HBP Chapter Sixteen

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

*Ron reveals what an Unbreakable Vow is, though as far as I’ve seen this is still a big debate in fandom. Like it’s got to be Dark Magic because Slytherins do it so it’s a sign of how they don’t really love each other, but the Twins almost had Ron do one, and how could little kids perform something like that and so forth etc. The main thing is: are we to believe Ron that you die if you break a UV? I’m willing to go with him on this. After all, what’s the point of it if it’s not that?

*ETA: Ultimately I think it works like the "magical contract" in GoF. It's not that there's any specific thing necessarily that happens if you break it--at least not one that's important. It just means you will do it whether you want to or not.

*You know, since HBP I’ve seen a number of references in fandom to Harry’s wicked sense of humor, often with references to sprouts and Fred’s left buttock and err…those lines aren’t even jokes he makes.

*The Twins come in and play a practical joke by making Ron slice his thumb open on a knife. Um...ha?

*Ginny’s told the Twins about Lavender, and Ron’s not displeased. As, frankly, I don’t think Ginny was displeased to have them know about her own popularity, especially when given a chance to look good and be a feminist at the same time.

*Ron throws a knife at the Twins—I can’t help but think this scene is more interesting knowing that Sectumsempra’s coming up.

*If you asked fandom five years ago which family was most likely to throw knives at each other at Christmas, do you think they’d have said the Weasleys?

*Fred asks if Percy is showing his ugly face at Christmas. I’m going to give Fred the benefit of the doubt here and say he’s covering up his true desire for Percy to come home and feeling guilty for how badly he always treated him. Benefit of the doubt? Positive spin? Delusions? You decide.

*ETA: ::sigh:: Oh, Percy.

*Naturally Fred is the one to make jokes about how difficult life is for Muggles and Squibs, since he likes to engage in a little Muggle-baiting now and then.

*"If you want people to help you, you shouldn’t throw knives at them, just a hint," says George. I really hope that’s foreshadowing for Harry in the next book.

*ETA: LOL! Nope.

*George gets a line about some pretty girl he’s impressing with Magic. JKR is trying really hard to make Fred and George not seem like Twins out of a David Cronenberg film, with limited success.

*ETA: Although it's at the center of the entire book, the Muggle/Wizard relationship thing will never be coherent. Muggles are lower forms of life unless it's one of those moments where we're pointing to the goodness of the goodies as evidenced by their gallant protection of them. Wizards seem so ignorant and confused they couldn't get across a busy Muggle street without getting killed until they need to swoop in and be impressive because magic always makes you better.

*Ron warns Harry that everyone will say Snape isn’t really trying to help Draco, he’s just pretending to help him. Ron gets a lot smarter when Hermione isn’t around, I notice.

*ETA: Don't get too cocky about that, though, Ron. Hermione would totally have had that line if she was there.

*Harry sort of proves my point by imagining what Hermione would have said in this situation. She’d say exactly what Ron said, only in a much more obnoxious way that would have got Harry’s back up and probably made him not tell DD at all.

*Ron almost gets himself in trouble by sounding like he doesn’t agree with Harry 100%—yipes! He backs off from that one fast.

*ETA: Oh, Ron. You'll learn your lesson soon enough.

*I really hope, though, that Harry’s "Nobody’s that good of an actor" is again laying out another one of those Jane Austen twists. After all, Snape isn’t lying about really wanting to help Malfoy. Just, imo, not by helping him kill Dumbledore and be a DE. Snape’s sincere concern seems more like proof he’s DDM to me.

*ETA: I'm sorry, did I say sincere concern? I meant Snape being on board with killing Dumbledore only because Dumbledore told him to is proof he's DDM. Dumbledore and Lily pretty much cover everything for Snape.

*Harry hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to Hermione about what he overheard with Snape and Malfoy which is...well, pretty unbelievable. This is one of those passages where I feel like the narrator just grabbed my arm and led me forcibly to where s/he wanted me to go.

*Harry's been telling Ron over and over that he told him so about Malfoy. So this means Ron and Hermione will be on board to investigate it now, right? Right?

*Seriously, why aren't they? It’s not like Harry’s working on nothing here. He thinks Malfoy’s up to something because he’s seen and heard Malfoy is up to something.

