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deathtocapslock2008-09-19 09:41 am
sistermagpie.livejournal.com) wrote in deathtocapslock2008-09-19 09:41 am
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HBP Chapter Eight
*It says a lot about how crap Snape’s life is that the chapter where he’s "victorious" refers to the one where we learn he’s going to be at the same job, teaching the same kids, but in a different classroom.
*ETA: It says even more when you realize that this really is it. This is the high point of Snape's entire adult life. Hey, it beats being eaten by a snake.
*Harry has never hated Malfoy more than he hated him as he lay there like a turtle. Harry Potter: Sith Lord in Training.
*ETA: Cheer up, Harry. Draco will pay for that moment of confidence.
*Though I do love that he hates Malfoy the most now because he knows he (Harry) did something a stupid, and that Malfoy is probably telling everyone in Slytherin, to great laughter. Unfortunately the only other person in the school who would understand exactly how Harry’s feeling right now is, well, Malfoy.
*Harry remembers some wizards can perform spells without speaking—thus the first mention of wordless magic. (Which Harry seems to think is a super special skill only some wizards as great as Dumbledore have.) The book starts with Harry seeing exactly how important this skill can be, but as soon as Snape starts teaching it he’ll have good reason to not want to study it.
*ETA: Luckily learning this skill isn't a pre-requisite for being an Auror prodigy.
*Not that Harry really needs anyone to teach it, since he’s instinctually doing just what Snape says to do right here anyway. How else would you think you'd do wordless magic, after all?
*Hee! No panicked voices asking where Harry Potter has gone! Malfoy would be wetting himself with joy if he knew what Harry was thinking.
*Harry’s broken nose has no affect on his ability to speak. Unlike Neville Longbottom, who broke his nose and talked like a cartoon character for the rest of the chapter. Just another way we know who the Chosen One is.
*This is also scene two of Tonks, the mousy-haired Red Herring. You know, I’m not bothered by this storyline in terms of what it says about Tonks. She’s a Black; they’re very overdramatic. But that is what she’s being. It’s a straightforward mystery and the solution is Remus Lupin. She’s actually not also suffering from chronic depression, survivor’s guilt, PTSD and whatever other trauma warnings one might see in fanfics.
*ETA: Seriously, Tonks is a nut. Her behavior in the three books she appears in just really adds up to a weirdo in the end. Not an anti-feminist weirdo or anything like that, just a woman who would seem normal when you met her, but quickly drive you off with something being off about her. At least that's how she seems to me.
*Tonks sends her Patronus, also without speaking. Harry fails to note that this seems to be an ordinary ability of adult wizards.
*ETA: LOL! I wonder how Tonks' wolf delivered the message. It would have to be as emo as she is.
*I’m not even going to try to figure out just how this is supposed to be better than e-mail or cell phones.
*ETA: Nope, still not better than e-mail or cell phones, particularly.
*Remember how Harry wished people would worry and ask where Harry Potter was? They did. Phew! Also, he really should have been Prefect.
*Harry reminds us of Tonks’ former personality so that we get she’s acting differently. Was she particularly inquisitive before? I remember the annoying part, but for me it was more about the awkward demonstrations of personality quirks rather than inquisitiveness.
*ETA: And the inquisitiveness won't return with her pink hair either. Like a few other female characters, once she gets her man she's got no reason to continue to display personality beyond that.
*Perhaps Tonks is no longer inquisitive because Ginny kept hexing her for asking too many questions.
*ETA: Re: the note above this one: You're next, Ginny.
*Harry doesn’t blame Tonks for Sirius’ death. It wasn’t her fault any more than anyone else’s, and far less than his. At least for the next few minutes. And then…
*Enter Severus Snape: Blame Magnet!
*ETA: As he lived and died. Harry forgave him for everything when he found out he had the good sense to be obsessed with his mother, but forgiving Snape does not require reconsidering any past accusations.
*Harry can’t open the gates because Dumbledore’s bewitched them himself. Am I sensing a “Dumbledore is so marvelous he’s head and shoulders above all over wizards” theme in this book to lead up to the end? Like even gates won’t lock without his personal supervision?
*ETA: Or maybe it's just laying the groundwork for Dumbledore being a dangerously controlling narcissist. It would be totally IC for him to spell the gates so that nobody else could open them and then die leaving everybody locked out.
*Snape’s “Potter is quite – ah – safe in my hands” is a nice echo of PS/SS. He hates you, but he never wanted you dead.
