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deathtocapslock2008-12-12 10:19 am
sistermagpie.livejournal.com) wrote in deathtocapslock2008-12-12 10:19 am
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HBP Chapter Twenty
*Looking back, it’s pretty hilarious that Lord Voldemort’s request boils down to really really wanting to teach 7th grade. You’d expect it to be a demand for Harry to give up his soul to save some little Muggle girl or something.
*ETA: I was reading somebody the other day who pointed out that Voldemort's plans were much better when Dumbledore manipulated them. Like on his own Voldemort is just kind of an idiot and it's only with Dumbledore's help he creates this impression of scariness.
*Hermione is friends with Ron again, the best part of being poisoned. Does it ever bother Harry that his great Trio friendship has to so often rely on near-death experiences to stay intact?
*Harry comes across either Crabbe or Goyle examining the tapestry of trolls while guarding the RoR (cue fics where one of them starts creating tapestries himself or reveals one of the trolls is an ancestor!).
*She "looks terrified" of the approaching sixth years—which is cool because of course really he’s going, "Potter’s gang—shit!" ETA: This really is the kind of thing JKR does best.
*Ginny’s argued with Dean because he did a Harry impression that she is planning to do later on. It’s only funny when I do it, jerk. You’re not good enough friends with Harry to tease him. Only his Ideal Girl gets to do that! Stop trying to steal my thunder!
*ETA: Of course we all realize that Ginny being hypocritical and unfair is clearly showing how she's in love with Harry. (Seriously. That's what she's showing there.)
*Hermione hotly says that Harry getting hit didn’t look funny at all. Well, at least now we know what lies at the heart of Hermione and Ginny’s great friendship. They don’t just bond over guys, they met in the "Violence is only good when I say it is" club.
*Luna thinks Ron’s making fun of her by saying she gave good commentary. As if Luna doesn’t know Ron appreciates anyone saying anything against Zach Smith, the Evil Heart of Hogwarts.
*And Hermione makes yet another girl jealous. Guess that’s the price you pay for being best friends with the best people in school!
*Hermione, being in a good mood, writes the end of Harry’s essay for him, something she’d refused to do before because she knew he’d let Ron copy it. So to review, the only reason for Hermione to refuse to do Harry’s homework for him is because she wants to keep it from Ron. You can see why Hermione’s smirking in a superior way. Lavender wishes she was cool enough to have two boys let her do their homework for them.
*ETA: And also cook their meals, do their laundry and pack their underwear.
*ETA: Yeah, Harry and Ron are totally going to do great in the elite training program hardly anybody gets into on their own merits that allegedly deals with all these subjects.
*Harry finds Sybil with Dumbledore, complaining about Firenze. He hears her trip over her shawls on the way down the stairs. He does not chalk that up to her hilarious drinking problem, I guess because we haven’t gotten into the Slytherin part of the chapter yet.
*ETA: Does she get fired after DH? Or do they keep her around forever because that's what Dumbledore decided and good people always live their lives according to Dumbledore's orders even when he's dead?
*Dumbledore casually mentions how he’s made another one of his Dumbledore-ish-mistakes in not realizing how having two Divination teachers he’s personally protecting at the school would work out.
*ETA::sigh:: Poor Albus. He will just never learn to stop giving other people so much credit and autonomy. This is why he's the only one who can know anything and he has to make all the plans and tell everyone what to do.
*Dumbledore tells Harry Sybil doesn’t know about the prophecy she made, putting Harry in the delightful position of knowing a huge secret about a pathetic teacher that she herself does not know. That’s not demeaning to Trelawney at all, so let’s move on.
*ETA: Of course, Dumbledore is just protecting Sybil by not letting her know what's going on in her own life. Only super geniuses like Albus can handle this kind of sensitive information.
*Harry says no, he hasn’t gotten the memory from Slughorn and Dumbledore guilt trips him because it really is important that he gets the memory the exact way that Dumbledore wants it gotten. It’s fun making Harry plumb the depths of his cunning. Dance little schoolboy! Dance for me!
