Chapter 12

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

• Harry yells at somebody for asking the true story about Cedric, and the next day can't figure out any other reason the kid would want to get out of the room quickly except that he thinks he'll "turn into a nutter." Not much for the logic, that Harry. You already turned into a nutter.



• Hermione says the twins can't advertise on the messageboard for test subjects, but is that officially wrong? I realize I've been remembering this whole incident wrong and it's not as black and white as I thought it was. Apparently it's the prefects' job to "stop this kind of thing." Which thing, exactly? Because I can certainly see the problem with using kids as test subjects, but given the kinds of things kids usually do to each other in this school, and the fact that these kids are agreeing to exactly that and being paid, what specifically is the problem from her pov?



• The official story is now that Seamus thinks Harry's lying about Voldemort, though an accurate reading of the scene shows that Seamus was actually more curious about Voldemort before Harry yelled at him. Oddly, though a few pages later Hermione offers Harry a logical explanation for why other kids would deny Voldemort's return, her reported response to Lavender is to "Shut her fat mouth about Harry." Funny, I think I would have tried to explain things, reminding them that I actually knew Harry and know what he did over the summer etc. "Shut your fat mouth about Harry," simply makes Harry sound more guilty.



• Hermione then goes off on showing great friendship to destroy the enmity that "Voldemort" is spreading. Huh? So shouldn't you not have told Lavender to shut her fat mouth?



• Oh-now I see. Hermione explains that the enmity that matters is between the Trio and those who agree with them already. So it's not that they're supposed to try to make peace with people like Lavender and Seamus who aren't in the know (and certainly not Slytherins specifically) but that they should not fight amongst themselves when they have Lavender and Seamus as a common enemy. Something tells me that won't be difficult. Hermione is eager to work on inter-house unity, presumably so that she can boss around more people--Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs as well as Gryffindors.



• Hagrid is still missing. We know.



• Hermione still gets the Prophet to know what "the enemy" is saying. I can't help but think that usually Hermione just knows and tells us what the enemy is saying. And what they're thinking. And why. And what we should do about it. And she's always right.



• Fred and George reminisce about giving people boils during their OWLS, which presumably was quite the jape. They got 3 OWLS each…err, any British-types want to tell me if that's good or bad?



• Poor Ron. He thinks it would be cool to be an Auror. Only what does Harry then decide to be? Ron, meet your supervisor, the famous Harry Potter! He'll be better than you at everything in your professional life. ETA: Ha! Called that one!



• Why do the kids never learn who Voldemort is in History of Magic? Or some other class, like DADA? Wouldn't it help with the whole fear-and-dread thing if people could look him up in the yearbook? Does Dumbledore just like the drama of having him be an unknown? Or is there some law that history can't ever be relevent to what's going on in the present?



• Harry notes that classes can be better in the hands of competent teachers. In other words, Binns has never bought him a present and isn't personally loyal to him.



• Cho is remarkable in a scene for being alone and not surrounded by the usual giggling girls. Is there really any reason to read further about Cho? Girls who hang around with friends who are also female and giggle are stupid and worthless. Why, just look at Hermione, who hangs around with two boys and glares at them incessantly. (She's been glaring all chapter, just thought I'd mention.)



• I can't recall if we've heard about this group of girls before-usually I picture Cho alone on her broom and Pansy with the group of girls. Was she always this type of charicature, or did these girls just gravitate to her because her character was about to show itself unworthy?



• Cho also reveals herself to be dreadful by appearing pleased Harry is not covered in Stinksap. Ginny A worthy girl would have found it hysterical he was covered in Stinksap and sat down next to him!



• I suspect Ron is correct and Cho has only been supporting The Tornadoes since they started winning, because Cho's character is crumbling fast. Remember that all who long for Draco to get more page-time. He'll get two paragraphs of picking his nose or something. There's your character development!



• ETA: Okay, I was a bit wrong there. He got a whole book of what looked like character development that just turned out to be nose-picking.



• Hermione yells at sports fan Ron for not realizing Cho wanted to talk to Harry alone. Granted, that didn't take much brains to figure out, but must Hermione aggressively corral ever single personal encounter in this book?



• Harry's crush on Cho has got, like, nothing whatsoever to do with Cho and everything to do with whether Cho likes Harry. Which is just too funny because he's totally taking the girl's traditional role: Do you think she likes me? She's come over to talk to me twice. Maybe next time she'll ask me out!



