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

[artystone.livejournal.com]

You know it's SO not a coincidence that an overview of a chapter titled "Professor Umbridge" would be mostly concerned about what a martinet Hermione is.

I stick by my theory: Hermione + 20 years = Umbridge.

[kaskait.livejournal.com]

Seamus=first wizard ever to try to ascertain objective truth.

I'm just thinking what a wonderful book Seamus' story would have been. One lone boy fighting for truth and conducting his own investigation.

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?

Maybe they are the same mysterious group who hung around Ginny too. Professional friends. Do you need to give the impression that you are popular and amusing? Hire Professional friends!

Hagrid is still missing. We know.

He should have stayed missing. What purpose did he serve? Was it that important to carry the body of the Chosen one? Pffft.

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!"

I think Harry dedicated one little, itsy bitsy sentence thought to this matter. Then it was nothing bad happened so that makes it good. Not to mention the fact that he had that damn map for practically a whole year. Didn't Harry ever stop to think about that perfect weapon he gave him? But he didn't use it so Harry is off the hook. Its all good.

[lachlanm.livejournal.com]

sistermagpie: 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?

Ah, but you're rashly assuming that Hermione intends to use her prefectship to maintain the status quo, and not to create a New Order.



sistermagpie: Fred and George...got 3 OWLS each…err, any British-types want to tell me if that's good or bad?

Well, Ron got seven and JKR seems convinced he's an idiot, so I'd say it must be pretty bad.



sistermagpie: 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!

Actually I think Ginny this worthy (and compassionate) girl would have been the one releasing the stinksap (deliberately) in the first place.

[go-back-chief.livejournal.com]

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.

And in everything else, too. Even the things he (Harry) sucks at, such as girls and empathy.

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?

Yes, she always had the nerve to surround herself by giggly friends in the fourth book as well, hence making it so difficult for Harrykins to ask her out on a date. That bitch!

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.

But he did get about two paragraphs of page-time in DH, so you were right about that one. Unless that's too generously counted.

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!

Whereas his crush on Ginny has nothing whatsoever to do with whether Ginny likes him or not but whether her borthers will approve and whether some other bloke will get to her before Harry does. Because her own feelings are completely irrelevant.

Dumbledore says so.

And that's the evidence for EVERYTHING, without exagerration.

ETA: Called that one too. All pretty much Voldemort

This is beginning to get scary.

[(Anonymous)]

" 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? "

Well, I understand an largely share your general annoyance with Hermione, folks, but really. Experimenting on 11-year-olds is unsafe and they are minors, so they can't give a legal consent. That the twins have tried stuff on themselves would mean very little - there are presumably physical differences, chronical illnesses and equivalent of allergies among the wizards. And the kids have much smaller body mass thant the twins, too. Not to mention that Weasley products are hardly standartirized and we have seen that some mistakes can put people in hospital for weeks (Hermione's polyjuice) or forever in St. Mungo's. Oh, and some "products" are lethally dangerous without somebody half-way competent around - like the tongue toffees or Bleeding pastilles.
And yes, appalling stuff is being done to kids in this school, both by other kids and by the adults. However, most of it is actually against the rules. If the staff and the prefects bothered to enforce the more sensible rules, Hogwarts would have been a much safer and kinder place. Hermione at least tries, here.

" Fred and George reminisce about giving people boils during their OWLS, which presumably was quite the jape."

Oh, those lovable, funny pranksters! Was it in the same chapter or later where it was revealed that the boils are quite painful and actually stay for while, too? It must have been such an "exciting" experience to share a dormitory with them... not. And the OWLs only determine one's future career options, too.

"They got 3 OWLS each…err, any British-types want to tell me if that's good or bad?"

Not a Britsh type, but passing only 3 exams out of 9 looks pretty bad. It is particularly appaling that they failed their Potion OWLs... yet a lot of their products are based on potions. One could hope that they wanted just to "punish" Snape and spoil his passing statistics, but that would be probably too optimistic.

"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? "

Not too mention that the fact that he was a Muggle-raised halfblood whose wizarding ancestors were dirt-poor may have given his main recruitment base a pause. Clearly, any kind of reasonable propaganda and information campaign is beneath the Forces of Light, though. Well, unless it is worship of Harry/DD.

"Seamus=first wizard ever to try to ascertain objective truth."

And it was a lonely, painful and obscure existence...

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

>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?<

Because Bathilda Bagshott never got around to mentioning the 20th century in her 'History of Magic' textbook (published 1947). Kind of awkward to leap right into discussing Voldemort without mentioning Grindelwald, you know...

Probably why History of Magic it taught by a ghost who originally chose that textbook too. That was a lucky break for Albus. He couldn't have counted upon the History teacher not having enough imagination to a. realize that he was dead, or; b, be able to envision any future beyond droning to an endless succession of students about the Goblin wars.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

No. It's canon that Cho moved in a pack before this book. Harry was very annoyed that he couldn't get her alone all the previous fall in order to ask her to the Yule Ball before Cedric did.

[arcanetrivia]

They got 3 OWLS each…err, any British-types want to tell me if that's good or bad?