*Tonks meant Hagrid to get the message. Best. Form of communication. Ever. What spy wouldn’t want to send messages via a big glowing animal easily recognizable as belonging to him or her that random people can see and intercept?
*Snape criticizes Tonks’ Patronus. Snape can be a real bitch.:-)
*Not that Snape’s lying. If there’s one person who knows exactly how Lupin can be weak, it’s Snape.
*ETA: Oh, Snape. If you only knew.
*ETA: Though to be honest, the whole "Lupin's just weak" sometimes gets to me since some of his concerns are perfectly reasonable. And besides, Tonks is weird.
*What a surprise. Harry has decided Snape’s snide remarks about Sirius not leaving the house were a powerful factor in his leaving the house. Fred Weasleys’ remarks on the same subject rolled right off his back, though, I’m sure.
*Kinda says a lot about Harry and Sirius’ relationship, though, that Harry’s got no trouble taking that sort of attitude about Sirius. You know Sirius doesn’t think and has an adolescent need to do risky things, Severus! What were you thinking?
*ETA: Of course, in Harry's mind that translates into "Admirably Heroic In the Way Every Real Man Should Be."
*Snape mentions a house has never had negative points this early in the term. Personally, I’m more impressed with the way Harry can always manage to have developed a raging hate for one or more people before he even gets to school each year. Are we sure this isn’t the Power the Dark Lord Knows Not? ETA: No, that's the power of Author Intervention because it sure ain't love!
*It makes me giggle when Snape says pudding.
*The hatred, which Harry first thought was generating off him in waves, now goes blazing hot. From his pov. To an outsider Harry probably just looks like a regular teenager scowling very fiercely.
*Again—Harry’s great power? He’s got this great capacity for love. Being a seething cauldron of hate is just a side effect.
*ETA: The love never does make its long-awaited appearance. Harry's willingness to die is supposed to represent love, but it's more Harry willing to get the job done and fulfill his destiny as a hero.
*Yes, Snape has come to get Harry just because he can’t stand to miss a few minutes of needling and tormenting. You know Snape, when Draco Malfoy starts to look cool by comparison you really might want to consider therapy.
*Hermione says they’ve been terrified by Harry’s disappearance. Not “leave the table and do something” terrified, more like “whisper worriedly over your pudding” terrified.
*Hee hee. Snape said pudding.
*Harry knows Draco’s habit of spreading gossip, but knows this might still mean Gryffindors wouldn’t hear it. It’s like Gryffindor and Slytherin each live in their own separate bubbles, sometimes including Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff when they want to spread their own info, but not receiving stuff from the enemy house through them. BTW, the hat’s still on about uniting all four…
ETA: The Hat's obviously been reading too much fanfiction.
*Harry says Hagrid’s never managed to comport himself with the dignity of Professor McGonagall, which is Harry’s nice way of reminding us Hagrid’s never managed to comport himself with dignity, period.
*Poor Trelawney’s at the feast this year obviously desperately insecure about her place at the school.
ETA: And yet even the DEs don't sack her.
ETA: Nor do they get her to tell them the prophecy she made because prophecies are so fifth book.
*What Harry would not give to fight Malfoy one on one. Wait, he just did that. What he wouldn’t give to fight him in a proper one-on-one with his friends outnumbering the Slytherins.
*Oh alright, I get it. It’s foreshadowing for their later duel where Harry uses Sectumsempra and gets exactly what he wished for out of it.
*Dumbledore stands and everyone shuts up. He opens his arms as if to embrace the whole room, which is I’m sure what he was hoping to convey when he practiced the gesture in front of the mirror in his room. I’ll bet the Slytherins all feel like they just got a great big hug!
*ETA: Of course we all know he's really just trying to embrace Harry from across the room. But not in a gay way.
*Hermione notices Dumbledore’s hand, something Harry never mentioned in the weeks they’ve been hanging out together. Well come on, why would he mention a beloved friend appears to be losing a limb? Harry figured it’d be cured by now or something. Jeez, who’s the Chosen One here? Harry’s got hands too, you know!
*ETA: If only Harry could figure out some way that Dumbledore's withered hand indicated Dumbledore didn't love Harry he could have spent the whole book idly wondering about it!
*Harry’s all upset about Snape teaching DADA—how could he be given it after all this time? I think the real question is: what is that your business?
*How much do I love Snape’s lazy hand wave and the Slytherin clapping. The two faces of Snape.
*ETA: Two faces indeed, Snape.
