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deathtocapslock2008-10-17 09:19 am
sistermagpie.livejournal.com) wrote in deathtocapslock2008-10-17 09:19 am
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HBP Chapter Twelve
*Where is Dumbledore, forlornly wonders Harry—has he forgotten my super private lessons? The rest of the school might never see him from the welcome speech to the leaving feast, but the Chosen One needs a little more here!
*ETA: Knowing now how much this series is a deep, philosophical treatise on death I can't help but notice that mourning, for Harry, is basically one long sulk over not being paid attention to that never ends.
*Harry had felt bolstered, comforted, and now he felt slightly abandoned. Remember how Sirius went crazy when left on his own? Gryffindors don’t handle this kind of thing well.
*ETA: Seriously, this is kind of an amusing theme. One of the things that stands out in this series is the way the world really does revolve around the hero. The best any other character can hope for is the chance to assist him and get out of the way of his glory. Harry's sensitivity to people not thinking about him, which is kind of endearing in CoS, is the only thing that ever moves him to action by HBP where he fights off those desperately trying to court him (Slughorn, Romilda, most of the school) while fuming over those who seem to ignore him (Dumbledore, Draco, Ginny).
*While Harry waits for Dumbledore’s special treatment to resume he whiles away the time hexing unsuspecting people in the hallway. Crabbe’s toenails grow, which is pretty funny. But the real laughs come when Harry targets the squib janitor. Since Filch is already a second class citizen forced to clean the garbage cans of students better than he is through an accident of birth, Harry gets loads of applause when he glues the unsuspecting man’s tongue to the roof of his mouth.
*ETA: Note that it's Crabbe's toenails that grow. Harry is instinctively targetting the most evil. It's pre-emptive punishment.
*Btw, remember when Malfoy the Death Eater bully hexed helpless non-magical people for a laughing audience? No? Me neither.
*So Harry’s also been filling peoples’ ears with buzzing and nobody’s figured out that he’s hexing them and undone the spell?
*ETA: I'm forgetting, but does Hermione start using spells like Muffliato in the next book even though she was dead set against them here? I guess because she finds out the HBP is Snape and not some random future DE? Sure the spells still aren't Ministry approved, but they are approved by one of Dumbledore's people.
*Harry’s having trouble with non-verbal spells, which is a shock (not) given they are the featured magic of the book.
*Until he needs to try out Levicorpus.
*How does Harry seem to know to give his wand an upward flick for Levicorpus, and why are there no explanations for how one should move one’s wand? Not to mention, aren’t all spells verbal and non-verbal? And why am I trying to make magic follow any rules?
*Hermione doesn’t like spells that aren’t Ministry of Magic approved. Tell me again how she’s supposed to be some kind of exciting super genius? ETA: I guess I was too hard on Hermione. She'll be making up memory charms for her parents on the fly in the next book, right?
*Harry has only just remembered seeing the Levicorpus spell before, putting him about 800 words behind the 11-year-olds reading the book…
*Harry never told Ron and Hermione about that trip into Snape’s Pensieve, leaving me to again wonder just how much he told them about the fight with Draco in the bathroom. Is he just protecting his Dad’s reputation or Snape’s privacy as well?
*ETA: Or is it just another case of waiting until it's most convenient to the plot to share information? Probably that one.
*Harry’s telling Ron and Hermione it was Sirius who told him about James using Levicorpus would seem more natural, but
*ETA: I notice in that last note I seem to be under the impression that Lupin is actually doing something. More accurately, he's pretending to do something. The werewolf thing will go nowhere fast.
*ETA: Heh. I think the whole werewolf thing is just Dumbledore's sick punishment for Lupin for not telling him about Sirius in PoA. "No, Remus, it's tremendously important for the cause that you live amongst the werewolves and have sex with them all to win their trust. I can't explain why. Just do it for James and Lily."
*Wait, the Muggles at the QWC were asleep when the DEs were dangling them? That was kind of the DEs. WTF? Didn't they look scared? I know JKR doesn't re-read the books but if you're going to reference a specific scene it makes sense to at least skim it. *cough*HermioneSLAPSDraco*cough*
*Ron explains that the DEs were abusing the spell, where as Harry and his dad were just having a laugh. Having grown up with the twins, one must forgive Ron for thinking there’s a huge difference between these two things.
*ETA: I'm sure when I read that the first time I thought Ron would be shown to be wrong there, but now I don't think he is. The DEs are using the spell for *exactly* the reason for which it was intended. In fact it was Snape the DE who made it up. They're both using it exactly the same way but I'm honestly not sure I'm supposed to think that.
*It's not like Hermione actually makes a strong case for them being the same. She has to go back to the authority thing: we don't know who made up the spell, therefore it could be a bad thing to do.
*Harry says if the Prince had been a budding DE he wouldn’t have been bragging about being a Half-Blood, an argument still very popular by many fans of Woobie!Snape. Could Harry be a Snarry shipper?
