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

[cressida0201.livejournal.com]

Maybe Ron stands for instinctive self-preservation (Must save myself! Get to eat and get to fuck and get to sleep and eschew work whereever possible!)

*snort* Yes, that's very much how he comes across to me in the last few books!

Why didn't he get to be the Quidditch god of Gryffindor? Of course that would have detracted from Harry, but it would have made for a much better balanced trio - and a believable Hermione-Ron-relationship as well.

I agree with nearly everything you say above, but I'm slightly confused by this bit. Do you mean that Hermione would have admired Ron for being a Quidditch god? I suppose lots of teenage girls are impressed by that, and it would definitely give Ron BMOC status, but I wouldn't say it's a particularly good basis for a relationship.

[lachlanm.livejournal.com]

It wouldn't necessarily have made for a healthy relationship, but it would at least have been a somewhat believable one. As it stands now, nobody seems sure what Hermione's motivation is in pursuing Ron.

Personally, I never had a problem with R/Hr. I always thought they deserved each other.

[(Anonymous)]

I've decided the least brainbreaky way to look at HP pairings is that every canon romance happens by authorial fiat. It's never about who the characters might realistically be attracted to, but only what the author's planned for them. Hermione can't fall in love with Harry because Harry has to be with a Weasley. Who can't be Ron because Harry wants children. Etc.

OTOH, if you take a low view of human nature, the Trio ships make a certain sense.

- Hermione gets to feel superior to her partner every second of the day.
- Ron gets a mother. One he doesn't have to share with six siblings.
- Harry gets a girl whose entire life revolves around pleasing TBWL.
- Ginny gets TBWL.

-L

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

That is totally how it works, imo.

I like the idea of Hermione making a political marriage, but I can't quite buy it for the character since, as was said elsewhere, she really seems very traditional that way. (That would be the bad kind of ambition.) And more importantly, marrying Ron would be at best a lateral move, not an upward one (and quite possibly going down). The best thing Ron has going for him is that he's Harry's friend, which Hermione is too. (Not to mention she's got Viktor.) If she needs to marry a Pureblood surely there are far better ones. Neville, for instance, whom she probably could have gotten just as easily as Ron given their early relationship and her protection of him.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

I would have totally been able to believe in Hermione/Neville. I would have deplored it, but would have found it perfectly plausible. There are people whose handle is being needed. Or convincing themselves that they are needed. And Neville is used to being bullied, and accepts it as the way things are, without *whining*.

I don't think we ever once heard Neville whine about anything in the whole series, and even if he does keep shooting himself in the foot, he's about 10 times better behaved than either Ron or Harry.

Hermione would not have had the right skill set to boost his confidence however.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

No, Hermione probably wouldn't have been that good for Neville--unless she got with him after he'd gotten his confidence. She was always too ready to step in and do things for him instead of letting him make mistakes and do it himself. But he seemed to always appreciate her looking out for him.

[xerox78.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of Hermione making a political marriage, but I can't quite buy it for the character since, as was said elsewhere, she really seems very traditional that way. (That would be the bad kind of ambition.) And more importantly, marrying Ron would be at best a lateral move, not an upward one (and quite possibly going down). The best thing Ron has going for him is that he's Harry's friend, which Hermione is too. (Not to mention she's got Viktor.) If she needs to marry a Pureblood surely there are far better ones. Neville, for instance, whom she probably could have gotten just as easily as Ron given their early relationship and her protection of him.

Like I said before, Hermione needed to eliminate the possibility of losing her chosen guy to anyone else. After DH, Neville definitely has the choice of other girls. Ron, on the other hand, does not. He needed help getting a date to the Yule Ball, which he blew, and the only girl who pursued him is meant to be thought of as the school slut, and Ron blew it with her too. He's completely unworthy of romantic love. I can see Neville getting so fed up with Hermione's harpy act that he eventually breaks it off with her. Ron would be too weak and too dumb to do so, no matter how fed up he got with her. Besides, we're meant to think that he's so much of a brainless, egotistical troglodyte that he actually thinks he deserves to be with her.

Furthermore, I think in Rowlingland, the Weasleys are to be considered "better" than the Longbottoms. Plus, Neville doesn't have siblings in high places.

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

but I wouldn't say it's a particularly good basis for a relationship.
No! Of course not! What I meant was: As it stands at the moment, one is really at a loss what Hermione might see in him AT ALL, unless you subscribe to the idea she really just wanted to marry "up" in the WW with no feelings involved on her side - an idea I find very witty, but don't really endorse myself, because, to me, she comes across as very theoretical and rationalistic but also very moral in a traditional way and I don't think that would go well with the idea of marrying someone for career purposes. She is much more the traditional protestant self-made girl, believing that good marks and long hours will get her somewhere and NOT the right connections.
So trying to come up with something to attract her to Ron off the top of my head, I thought Hermione is a very bookish "un-physical" person I've once heard described as tadpole (lots of head and hardly any body). It's canon she is pants at flying (the only wizarding sport there seems to be) and doesn't like skiing; in addition, we are told she usually walks bent over (by her book-bag) - the typical library mouse. In PoA she nearly crumbles under her workload but refuses to give in (she ditches Divination, but I bet she wouldn't have done it if she had the slightest impression it might be worthwhile) - in short: she HAS a body like Lucius has house-elves - to use them, never mind how they feel. And Ron is very much the contrary - see my idea above about self-preservation. He IS his body, just like Hermione IS her brains.
So I thought, this might be some sort of complementary attraction on both sides - in some way, this IS canon, as far as Ron is concerned: He clearly admires her for her brains. BUT the whole concept doesn't work in canon, because it's completely one-sided. He knows she is the clever one, but as he himself has nothing to shine with on his own, he is reduced to either feel inferior or to just use her as house-elf to enable his own laziness. He IS lazy, but he also has an ego and I think, he'd have had too much self-esteem or honour to use her like his ersatz-mummy if he hadn't given up anyway long ago on being a partner on the same level as herself. As far as hermione is concerned, it is made very difficult for her to see anything redeeming about his "body-orientation", because all she and we ever get from that are the annoying aspects. That's why I tried to come up with a means to channel this ability (self-preservation and being at home in your body IS an ability!) into something positiv for the trio as a whole instead of just for Ron himself. He'd have been something like "Little John" or "Friar Tuck" to Harry's Robin Hood. It would certainly have been possible to come up with several scenarios, where instinct, sheer physical strength and aptness and going for the obvious would have been as helpful as Hermione's encyclopedic knowledge (e.g.: in PS, it's Hermione who comes up with the necessary knowledge how to deal with the Devil's Snare, but it's Ron who states the obvious and practical thing to do. Hermione panics (typical for tadpoles), whereas Ron keeps his head although he is already being strangled.) Ouf - that was long, I hope, I've made myself clear...