*Hermione is one of the craziest studies in human nature in fiction. She’s all “shocked and reproachful” when Harry says the DADA position is jinxed and everyone leaves after a year, and he’s hoping for another death. Meanwhile she’s like a prodigy of ruthless efficiency when it comes to judging and punishing the masses. I believe this psychological principle at work here is called “doubling,” the division of the self into two functioning wholes, so that a part-self acts as an entire self.”
*DD starts talking about Voldemort. Harry looks over to see Malfoy staring at a spoon he’s got hovering in the air. Many readers longingly wonder what it would be like to be in Malfoy’s head during this book.
*Still, it looks like Draco’s improved on those levitation charms. He’s not going to drop any wine glasses this year, dammit!
*Dumbledore announces how dangerous everything is, advises everyone to report any unattended luggage (if you see something, say something!) etc., and says they have to guard against carelessness of any student or staff member. McGonagall is no doubt mouthing THAT MEANS YOU, LONGBOTTOM to Neville from her seat.
*Dumbledore then says their beds await and pip pip. How will we ever go on without this guy?
*Hermione darts ahead to fulfill her duty as shepherd of first years. Why do I picture Hermione nagging and generally making the first year trip to the tower more complicated instead of less?
*It was a mark of the strength of Ron’s friendship that he does not laugh to hear Harry had his nose stepped on and broken. So he doesn't think Malfoy’s train stomp was a mark of great evil that might have killed Harry? Nah. Ron’s a future wife abuser, innit? (I have no idea if I’m using that last word correctly, but it seemed to fit.)
*Harry thinks it must be pure pigheadedness that Ron doesn’t react to the stuff Harry overheard Malfoy say on the train. You know, finding out that his friends are all subject to the whims of a plot would probably be a great relief to Harry at this point because otherwise it kind of does seem like pure pigheadedness. And it's catching.
*Ron also says Draco was just showing off for Parkinson, which seems to suggest that Ron, unlike Harry, pays attention to the interactions of other students.
*Harry says Voldemort’s name, and when Hagrid rebukes him he says Dumbledore says it too. “Well, that’s Dumbledore, innit?” says Hagrid. Yup, there goes another anvil of how Superior and Necessary Dumbledore Is To Us In These Dark Times, and How We Must Never Try To Reach His Level.
*ETA: At least now we know the reason for this seemingly random idea of not saying his name despite there being no bad effects from it. It's to lead up to the jinx that's going to be put on the book next year.
*Hagrid’s record as second string Harry Security goes unbroken. Tonks is sending messages to him to come open the gate, but he’s off with his retarded subplot of a brother.
*Hagrid says he was late because he and his brother were having a nice chat. Which probably meant that Hagrid rambled on while Grawp nodded and privately wished he’d get the hell out of his cave so he could get back to work on his Anthropological study, written entirely in Giantish: In The Shadow Of Giants by Dr. Grawp Gungabimu, Ph.D. Chapter One: When I allowed myself to be taken by my half-wizard brother in the interest of science, I had no idea how primitive the smaller primate brain would reveal itself to be. That he has been given a position as teacher to children further illustrates the inability of the smaller brain to make proper survival choices….
*None of the Trio is taking CoMC. They can’t imagine what Hagrid will say when he finds out his three favorite students aren’t taking his class. They can, at least, imagine what he won’t say, which is anything indicating skill as a teacher.
*Ironically Grawp is a tenured and highly-respected Professor at Giantbridge U. and the author of the pamphlet: “How To Teach a Fun and Interesting Care of Magical Creatures Class Without Endangering Minors.” Dumbledore greatly exaggerated his fluency in Giantish.
*ETA: Btw, Snape's being DADA teacher pretty much goes nowhere.
Foley Work
Poor Harry lying on the floor listening to the exaggerated Foley footsteps on the train.
Informed Attributes
Harry must save the Wizarding World with his Super Loving Nature! Which he’ll do as soon as he can leave this gloomy Tonks chick behind. Jeez, if you’re not going to entertain me would you shove off, please?
"Watermelon, watermelon, cantaloupe, cantaloupe"
Watermelon watermelon. Snape’s the new DADA teacher? Cantaloupe cantaloupe. Snape’s the new DADA teacher!
Final score: 3
H/D cliche count:
The one where Harry and Malfoy secretly fight on the train before they get to school and Harry obsesses about it during the Feast.
The one where Harry dreams about fighting Malfoy one-on-one alone.
The one where Ron can't share Harry's interest in Malfoy.