*ETA: Not that that apparent contradiction will ever be explained. I mean, the fact is it's not impossible for Snape to identify himself as a Half-Blood and be a DE. The problem is that the whole blood thing is so vague and not thought out we have no way of knowing if it's unusual for him to do this or not.
*Why does Harry suddenly have a bad moment of worrying about his father being a Pureblood here? What’s that got to do with anything? Is he supposed to be pushing that to the back of his mind because it means James couldn't be the Half-Blood Prince?
*ETA: Well, that would certainly fit the theme of Harry getting worried whenever it looks like something doesn't come back to him. Luckily he'll find out that he is totally tied to the Prince in a different way. Of course.
*Hermione says most of the DEs are probably Half-Bloods pretending to be Pure, something I suspect she’ll do plenty of when she gets older, frankly.
*ETA: Oh no, she won't. Now that Muggle-blood is the new Pure.
*ETA: More confusion on the blood thing. Pure-bloods ought to all know each other. What we see in the next book is people doing stuff like claiming to be descended from Pure-blood families, but that doesn't make a person pure themselves.
*Ron proves he knows little about the way these things work when he claims he wouldn’t be allowed in the DEs because his family is made of blood traitors. Of course, if Ron did become a DE the family would probably decide he was only allowed in because the DEs wanted secret spy access to Molly’s spell for French dressing or something. Remember Ron, your family is the only thing exceptional about you!
*Ron also flicks a sausage that hits Ernie—so Hufflepuffs sit right behind Gryffindor. According to Hogwarts a History in the early years the Hufflepuffs actually sat at the Gryffindors feet and fed off their heroic scraps.
*A distraction arrived in the shape of Ginny. So that would be a Mary-Sue-love-interest-badly-characterized-shaped distraction then.
*Harry arrives in Hogsmeade to see Zonko’s Joke Shop has been closed. Oh no! Not the joke shop! Well, Harry’s right there will be no fun on this trip. When you’re sixteen you can’t think of anything fun to do that doesn’t involve itching powder. Damn. At least the sweet shop is open. Maybe they’ve got animal rides out front.
*What a surprise that Slughorn is in the Sweet Shop. Taking up an entire quarter of the space! Because he's just that fat! ROTFL! He kills me!
*Btw, I saw Uncle Vernon in a play last night and he was also a huge teacher
*ETA: Awww. That was The History Boys. And in two weeks I'll be seeing Uncle Vernon on stage again. With Naked!Dan. *gulp*
*Harry’s still ignoring Slughorn’s suppers. Hermione, meanwhile, probably thinks they’re the most exciting thing ever, a true entry into the upper class that she’s earned through answering questions in class and has nothing to do with her being Harry’s little Mudblood friend! Can’t blame Harry for not putting much stock in Hermione’s social instincts.
*Again, Slughorn's social instincts in no way reflect the kind of operator he's supposed to be. Even Malfoy knows the best way to get Harry's interested is to pretend you're not interested in him.
*Harry’s been intentionally scheduling practice during the dinner so that he and Ginny can laugh about the inferior people Hermione’s got to spend time with without them. You think they know other kids are at the same time laughing over their friends having to spend time with Hermione?
*Slughorn waddles out ignoring Ron, which you know Hermione secretly loves. It’s just easier when the universe lets Ron know she’s superior.
*Hey Slughorn, obviously tip: You want Harry to want to come to one of your parties? Invite Ron without inviting Harry.
*Hermione apparently finds spending time with McClaggen and Zabini fun. Hermione’s interest in social issues is about as shallow as her interest in house elves. The Good Side is really lucky she's a Muggleborn.
*Ron shows no interest in extra large sugar quills, probably because he’s burning with jealousy watching Hermione and Harry get fawned over by Slughorn and not just getting Ron an invitation to the damn party like they could. God knows Ron couldn’t be showing little interest because he’s a 16-year-old boy and so a little too old to get excited about candy.
*Harry finds Mundungus in conference with Dumbledore’s brother and slams him against a wall for selling things from Sirius’ house. Thieving is bad when someone you know gets robbed—why doesn’t Mundungus go back to being the lovable kind of thief who robs other people?
*Sirius, btw, was Harry’s godfather for whom he is in deep mourning by not letting the man cross his mind except for in Very Subtle Scenes That Show That Really Harry Is Thinking Of Him A Lot Even Though Readers Who Are Inside His Head Never Know It.
*Harry’s still fuming over Mundungus stealing Sirius’ stuff. Given that this is Harry, he actually may not have realized he was stealing stuff from the Black House until now.
*Harry’s also forgotten that he owns everything in Sirius’ house now. (Say it with me Ron: Must be nice to be able to forget about a whole inherited fortune.)
*Ooh. I just had a thought that I hope Mundungus is selling all that stuff to Narcissa Malfoy! ETA: LOL! Oh, 2006!Me. How naive you are about where this story might be going.