*Ginny has over-decorated the sitting room, which is a sign of the Weasleys inner good-breeding and something Maya, if not JKR, will be able to make endearing to me. So that's 2 Mary Sue flaws for Ginny (something superficial and a bad temper).

*As it wouldn’t be a Weasley Christmas without a little cruelty, there’s a sentient creature petrified and humiliated sitting at the top of their tree.

*Fleur and Mrs. Weasley have a passive-aggressive fight over the radio. On one hand I can sympathize with Molly’s irritation at somebody talking during her program. Otoh, this is what happens when you insist that everyone has to listen to something just because you like it.

*ETA: It also shows what happens when you bizarrely move in with your in-laws.

*Ron’s watching Bill and Fleur hoping to pick up tips. Awww.

*I hear that in the HBP movie Remus will be played by an actual scarecrow.

*So to review, nobody in the room enjoys the radio programme, but they all pretend to because they love Molly. Except Fleur, who dislikes Molly and knows Molly dislikes her. Nothing shocking there.

*ETA: Anyway, Molly and Fleur are both women so it's probably better they don't have a relationship until they can find a man or men to center it around.

*Mr. Weasley’s office hasn’t caught a single DE. There’s a shock. I hope he’s at least gotten some nice stuff for keeping his friends from being bothered with investigations.

*ETA: Anyway, why is Mr. Weasley's office expected to catch DEs? Don't they know that the duty of every man at times like this is to sit at home with their family and listen to the radio for news of whether or not Harry's saved them yet?

*Really the Ministry should just let Harry say who belongs in jail and not. Then Stan would be free and Narcissa would be in jail—it’s a foolproof system of justice!

*ETA: Btw, in my personal canon Stan was totally a DE. And he went free at the end because Harry declared him innocent. Go Stan.

*So does Mr. Weasley know about the secret place under the Malfoy’s floor? I ask because someone recently said Harry makes a mistake by not telling Arthur to look there, after Ron forgot to tell him about it in CoS. I’ve always assumed Ron did tell Arthur is CoS. But then, CoS is the book where Lucius refused to buy Draco the Hand of Glory we were later to assume he had so…

*ETA: That secret room might win the prize for best not-Chekov's-gun-at-all in HP.

*Lupin turns to listen as Harry tells Arthur about Snape and the UV. I kind of love that Lupin does that for some reason.

ETA: No idea why I loved that, but I guess I did. Lupin needs all the love he can get before the next book.

*Seriously, what is going on with Lupin here? He’s staring into the flames thinking about okay maybe Tonks but maybe something more interesting about his spying. But he gets interested when he hears about this storyline, and then jumps in with “It’s not our business! We follow Dumbledore!” like he’s trying to convince himself. *Hopes for interesting Lupin story in Book VII.*

*LOL! *Hopes for Lupin not fulfilled in Book VII.*

*Seriously, everybody's acting not only as if spying on the werewolves has something to do with the actual battle here, but as if war demands that people sacrifice their domestic plans to fight for a while. No wonder Lupin gets all confused in the next book.

*Lupin neither likes nor dislikes Snape. How do people not think this guy is evil? Everyone must pick sides on this sort of thing and declare them! How can he both be friends with James and Sirius and side with them against Snape but also respect and appreciate the man’s making him Wolfsbane? You can’t be fair about someone you dislike or who has been nasty to you or the world will crumble!

*ETA: Seriously, yeah, Lupin's right about Snape, but Lupin's also the good guy most criticized, with the reasons for both seeming kind of related to me. Lupin does manage to squeak in on the right side in the end, but he's not a natural hero like Sirius and James.

*Harry tries valiantly to show Remus the proper way to spin everything Snape does into something bad, but gets nowhere. Werewolves. What are you going to do?

*ETA: And I'm sure this conversation doesn't get any better in retrospect for Harry after Remus is dead (if he remembers it at all). Neither like nor dislike Snape? He was awesomely brave and sacrificed his life for me and I shall name my child after him!

*Remus also refers to Draco by his first name. Can’t help but like to follow Remus’ personal code of names, which seem significant and different from other peoples.’

*ETA: Sign #54 I was totally skipping down the wrong direction with this story. If Remus is doing it it's probably just wishy-washy. Good in the end, yeah, but only with a lot of encouragement from better characters.

*Fleur starts to say something bad about the radio concert, which is either evil or funny depending on how you feel about Fleur.