The one where Malfoy's having Curious Reactions to things in public that only Harry notices.
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Harry remembers some wizards can perform spells without speaking—thus the first mention of wordless magic.
One of the many instances that got my goat because it screams laziness on the author's part. They are all going to learn that in 6th year and we know that Hogwarts teems with students hexing each other in the corridors. Are we really meant to believe Harry has never seen an older student using a wandless hex on someone else? To say nothing of the fact that Harry never seems to grasp how essential this skill is - not even when experiencing it first hand by Snape at the end of this book. And again not that it ever bites him or anyone else in the arse in DH as it would have in any halfway realistic war.
Aaah, the missing panicked voices! Does JKR want us to agree with Snape on the swollen head issue? And good catch on the different outcome on broken noses depending on your Chosen One status!
Harry reminds us of Tonks’ former personality so that we get she’s acting differently.
It's a sad thing when you have to tell your readers that, in this case, the personality change was meant to be one so as not to get confused with the others that are totally not there!
*Snape’s “Potter is quite – ah – safe in my hands” - aaw, what a nice Snarry quote!
*The hatred, which Harry first thought was generating off him in waves, now goes blazing hot.
JKR seems to be much more inventive in expressing Harry's hatred than his all encompassing love. Now I wonder why that might be.
The love never does make its long-awaited appearance. Harry's willingness to die is supposed to represent love, but it's more Harry willing to get the job done and fulfill his destiny as a hero.
WORD!!!!!!!!!
BTW, the hat’s still on about uniting all four…... The Hat's obviously been reading too much fanfiction.
Come on, it probably heard that Draco and Harry spent some quality time in the train compartment with the blinds drawn down and now Draco exudes happiness like a conquering hero and Harry slinks into the Great Hall, wafting bashfulness and shame. What was the Hat meant to make of that?!?
I’ll bet the Slytherins all feel like they just got a great big hug!
I'd say they feel molested - no matter whether in a gay way or not.
Ron also says Draco was just showing off for Parkinson, which seems to suggest that Ron, unlike Harry, pays attention to the interactions of other students.
Or maybe the point is that Ron knows that normal boys tend to do that, because girls do not fall all over themselves to be with them. Unlike our hero who will have to bat them off right left and centre in this book and still won't get what they want from him, dammit! Which makes him the mature one, in case you forgot.
Dr. Grawp Gungabimu, Ph.D. FTW!!
Btw, Snape's being DADA teacher pretty much goes nowhere.
It might prove more practical to just list the plot points that DID go somewhere. Anywhere!!! *sobs*
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(Anonymous) 2008-09-19 07:46 pm (UTC)(link)If, you are talking about _silent_ spell-casting he saw the twins doing that very thing to Zacharias Smith in OoTP and some teachers doing it occasionally.
OTOH, since all adults also mostly use spoken magic, it makes little sense for silent spell-casting to be an expected part of the school program. It must be very difficult.
Re: _wandless_ spell-casting, I think we only saw it in PS and from DD, apart from special cases like Animagus transformation.
This is the high point of Snape's entire adult life.
Well, after DH not even that, since Snape's applications were clearly a ruse. On the contrary, it was a sign to him, that things were going to really get pear-shaped soon.
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Heh. That is hilarious about Tonks--and Ginny, actually. Everybody tells us that Tonks has changed and everybody tells us Ginny hasn't.
Poor Ron's het teen boy hormones are always used against him.
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But he's got the honor of teaching Harry, The Hero and his love's son! That alone should make him happy.
*Hee! No panicked voices asking where Harry Potter has gone! Malfoy would be wetting himself with joy if he knew what Harry was thinking.
Harry is as big drama queen here as in some fanfics.
*I’m not even going to try to figure out just how this is supposed to be better than e-mail or cell phones.
They are better because they are prettier, sistermagpie. Cell phones don't glow. Besides, if you fall in love with somebody & are too shy to tell, your Patronus will make this special person (and everybody else) aware of it for you. Of course, there is the danger of being teased, but one can't have everything.
ETA1: And yet even the DEs don't sack her.
ETA2: Nor do they get her to tell them the prophecy she made because prophecies are so fifth book.
1- To be fair, they don't sack neither pro-Dumbledore teachers nor pretend to care about teaching standards.
2- May be she told them, but hearing it wouldn't change anything anyway.
*ETA: If only Harry could figure out some way that Dumbledore's withered hand indicated Dumbledore didn't love Harry he could have spent the whole book idly wondering about it!
