CoS Chapter Fourteen

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Special thanks to helka_maria for this chapter!



*Just as a warning, I'm guess where this chapter ends-the text file doesn't have chapter titles or anything.


*Harry, Ron and Hermione could easily believe that Hagrid would release the Basilisk, but equally sure he wouldn't have meant to kill anybody. Which is really all that matters. Would you rather be killed by a basilisk because somebody meant to kill you of be killed by a basilisk because somebody just can't be bothered to think about your safety at all.


*Harry's sick of Ron and Hermione asking him over and over to recount what happened in the diary and the circular conversations that follow. Just wait until you meet Barty Crouch in the woods Harry. Circular conversations like you'd never heard!


*Actually, it's kind of funny the way this sort of passes for actual detective work in the books, because the kids really never solve anything-they can't. They just have to try until the answer comes up and attacks them.


*This time it's Hermione who gets the right answer without realizing it, saying maybe it was some other monster.


*Ron asks how many monsters Hermione thinks the place can hold. With Hagrid actually living in the castle I'm sure everyone would find out.


*Ron says Riddle still sounds evil like Percy for squealing on Hagrid instead of covering up the murder. This may sound insane, but remember Ron only means you shouldn't squeal on your friends who are murdering people. Had Malfoy been guilty they'd have squealed on him. Harry would have squealed on him even earlier if it wouldn't have stopped Dumbledore from spying on him.


*They decide to wait and see if somebody gets killed before they do something with the information they have. That's a good plan. There's certainly no use of, say, going to Dumbledore with what you've learned. That wouldn't clear everything up right away with no harm to Harry or anyone he cares about.


*Since there haven't been any more attacks, no one has any interest in learning about what happened.

*It's been four months since Justin's attack--note his parents haven't been able to make any angry visits to the castle.


*Sprout's thrilled the Mandrakes are maturing. The moment they start trying to move into each other's pots they can be murdered to revive people. I can see why she's so cheerful.


*For somebody who sort of feels like nothing, Neville seems like the focal point of his entire family. None of my aunts and uncles would have sent letters with opinions about what I should take.


*Actually, I'm surprised his grandmother doesn't just fill out the form for him. At that age I'd think most parents would.


*Percy says Muggle Studies is considered a soft option, but I'm not sure why. Not only is it the one subject Wizards know nothing about, they seem incapable of learning about it even after years of study. Sour grapes much?


*Percy's advice to Harry is, I guess, supposed to be pompous, though it's perfectly true.


*Harry chooses the same subjects as Ron. If he's not good in any of them, at least he can be sure to outshine someone.


*Harry does go through actual developments in this area. Here he's still gloomily predicting he'll be bad at everything. By sixth year he pretty much assumes he'll be good at everything he needs to be eventually.


*Harry's next Quidditch match is against Hufflepuff. How long's it been since their last Quidditch match? Five months?


*Jeez, Ginny. You can look through someone's things without creating that much of a mess, you know. It's like Ginny I was temporarily possessed of Ginny II's temper and disregard for others when she went searching for Harry's stuff.

*Actually, this reminds me of a bad horror movie I saw once, where people come home and find the place ransacked and what's missing is the scary Indian artefact thingie that was hanging on the wall. Hanging on the wall--so why the ransacking? It looks like the bad guys came in, pointed to the wall and said "There it is!" and then had to knock everything in the room askew to get to it.


*And where on earth was the diary that Ginny had to do all that? Wasn't it just with the rest of his books? Did she start by stripping the bed first or something?


*That may not have been so silly, knowing how much Harry likes cute boys, I guess.


*Well, I guess the attacks will be starting up again soon. But at least Harry won't have Ginny's diary. There's some priorities for you. Reckless endangerment is a virtue in Gryffindor.


*Luckily, Harry's own sense of duty helps Ginny's own. He can't report the theft because he can't bear to lose his special friend either.


*Honestly, it's not like there's any danger to Harry in telling here. Hagrid's expulsion obviously isn't a secret to Dumbledore--he was there. Presumably he'd already be questioning Hagrid about all this if he thought he had anything to do with it.


*Harry hears the voice again. Well, that was fast. Does just holding the Diary make Ginny turn into Tom? Or did she more likely start looking or speaking to it again to find out about Harry?


*And yet I still like this Ginny better.