*Dumbledore continues guilt-tripping Harry about how he told him how important the memory is. For some reason Harry, who much of fandom considers to be completely rude and spoiled brat, does not tell Dumbledore that if it’s so important maybe he should just use his own best-wizard-of-all-time powers to get the memory instead of amusing himself making Harry do it whenever he’s got a minute between classes.
*ETA: I would say to imagine what Harry would do if Snape told him to do this, but of course Snape would do it himself to begin with, claiming that Harry's an idiot.
*It’s probably not a good sign that the moment when Harry feels an actual sense of shame is when I’m mentally snarking at Dumbledore for him. Probably because once again Dumbledore just seems to be demanding some pathetic show of personal loyalty. It’s not like this is the only way to get the memory, he’s just as usual wanting Harry to prove he’ll do what he says. You like me! You really like me!
*Maybe in the next book Harry and Draco can compare their experiences being shamed by a beloved authority figure.
*ETA: Err...nope. Harry will pretty much go on validating Albus' ego right off into death. The final book, in fact, is a veritable orgy of Albus-validation. That's the book where Dumbledore reveals the one thing in his life he's got a twinge of insecurity about so that Harry can tell him no man could have done better.
*Seriously, it's really creepy that the one time Harry feels ashamed of himself it's for believing he let Dumbledore down for this. The only lesson he learns to grow up is to listen to Dumbledore more.
*Dumbledore really starts piling it on thick when Harry apologizes, quietly daring to hope that Harry puts more thought into the project now that he’s remembered Dumbledore wants him to do that. Tell you what, Albus, I’ll get you that memory right after you get around to telling me what actually happened to your hand.
*ETA: Oh my god this chapter is SO CREEPY post-DH.
*Harry’s then EVEN MORE ashamed when Dumbledore OMG says he cares to hear his opinion on whether he’s right about Voldemort! He, like, totally values Harry’s opinion! God Dumbledore, enough already. Stick a fork in him, he’s done. You could tell him you thought Voldemort’s secret dream was to become the tooth fairy and he’d agree with your conclusions at this point, just to prove himself to you.
*Harry feels uncomfortable at Dumbledore’s description of how Voldemort feels about Hogwarts. Presumably because it was the first place he felt at home too and not because he’s more attached to it than he could ever be to any person…right?
*ETA: Ah, the whole "Lost Boys" idea that imo doesn't really work out. Especially when Harry starts roping Snape into it. Aww, me and Snape are totally the same! We're just innocent boys unfairly treated who found a home at Hogwarts. It's not like one of us lost his best friend here to the pack of boys who bullied him, became a Nazi and then was sentenced to prison here for the rest of his life against his will. We all just love the place and never want to leave!
*Slughorn and Voldemort were BFF, huh? I guess Tom Riddle knew the Good Slytherin when he saw him.
*Dumbledore, being all-knowing, was deeply disturbed at the idea of Tom teaching kids. Not that he told Dippet why he felt that way. Need to know basis, remember!
*Btw, Dumbledore’s all-knowingness does of course contain a certain blind spot. That blind spot’s name is…Señor Draco. (And it’s shaped like a sombrero.)
*There’s a big file in Dumbledore’s office of secrets he keeps from people for their own good: Dean’s father being a Wizard, Flitwick being adopted and part-goblin, Trelawney marked for death, Lord Voldemort’s true identity, some Hufflepuff second year dying of an incurable disease he doesn’t know about himself… ETA: The entire stupid plan to bring down Lord Voldemort.
*Harry drops into the memory of the female version of Slughorn—a fat, ridiculous and vain woman who collects things and who’s got no business slobbering over young Tom Riddle. Is it a coincidence these guys all appear in the same book? The magpie-like can not be trusted!
*Of course she’s a bit worse than Slughorn in that she’s wearing make-up, the last resort of those not pretty on the inside.