*Hermione gets waspish, as usual, at Ron looking at the barmaid. It’s your own fault, Hermione. Why’d you have to decide you wanted the one boy in this whole series who actually notices a nice pair of breasts?
*ETA: Is this again supposed to be setting up the parallel between Ron not appreciating Hermione's looks and Hermione not appreciating Ron's general competance? Because they just don't match.
*Harry starts to pout and get jealous of Ginny and Dean being together (and probably not thinking about him at all!). Bring on the cupids on lovebirds.
*Katie touches the cursed necklace and rises into the air. The narrator helpfully tells us that she does not rise “comically” like Ron, with one foot in the air. When your narrator has to let the audience know a horrible curse isn’t one of the hero’s lovable jokes, one might want to think about those heroes again. ETA: Or not.
*The kids run for help for Katie. Unfortunately they run into Hagrid, the one teacher potentially more deadly than the necklace.
*Hermione’s all, “It’s Leanne, isn’t it?” to Katie’s friend, like she’s a teacher, and I find this annoying.
*Hmm. I hadn’t thought of this before but the thing with Katie’s more of an accident than I’d noticed earlier. If she’d actually brought it to the castle it just would have gotten flagged by the sensor and probably no one would have touched it.
*Harry picks up the necklace to show to Madam Pomfrey. Because knowing what happened to Katie will help cure her. Sort of like how knowing what had happened to Montague might have helped cure him. But Katie’s a Gryffindor.
*Naturally this case is too big for Pomfrey and must go to Snape, All Around Badass Dark Arts Guy.
*Leanne tries to tell the story of what happened to Katie but starts crying. Let’s take a moment to silently judge her for it, shall we? Ginny wouldn’t break down so. She’d look all hard and blazing as she told the story.
*Hee! Harry’s all, “What do you mean Dumbledore’s away? You tell him Harry Potter wants to see him right this moment!”
*So when exactly did Malfoy buy the necklace? I guess he sent Rosemerta to buy it as well as deliver it? Who Imperiused her, since he was at school?
*Malfoy’s in detention, which takes away from his Cabinet time. He probably gets good about his homework after this. *pats sleek blond head for learning to multi-task. Bet Lucius can’t do that*
*ETA: There's not much Lucius *can* do.
*One wonders why Harry doesn’t mention to McGonagall that he heard Malfoy suggesting he had been given a job by the Dark Lord. Sweetens the pot a bit, doesn’t it?
*I think we can rule out the necklace being intended for Slughorn, Harry. Not exactly his type thing. If you want to get Slughorn you’d send a cursed candy box or hexed chocolate fondue or a pretty boy painted in poison or something.
*ETA: Let's face it, you could even write on the box POISONED CANDY and he still wouldn't be able to stop himself from eating it. Just like Dudley with the candy he obviously shouldn't have eaten in GoF. Fat people brings these punishments on themselves.
*Funny how Harry doesn’t think of Zabini as Draco’s accomplice, being that he was lolling against a pillar. ETA: So he was just a red herring then, I guess? Blaise Zabini goes nowhere fast too.
*Now I’m having visions of tiny Draco and Blaise having fierce lolling contests where each tries to out-languid the other.
*Ron turfs a first-year out of an armchair. Future wife beater coming through!! (Sure Hermione kicks him out of the chair and gives it back to the other kid, but when they’re alone he’ll beat her up for that.)
*Since when has Malfoy been one of the world’s great thinkers? asks Harry, who knows from not great thinkers!
*Neither Ron or Hermione answer him. I think they may be making the same jokes about Harry and less-than-great thinking in their heads.
Designated Hero
This is a stellar chapter for Harry. He pouts, sulks, draws illogical conclusions even while guessing the culprit and attacks a disabled janitor when he’s not looking. He also gets angry when people don't seem to know he's the designated hero. Chosen One here! Let's think about me!
Exploitation Filmmakers’ Credo
So me and Harry are the only ones who remember Malfoy talking about doing something for Voldemort? And that Malfoy’s actually got ties to the guy? And that Voldemort really doesn’t have a problem using kids to get what he wants?
IITS
Look Harry, we know we knocked out Crabbe and Goyle and stole their bodies to find out if Malfoy was the Heir of Slytherin on far less circumstantial evidence than you have now, but we’re just not buying this Malfoy plot!
Idiot Picture
Yes Ron, being a Weasley pretty much gives you immunity against Death Eater recruitment. No wonder the Twins don’t pay much attention to who’s using their products.
Idiot World
So we know everybody thinks Malfoy’s got an alibi, but does anyone care that there’s a would-be murderer running around school? It’s not like there’s any investigation that follows. There doesn’t seem to be a Wizard equivalent of Hercule Poirot. If there was he’d probably have figured out how to undo that Muffliato spell.
Informed Attributes
In case you got confused with the hexing of the Squib janitor, these kids are actually not the Pureblood snobs.