*Lupin apologizes for not being able to write Harry (like he did for all those years before—oh wait, he never did), having been forced into a horrible life with the man who traumatized him as a child on Dumbledore’s orders. For Lupin this is like smashing everything in the room and Crucio-ing somebody in anger. ETA: Wuss.

*ETA: It is, at least, convenient the way Lupin starts apologizing for not writing in the exact book where Harry first considers he might like Lupin to write to him.

*ETA: Remember when lots of people thought Lupin was set up as Harry's best father-figure?

*Hearing he sounds bitter, Lupin gives all the reasons it’s a good thing he’s doing. I’m beginning to understand the appeal of Snupin. I think both of them feel surrounded by idiots a lot, just for opposite reasons. It’s the HMS Spies Like Us.

*ETA: Or maybe they just bond over how little their information gathering matters at all.

*How come the werewolves like Voldemort? Harry wants to know. Oh Harry, they don't need a reason to like the guy. We need some vague threat of people on the other side. Don't worry, you won't ever actually have to deal with them for real.

*You haven’t heard of Greyback? asks Lupin, gently chastising Harry for not remembering the parts of chapter six he didn’t embellish himself.

*Harry’s tunnel vision really strikes again, doesn’t it? Here he’s obsessed with finding out what Malfoy’s up to and never thinks to check out the name he dropped?

*Greyback’s plan is to bite kids young and raise them away from wizards. Do most wizard parents send their kids away when they’ve been bitten?

*ETA: Funny that doesn't seem like Greyback's plan in the next book. There his plan just seems to be to take orders from Voldemort like all the other DEs.

*Naturally Lupin had felt pity for the werewolf that bit him, unable to help seeing other points of view. He admits his own brand of reasoned argument doesn’t make much headway amongst Greyback’s hoards. I hear ya, Remus!

*Lupin laughingly remembers James referring to his werewolfism as his “furry little problem” in company, so people thought he owned a badly behaved rabbit. I know the point here is that James didn’t shun Remus because of his problem. Unfortunately having read OotP I just get this impression of James loving to talk about Remus’ being a werewolf in company because of the risk/secret factor, which I’m sure isn’t the intention.

*ETA: Guess where know where Harry got his own ability to be held up as a paragon of enlightened tolerance when not doing anything that significant.

*Score one for Harry—Levicorpus was indeed invented when he was at school. I’m surprised it’s not studied in History of Magic, given Wizarding Culture. It’s like the wizard equivalent of the invention of penicillin or something.

*Harry reveals he sort of wanted the Prince to be Remus, Sirius (Who?) or James because he’s helped him out in his classes. Which is a little weird. It’s not like the Prince as a person has offered to help Harry with his homework. The help was purely accidental on the Prince's part.

*ETA: With another person I would just take this wish of Harry's as something kind of sweet, like he thought it would be cool to have that sort of bond with the older men in his family. But given it's Harry it's hard not to make a joke about him just not approving of any sort of bond with people he hasn't vetted.

*Harry’s never checked how old the book is. *smacks Harry in the back of his thick head*

*Harry goes to sleep thinking of the cries of bitten children. This book is really heavy on the werewolf stuff. Is it just for Greyback’s appearance and Remus/Tonks? Because it sounds like a set up for some good werewolf stuff in Book VII.

*ETA: Sounds like, maybe, but totally is not in any way, shape or form.

*Lavender blows it with Ron by giving him a pimp necklace that says "My Sweetheart." Unlike Hermione’s more appropriate Ron presents, like homework calendars. At least the necklace doesn’t talk, Ron!

*It’s sad that given what I’ve seen of the love stuff in this book, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Lavender asked Hermione what Ron would like and she picked that.

*Ron reveals he and Lavender don’t talk much. Phew! That’s simple enough. You can have either Hermione or someone you can’t talk to at all even though from what we’ve seen of Lavender and Ron they probably could talk just fine. This is much simpler.

*ETA: Although maybe Ron just doesn't recognizing something as talking if it's not bickering.

*Luckily the hideousness of Ron’s necklace is immediately outdone by the ridiculousness of Harry’s new sweater with a Snitch on the front.

*ETA: Don't try to win me over with maggots, Kreacher. You're still dead to me.

*Everyone’s wearing sweaters except Fleur upon whom Mrs. Weasley didn’t want to "waste one" which is probably best for everyone.

