GoF Chapter Thirty

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

*Harry lies and says he's fine. Because he's Harry. He's never fine!

*Must Fawkes be such a Gryffindor?

*The Pensieve is decorated with runes and symbols that Harry doesn't recognize. Let's be honest-are there any runes or symbols Harry probably would recognize apart from maybe Muggle street signs and such?

*The only lessons Harry ever learns are ones that have to do with self-preservation. He knows not to stick his hand in random substances and to never accept food from Fred and George, but so much else is beyond him.

*Harry looks at all the adults in the Pensieve and thinks there aren't nearly that many teachers at Hogwarts. There sure aren't. There aren't even enough teachers at Hogwarts to logically teach!

*Ooh, foreshadowing! Harry waves his hand in front of Dumbledore and thinks the real Dumbledore would never ignore him like that. His year-long temper tantrum in OotP is officially justified!

*Snape's a Death Eater??!! Okay, I knew that, but still it's a great thing to learn, isn't it? Go Snape!

*Not that it's at all interesting exactly why he was--it's obvious enough. He's a DE because he was a Slytherin, and he quit because of Lily.

*Note that while Karkaroff is specific about what other people did, all he says about Snape is that he's a DE.

*Boo. Look how Bagman gets off just because he's famous and good at Quidditch! If only Harry were…oh, wait.

*You can certainly see why Arthur would like the guy.

*Barty! *waves Barty flag* Barty with his straw-colored hair! And he must be innocent because he's Crouch's son, right? Or even if he isn't he should be set free because he's got a father!

*Of course Crouch presides over his own son's trial! Of course Barty has a trial with three other older people. The WW justice system is based entirely on the best potential for dramatic.

*Speaking of making connections, I can't help but want to compare DD's dealings with Harry to Snape's. DD's all supportive of Harry sticking his nose into cabinets and tells him curiousity is not a sin, but that he should be careful with it, for his own safety. He says nothing about remembering that Pensieves are peoples' memories so sticking his nose in them could actually be a sin. When Snape catches him intentionally going into his memories he finally brings that perspective to Harry's attention.

*Florence has become a fantasy girlfriend of Snape's in some corners. Kissing behind the greenhouse!

*Meanwhile I'm sitting here wondering when Harry's going to say something about, you know, Snape being a Death Eater. So did Harry really figure it out when he was stuck on the stairs? Well done, Harry. For you that's really incredibly impressive. But I have a feeling a lot of readers were more surprised in the scene and wishing somebody would mention it.

*Good job, Dumbledore. Encourage Harry's disrespect in class by telling him it's understandable for him to fall asleep in Sybill's. Something tells me he wouldn't be so supportive of a kid slacking off Hagrid's class.

*Harry feels Voldemort when he's feeling an especially strong feeling of hatred. So does Voldemort get that from Harry too? Because he hates people a lot.

*Or I guess Harry himself is so made of love he's overly sensitive to hatred? LOL! Yeah, right.

*You know, I hate legilimancy because it becomes this magic bullet to explain every theory, but is Dumbledore using it on Harry in this scene when he gives him the piercing look? If he is I guess that's why he doesn't have the sense to warn Harry against looking into peoples' memories. Personal boundaries are more of a guideline for Dumbledore. If I knew Dumbledore I'd consider Occlumency a necessity.

*Btw, why the hell does Bellatrix torture Hermone instead of using Legilimancy? I know she likes to torture, but she still shouldn't forget she can just read minds when it could be important. Oh, I guess she has to do that so that, you know, Hermione can continue to lie.

*Ooh, Dumbledore reads Muggle papers. Let's all us Muggles bow down and thank him for being so respectful of us when he's not charming goblets to knock into our heads.

*How could Harry have failed to ask Neville why he lives with his grandmother, especially being an orphan himself? Harry, this may be a mystery to you, but the rest of us understand. Quick-what's the name of the non-Gryffindor's who's sat next to you in Herbology for the past four years?

