GoF Chapter Twenty-Nine

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

*The dream…I’m thinking Krum, Malfoy, Cedric and Tom Riddle inviting Harry for a refreshing nude swim in a bowl of Cheerios.

*If it’s any consolation, Hermione, you’ve told US enough times that you can’t Disapparate on the Hogwarts grounds, even if Harry will need a few more reminders. (D’you suppose these are all just leading up to Harry’s brilliant realization—all by himself—in HBP that Draco and Snape are running off the grounds so they can Disapparate? Because it's certainly not foreshadowing Montague Apparating into that toilet.)

*Ah, the blackmail twins. And there’s Hermione, ready to take notes so she can do it in the next book. Notice she doesn’t put anything in writing with Rita.

*Nothing like those healthy Weasley dynamics at play. When Ron, quite reasonably, speaks out against his brothers doing something illegal they shame him by saying he sounds like Percy and a Prefect. I guess Ron isn’t as brave as Neville. Or…something. Help! I’m getting sucked into the ethical quagmire that is the WW!

*I shake my head at my naivite here. I used to think the Twins might actually get themselves in trouble and do something bad. Instead Fred just gets killed so that Harry can have yet another one of his "why hadn't the world stopped turning on his access--someone Harry knew had died, and yet the world went on. Impossible!" moments.

*Hmmm…Fred and George were talking about how Dad can’t help them start their joke shop? I’m sure they were saying that Dad can’t help them because his honorable, heroic qualities keep him from getting promotions he deserves.

*Hermione doesn’t think the twins would do anything against the law to get the gold, although she’d do anything against the law for things other than gold.

*So…are we supposed to remember Hermione’s warnings here about blackmail in the next book or not? Maybe we are, since it is in Hermione’s character to have one law for others and one for herself, and she’s not above getting good ideas from people she doesn’t approve of, but it’s equally possible Hermione’s blackmail is supposed to be something else because it helps Harry. It’s counter-blackmail.

*When Fake!Moody says Hermione’s another one who might consider a career as an Auror, is he speaking out of annoyance or genuine admiration?

*Ron tells Moody he and Hermione actually helped Harry get through the puzzle to the Philosopher’s Stone, as if Harry hasn’t been getting help in every one of the Tasks as well. As Crouch knows, which is why he grins.

*In the two books Sirius is as an ally he’s always doomed to be the one talking about the great and logical plan that should have been. Here he warns Harry that whoever put his name in the Goblet must be on his last chance to kill him (Harry having narrowly escaped earlier plans) and in OotP he’s on about weapons hidden at the Ministry instead of Very Special Book Jacket Copy. No wonder he has to die.

*Luckily in the last book he can just show up to cheer Harry on to his noble suicide. Death's like falling asleep, Harry! All the cool kids are doing it! Now we get to live at Hogwarts and be teenagers forever!

*Sirius is so worried about Harry he forgets to say "counter-hexes."

*Harry’s right, it doesn’t look like he’s the target. What would these guys do if Voldemort didn’t help by making his plans completely illogical?

*Oh, they didn’t kill Harry in the forest because they couldn’t make it look like an accident if Harry died in the forest where as in the Tournament he could be accidentally killed in any number of ways and all it would require would be a form letter home from Dumbledore, awkwardly reminding us how stupid it is that Harry is in this contest at all. And that ultimately, it’s not supposed to look like an accident anyway, because that would be too smart.

*Harry practices hexes on Ron and Hermione. This makes them loyal friends. As opposed to, like, when Crabbe and Goyle agree to Polyjuice into girls to act as lookouts for Draco. Then he’s just using them to show they’re not really friends.

*Btw, it’s a real shock that in sixth year Harry finally starts randomly hexing people in the halls, isn’t it? Must be that evil HBP book. Or the fact that no one is after him in sixth year and he’s got to hex someone!

*You know, if Rita’s trying to listen in on conversations, maybe she shouldn’t always buzz up a racket right when someone’s about to do something good.

*Harry’s riding an Eagle Owl. He’s flying to the Cheerios! I just know it! We all know whose Eagle that is! Pass the soap, Cedric, you grey-eyed hero!

*Trelawney watches Harry go to the Infirmary like she’s been denied a treat—because everyone wants a piece of Harry’s angst! Woe!

*All in all, even with the screaming, this dream was probably less embarrassing for Harry to have in class than the Cheerios.

*Great security for that office there, Dumbledore. Your PIN number is your birthday, isn’t it.

*In my edition on page 503, Harry walks into Dumbledore’s office and sees him in conversation with Fudge and Moody. Dumbledore says Madame Maxime is okay and then someone says, "Dumbledore, come! Don’t you think you might be prejudiced in her favour because of Hagrid? They don’t all turn out harmless—if, indeed, you can call Hagrid harmless, with that monster fixation he’s got—" According to my book the person saying this is Crouch. Who is either dead or polyjuiced into Moody. It’s supposed to be Fudge talking, but it seems like somebody just accidentally blew Barty Jr.’s cover!





Designated Hero
Why no, Harry sees no reason to care if anyone is being blackmailed. Why do you ask?

Exploitation Filmmakers’ Credo
Hermione insists on this one, and again reminds us about Apparating in Hogwarts.

Also, I don't want to think of how many times Harry has told this story since they've been talking all night and still seem to be at the stage of "You mean somebody hit Viktor and Mr. Crouch is gone?"

IITS
Barty Crouch’s plan goes here.

Idiot World
Why, yes, actually it WOULD have been really easy to bump Harry off there in the woods. Or let him die in any one of the Tasks. Damn, why didn’t the evil genius think of that? (Of course, it would have been equally easy to let Vincent Crabbe kill Harry, and we can't have that.)

Idiot Picture
A late addition, as I'd miss the obvious bone-headedness of Sirius insisting on being called "Snuffles" as a code name and then signing his own name at the end of his letters. Perhaps he also has a big wax seal that says PRISONER OF AZKABAN.

Informed Attributes
I think Hermione’s supposed to be considered really, like, good at times.

McGuffin
Surely no one would put Harry’s name in the Goblet unless they wanted him to fail and die in the Tournament, right?

POV Shots
You know what they say about flying dreams…

Final score: 8

Comments

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Heh. Yes, because she does tend to take the default position that we all agree on this to begin with, and never notices when one thing contradicts another. Hence the confusion of Slytherin House, which has to hold every bit of lameness in the school, even if nobody can be completely consistent about what's lame. (Ambition is bad...except if you're one of the only actually ambitious characters we see, who are all Gryffindors...so ambition is bad when it means you're an aristocrat who likes to cheat or get by on networking.)

Or like the conversation I'm having now about Dementors--why would I get that the use of them signals something bad going on in the Ministry? Why would I assume the good guys think Dementors are cruel when they're psychos? It's like, I dunno, like on the Sopranos where everybody can be fine with murdering somebody horribly but being gay is a sin that will send you to hell. I get it but...kind of arbitrary in some ways.

[merrymelody.livejournal.com]

so ambition is bad when it means you're an aristocrat who likes to cheat or get by on networking

Unless you just happen to be part of an old, respected family or a celebrity. That's a reflection of your inner goodness!