OotP Chapter Seven

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

*If you ever need to get to or draw the MoM, just read this chapter. If not you could potentially skip it.

*Molly is very mothering, dressing Harry in freshly laundered jeans and tee-shirt. What's weird is, she wets his hair down and makes sure he's pressed, yet doesn't dress him in a suit. Wouldn't you expect a suit for a trial? Or perhaps, you know, those Wizarding robes we keep forgetting exist?

*Also...freshly laundered? By whom? How do Wizards do laundry exactly if they don't have House Elves? The Weasleys don't seem like they'd have a washing machine, yet we've yet to say washing day.

* Ron is asleep, saving us from a conversation where Harry must tell us again how worried he is about the hearing.

* When Tonks and Remus are speaking in the beginning Harry is glad he's not expected to join in the conversation. I'd have assumed he'd want to hear what they were talking about, assuming it was about him since everything is.

*ETA: I'll just fill in the conversation he probably missed:

Lupin: Boy I'm tired. And old. And a werewolf. And not interested enough in you to show the tiniest bit of enthusiasm or attraction.

Tonks: I love you too! If we ever break up I'll pine away and lose my magic powers!

* This chapter is really one long description: You get to the visitor's door of the MoM by going to the centre of London, stepping into a broken telephone box and being lowered into the ground. The lowering phonebox seemed a little too Get Smart for the WW. You'd think they would just be zapped wherever they're going. See also: cubicles in the offices. Cubicles don't fit. As Mira said, rows of desks like Bob Cratchitt yes, cubicles no.

*Anyway, then there's this big ministry-type building with the Symbolic Statue and everyone coming and going by floo. Inter-office memos fly. There's lots of departments, including a department on OBLIVIATION. Um, yipes.

*ETA: Oh god, the statue. Which turns out to be vulgar not because all those other creatures shouldn't be looking up adoringly at the superior Wizards, but because Wizard's shouldn't be quite so open about that particular truth. Remember kids, it's not about treating others as equals, it's about being paternalistically responsible for your inferiors so everyone can see just how superior you are. That's the natural order of things.

*ETA again: Post-Voldemort, that exploded statue has of course been recast with Harry and Hermione as the Wizard and Witch. Now *that's* a better world!

* "Sounds like a serious breach on the ban of Experimental Breeding to me," says Arthur's colleague regarding fire-breathing chickens. Don't suppose Hagrid's been fined at all, has he?

* A chill goes down my spine at the introduction of Perkins. Then I remember he's not Pellenor Wilkes and did not kill la_pensee. I am still watching you, Mr. Perkins.

*ETA: Amazing the difference in my reactions to the end of Nocturne Alley and the end of HP.

* Percy seems to have walked out of the family photo on Arthur's desk. Are we to assume that a picture taken when Percy was happy with his family has been changed by his estrangement? (One wonders why nothing odd happened to that Potter wedding photo.) Or did Percy merely "appear" to have walked out and really Arthur blasted him or something? I discount anything JKR says about wizard art or photography in interviews. Or anything else, really.

* According to Arthur, Anti-Muggle pranks are common. I get what JKR is getting at--that all those bizarre things that go wrong in our own lives are magical pranks, like toilets going crazy, losing your keys and presumably dryers eating your socks. But from what we see of the WW they barely take notice of the Muggle world in general. Do wizards routinely care enough about muggles to prank them? Arthur is supposed to be obsessed with Muggles but he can't handle Muggle money, though England's decimal system is quite simple. Even to someone used to sickles, it's hard to believe a grown man shouldn't have a handle on it by now. If Arthur studies Muggles and can't function at a level most 5-year-olds have mastered, who are these wizards booby-trapping toilets and convincing Muggles to buy random keys? (Even 11-year-old Malfoy seems to know more about them than Arthur if he weaves helicopters into his tall tales.) So are wizards routinely harassing us and obliviating us (giving us good reason to hate them) or not?

*Regardless, if this is what they do with their time, wizards=childish idiots.

* Arthur makes a big show of not knowing Order members at work, while whispering asides that make it clear it's a show. No wonder Snape must have seemed like he had supernatural dark magic spy powers.

*Honestly, how can people insist these books are totally adult and sophisticated and NOT CHILDREN'S BOOKS AT ALL when you see the way the adult spies are supposed to work?

* Sirius is being tracked, and the Order is giving out false information about him. Again, the Order works exactly like the Ministry and people are just supposed to know which information is true and which is false.

* The Ministry changes the time of Harry's hearing to add to the beaurocracy-nightmarish world of OotP, though again it's kind of hard to feel that much affront at the methods knowing that our guys would do the exact same thing if it suited their purposes and it would be presented as very clever and satisfying.

* Plus, of course, there's such a thing as a Time Turner, although so far that seems to only be considered useful when something really important is at stake, like Hagrid's stupid pet hippogryff.

*Maybe Obliviate charms damage the Wizard population in general when they use them, and that explains why they seem to never remember they have the power to do something whenever it totally destroys the plot it's most important.



Since nothing really happens in this chapter, the Jabootu scores are rather low. However, the three Jabootus hit repeatedly throughout.

Misdirected Answering:
Michael Caine's English accent could have been explained several times in this chapter.

Nut o’ Fun:
Department of Obliviation. Yipes again.

Whooshing Powder:
Actual whooshing all along the corridor for the floor network!