*Anyway, don't feel badly, Harry. If called upon you could at least give a list of times Neville's embarassed himself to explain why you don't talk to him unless you need to.

*The Longbottoms were very popular. So, were they nothing like Neville then? Why were they popular? Or did they suddenly bloom into people much cooler than Harry in their 7th year too?

*Um, couldn't they have done that Priori Incantatum on someone's wand for evidence?

*Is it fanon that Alice is an Auror? Because here she's clearly just the loving wife of Auror Frank. Maybe it's "Oops, feminism!"

*Harry asks Dumbledore how he knew Snape had stopped supporting Voldemort. We still don't know this in Book VI, though Harry jumps to his own conclusions, all having to do with himself, of course. You don't want to know, Harry. The answer's really lame.

*Dumbledore asks Harry not to tell anyone about Neville's parents, as if Harry's mind hasn't already gone back to revolving around himself. When does Harry ever care enough to tell someone a story that has nothing to do with him?





Box Picture
Oh, many opportunities for cameos in the trial scenes.

Misdirected Answering
I'd personally rather hear about Snape's crimes than Ludo Bagman.

Nut o' Fun
Does that chair act on the danger potential of the person or whether they're guilty? Does someone command the chair? Is that why Bagman looks relieved when the chains don't grab him?

"Watermelon, watermelon, cantaloupe, cantaloupe"
Lots of this at the trials too.

Not much in this chapter, because chapters with Pensieves are chapters in which usually nothing happens. Only Snape's memories are all that interesting. Dumbledore's are usually the same basic information given through a slightly different cast over and over.

Final score: 4

Comments

[sunnyskywalker]

What happened to Ludo Bagman, anyway? Did the goblins catch him? The DEs? Did he (re?)join the DEs? You'd think the fate of a famous former Quidditch player would rate a line in the news at least. We couldn't hear this in HBP when random people are dying every day?

[cloudlessnights.livejournal.com]

Is it fanon that Alice is an Auror? Because here she's clearly just the loving wife of Auror Frank. Maybe it's "Oops, feminism!"

Alice seems to have been promoted some time between GoF and OotP, mental state notwithstanding. Because in GoF they talk about Auror Frank Longbottom and his wife, but then in OotP, when the trio talks to Neville's grandmother, suddenly they're both Aurors.

[(Anonymous)]

*Boo. Look how Bagman gets off just because he's famous and good at Quidditch! If only Harry were…oh, wait.

Way back as a casual fan, reading OotP I was a little disturbed by the parallels between the two trials. Was the narrative saying that favoritism is of the good if it's Harry who benefits? Nah, couldn't be. That's as silly as thinking JKR would create a whole gateway to the otherworld merely to whack Sirius, and never mention it again.

Bagman pings me as being if not a full DE, at least a sympathizer. Iirc, Voldemort had more followers than just the Dark Mark Club. Bagman's not only rotten to the core, but also a slick and inveterate liar. So if he says it was all a big misunderstanding I'm going with guilty until proven innocent.

*Of course Crouch presides over his own son's trial!

And the problem, from a wizarding POV, isn't that Crouch is judging a member of his family. It's that he's not biased enough in his favor. Just looking at their special brand of morality gives me a sense that maybe wizards should be classed as a distinct species from humans.

DD's all supportive of Harry sticking his nose into cabinets and tells him curiousity is not a sin, but that he should be careful with it, for his own safety. He says nothing about remembering that Pensieves are peoples' memories so sticking his nose in them could actually be a sin.

Good point. It's a glaring omission considering that he uses Bertha's fatal curiosity as a warning example, and she had the very same issues with respecting people's privacy. But, as you say, that's something Dumbledore himself is completely cavalier about. In OotP he doesn't warn Snape beforehand about leaving Harry alone with the Pensieve, and afterwards he gives no sign of realizing Harry did bad.

-L