Misdirected Answering
In this book at least we never really find out how Rosemerta’s controlled beyond the fact that there are coins involved, but we’d all rather know about where Ginny is and what Slughorn has at his candlelight suppers anyway.
Selling Wood
Watch Hermione’s painful attempts to show comfort to Leanne. She’s much more at home punishing the unjust. Leanne’s probably crying harder because she’s terrified Hermione’s going to give her leprosy if she doesn’t stop crying or something.
Final score: 8
H/D scores:
The one where Harry can't stop talking about Malfoy.
The one where Harry's the only one who instinctively knows Malfoy's up to something.
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*Hermione gets waspish, as usual, at Ron looking at the barmaid. It’s your own fault, Hermione. Why’d you have to decide you wanted the one boy in this whole series who actually notices a nice pair of breasts?
Noticing breasts is a sign of fratty shallowness. In some ways, despite her boys-will-be-boys attitudes, Rowling is very averse to portraying teenage male sexuality as it actually is.
*ETA: Is this again supposed to be setting up the parallel between Ron not appreciating Hermione's looks and Hermione not appreciating Ron's general competance? Because they just don't match.
Sure they do! She's a GIRL, remember? Looks are as important as competence for her!
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I think, this may be summerized under the general notion that sex is not part of the human condition full stop. Thus, we've got cruelty, violence, humour, ambition, greed etc. as natural parts of human nature, but not sexuality. If it surfaces, it does so either in very ridiculous people (hi, Ron!) or it is split off into a separate identity (chest monster). In fact, I wonder, why she forewent the chance of showing the Slytherins' depravity in this area.
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***Because you can't have s-e-x in a children's book. JKR's editors would go ballistic.
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Hahaha, oh, that's a GOOD one! *wipes away tears*
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So I know they checked for Rudness. Then, job done and dusted, they sent the MS to be printed. They certainly didn't check anything else.
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Oh yes, they totally are! I just don't buy that she could possibly be as insecure about them as Ron is about everything else. He gets humiliated a lot. I'm just not buying that his occasionally leering at a nice pair of breasts makes her that insecure. Maybe it's the GoF princess ball thing. Unlike Ron, Hermione doesn't seem to need the confidence lesson over and over.
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One might even think this extended to dying as well: Harry COULD die because he had a lot of attention while doing it. As opposed to Snape who was left in the shack like some rotting car...
Gryffindors don’t handle this kind of thing well.
Come to think of it - of the classic traits of the four Houses (ambition, loyalty, intelligence, glory), it's only the last one which is definitly something you GET from other people.
Re Harry's hexing of Filch: I think, this is just another instance of what you said in an earlier post: Nobody is ever forced or expected to tolerate someone who is different from themselves. Thus, it is awful to be against Mudbloods because, in fact, they ARE just like wizards. But it's o.k. to walk all over someone who IS different (and doesn't make up for it with humility).
Sure the spells still aren't Ministry approved, but they are approved by one of Dumbledore's people.
Okay, I am going to say it: For an author who dabbles in paraphrasing the Nazis, the leader of the good side is an awful lot like the Führer and so is the reasoning of his minions. "The Führer told us to do it! So that makes it right!" Didn't Rowling ever read about the Nürnberg trials where this sort of argument was ruled as invalid? And I might go on, stating that the (foreign sounding, with hints of oriental descent!) Slytherins as viewed by the side of Light are much more similar to the way the Nazis viewed the Jews than how the Slytherins see the muggleborns... someone stop me!
And why am I trying to make magic follow any rules?
Because you have a functional brain? Maybe you are even a maths geek, meaning you are capable of adding two numbers? There, I knew you were not to be trusted!
*Ron shows no interest in extra large sugar quills..... God knows Ron couldn’t be showing little interest because he’s a 16-year-old boy and so a little too old to get excited about candy.
According to fanfiction, it might be due to the fact he doesn't need to compensate for anything which makes the interest of Slughorn, Hermione and Harry even more interesting...
Funny how Harry doesn’t think of Zabini as Draco’s accomplice
Well, there has to be at least one beautiful boy who is neither dead nor a Death Eater - that's all Harry is asking for!!!
Future wife beater coming through!!
Seeing that Ron has proven more than once that he is not averse to either violence or taking advantage of his superiority, I think the tendency is there. It just depends on whether his future wife is in a position to use her (magical) strength or not. As the ww seems to be very conservative, it might well be that divorce just is no option if you want to remain in this world - and what could Hermione do in the Muggle world with no education to speak of?
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It might be more like no one ever wanting to divorce their childhood sweetheart*, who's always your one and true love (unless you're a Slytherin. See: Parkinson, Pansy).
* As defined by the female half of the couple. Several short-lived relationships may happen, and indeed are desired in order to show the male half how much better off they are with the girls who remind them of and/or act like their mothers.
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But it's o.k. to walk all over someone who IS different (and doesn't make up for it with humility).