• Ron and Hermione are still bickering.



• Snape shows the side of him that is a good teacher by silencing the class just by walking in and by informing everyone that they will pass their NEWTS, including Neville. He says not everyone will study with him next year, unfortunately I assume Harry will pass his OWLS because…well, because he deserves it, doesn't he? He can't be not good in Potions when it would show Snape up if he did well. Besides, it's been a while since he's revealed another hidden talent.



• ETA: That hidden talent would be cheating, of course. I'm sorry, did I say cheating? Of course it wasn't cheating. Harry's got a lot on his mind. The Prince owed it to him to make him best in the class.



• Still, I'd really really hate to be Harry in Snape's class. He picks on him something awful.



• Ron wants to know where the evidence Snape stopped working for Voldemort is. Bwahahaha! Like anyone in the WW ever cares about evidence of anything! Hermione provides the evidence: Dumbledore says so.



• Harry tells Hermione and Ron to shut up. Thanks, Harry. Harry is pleased at their being so shocked and angry at his remarks--yes, he is becoming a really nasty person-only since we're also told there was a "flare" of anger I fear every nasty thing Harry's ever done will be chalked up to that mean old Voldemort and not just Harry being a lot like that Slytherin kid he doesn't like. ETA: Called that one too. All pretty much Voldemort



• For the second time Hermione tells Harry not to take his temper out on them, which is true, but also underscores just how impossible it would be to be friends with Hermione, because she'd always be telling you why you did something in a way that made you look foolish and her look good. I mean yes, Harry is in a foul mood and is more patient otherwise, but also maybe you two are just annoying. Hermione is doubly right, though, because presumably she also yelled at Ron that they should stop fighting.



• Harry doesn't need any stupid class to interpret his dreams. Honestly, it's not like dreams could be in any way important and why would correctly interpreting them be of use? Dream diary? Pshaw! It's really unfair that Harry, who suffers from Important Angst Dreams, has to share a class with merely average dreamers who have Not Known Pain and so can not have proper dreams that they Refuse To Talk About.



• Umbridge's class: really this is something one should go to the headmaster about. If they had a headmaster who actually ran a school instead of made up stupid plans to save the world in his office.



• Hermione's obviously spoiling for a fight here and intentionally trying to challenge the teacher and assert her own authority over Umbridge's. A Durmstrang student could just as easily have challenged Lupin over the fact he was only teaching Defense instead of teaching them about the Dark Arts on the same grounds and been told off the same way.



• I love the wonderful little defense of Fake!Moody, btw, because it's so the mindset of the book. I mean, clearly nobody is in the least bit chilled by the fact that Moody "turned out to be a maniac" because they "still learned loads." It's not that the kids shouldn't admit they learned a lot, but I genuinely think most if not all of them are incapable of re-thinking last year's class with this new information and wondering just what they might have been learning. It's like saying, "Sure Ted Bundy turned out to be a serial killer but he and I really hit it off and I liked what he had to say about women!"



• This is why they probably *need* just this sort of class in theory and law, to think about what they're doing instead of just finding out how cool it is to hex people who presumably deserve it because why would they be hexing them if they didn't?



• Umbridge plays Harry like a fiddle and he performs on cue. I note Seamus is listening avidly to Harry's words about what happened in the graveyard, now that he's finally gotten to hear it. Seamus=first wizard ever to try to ascertain objective truth.



• McGonnogal tries to explain to Harry about keeping his head down, but apparently he's no better at this than Draco was second year (OTP!!).



• She says she's glad Harry "listens to Hermione Granger at any rate," apparently not realizing Hermione was the one who started the trouble in class and didn't keep her bushy head down either. I am beginning to suspect Hermione stands over the authorial voice with a whip demanding plugs for herself every page or so.

Designated Hero
Isn't it obvious?

Exploitation Filmmakers' Credo
I think Harry's disinterest in dreams might somewhat fall under this rule.

Informed Attributes
Glad you listened to that Hermione Granger. She'd never intentionally upset Umbridge in class!

IITS and Idiot World
Why doesn't Dumbledore make a second effort to explain to the students what happened last year if they should understand it? Why is Voldemort not studied in History or DADA?

Final score: 5

Comments

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

It's true--Ginny would totally be spraying the stinksap, undoubtedly at someone who deserved it!