I dunno how it compares to regular O-levels, but I'd say it's bad. Hermione gets 11 and Percy got 12. Even Harry and Ron get 7 each.

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

Hell, wouldn't it help with the whole "History of Magic is deadly boring" thing?

if people could look him up in the yearbook

LOL! I wonder what Tom Riddle's "most likely to..." line would say.

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."

At least it's consistent, which we can't always say about these books: "the greater good", right?

You know, in a way, "for the greater good" is rather Slytherin, because it's "the ends justify the means". Maybe JKR secretly wishes she were a Slytherin and had married Draco rather than Harry, or whatever it was she said in that interview. ;)

Actually, I take that back; it's "the means don't matter because who is good is pre-determined; whatever means good people employ are good means." Bleh.

Sorry to get so serious here. Let's move on to something hilarious:

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!"

Future Cat: I think they’re our favourite hosts, if you don’t count the Hitlers.
Kryten: The who?!
Future Rimmer: Providing you avoid talking politics, they’re an absolute hoot.
Kryten: You’re good friends with the Hitlers?!
Future Kryten: It’s just a social thing. We don’t talk about his work. We just have a few laughs, play canasta, and enjoy the odd game of mixed doubles with the Goerings.
Kryten: I don’t believe what I’m hearing!
Future Rimmer: Look, you have to understand — we travel back and forth throughout the whole of history, and naturally we want to sample the best of everything. It’s just a bit unfortunate that the finest things tend to be in the possession of people who are judged to be a bit dodgy.
Kryten: Herman Goering is "a bit dodgy"?!

[sunnyskywalker]

Wait, isn't the map how Barty Jr. knew his dad was on the grounds, ready to be murdered and turned into a bone? Or am I mixing up the timeline?

lol

[merrymelody.livejournal.com]

[meritjubet.livejournal.com]

Why do the kids never learn who Voldemort is in History of Magic?

Something useful taught? *gasps* probably because it is better for the characters to struggle painfully to figure out the past. It is strange however, that they don't ever update the textbook. But maybe they're waiting for some historical perspective which considering the emotional maturity of most wizards will never happen. Or it could because the lingering resentment over blood, which was a major part of the last war and thus would leave many people uneasy to write about. I figure however JK just didn't probe that deeply into the subject since it was so dreadfully boring (the inner history nerd inside of me shudders).

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.

Emo. Believe me or perish! Nice going there Harry! Alienate your allies (I guess he wasn't worth it).

Cho also reveals herself to be dreadful by appearing pleased Harry is not covered in Stinksap.

Yes, because I'm sure Harry never judged her by her physical appearance. But then, once again the monster in his chest didn't voice it's approval, so I guess she wasn't worth it.

Ron wants to know where the evidence Snape stopped working for Voldemort is.

But never that evidence about whether Sirius Black committed the crime.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Well, I understand an largely share your general annoyance with Hermione, folks, but really. Experimenting on 11-year-olds is unsafe and they are minors, so they can't give a legal consent.

I totally agree--I'm just not sure whether anything like this really would matter in the WW given what I've seen. It's just always so hard to keep straight what's just fun and games and what would actually be truly bad. Especially because Hermione herself goes back and forth as a character--is this Hermione really speaking for the author and saying it's a bad thing for the twins to be experimenting on kids who need the money, or is this Hermione being a fussbudget about the twins before she embraces their wild spirit? I've no clue. If what they're doing is really illegal--which I personally think it should be--you'd think Hermione should have some recourse to adult interference...although of course she can't have that because anybody who goes to an adult is a traitor.

Oh, those lovable, funny pranksters! Was it in the same chapter or later where it was revealed that the boils are quite painful and actually stay for while, too? It must have been such an "exciting" experience to share a dormitory with them... not. And the OWLs only determine one's future career options, too.

Iirc, the kid in question was already stressed out over the exams and boils stayed a long time and were painful. Which is a pretty rotten thing to do to somebody about exams that deterimine your future, yes.

And next year when somebody actually does teach Voldemort backstory, it's only to Harry and kept super duper secret. Everybody else is so scared of the guy--let's not disturb that!

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

The attitude towards education in these books are really kind of amazing when you think about it. We've got Hermione who, as the smart one, must always make clear that her smarts are *not* the thing to admire about her and is obsessed with grades and uninterested in new innovation. Then we've got a history class like this which on one hand can just be a joke on a bad teacher, but as the books go on turn into just what you describe here--an Umbridge-like plot by Dumbledore to keep education as little help as possible.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I probably should have revised the OWLS question--I wrote this after OotP. HBP did clear up that 3 OWLS is pretty bad.

These books seem to always have a problem of turning too Slytherin at odd moments--which the author takes care of by making it clear that anything that's vaguely cool about the idea of Slytherin is actually a Gryffindor thing.

Thank you so much for that RD quote. That totally makes my day.:-)

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Inconvenient for the students--very convenient for a Dumbledore who wants to keep Voldemort's history under wraps!

And yeah, the WW seems to basically be built around stuff that seems cool to Muggles of the present. A bit suspicious, that...