That's what struck me early on about Harry's diverse group of friends. I get that it's nice to show that somebody doesn't have to be different just because they're from a different group, but as it pans out Harry never has to deal with different people, really. Mostly he's friends with people who can pass as Wizards so well he doesn't know they're not full Wizards for a while. Or even Dobby--he's the house-elf who agrees with the Wizard view of house-elves.
Seeing that Ron has proven more than once that he is not averse to either violence or taking advantage of his superiority, I think the tendency is there. It just depends on whether his future wife is in a position to use her (magical) strength or not. As the ww seems to be very conservative, it might well be that divorce just is no option if you want to remain in this world - and what could Hermione do in the Muggle world with no education to speak of?
Gotta admit I don't see anything in Ron that makes me think any wife of his would be at risk for abuse. He might wind up being insulting sot aht type of abuse, but he doesn't seem particularly violent. Unless I'm forgetting some time where he is. I would guess that Hermione in the Muggle world would be like Kingsley--she'd somehow be better than Muggles at absolutely everything. In the WW she'd probably be doing better than Ron salary-wise. If she couldn't divorce him she'd have any number of magical plans to get rid of him I'd imagine.
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Of course. That's a recurring theme in the whole series. Had this been RL, Harry would had known everything about his parents and their relations to Snape within the first week. Every wizard-born pupil would know Lupin was an old friend of the famous James Potter. And DD's old fling with Grindlewald would be that kind of thing no-one mention but everyone knows anyway. Obviously, wizards aren't capable of gossip.
*ETA: I notice in that last note I seem to be under the impression that Lupin is actually doing something. More accurately, he's pretending to do something. The werewolf thing will go nowhere fast.
***Reminds me of the fanficcers who doesn't like Pettigrew. They put him in detention or with a Hufflepuff girlfriend or whatever, just to get rid of him so they can concentrate on the pretty people
*Ron explains that the DEs were abusing the spell, where as Harry and his dad were just having a laugh. Having grown up with the twins, one must forgive Ron for thinking there’s a huge difference between these two things.
***So does JKR.
*ETA: More confusion on the blood thing. Pure-bloods ought to all know each other.
***See above. Perhaps that's why they don't gossip, whenleaving Hogwarts after the seventh year their memories are modified so the forget most of their school year?
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***See above. Perhaps that's why they don't gossip, when leaving Hogwarts after the seventh year their memories are modified so the forget most of their school year?
That would help explain a lot of things, especially if it were done every year. Such as no one remembering that Voldemort was on the back of someone's head. Or that Ginny was killing chickens and setting a basilisk on people. Or that Ginny and Harry, the number-one subject of the school's gossip circles in HBP, when the Death Eaters are in charge of the school.
Wait... I'm seeing the End-of-Year Staff Meetings now:
Dumbledore: So, Professor McGonagall, have you done your end-of-year memory modifications yet?
McGonagall: Indeed, Headmaster. I've obliviated my class so that they don't recall being menaced by a monster, and I took the extra step of modifying Mr. Potter's memory so that he'll continue not to remember the names of his classmates.
Dumbledore: Excellent! The rest of you, don't forget to erase from your students' minds that lecture I gave them about Voldemort being back. We wouldn't want them to go through next year thinking that there was any reason for concern.
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You are remembering correctly. Hermione uses Muffliato as part of the standard tent-warding spells. And, while you point out that the spell is approved by one of Dumbledore's people, that person was the one who murdered Dumbledore, so you'd think she'd still have an objection to using it. I may be remembering this part wrong, but doesn't she learn the warding spells from Moody? In which case, I suppose that Muffliato might have been taught to the Order by Snape at some point. I can't imagine how otherwise someone would learn a spell that was specifically designed to keep people from overhearing stuff like spells.
Which also reminds me that one of Moody's anti-Snape measures looks an awful lot like Langlock. Which is more than stupid. He's using Snape's own spells on him to keep him from talking--when the man obviously knows how to cast non-verbally. And then the next part of the ward is to scare him with a Dumbledore-shaped talcum-powder cloud. He should have consulted the Twins. They would have at least thrown in some fireworks.
*ETA: Is this again supposed to be setting up the parallel between Ron not appreciating Hermione's looks and Hermione not appreciating Ron's general competance? Because they just don't match.
Wait, wait, wait. Is that supposed to be the problem in their relationship? That Ron hasn't noticed that Hermione is attractive? I'm not the greatest authority on teenage boys by any means, but are we to suppose that Ron's been attracted all this time to Hermione's... what? Her steel-trap shut mind? Her compassion? Her sense of social justice and ethics?
I understand the trope of the unattractive girl who takes off her glasses and suddenly the hero falls in love with her. I mean, it's a silly trope that gets made fun of more than it's actually used, but I can kind of get that.* But such ugly duckling girls are usually at least nice to the hero. They're the motherly secretaries who sit in the office and hand him the Scotch after his nasty girlfriend deals him some emasculating blow.