*Hermione's strange priorities now come into play. She's figured it out-but can't tell them what it is.


*Harry gears up for his Quidditch match and -McGonagall cancels the match! Yay! The crowd goes wild!


*Why does McGonagall take Harry with her and not Ron? I mean, if presumably she's taking him because she knows he's Hermione's friend? I know she lets him come, but it's like she runs over to Harry and then Ron's just an afterthought.


*Penny's been petrified too, but nobody thought it was important to run and find her best friends. When you don't need the drama of us seeing the body through their eyes, the school doesn't think it's best to surprise you with your friend's being frozen.


*The reaction to these attacks is a lot bigger than it was to the last two. Why?


*McGonagall asks anyone who knows anything to step forward. LOL! Like any Gryffindor would squeal for something like this. To quote Edmund Exley: That's because they think silence and integrity are the same thing.


*You know, with only four people down I really don't think it's so significant there aren't any Slytherins on the list.


*Lee starts speaking out against Slytherin to applause. Ooh! Maybe we could get some hot angry mob action here-get the torches! Burn the dungeons!

*Doesn't everyone know that the Heir only kills Muggleborn--wouldn't that be an obvious reason no Slytherins have been attacked?


*Not that anyone will later say, "Huh, it wasn't a Slytherin at all. It was a Gryffindor."


*George helpfully re-imagines Percy's feelings in the most stupid way possible. He's upset because he's so pompous he didn't think the monster would attack a Prefect. Not because he actually has real feelings for a girl.


*Harry, meanwhile, is busy identifying with Tom. How I love it when Harry identifies with bad Slytherins until he realizes he's doing so.


*Though I don't see why Tom really had to frame Hagrid. Apparently he could have just stopped the attacks and everyone would have forgotten about it eventually without caring who got attacked or why.


*Now Harry and Ron seem to have decided Hagrid's guilty. Again, Dumbledore already knows the stuff you guys learned in the diary. If they suspect him, they can take care of it.


*I'm impressed. Harry's reasoning for needing to sneak out with a curfew to see Hagrid and ask him about things that aren't a secret from anyone who matters is good even for Harry!


*I won't even try to understand the point of Fudge's clothes.


*Luckily the Wizard government investigations work the same way the kids' do. Find the person who seems guilty and assume they are.


*Guess it's good we get this before PoA.


*Lucius does get in some good snob jokes after making his dramatic entrance. We'll call it a house, shall we?


*Tomorrow Malfoy's probably going to learn his dad was at the school and didn't come to see him and be heartbroken.


*Hagrid angrily accuses Lucius of blackmailing the governors. Which is true, but also something his own friends would have no trouble doing as well.

*Something must be done by the end of the year, I guess. That's when they might have to inform the parents of the Muggleborn that their kid didn't really finish any classes this year.


*Hagrid furiously says that without Dumbledore the Muggleborns don't stand a chance. Like the stand a chance now? Dumbledore's not doing a damn thing.





The Cricket Rule / Day-for-Night
Sure Harry and Ron need this for creeping outside!

Designated Hero
You go, Harry. Keep concealing inforamtion that would catch that monster! Otherwise how are you ever going to be designated the hero?

Exploitation Filmmakers' Credo
Even Harry's wearying of this one in the chapter.

Idiot World
Sorry Dumbledore. What with some sort of monster attacking students and people demanding I inventigate, I feel it's necessary to…arrest the guy who cuts the grass.

Informed Attributes
Since when is Dumbledore keeping the Muggleborns safe?

Hero's Death Battle Exemption
And yet the monster somehow hasn't managed to kill a single kid…

Final score: 6

Signs of things to come: Gryffindors cover up to protect the murder. Extra points for simultaneously beating their chests over the Slytherins. The Wizarding Justice system shows itself to be totally ridiculous.

Comments

[kaskait.livejournal.com]

*Percy says Muggle Studies is considered a soft option, but I'm not sure why. Not only is it the one subject Wizards know nothing about, they seem incapable of learning about it even after years of study. Sour grapes much?

Oh they are just so advanced they can't be bothered to learn about medieval muggles and their internets.

But if Wizarding kind suddenly learns how to use the ultimate power of the microwave oven, then WATCH OUT!

