*We’re reminded Harry’s taught half the class how to do Protego. This seems to have no bearing whatsoever on what’s going on, except to tell us that Harry’s totally as cool as Snape. Maybe he should be teaching!
It might have been preferable to the career JKR did choose for him. As long as he didn't personally duel any students, anyway.
*Harry sits next to the Amortentia and smells treacle tart, the wood of a Quidditch broom, and something flowery he might have smelled at the Burrow, probably in the bathroom right after Ginny had urinated.
The "flowery" scent irks me. In the first place, "flowery" is not really a positive word; it's generally used for something fussy and over-elaborate. Why not call it a tantalizingly familiar floral scent, or something like that? In the second place, anything as girly as smelling of flowers just doesn't fit new!Ginny. I think JKR is trying to push new!Ginny as the perfect balance between tomboyishness and girliness, but the traits don't meld into an actual being; they're just disconnected and contradictory.
*Recently some people have been suggesting Felix Felicitas is just a placebo.
I haven't heard that theory. The book really seems to ask us to believe in FF. However, it would be extremely amusing if later on Harry gives Ron a placebo of a placebo! Might even make me not loathe that scene on at least one level.
*I wouldn’t be surprised if Lily’s great talent in Potions wasn’t invented in Slughorn’s head the moment Slughorn saw Harry’s Potion.
Or possibly the moment Slughorn saw Lily's dancing red hair; for all his fondness for surrounding himself with young men, he does also seem to have a thing for red-haired women. (It's the best explanation I can come up with for why he lets Ginny into his elite club on such a stupid pretext.) Either way, though, I tend to think Lily's amazingness at potions is being very much exaggerated by Slughorn. In fact, I remember thinking when I first read the book how irritating it must have been for Snape, as a student, to be a real potions genius and have to watch Slughorn falling all over Lily instead. Imagine how ill I felt when I then went on to read theories that Snape learned everything he knew about potions from Lily's tutoring!
*And so begins the weirdest story of cheating ever. Harry totally has an unfair advantage in that everyone else is using the wrong instructions, yet he’s still following instructions, so what’s the problem? Basically the problem is more in the plotline than what Harry is doing.
What I want to know is why Slughorn didn't instantly recognize Snape's signature potion techniques, if he was Snape's teacher. Then again, maybe the scenario I outlined above would explain it: Slughorn paid no attention to Snape, despite his being a genius, because he wasn't hot or well-connected.
I also want to know why Snape hasn't replaced the old textbook with one written by himself, if he can make the same potions so much better.
*Ginny and Hermione really are kind of idiots here. The notes gave Harry a better way to get juice out of a bean, for chrissakes. They didn’t tell him to shoot the president.
I must say that Ginny being upset over Harry using the book is the one and only moment in HBP when I find her even remotely human and even managing to approach sympathetic.
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timeasmymeasure
Reposted for correction/clarification
Date: 2008-09-27 06:56 pm (UTC)It might have been preferable to the career JKR did choose for him. As long as he didn't personally duel any students, anyway.
*Harry sits next to the Amortentia and smells treacle tart, the wood of a Quidditch broom, and something flowery he might have smelled at the Burrow, probably in the bathroom right after Ginny had urinated.
The "flowery" scent irks me. In the first place, "flowery" is not really a positive word; it's generally used for something fussy and over-elaborate. Why not call it a tantalizingly familiar floral scent, or something like that? In the second place, anything as girly as smelling of flowers just doesn't fit new!Ginny. I think JKR is trying to push new!Ginny as the perfect balance between tomboyishness and girliness, but the traits don't meld into an actual being; they're just disconnected and contradictory.
*Recently some people have been suggesting Felix Felicitas is just a placebo.
I haven't heard that theory. The book really seems to ask us to believe in FF. However, it would be extremely amusing if later on Harry gives Ron a placebo of a placebo! Might even make me not loathe that scene on at least one level.
*I wouldn’t be surprised if Lily’s great talent in Potions wasn’t invented in Slughorn’s head the moment Slughorn saw Harry’s Potion.
Or possibly the moment Slughorn saw Lily's dancing red hair; for all his fondness for surrounding himself with young men, he does also seem to have a thing for red-haired women. (It's the best explanation I can come up with for why he lets Ginny into his elite club on such a stupid pretext.) Either way, though, I tend to think Lily's amazingness at potions is being very much exaggerated by Slughorn. In fact, I remember thinking when I first read the book how irritating it must have been for Snape, as a student, to be a real potions genius and have to watch Slughorn falling all over Lily instead. Imagine how ill I felt when I then went on to read theories that Snape learned everything he knew about potions from Lily's tutoring!
*And so begins the weirdest story of cheating ever. Harry totally has an unfair advantage in that everyone else is using the wrong instructions, yet he’s still following instructions, so what’s the problem? Basically the problem is more in the plotline than what Harry is doing.
What I want to know is why Slughorn didn't instantly recognize Snape's signature potion techniques, if he was Snape's teacher. Then again, maybe the scenario I outlined above would explain it: Slughorn paid no attention to Snape, despite his being a genius, because he wasn't hot or well-connected.
I also want to know why Snape hasn't replaced the old textbook with one written by himself, if he can make the same potions so much better.
*Ginny and Hermione really are kind of idiots here. The notes gave Harry a better way to get juice out of a bean, for chrissakes. They didn’t tell him to shoot the president.
I must say that Ginny being upset over Harry using the book is the one and only moment in HBP when I find her even remotely human and even managing to approach sympathetic.