It clearly shows that: if Dumbledore loved Harry, he would have told him what happened with his hand. Harry does ask D afterward with zero success to achieve any information, yet fails to make the connection. In DH he would angst for pages/chapters why D didn't want to share all details of his illness with him.
*None of the Trio is taking CoMC. They can’t imagine what Hagrid will say when he finds out his three favorite students aren’t taking his class. They can, at least, imagine what he won’t say, which is anything indicating skill as a teacher.
Hagrid can, at least, cheer himself up by the fact that the awful Draco Malfoy won't be in his class either. Like everybody else. Wbahahaha!
*ETA: Btw, Snape's being DADA teacher pretty much goes nowhere.
It gives Harry the ability to use Prince's book without being caught at the first lesson.
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LOL! Now I'm imagining if they did. Like if your ring tone changed when you fell in love to scream the person's name out in passion.
May be she told them, but hearing it wouldn't change anything anyway.
Maybe she told them and when they heard it they decided not to tell Voldemort because it was so useless he'd think about everything he'd wasted on it last year and hex them for making him feel stupid.
It gives Harry the ability to use Prince's book without being caught at the first lesson.
You're right!
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But they sort of do in the books. Tonks's Patronus changed its' form, quite directly showing everybody with half-brain about her crush.
Now I am thinking about James & Lily. Interesting whose Patronus changed for them to become complementary (male & female deer). Or were they intended since birth with super-suitable Patronuses?
Maybe she told them and when they heard it they decided not to tell Voldemort because it was so useless he'd think about everything he'd wasted on it last year and hex them for making him feel stupid.
Yes. V is known for punishing others for the failure of his stupid plans. True, he talked about his personal responsibility in this book, but such information could make him forget it quick.
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I do wonder about James and Lily--or did Snape's Patronus change from whatever Lily was before to a female version of James' animagus? I'd bet they were just super suitable. That way it's easier for everybody to find their true love without having to talk to each other.
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(Anonymous) 2008-09-22 04:40 pm (UTC)(link)I think it's more that the Patronus thing is just kind of badly thought through. When you get right down to it, not everybody has an animal that perfectly encapsulates their happiest memory. Snape's Patronus needed to be an animal that we could readily associate with Lily, and the only Lily --> Animal connection we've got is via James' animagery.
It's yet another example of Rowling's reverse construction of her world (like the whole business with the Prophecy in book 5 only making sense if you view it as something designed *specifically* to get Harry into the Ministry of Magic, or how the Cup Portkey thing in Book 4 only works if you view it as being *specifically* designed to make Harry Triwizard champion). Snape's patronus has to reveal to us that he was All About Lily, which means it needs to be an animal which the *audience* will instinctively know is code for "Lily Potter". Hence deer.
If the whole thing had been constructed *forwards*, Snape's Patronus would have been something which he, personally associated with his happy memories of Lily (which he ... apparently had, I guess) not something designed as a "clue" for the reader.
-- Dan Hemmens
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(Anonymous) 2008-09-22 04:43 pm (UTC)(link)If so I find it rather amusing, since that would strongly imply that James Potter's happiest moments are all to do with ... well ... himself. It's The Last Five Years all over again...
Seems quite fitting really.
- Dan Hemmens
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I eventually did an essay based on it anyway, and about a year later found the original source and had to do a retraction. I felt very foolish, but it still seemed pretty plausible given Rowling's early determination to sacrifice any sort of plausibility for the sake of making a silly joke.
The original quote is in the author's notes of Angie Astracvic's 'Legacy of Slytherin'. I ran across it when I was working on the Red Hen edition.
In the end, Rowling's Patronusus all seem to be animals, although they can be either natural or Fantastic Beasts. Minerva's is identical to her Animagus form, but we do not know whether that it generally the case.
I think it was Whitehound who pointed out that stags and does have nothing to do with each other. Dose mate with bucks, and stags with hinds. They are different breeds of deer altogether.
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I don’t think Lupin’s weak - more easy going and doesn’t want to push himself forward, seeing as he thinks (and is constantly told) he’s a monster, combined with resentment both at his lot in life and with what happened to his friends. He needs someone patient and understanding (see-ya Tonks), with a good sense of humour (so long Remus/Hermione shippers). Sorry, I can’t think of anyone like that in this series. It doesn’t matter in the end, sadly.