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's just fitting that history stops hundreds of years ago, since Wizards themselves stop developing at the age of 11.

Emo. Believe me or perish! Nice going there Harry! Alienate your allies (I guess he wasn't worth it).

If they can be alienated by Harry, they're not allies.

[horridporrid.livejournal.com]

The attitude towards education in these books are really kind of amazing when you think about it.

It's yet another thing JKR was supposed to be doing right that turned out to be so, so wrong. I remember early days essays on how cool the importance of school was in these books, how the Trio always turned to research to solve problems, etc. But then you look closer and it all falls apart. Heck, dropping out of school becomes the cool thing to do by the end of the series.

(Heh, I remember reading an essay on how the Potter series shows the importance of politeness, using Harry as exhibit A.)

[(Anonymous)]

Well, Albus certainly intended to throw a blanket interdict across the whole Grindelwald era. Which of course Bathilda was perfectly happy to do, since it saved her a world of embarassment as well.

But then the quotes we got from that book all the way back in Book 1 were so over the top that it almost read as a plot to disinform the young and distort the whole subject of history. Yes, I know that the whole issue of having dead boring old History taught be a dead boring old teacher was intended as a joke, but really...

And this is a woman who finally settled down to writing her damned book because (without the proper qualifications) she couldn't get a job as a teacher? Perhaps the children of Scotland got a lucky escape.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

LOL! Basically any real lesson in the importance of any real ethical idea falls apart because the good guys just do whatever they want and the author really doesn't have a set idea for what behavior is good beyond what's good for the heroes. And even those things aren't thought through, so where she originally seemed affectionate about Hermione's SPEW efforts while also seeing where she was going wrong, in the end she gives Harry a slave and Hermione's fine with that. You have to wonder about a series that can't even fully commit to slavery being wrong.

[cressida0201.livejournal.com]

Hagrid is still missing. We know.

*sob* Hagrid's Tale is coming, and there's nothing we can do to stop it! Let's just enjoy the time we have left....

Why do the kids never learn who Voldemort is in History of Magic?

I assume History of Magic is one giant survey course, starting with the earliest known magical history. So they probably wouldn't get to Voldemort until at least the end of O.W.L. year, maybe even N.E.W.T. level. Besides, finding out about Voldemort's background was really, really tough! It took years of research by the most brilliant wizard of the age, and even he had to resort to speculation sometime because he couldn't find out everything!

Oh, who am I kidding? It's just because JKR was saving the story for Book 6. (This is another reason why it would probably have worked better to put it in Book 2, however.)

Granted, that didn't take much brains to figure out, but must Hermione aggressively corral ever single personal encounter in this book?

Must Ron be so dumb that he always has to be corralled? JKR seems to want Ron to be the "heart" of the Trio (as Hermione is the Brain), but that is very much at odds with Ron's extreme insensitivity.

Also, am I supposed to see this as a sign that Ron and Hermione are made for each other? Because all I'm seeing is Ron being cutely subpar and Hermione getting frustrated with that, which doesn't seem like a good basis for a loving relationship at all.

Hermione's obviously spoiling for a fight here and intentionally trying to challenge the teacher and assert her own authority over Umbridge's.

See? See? JKR told us these books were all about challenging authority!

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Also, am I supposed to see this as a sign that Ron and Hermione are made for each other? Because all I'm seeing is Ron being cutely subpar and Hermione getting frustrated with that, which doesn't seem like a good basis for a loving relationship at all.

Exactly. Ron's being subpar in the ordinary cliche way of the dumb guy--he's blathering on about the actual sports team, not realizing that Cho wants to talk to Harry. And Hermione's annoyed by it. God, what a dreadful prospect of the two of them together--they should either both be clueless or she needs to be more easy-going or he needs to have more wit.

Though in this case what really bothered me wasn't Ron's idiot moment but that this was part of the relentless machinations of Hermione about everything going on in the book. In practically every scene she's working on one scheme or another--she's like a plot robot.

I guess that's why so many people found her OOC in HBP where she's being emotional. But I didn't have much of a problem with her in HBP. (Well, I had the obvious question of why after all these years she'd suddenly not care about a murder going on under her nose, but she didn't drive me crazy as a character.)

[horridporrid.livejournal.com]

You have to wonder about a series that can't even fully commit to slavery being wrong.

So now I'm picturing the planning session: "Slavery... hmm... basically bad but... what if Harry needs a sandwich?" :D

[kaskait.livejournal.com]

Even so, it still doesn't ring true.

If Harry was as into Cho as he portrayed himself to be, why didn't he find out the names of her friends? When people crush so badly like that, they like to find out everything about their favorite person. I know I'm like that.

But Cho floated in and out of his life like a ghost. The same thing with Ginny as well.

[kaskait.livejournal.com]

Yes, but Barty Sr. kept his family skeletons locked in a closet...literally. So he deserved death.

Jr. didn't use it to take over the school, so no harm done.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Harry Potter can't be trifling with learning names of somebody else's friends. If they go out the friends will have to stay away anyway. Can you remember him ever dealing with any "friends" of Ginny's? Nope, she hung out with his two friends and went away when they needed to be alone.