But Hermione is the nasty emasculating girlfriend. She's all ready to mother Harry, but with Ron it's all, "Eat your vegetables! Clean up your room!" and "Why can't you take better care of your underwear?"
*Off-hand, the last time I remember it being used seriously was in Strictly Ballroom. The heroine, Fran, actually did wear glasses in that film, although Scott didn't realize she was beautiful for some time after she took them off. It's great moment when he finally gets it, though.
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It's been said before, but I'm going to say it again... the views of human sexuality as expressed in this series are beyond weird. It's very hard to not get Freudian and start analyzing JKR. :D
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And yeah, I don't get the Hermione thing. Well, I *do* get it. I don't mind Hermione having some insecurity compared to somebody like Fleur. But she's just no way as insecure as Ron about everything else and she gets far more validation for her looks than he does for his general competance.
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So, Snape has a big nose, he's probably allergic to dust/talcum powder - that ought to send him sneezing, er, screaming.
Of course, Snape could have run across the Dustledore puppet and told it off (neutralizing the Tongue-Rolling spell first), making it a thoroughly cathartic experience.
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Part 1
For a moment I thought JKR reread this part of HBP in order to decide whom to kill in DH. Or may be she always imagined Crabbe as the worse one. Or is it an amusing coincidence?
(I supposed he hexed Goyle too. Most likely with several other unmentioned people. I was surprised fellow Gryffindors didn’t stand in line, asking Harry to teach them those new cool spells too. It’s like almost IITS moment that nobody asked him).
*Btw, remember when Malfoy the Death Eater bully hexed helpless non-magical people for a laughing audience? No? Me neither.
Yes, if she showed Malfoy being strong and abusing, he wouldn’t have so many fans. He resembles more a fool, making a joke of himself in front of the entire school, than the bad guy from Tom Brown’s Schooldays, for example. May be I let the fandom influence my perception of his character too much, but numerous things in the books support such reading imo.
*ETA: I'm forgetting, but does Hermione start using spells like Muffliato in the next book even though she was dead set against them here? I guess because she finds out the HBP is Snape and not some random future DE? Sure the spells still aren't Ministry approved, but they are approved by one of Dumbledore's people.
But in the next book she thinks of Snape as D’s murderer, a traitorous spy, not D’s person. I guess she starts using them since all is fair in love and war, and they’re in the middle of a war.
Besides, her instincts are to let herself use spells or have knowledge, which she would deny other people.
*How does Harry seem to know to give his wand an upward flick for Levicorpus, and why are there no explanations for how one should move one’s wand? Not to mention, aren’t all spells verbal and non-verbal? And why am I trying to make magic follow any rules?
May be Snape wrote the word “up” next to the spell or drew a pointing upward arrow without us being told about it. Or Harry just followed his instincts, which were proven to be the right one 1000 times in the past.
Snape probably remembered how to cast his own spells without writing that down.
Why are to trying to understand (most likely invent in this universe) the rules? Somebody here talked about math, but… actually, studying literature at university does that to people – analyzing texts and searching for rules turn into a second nature. One needs to have a particularly strong character to resist the pressure. See: JKR.
(The above was my attempt at joking. Just decided to note in case I was that bad).
* The werewolf thing will go nowhere fast.
I wish we got werewolf subplot instead of all romance.
* The DEs are using the spell for *exactly* the reason for which it was intended. ... They're both using it exactly the same way but I'm honestly not sure I'm supposed to think that.
The main difference seems to be that DEs would probably drop the Muggles from height to their deaths, while James and Harry just would use it for humiliation. The spell puts other people at your mercy, and the difference seems to be how the caster decides to use the power afterwards.
*It's not like Hermione actually makes a strong case for them being the same. She has to go back to the authority thing: we don't know who made up the spell, therefore it could be a bad thing to do.
IITS. Does it matter who made the spell? What matters is what the spell does. I would expect Hermione to decide for herself which spells to use, Ministry approved or not. (Which she and Harry do, whenever the plot lets them. Hi, Marietta’s face and gallant Unforgivables). Other people, however …
* The problem is that the whole blood thing is so vague and not thought out we have no way of knowing if it's unusual for him to do this or not.
I am sure he neither made other Slytherins\DEs aware of his Blood Status nor reminded it to those who knew. I thought it was self-loathing, but the nickname could only demonstrate Snape’s sense of humor and the ability to laugh at himself.
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***Foreboding for DH when Harry suddenly just Knows things?
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And you're right, I should remember that Hermione telling Harry he shouldn't use the spell doesn't mean she's filed it away in her mind in case she ever needs to use it. Like after she stops making her point about refusing to use it on principle in HBP.
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Half-blood is the new Pure. How dare you to imply Harry’s children aren’t the best, sistermagpie?
*ETA: More confusion on the blood thing. Pure-bloods ought to all know each other.