I bet Riddle has a microwave oven in his den of ebil. *nods*

[ellecain.livejournal.com]

Heh, I've always imagined him to have a TV with cable access in his lair, where he watches shows like General Hospital and The O.C A la House. It would explain the hamhanded Byzantine Plots of Ebil he comes up with...

[sarahtales.livejournal.com]

Good point above about Peter also being a Gryffindor. And I do wonder what house Barty Crouch was in as well... Of course, one time Harry was right and it was a Slytherin, so they'll probably burn the dungeons in seventh year. Damn those Slytherins! Once every fifty years, a bad egg!

Muggle Studies = obviously a soft option, and useless to boot. Tell me, Magpie, what use could it possibly be to know how to interact with 95% of the human race? The wizards are doing just fine in their tiny ghetto of magic and inbreeding, thank you so much!

That's because they think silence and integrity are the same thing.

Hee! So true. But again, of course, if it's Malfoy squeal like an obsessed pig.

Well, you see, George was born without the empathy gene. A boy worried about a girl? A little kid being bullied on his first day of school? One kid being beaten up by two other kids? ... what do you mean, what do they *feel*? They're just funny scenery. Um, I mean, the Weasley twins aren't sociopathic, they give their mother costly gifts after all. (and they helped Harry with his trunk that one time. That was nice, actually, and really surprised me on a re-read.)

Well - what else would Ron be but an afterthought? Sheesh, Magpie, McGonagall isn't Ron's mother... oh, wait. Scratch that last sentence, the first one will do fine.

When Justin comes home, his parents will ask him about all the exciting things he did at school and show him letters which the sage wizarding staff have expertly forged. Why should they know things about their child's safety? They're only Muggles, you know.

Lovely as ever!

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

Um, I mean, the Weasley twins aren't sociopathic, they give their mother costly gifts after all.

Fred and George probably are the creepiest characters in the series, and would be more pluasible Dark Lords than ol' Tom.

[meritjubet.livejournal.com]

*For somebody who sort of feels like nothing, Neville seems like the focal point of his entire family. None of my aunts and uncles would have sent letters with opinions about what I should take.

Probably the only child of that generation then, he doesn't speak of any cousins to my recollection, so with his parents dead, everyone in the family sort of made him their child in a way. Though, now that I think of, it does sound odd that no one in his year would question Neville's lack of parents. Especially since talking about touchy subjects isn't a no no.

*Harry chooses the same subjects as Ron. If he's not good in any of them, at least he can be sure to outshine someone.

Harry, really, is such a sheep.

How long's it been since their last Quidditch match? Five months?

I think we should be grateful that we didn't have to endure another match.

*Not that anyone will later say, "Huh, it wasn't a Slytherin at all. It was a Gryffindor."

Probably wasn't told to the whole of Hogwarts then. Oh yeah, she was possessed by Tom Riddle, but the parents and the school community don't need to know that. But then, Ginny is rarely mentioned in PoA, thus showing Harry's own disregard for Ginny the possession.

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

I think we should be grateful that we didn't have to endure another match.

I think the author is grateful too; she'll come up with the most bizarre contrivances to avoid narrating a Quidditch match. Bet she regrets not giving Harry his lifeban for the Ford Anglia thing.

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

Probably the only child of that generation then, he doesn't speak of any cousins to my recollection, so with his parents dead, everyone in the family sort of made him their child in a way. Though, now that I think of, it does sound odd that no one in his year would question Neville's lack of parents. Especially since talking about touchy subjects isn't a no no.


But we constantly try to find in-world explanations for what is just sloppy writing. The Gryffindor boys would have asked each other about their families within a week of arriving at Hogwarts, and it's just implausible that Harry wouldn't know.

[(Anonymous)]

*Though I don't see why Tom really had to frame Hagrid. Apparently he could have just stopped the attacks and everyone would have forgotten about it eventually without caring who got attacked or why.


Well, if Tom knows about Aragog, perhaps Tom has heard Hagrid pleading with him to reveal the name of the creature. If Hagrid finds out that the critter's a Basilisk, He'll go running to Dumbledore., who is presumably the head of Gryffindor at this time. Dumbledore, realizing that there's only one student at Hogwarts who can speak Parseltongue, will make the connection. And Tom, having done his best to keep under Dumbledore's radar, doesn't realize that Dumbledore will just sit on this information for fifty years or so.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

That actually makes sense. Good thinking, Tom!