Actually, Snape, maybe the best character in this story, turned out to be weakest of that generation in a way. Brave, I know, but I’m not convinced that his pitiful existence, all because of an almost stalkerish passion for Lily, is especially romantic or admirable. What he did was great - double agent - very brave and essential to the cause, I didn’t really like the reason for it. I wish JKR had come up with something else, or added more layers to the Lily love thing. I also wish that he was seen to be working more as a partner to Dumbles, not just as his sad, doomed puppet. He should also have got more screen time at the end. At least Remus messed up his life for a woman who adored him.
The whole Harry gets his nose broken and lies helpless thing, cracked me up! Poor Ron and Hermione, all terrified about his whereabouts, as they anxiously lick the treacle off their spoons and drain the last drops of pumpkin juice in a desperate manner. Ho! (I presume they hadn't started eating when he turned up. but I like the imagery!)
Why JKR makes the Sorting Hat talk about House Unity, when she never plans to make it a fact, is number 36284 in my list of plot holes she deliberately and uneccessarily includes. I once thought she was being sneaky and clever, and that when she spoke of uniting the houses, she meant the qualities of courage, cunning, loyalty and intelligence. It would be this combination of the best of all four houses *in one person* which would win the day. Sadly I don’t think Harry at this stage had any of them, never mind all, and no-one was allowed to out-do him, so that theory died. Hagrid and Ginny didn’t die either. Damn.
*Hermione is one of the craziest studies in human nature in fiction.*.... *I believe this psychological principle at work here is called “doubling,” the division of the self into two functioning wholes, so that a part-self acts as an entire self.”*
Hermione is a plot driver, not a character. Perhaps the worst in the series. The schizophrenic daughter of a saucy night of passion between Gandhi and Stalin. Still not as tiresome as our by now one dimensional ‘hero’ who inspires no interest, affection or respect. I’d fan-wanked my way through Book 5, but really started to despise the pair in this book. Mostly because I was apparently supposed to admire them so much.
Word to the longing to see in Draco’s head. I quite liked Book 6 when it came out, but my desire to follow his story, was surpassed only by my desperate desire to go with Ron when he stormed out of that bloody tent in Book 7. (And hopefully we’d both go back to Hogwarts where the action was at.)
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Dumbledore's not warning Harry is definitely not explained in the book. Although maybe the reason was that Voldemort's plan probably wouldn't have worked if he did that and that would be tragic.
I don’t think Lupin’s weak - more easy going and doesn’t want to push himself forward, seeing as he thinks (and is constantly told) he’s a monster, combined with resentment both at his lot in life and with what happened to his friends.
This is what frustrates me about the way he's characterized because I kind of agree with you. He actually has very good reason to decide not to marry or father children. He can't support them at all, for one thing. He can be a danger to them. But it seems like these things are brushed aside as something he has to get over. In reality somebody like Tonks wanting to marry him anyway wouldn't really solve everything. But Lupin doesn't really have anybody on his side rationally talking to him about his worries or self-doubt. Likewise when he shows up to help Harry he's the one adult in the universe who actually wants to join the alleged war who isn't a DE. I could see plenty of reasons why he would feel like that would be something he had to do with his life. But no, he's just being reckless, apparently. Even though he'd never been reckless before.
There are many people who never thought the House Unity thing would be important but frankly, I still don't get why the hell it's there. It's so highlighted and all that--why stick it in there? Especially since the author's view in interviews seems to be that it's impossible. The "Dumbledorian dream" of it is to imagine Slytherins would ever be good enough to join. They're kept around to keep the dream alive--which translates into them being kept around to be a common enemy to unite the other 3.
I'm suddenly imagining how it would have gone in DH if Ron had gone back to Hogwarts and been the one to lead the Resistance. It would be just as boring a book since we'd still be stuck with Harry, but it would have been weird to see Ron actually acheive something.
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But why would he ever blame himself when he can blame Snape? ;)
I have no problem with Snape loving Lily and that being the reason for his change, in itself, but I agree that it does seem very superficial, looking back on it and that it would have needed some layers to be more believable. I mean he hasn't even talked to her for more than five years. I would have liked it better if Lily had asked for his help specifically and he'd failed her, or something.
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LOL poor Snape!
Kinda says a lot about Harry and Sirius’ relationship, though, that Harry’s got no trouble taking that sort of attitude about Sirius. You know Sirius doesn’t think and has an adolescent need to do risky things, Severus! What were you thinking?
Severus was Sirius's mum!
Ron also says Draco was just showing off for Parkinson, which seems to suggest that Ron, unlike Harry, pays attention to the interactions of other students.
Or maybe that he actually has a dick, rather than just a chest monster.
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