*Hokey tells Hephzibah she looks lovely. "Nyuh-uh girlfriend," Harry thinks to himself with a snap. His bitchy tirade about her looks is cut off by the stunning appearance of Young Tom Riddle. His hair’s just a little longer (Harry having noted it before) and his cheeks a little hollowed but oh, it suits him! He’s more handsome than ever!!
*ETA: Auror Headquarters, 2008. Harry Potter, Chief Auror, turned at the door to his office. "I don't want to be disturbed for at least an hour, Higglebottom," he told the young recruit in the tone of authority that came so naturally to him. "Important Auror business." He shut the door behind Higglebottom, locking it with a careless flick of his wand. Scanning the office for spying spells, he waved a hand over a spot on the floor, revealing a secret chamber, the kind commonly referred to as a "Malfoy Cubby." From this he removed a polished wooden box covered in ancient runes. "I solemnly swear I am the Chosen One." Harry whispered. There was a hint of music--goblin-made windchimes, to be exact, the kind that were now illegal--and the box opened. He took the dog-eared book from inside it and with a quick glance in his foe-glass, Chief Auror Potter began to read: "MY MOTHER DROVE ME TO THE AIRPORT WITH THE windows rolled down. It was seventy-five degrees in Phoenix, the sky a perfect, cloudless blue. I was wearing my favorite shirt —sleeveless, white eyelet lace; I was wearing it as a farewell gesture. My carry-on item was a parka..."
*Tom Riddle is dressed simply in a dark, probably designer, suit perfectly cut…Oops! Forgot Wizards wear robes again!
*Hephzibah simpers all over Tom. Harry physically restrains himself from screaming, "Get your piggy little hands off him, you sow!"
*Hephzibah’s eyes are fastened on Voldemort’s handsome features, so she doesn’t see the flash of evil red in his eyes like Harry, who was lost in his eyes at the time.
*The cup apparently has powers all on its own. *Makes note*
*ETA: Not that we ever see these powers that I remember.
*When Hephzibah looks into Voldemort’s face for the first time Harry sees her "foolish" smile falter. Harry is such a little bitch about this woman. I wonder why. Could you tell us, ever so handsome Tom?
*Dumbledore’s conclusions are totally validated when Harry draws the same ones after seeing the scene. As if showing someone this scene and telling them the woman was poisoned two days later wouldn’t make anyone say Tom did it even if he’d been innocent. Next show us a scene where Harry tells us how Draco’s up to something and must be stopped and then tell us Draco was eviscerated two days later and see what conclusions we draw.
*Harry suddenly feels sympathetic to SPEW, that thing Hermione harped on for two books straight and then inexplicably forgot, because Dumbledore says people were pre-disposed to suspect Hokey of the murder. He thinks this has something to do with her being "only a house-elf." Apparently Dumbledore hasn’t heard the cliché "the butler/maid did it."
*ETA: The whole "here's how good people think about House-Elves" will never stop being fabulous to me. The whole thing works perfectly if you just accept that slavery of basically humanoid creatures is acceptable in this world and the rightful way of things. If only it wasn't so darn hard to do that while also claiming it's anti-slavery in general.
*Btw, Harry’s sympathy towards SPEW does not lead him to be uncomfortable with his own slave. Luckily. Because while SPEW used to sound like an abolitionist movement it's now more like the RSPCA and Harry's a great owner.
*Dumbledore again subtly and sadly points out the terrible justice system in the WW without defending his own part in it. Such a tragedy about Sirius. There was nothing I could do. I was too busy turning down three offers to be Minister for Magic and Head of the Wizengamot at the same time.
*Dumbledore says he’s got other reasons for thinking Voldemort wanted the cup…does he ever get to that either in this book?
*ETA: I guess Dumbledore is just talking about the Horcrux with that? It's just that it's so dragged out I assumed everyone understood that reason by now? There's nothing about Voldemort's plan with this stuff that isn't obvious by now except how Harry's going to find and destroy these things, and those will be explained on the fly in DH.
*Harry goes into Voldemort’s memory where—gasp! Voldemort’s spoiling his looks! He’s not handsome anymore! Where has the pretteh gone??!!
