to goal posts. Yeah, maybe the Polyjuice is better.

*Ron says only a really thick teacher would fall for Hermione’s excuse for getting the Potions book. Oh! They mean Lockhart. I thought they would just pop round to see Hagrid and ask him to get it for them.





IITS
No really, why can’t you tell anybody why you were in the corridor? Wouldn’t the disembodied voice maybe be a clue?

Idiot Picture
Nope, not going to tell. And neither is Ginny. Move along now, nothing to see here.

Informed Attributes
No second year could do this. Not even the second years who are about to make the Potion that no second years could make. Oh, and Ron represents the Wizards who aren’t prejudiced.

Final score: 3

Signs of things to come: This chapter title’s fitting. With all the hints about different bigotry, the basis for it, how it makes people act, it really is the writing on the wall. Ron tries to buck up his sister in the standard Gryffindor way, by reminding her that people getting hurt is okay if they are people Gryffindors don’t like. Because this is Ginny I, it doesn’t work. No wonder she won’t survive long. Ron suggests one would have to be evil enough to be the Heir of Slytherin. He doesn’t yet know you have to be more than evil, you also have to be insane, dirty, ugly and inbred—and it also helps if you can play the banjo.

Comments

[shadefell.livejournal.com]

About the curlers and hairnet: the curlers are comedic affect to show how vain Lockhart is... and maybe how magicaly inept he also is or he could just use a spell to curl his hair? I dunno. The hairnet is to keep the curlers/his hair in place. Lockhart==vainvainvainyvain. Totally not like Harry at all.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I get that the idea is that he's vain etc. It's not the joke I don't understand. But the use of curlers and a hair net implies the need to curl one's hair and put it in a net, which I don't think a portrait would have to do, being that your hair would be painted curly--and presumably he'd have to find painted curlers and a hairnet in another painting (or have it painted into his own) as well.

[shadefell.livejournal.com]

Oh! Sorry. Missed your point.

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

Worse than that, Lockhart is feminine! See how he cares for his appearance, unlike Our Hero who wallows in filth.

[kaskait.livejournal.com]

*No second year could have done this, says Dumbledore. Excuse me, Albus. We happen to be talking about the Chosen One here! And his friend Hermione! Let’s not get insulting in our defense!

Totally! You ever notice that while Harry has a direct mind connection to teh ebil one, Hermione is reliving all his greatest moment hits? Its proof of their power of love! Not for each other. no. no. no. The anvil was not large enough. Wait, isn't it Ron suffering from anvil sized envy?

*Harry takes a moment to misremember his own Sorting as the hat seriously considering putting him in Slytherin, when in fact what happened was the Hat responded to his frantic plea not to be in Slytherin by trying to point out it wasn’t so foreign or bad for him. This is why I’m a Sorting Hat fangirl.

Just think of all the spying opportunities that Dimpledrawers missed out on because Harry rebelled against his Slytherin destiny. How dare he think of his power of love at a time like that. Plus, I think his first meet up with Draco at Madame Malkin's was totally planned. Harry was meant to be a mole and excite the DE's.

Gosh DD why don't you get Snape cloned?

*Notice I didn’t say the Blacks, because this is before anyone thinks of Draco as being anything other than a Malfoy.

Hmmph, Draco is barely eligible to hold the title of Black. His father lucked into that marriage. I'm sure the Black's never let him forget it. Why do we always assume that Narcissa is the submissive one?

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Hmmph, Draco is barely eligible to hold the title of Black. His father lucked into that marriage. I'm sure the Black's never let him forget it. Why do we always assume that Narcissa is the submissive one?

At this point, it would probably be a close call which one lucked out. Narcissa's family's either dead, traitored or insane. Lucius is just in jail. Though apparently they have a weakness for dragon pox!

Thank goodness Draco seems to be more of a Black temperment-wise. I would be so sad to lose that all that drama. Tonks doesn't do it for me.

[bigmamag.livejournal.com]

Just kidding with that last one. We all know how dangerous Invisibility Potions can be, all black roses and purple prose and the next thing you know they’re all handcuffed to goal posts. Yeah, maybe the Polyjuice is better.

Hee. ;)


Actually, it’s not weird at all. Whoever designed the school knows teenagers have a natural affinity for melodrama. Just as the sky in the Great Hall should be stormy, like the sky, the bathrooms need to be chipped, flaked, dirty and broken, like the heart of the students who go in there to cry.

This just reminded me of something I read at JK’s site. She was going to introduce a character (I forget his purpose) and she loved the idea of him wearing white gloves so that they could be artfully stained with blood now and then. You know what, I probably made that same character about, oh, ten years ago when I was twelve? She’d better be glad that she can make a fair mystery plot because her character deserve a C-. I’d give her an F but she did make darling Draco and the Malfoys, even though she makes us read chapters of crap instead of a Draco/Theodore conversation at Malfoy Manor.


Ron says only a really thick teacher would fall for Hermione’s excuse for getting the Potions book. Oh! They mean Lockhart. I thought they would just pop round to see Hagrid and ask him to get it for them.

Too bad Hagrid wasn’t a teacher yet. Like I need another scene of Hagrid bleating that he can’t do that because Dumbledore said not to but then through some plot contrivance would be tricked into signing his name on a scrap of paper by the trio. BTW, WTF is with Hagrid being so damn prejudiced when he’s not even fully human? The guy wants rights for his animals to be treated properly but Muggles shouldn’t? I’m glad DD died, but you’re next on my hit list Haggy.