D’s mother went to another village to hide her family’s secrets (husband in jail & ill daughter), so it looks like not everybody knows everybody else. Another example: Ron would never see Luna, if not for her attending Hogwarts and we were told not everybody went there.
*Harry arrives in Hogsmeade to see Zonko’s Joke Shop has been closed. Oh no! Not the joke shop! ... Damn. At least the sweet shop is open. Maybe they’ve got animal rides out front.
LOL! Only what is “animal rides out front”? That you can see small, toy-like ponies in the display window? Or that you can ride ponies near the shop’s entrance, as I imagined?
*ETA: Awww. That was The History Boys. And in two weeks I'll be seeing Uncle Vernon on stage again. With Naked!Dan. *gulp*
Hope you’ll write a post about your impressions from “Equus”.
(Just looked up in wiki: “The History Boys” seems like a more interesting play to read.)
*ETA: There's not much Lucius *can* do.
Except to drawl.
This is a stellar chapter for Harry. He pouts, sulks, draws illogical conclusions even while guessing the culprit and attacks a disabled janitor when he’s not looking. He also gets angry when people don't seem to know he's the designated hero. Chosen One here! Let's think about me!
You know, I would enjoy reading a book with such hero very much, if all those were presented as flaws. But only if his speech weren’t represented as Caps Lock on the page. (Usual shouting is fine.)
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***Such a thing would be impossible to hide in a small closed comunity like the wizarding one. And even if Ron hadn't seen Luna, he would have heard of Mad Lovegood's crazy daughter.
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I accidentally answered this below, but what I meant about knowing everyone was just that the Purebloods seem to keep track of bloodlines, like the way the Blacks have their family tree. So it seems hard to just say you're a Pureblood without having them know if you're lying. The list of last names isn't that long.
Only what is “animal rides out front”?
Sometimes in front of stores they have these little plastic animals. You put a toddler on them and put in a coin and the animal rocks back and forth and plays music for a little while.
The History Boys was awesome!
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The casual meanness of all our so-called heroes ("designated" indeed) is the one thing I have the hardest time getting around. There are tons of ways the books are badly written, but I think this is an example of the books being wrongly written, if that makes sense. For an author who seems to want us to think she's against bullying, she's got a funny way of going about it.
Watch Hermione’s painful attempts to show comfort to Leanne. She’s much more at home punishing the unjust.
I think HBP has Hermione at her worst (in DH she's so busy cooking and cleaning for her boys she doesn't have the time to get up to much else *g*). There's just such an absence of compassion. I don't think it was always this way... at least, iirc, Hermione did seem to sympathize with and comfort others in earlier books. (In GoF she was the one who noticed Neville was suffering from watching Fake!Moody cast Crucio on the spider, for example.)
I almost wonder if the loss of Hermione's compassion is a good marker of when JKR completely lost the thrust of her books? Lost control of the idea of what "good vs. evil" really means?
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God, I don't even know. I mean, it quickly seemed clear that every character except for a few weirdos were going to share a satisfaction for beating people down. The world is basically divided into three types: bullies, victims, and people who protect people from bullies. The second group grows into the first or the third, and the first and the third are sometimes hard to tell apart.
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(Anonymous) 2008-10-24 11:40 am (UTC)(link)Bullying is one of those irregular verbs: He bullies, you tease, I stand up for myself.
In all seriousness, though, it's actually very common in human nature for people to have double-standards like this, we all do. It's the same with racism, nobody wakes up in the morning and thinks "today, I shall start holding factually incorrect opinions about minorities." Bullies think what they're doing is totally okay, racists think they're totally right. Rowling, like most people, divides the world up neatly into goodies and baddies, and assume that everything bad is done by baddies, and everything good is done by goodies.
It's jarring in fiction because you usually expect authors to have a bit more perspective and insight, but when you get right down to it, JKR's just a person, and she has a normal person's prejudices and double standards.
To put it another way: it's not her fault, she's just stupid.
- Dan Hemmens
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It's frustrating when people don't accept that, though. Like when people assume that if you're bothered by, say, Ginny or the Twins more than you're bothered by Snape's threat to feed a potion to Trevor you must be either crazy or you've talked yourself into that position just to be contrary. But bullying is generally something you identify emotionally. JKR may think, for instance, that her reaction to Pansy Parkinson is universal and never get that other people might react to Ginny the way she reacts to Pansy.
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I have to say, a good thing that came out of my HP experience is I feel like I question books more. Because I feel I did have these expectations of insight, and that shaped how I looked at the series, especially in the beginning when I liked all the characters and felt I was in for a really good story. (Possibly why I'm looking for a place where the series "turned wrong" when the very first book has a good guy attacking a child for something the child's father said. I mean, if that's not bullying!)
Magpie said: And I get it too-you even see it in fandom discussions where someone will be very bothered by one character doing this stuff but not another.
And that's another good thing! :D Seeing others have that reaction, and then realizing I've had that same reaction only with different characters... it's wonderful food for thought. And it's an interesting way to really explore what bullying is, for example.