*Luckily he’s still got a certain reptilian sensuality Harry can dig.
*Harry understands that Dumbledore’s refusal to call Tom "Lord Voldemort" shows that he’s not allowing Tom to dictate the terms of their meeting. Like this is surprising after his scene with the Dursleys.
*ETA: It also shows that Dumbledore won't give the WW in general that same ability to dictate the terms of their interactions with Voldemort. Sure Dumbledore can treat him like a regular Wizard, but that's because Dumbledore is his superior. The masses need to whisper his name in fear.
*Voldemort reminds us Dumbledore could totally be MoM if he wanted, and Dumbledore says he’d rather be a schoolteacher…for the same reason Voldemort wants to be. Comforting, yes?
*Dumbledore reminds Voldemort that he still knows nothing of love. Voldemort says nothing he’s seen proves that love is so powerful. Apparently he’s been reading the books and wondering why, if our heroes are so loving, the only way friends ever manage to make up after a fight is if one of them almost dies.
*ETA: Btw, the power of love? Not what vanquishes Voldemort. It's the specific power of the Elder Wand and how it's working the moment it's in his hands that Voldemort knows not.
*Dumbledore says he’s glad Voldemort considers the DEs friends, as they seemed more like servants. Though to be fair, Gryffindors generally assume everyone else’s friends "seem like" something other than friends. Calling other peoples’ friendships that is like anthropomorphizing animals: the Slytherins appear to be chatting as friends do, but if you look closely Pansy is picking nits out of Draco’s hair while Goyle rolls over and submissively urinates.
*Dumbledore says Voldemort can’t teach at Hogwarts because he doesn’t really want to. Unlike Albus who's 100% committed to his students getting a good education.
Slytherin Liquid Count: Pensieve Water, Dumbledore and Tom drink wine, Hephzibah and Voldemort drink together, Hephzibah drinks poisoned tea.
Hottie Factor: Tom Riddle, more handsome than ever!
Box Picture
And Shelly Winters as the fat woman!
Designated Hero
Sometimes when a boy likes a girl very much, it’s important for him to screw around with another girl to get experience. Similarly, if a boy is a hero whose greatest power is his love for others, it’s important that he gets some experience manipulating old guys. Especially old guys' love for young dead girls.
IITS
Yes, as it happens I really do need the 16-year-old boy who couldn’t learn Occlumency to come up with a clever plan to wheedle a memory out of his teacher. No, I can’t do it myself. It says so right here in the script: Demonstrate Liquid Luck before final battle.
Informed Attributes
Harry didn’t want to disappoint Dumbledore, since after all the guy has been so good to him and never asks anything of him at all except this one little thing. It's not like he's planning on Harry's death without telling him or anything.
James Bond Exposition Rule
There should be some amendment to this rule when the superhero spends chapter after chapter dragging out his own revelation of the villain’s master plan.
Misdirected Answering
Is it really going to be important will it be that Voldemort wanted the DADA teacher job? ETA: Nope.
Final score: 6
no subject
It wasn't like he was trying to hide what he was doing. Dumpydoof did all the coverup work for him.
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Part One
*Harry comes across either Crabbe or Goyle examining the tapestry of trolls while guarding the RoR (cue fics where one of them starts creating tapestries himself or reveals one of the trolls is an ancestor!).
It depends on whether it's Crabbe or Goyle. Goyle is the fem member of the pair, so he'd be making the tapestries. Crabbe is the evil one, so he'd looking at his troll ancestor.
*ETA: Of course we all realize that Ginny being hypocritical and unfair is clearly showing how she's in love with Harry. (Seriously. That's what she's showing there.)
*Hermione hotly says that Harry getting hit didn’t look funny at all. Well, at least now we know what lies at the heart of Hermione and Ginny’s great friendship. They don’t just bond over guys, they met in the "Violence is only good when I say it is" club.
*Luna thinks Ron’s making fun of her by saying she gave good commentary. As if Luna doesn’t know Ron appreciates anyone saying anything against Zach Smith, the Evil Heart of Hogwarts.