*Mrs. Weasley is also wearing ugly clothes, given to her by Fred and George. I wonder if the tacky gene will get passed on to Harry and Ginny’s children.

*ETA: How come Ginny doesn't give Harry a My Sweetheart necklace?

*Fred and George are so trying to take Percy’s place with Molly. And I love the way they can sort of turn into Percy incrementally without anyone noticing, because they make such a show of not being him.

*Ginny takes a maggot out of Harry’s hair and he shivers. I’ll point out here that Harry’s now been living at home with the girl he’s supposedly got the hots for, and not only doesn’t he try to chat her up (too noble? Yeah, right) but doesn’t notice her until the plot allows for it.

*Not that I’m complaining. I’m quite grateful for the H/G reprieve while we deal with the storylines that might go somewhere.

*ETA: Might go somewhere, but won't.

*Mrs. Weasley looks at Remus, Harry thinks, as if it’s his fault she’s getting Fleur instead of Tonks in the family. Is it his fault? I mean, is Harry just completely off-base here in mistaking Molly’s push for R/T over B/T, or did Molly entertain the idea at some point before getting involved in R/T?

*Harry asks Remus about Tonks’ Patronus and he takes his time chewing. I have to admit, reading this chapter for the second time really makes you feel for Remus. It’s like having this one interesting character with a lot going on camouflaged by the usual Weasley white noise.

*ETA: This book seems to have been all about storylines that seemed interesting to me but turned out not to be.

*Percy shows no interest in greeting anybody except Molly. Good for you, Percy!

*Scrimgeour and Harry, garden, blah blah, Harry won’t help Ministry blah…mascot, scapegoat, gnome…

*Harry thinks Scrimgeour’s doing just what Crouch did. Harry’s very good at noticing when people he doesn’t like do that. Not so much his own group.

*Harry holds up his fist with the scarred words on it. Please let there be a similar scene with Marietta in the next book.

*ETA: Damn.

*Harry acts the badass about how Scrimgeour should leave Dumbledore alone. Too bad at the end of this year Scrimgeour will still be in power while Dumbledore takes a header off a Tower, huh?

*Harry perfectly ends the scene about being his own man by declaring himself Dumbledore’s man. After all, Dumbledore’s never manipulated him. Bwahahaha!

*ETA: Did Scrimgeor redeem himself by dying for Harry or not? It doesn't seem like it was really about Harry personally for Scrimgeor, so probably not.

*I guess I’ll have to wait until the next chapter to be reminded about the parsnips thrown at Percy. Joy.

*This is stellar chapter for Ginny. She gets one line and it’s not an insult! No wonder Harry barely notices her.





Idiot World
So Arthur’s team can’t catch a single DE even though we know who most of the DEs are, Harry’s overheard a little bit of a current plot and he knows about at least one secret chamber in the Malfoy house. No wonder they recruited Stan. With his ability to drive straight he could take over this world pretty quickly.

Misdirected Answering
Quick Lupin, while the radio’s playing, give us some news from your interesting storyline! Please!

Final score: 2

Comments

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

George gets a line about some pretty girl he’s impressing with Magic.
Am I wrong to get the creeps here? I mean, they are of age, so the ministry won't monitor their magical activities outside their house any longer. Seeing how respectful the twins act towards their fellow wizards, it is difficult to imagine they'd act anything but selfcentred jerks around a girl who couldn't possibly defend herself against them.

Neither like nor dislike Snape? He was awesomely brave and sacrificed his life for me and I shall name my child after him!
Wow, this made me understand the reason why Remus sticks out like a sore thumb from the rest of the WW: his ego is small enough for him to squint around the edges. Even with Neville, it was only when it was about HIM, HIS family, and HIS revenge that he got kickstarted into action.

He admits his own brand of reasoned argument doesn’t make much headway amongst Greyback's hordes.
And people still think it's possible that werewolves are Muggles? They carry the main sign of wizardkind!

Which is a little weird. It’s not like the Prince as a person has offered to help Harry with his homework.
Oh yes. One more instance of forced and wholly unbelievable emotionality. If it had been Hermione during their first year, that developped an emotional tie with a book - o.k. Even Ginny (01) in CoS was believable. But Harry? Ridiculous.