[baeraad.livejournal.com]

I was having a conversation about the eternal mystery of who uses Dark Magic and what it is the other day.

Did you arrive at any theories? The subject has always mystified me too... =]

[papier.livejournal.com]

Hee. I like Lockhart’s portraits with their hair in rollers so much I won’t ask where they get the rollers, why their hair would need rolling, etc.

I can't help but love Lockhart. He's the biggest Gryffindor ever, but more of a Wormtail-type than a Harry-type. By which I mean one type likes glory and the other is stupid enough to try and get it the hard way.

This is also the scene where JKR introduces the idea that whatever you teach is what you do outside of teaching.

Because when I was little, and believed teachers slept at the school and had no life, I was right.

Ron invents a love of cats for Ginny to explain her caring about Mrs. Norris. As if Ginny could really care about any animal that wasn’t snot-based.

Rowling herself hates cats, and I don't think it's just because she's allergic to them. So likening Ginny with cats is a pretty strange choice, when this is an author who does place a lot of her personal views into the text.

I love that Harry’s surprised that someone’s mopped up the water that was on the floor.

He's always curious about the little things that everyone takes for granted, rather than the big things that he should be wondering about. Like...I dunno...wanting to visit his parents' graves?

Ron says only a really thick teacher would fall for Hermione’s excuse for getting the Potions book. Oh! They mean Lockhart. I thought they would just pop round to see Hagrid and ask him to get it for them.

And it would have scratchy handwriting and big blobby tears because he'd be so happy they thought him important enough to ask. Then again...he's not a teacher in this one, is he? Just a sort of servant. *Hugs Draco*

[elanor-x.livejournal.com]

*Is Snape really trying not to smile here? If so, why?
I too didn't understand it. One explanation is that he is smiling due to Lockhart's attempts to show his 'knowledge' combined with his room's appearance. If Snape is revealed to be Evil in the last book, he probably knows about Lucius's plan as his good friend and hopes for its' success or even for Voldemort's swift return (if he knows about Horcruxes) here.

*Snape’s pretty quick, isn’t he? I don’t know if I’d have thought to ask why Harry was up in that corridor.
I can't imagine Snape believes Harry has done that. Sure he understands that at most he has seen or heard something (which he has), but he hasn't committed the deed himself. This goes really well with the Evil Snape theory.

*Ron and Harry are batting a thousand in this book when it comes to coming up with bad ideas between them.
Ron's ideas probably make more sense. "Hearing voices no one else can hear isn't a good sign"- well, since it's the voice of the basilisk, it's clearly a very bad sign. ;-) Harry's scar and magical abilities are a legend in the wizarding world & he is anything but ordinary. Does Ron think he is a bit mad too?

*Ron’s shows off his healthy Wizard arrogance by sniggering over Filch being a Squib...
Now I better understand why Filch suspected Harry of killing his cat because of him being a Squib.

*Ron invents a love of cats for Ginny to explain her caring about Mrs. Norris...
Doesn't Ginny know there are different kinds of animals just as there are good and bad people? Or does she suppose like Hermione with house-elves or Hagrid with hippogryphs that all of them are good?

*Wait, what the hell is going on here? Harry was going to say hello to a student outside his circle of friends?
The standard JKR's way to show how poor Harry is unjustly hurt by false rumors. Something very similar happens happens in OoTF too.

*Ron’s totally on a roll in this book... he started all the Pure-blood stuff single-handedly! God knows nobody I know in any way encourages prejudice against people who are different!
I can hardly blame Ron here since it's the only interpretation he has ever heard both at home and at school. Besides many adult people believe in similar things in the real world.

* Fred really missed his calling. He should have been a character in a Stephen King novel with that instinct for revenge.
I disagree. JKR's books would probably beat Stephen King's in a contest Find The Most Characters With A Healthy Revenge Streak hands down.

*There’s a lot of people who are Molly-like. I can’t think of any Weasleys that ever seem like Arthur.
Molly is really the dominant one in this pair - Arthur's genes are completely recessive.

*I thought they would just pop round to see Hagrid and ask him to get it for them.
They probably would, were Hagrid already a teacher. As a mere groundskeeper, he can't give them the permission.

* He doesn’t yet know you have to be more than evil, you also have to be insane, dirty, ugly and inbred—and it also helps if you can play the banjo.
Make the bad guys as bad as possible! Has she missed something? ;-)

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

>*Is Snape really trying not to smile here? If so, why?<

I rather thought it might have something to do with the Animagus cat examining a petrified cat. Particularly since he probably knows what Minerva really thinks of Mrs Norris.

For that matter, he's probably wanted to stun Mrs Norris himself more than once.

[augelpal.livejournal.com]

Ah. I prefer to think it's lightly different (though I don't know why) otherwise it ruins my theory of Remus not liking Harry & Ginny much.

I'd love to read this theory of yours. Do you have a link?

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

This is also the scene where JKR introduces the idea that whatever you teach is what you do outside of teaching.

But this is true at university, and as the WW lacks universities, maybe it's not so ridiculous. Of course, you'd think the world's best potion maker would be leading a workshop rather than teaching idiots ... but it allows Snape a chance to roam the grounds, reminiscing over LILLLLEEEEEEEEEE!

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

True--though, of course, at universities if there was a kidnapping they'd probably call in police rather than the criminal justice professor. Or the guy who's teaching Crime & Punishment!