*ETA: Yeah, Harry and Ron are totally going to do great in the elite training program hardly anybody gets into on their own merits that allegedly deals with all these subjects.
This would have been a problem, except all it really took for Harry and Ron to become aurors was to show up. Like football players who don't actually have to take classes to attend college.
*ETA: Does she get fired after DH? Or do they keep her around forever because that's what Dumbledore decided and good people always live their lives according to Dumbledore's orders even when he's dead?
She probably got carried off by centaurs in the end.
*ETA: Ah, the whole "Lost Boys" idea that imo doesn't really work out. Especially when Harry starts roping Snape into it. Aww, me and Snape are totally the same! We're just innocent boys unfairly treated who found a home at Hogwarts. It's not like one of us lost his best friend here to the pack of boys who bullied him, became a Nazi and then was sentenced to prison here for the rest of his life against his will. We all just love the place and never want to leave!
Yeah, it's a stretch even with just Harry and Tom. Because, while maybe Tom likes the place, he certainly doesn't care a bit about the people in it. (While Harry cares about at least two or three...) And it's not like Hogwarts is the only place Harry likes. He loves the Burrow.
Meanwhile, Snape seemed to be perfectly happy in his shabby home with the wine and the books. And he seems pretty unhappy in the school with all the idiot children.
*Harry drops into the memory of the female version of Slughorn—a fat, ridiculous and vain woman who collects things and who’s got no business slobbering over young Tom Riddle. Is it a coincidence these guys all appear in the same book? The magpie-like can not be trusted!
It might be significant if Angua's crack theory about the books corresponding to the Seven Deadly Sins (and Cardinal Virtues and Acts of Charity) was right. She correctly predicted that the virtue exhibited in HBP would be "Temperance." Perhaps the sin was Avarice? (Unless it was all the Lusting going on. But Angua assigned Lust to the Chamber of Secrets with all the valentines and sexual imagery.)
Then again, there's a lot of Envying going on, too. Merope envies the pretty girl with Tom. Ron envies Hermione and Harry's invites to the Slug Club. Tom envies Hepzibah's treasures. Draco envies Harry's ability to cheat in class...
Re: Part One
*ETA: Of course we all realize that Ginny being hypocritical and unfair is clearly showing how she's in love with Harry. (Seriously. That's what she's showing there.)
At least it's a consistent character trait. Since she was ten, Ginny's been nipping and yapping at anyone who threatened Harry in even the smallest way. What's the difference between Ginny and a pitbull? Dancing red hair, flowery scent, and lipstick.
Re: Part One
Re: Part One
Bashful - CoS, Ginny I.
Doc - PoA - Lupin.
Dopey - DH. Everyone and everything that happened.
Grumpy - OotP. 'Nuff said.
Happy - Suppose the first was the most upbeat.
Sleepy - GoF: people sleeping under the lake, a lot of dreams also
Sneezy - HBP. Snuffly Draco crying in the toilets.
Part Two
I have to admit that bringing up this contradiction between text and authorial intention is great fun. :)
*Dumbledore says he’s got other reasons for thinking Voldemort wanted the cup…does he ever get to that either in this book?
*ETA: I guess Dumbledore is just talking about the Horcrux with that? It's just that it's so dragged out I assumed everyone understood that reason by now? There's nothing about Voldemort's plan with this stuff that isn't obvious by now except how Harry's going to find and destroy these things, and those will be explained on the fly in DH.
Can we blame Ron for being so impatient in DH? He only said what fandom was saying for two years. Like him, we couldn't believe that Dumbledore spent a year "teaching" Harry that Voldemort made a bunch of Horcruxes and not one minute teaching him how to get rid of them.
Oh yes, well Dumbledore planning to get around to that, except his life was so tragically cut short by the raid on the castle. Except he knew he was dying anyway.