Lavender blows it with Ron by giving him a pimp necklace that says "My Sweetheart." Unlike Hermione’s more appropriate Ron presents, like homework calendars.
The funny thing is, that this connection might be totally intentional: Lavender's present says "You are o.k. like you are", whereas Hermkione's says "You should be better or at least buckle up to try and improve!" And in JKR world, it's the second that reeks of true love.

Ron reveals he and Lavender don’t talk much.
This is SO weird! I could have understood if JKR had shown Ron and Hermione having a really good connection, talking about things, understanding each other etc. and then - whew - in came Lavender with a lot of sex appeal and nothing else and blew Ron off his feet. Then this line would have made sense because he sort of would have got it out of his system, realizing that snogging 24/7 tends to go stale after some time. But that's not how it was. As it stands, he gets "sex" (in the broader sense), admiration and attention from Lavender - and nothing but put-downs from Hermione. Um - what?

How come Ginny doesn't give Harry a My Sweetheart necklace?
Oh come on - much too girly. My bets are on a whip with a huge pink sparkly bow on it.

*Fred and George are so trying to take Percy’s place with Molly.
I thought this was done well, actually - but, in hindsight, totally by accident as it seems.

[eir-de-scania.livejournal.com]

How come Ginny doesn't give Harry a My Sweetheart necklace?
Oh come on - much too girly. My bets are on a whip with a huge pink sparkly bow on it.

***ROTFL!! Perhaps she did, but Bloomsbury cut it? Or perhaps she waited until they were married.

[baeraad.livejournal.com]

I could have understood if JKR had shown Ron and Hermione having a really good connection, talking about things, understanding each other etc. and then - whew - in came Lavender with a lot of sex appeal and nothing else and blew Ron off his feet.

Yeah, that's driving me crazy too. Even if we take JKR's word for Ron and Lavender having nothing to talk about whatsoever - even though it seems like they should be more on each other's wavelength than Ron and Hermione - Ron and Hermione have no chemistry or anything in common or anything to talk about either, so given the choice, I don't see why Ron doesn't prefer the one who is more friendly and affectionate.

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

Ron reveals he and Lavender don’t talk much.
This is SO weird! I could have understood if JKR had shown Ron and Hermione having a really good connection, talking about things, understanding each other etc. and then - whew - in came Lavender with a lot of sex appeal and nothing else and blew Ron off his feet. Then this line would have made sense because he sort of would have got it out of his system, realizing that snogging 24/7 tends to go stale after some time. But that's not how it was. As it stands, he gets "sex" (in the broader sense), admiration and attention from Lavender - and nothing but put-downs from Hermione. Um - what?

What's even weirder to me is that the "don't talk much" idea was used by Movie!Hermione to describe her relationship with Victor Krum. ("He doesn't talk much. He's more physical...") Which makes me wonder what we're supposed to think about Hermione and Victor. I can't imagine book Hermione being happy with a guy who doesn't talk. Then again... Hermione never did seem to care about Krum much beyond his appeal as the high-status date to the Yule Ball. I mean, when he tries to talk to her after the second task (when she's the thing he can't do without, she rudely brushes him off. Then, when the school is leaving for the summer, she hardly cares enough to say good-bye privately to this guy--and it seems like she hasn't spoken to him in weeks.

It's almost (gasp!) like these guys she dates don't matter except for the status they bring her and their ability to get Ron jealous. Yeah, nothing wrong with their relationship.

Meanwhile, Ron's fling is presented as nothing more to him than sex. I used to really like Ron/Hermione. Next stop, Disappointmentville!

[violaswamp.livejournal.com]

And believe it or not, I've seen people blame Lavender for "making" Ron get into a purely physical relationship.

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

Word re: Ron/Hermione/Lavender. I mean just so much word.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Even if the Twins aren't doing anything harmful to the girl, naturally the whole relationship is one big joke. They do magic that she doesn't know is magic and says it's like real magic. Idiot Muggle.

The funny thing is, that this connection might be totally intentional: Lavender's present says "You are o.k. like you are", whereas Hermkione's says "You should be better or at least buckle up to try and improve!" And in JKR world, it's the second that reeks of true love.

Lavender's either too dumb to see how much improvement Ron needs, or she doesn't care enough to improve him. She's probably just using him to have somebody close to Harry.

I like the way Fred and George take Percy's place too. Just like they always wanted.