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The exploits of Study Number Five occasionally take place in the worrying twilight zones of human conduct in which Kipling seems a peculiarly blinkered guide. There is, for instance, the episode called "The moral reformers". Stalky and Co find that two big boys have been bullying a little one. They manage by a trick to get the bullies trussed up and helpless. Stalky tells them that "now we're goin' to show you what real bullyin' is"; and there is an eight-page description in grim and gloating detail of how the bullies are tortured in their turn. Counter-bullying is not really any more admirable than bullying; it seems morally obtuse, at the least, to report it with gleeful approval.
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I was impressed by an eight-page (!) description. Even JKR hasn't reached such heights. May be she should have written HP in Kipling's era? Stalky and Co are like the Trio's soul mates. Interesting why Kipling gave the name "Stalky". It sounds like "a stalker".
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(Anonymous) 2008-10-18 09:47 am (UTC)(link)Kipling was also terribly bullied, both by his caretakers and their son and during the first years at school, so this story has more than a bit of wish-fulfillement in it. BTW, the teacher who put them up to it in the first place, anknowledges that an adult would have gone to jail for something along those lines, but since "boys would be boys", nothing could/would be done about bullying, unless the boys themselves act against it.
At least Kipling never pretended that the trio in the Stalky stories were moral paragons or acting "for the greater good". Not even in this story.
OTOH, if one reads British public school stories, of the late 19th - early 20th century, even the most benign ones, such as those by Woodhouse, it becomes clear that casual bullying of the younger boys by the elder was _the_ way those institutions were run. The life of young boy at school was pretty nasty and brutish - it is not a coincidence that the heroes of public school stories are usually in their penultimate or last year, when _they_ are on the top of the heap and garnering sports glory for the alma mater.
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I may be projecting my general dissatisfaction with HBP onto one passage here, but the list of spells seems like an example of how JKR's humor is running dry by this point in the series. It's trying too hard to be wacky and fun, and it seems a little labored.
*ETA: I'm forgetting, but does Hermione start using spells like Muffliato in the next book even though she was dead set against them here? I guess because she finds out the HBP is Snape and not some random future DE?
No, it's because she got over her sudden plot-related bout of needing to be assured that spells were Ministry-approved. I could probably fanwank the attack as "she doesn't quite understand why she's against the Prince's book, so she gropes for a plausible-sounding excuse," but it still doesn't really sound good after she made such a show of defying the Ministry-approved DADA curriculum in fifth year.
*Ron also flicks a sausage that hits Ernie—so Hufflepuffs sit right behind Gryffindor.
Are the house tables canonically arranged in alphatbetical order, or is that fanon?
According to Hogwarts a History in the early years the Hufflepuffs actually sat at the Gryffindors feet and fed off their heroic scraps.
*snort!*
*Harry’s been intentionally scheduling practice during the dinner so that he and Ginny can laugh about the inferior people Hermione’s got to spend time with without them. You think they know other kids are at the same time laughing over their friends having to spend time with Hermione?
But you know that if Harry and Hermione had been ducking out to, say, brew some Polyjuice or something, all the other kids would be envying their friends the chance to spend an evening with the Goddess Ginny up close and personal.
*So when exactly did Malfoy buy the necklace? I guess he sent Rosemerta to buy it as well as deliver it? Who Imperiused her, since he was at school?
Hmm, maybe he had Narcissa pick it up for him?
*Now I’m having visions of tiny Draco and Blaise having fierce lolling contests where each tries to out-languid the other. Before they call it a drawl.
ROFL!
Selling Wood
Watch Hermione’s painful attempts to show comfort to Leanne. She’s much more at home punishing the unjust.
This leads me to wonder which of the main characters actually takes the prize for least compassionate. In fact, do any of the main characters actually ever display any compassion? I'm not coming up with examples off the top of my head.
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Interesting. The books are very long, after all, and it's hard to sustain whimsy through long books.
No, it's because she got over her sudden plot-related bout of needing to be assured that spells were Ministry-approved. I could probably fanwank the attack as "she doesn't quite understand why she's against the Prince's book, so she gropes for a plausible-sounding excuse," but it still doesn't really sound good after she made such a show of defying the Ministry-approved DADA curriculum in fifth year.
Yeah, it's not like Hermione can't handle being hypocritical sometimes (pretty much all the characters are sometimes) but sometimes she's given such 180 degree turns that she felt so strongly about and everybody acts like there's no change.
This leads me to wonder which of the main characters actually takes the prize for least compassionate. In fact, do any of the main characters actually ever display any compassion? I'm not coming up with examples off the top of my head.
If definitely doesn't come naturally. Harry feels sorry for Dobby in CoS, but there's injustice there as well. Hermione and Ginny are both given obviously compassionate scenes, but they just read so much like that it's annoying. Then when they deal with their friends the main thing everybody appreciates is not needing compassion.
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