Heh. I'll bet Dumbledore's big plan was to have Harry fetch Snape and then expire gracefully in bed from the poison while Harry and Snape bonded over their mutual devotion to him. Wouldn't that have been a touching scene? And he'd have totally told Harry to tell Snape about the Horcruxes, so they could read the books together. Side by side. In a Snarry way.
Which would mean, of course, that Harry would have killed Dumbledore and thus would have been the Master of the Elder Wand. But he wouldn't know it, because Dumbledore didn't tell him. But take that, Voldemort!
*Dumbledore reminds Voldemort that he still knows nothing of love. Voldemort says nothing he’s seen proves that love is so powerful. Apparently he’s been reading the books and wondering why, if our heroes are so loving, the only way friends ever manage to make up after a fight is if one of them almost dies.
So true, isn't it? After all, Hermione only became friends with Harry and Ron when she almost got killed by the troll. And the bond was sealed when Harry and Ron almost got punished for saving her. (Punished=death to an eleven year old.)
*Dumbledore says he’s glad Voldemort considers the DEs friends, as they seemed more like servants. Though to be fair, Gryffindors generally assume everyone else’s friends "seem like" something other than friends. Calling other peoples’ friendships that is like anthropomorphizing animals: the Slytherins appear to be chatting as friends do, but if you look closely Pansy is picking nits out of Draco’s hair while Goyle rolls over and submissively urinates.
That's probably because the other friendship don't rely on people almost dying. If Draco is friends with Crabbe and Goyle without one of them almost being eaten by the Giant Squid, can you really trust that they're friends?
Re: Part Two
***Yes, Jo is a "tell, don't show"-writer. Other newbie authors have help from beta-readers and editors to avoid such things. If you are a phenomenon you can happily flounder about making readers go *headdesk*
Re: Part Two
Not that this is a problem--it's good for the plot. It's just that it also seems to fit in with Voldemort's character. Once you realize that Dumbledore's plan doesn't actually make sense, that it only works through deus ex machina intervention, you can just see it motivated by all of Dumbledore's personal issues.
no subject
Was it an essay? Sounds interesting. Do you have a link?
Of course we all realize that Ginny being hypocritical and unfair is clearly showing how she's in love with Harry. (Seriously. That's what she's showing there.)
Wouldn't Hermione behave in the same way? I mean tell other people to shut up about Ron being inadequate, when telling him just that a minute ago.
*ETA: Yeah, Harry and Ron are totally going to do great in the elite training program hardly anybody gets into on their own merits that allegedly deals with all these subjects.
I guess it includes mainly DADA and they are good at it. Besides, Harry will always have a huge psychological advantage over his opponents. Criminals will tremble at the sight of The Boy Who Lived, not unlike all wizards at seeing He Who Must Not Be Named. Fear and overestimating the opponent will make them perform much worse (as happens in RW, btw). And Harry's quick reflexes, being backed up by a team of Aurors and growing fame will feed the legend until his death.
*ETA: Does she get fired after DH? Or do they keep her around forever because that's what Dumbledore decided and good people always live their lives according to Dumbledore's orders even when he's dead?
Hopefully not. I have a warm place in my heart for her since DH: [ "I have more!... More for any who want them! Here-". And with a movement like a tennis serve, she heaved another enormous crystal sphere from her bag... ]
*Seriously, it's really creepy that the one time Harry feels ashamed of himself it's for believing he let Dumbledore down for this. The only lesson he learns to grow up is to listen to Dumbledore more.
Interesting what JKR's books convey about authority. The Ministry is corrupt, some laws must be broken, but you have to do what the old, wise man says? Who tells he's the right old man? Wow, it does starts to sound like a cult. What's the ultimate lesson? Whom to trust?
He took the dog-eared book from inside it and with a quick glance in his foe-glass, Chief Auror Potter began to read: "MY MOTHER DROVE ME TO THE AIRPORT WITH THE windows rolled down. It was seventy-five degrees in Phoenix, the sky a perfect, cloudless blue. I was wearing my favorite shirt —sleeveless, white eyelet lace; I was wearing it as a farewell gesture. My carry-on item was a parka..."
I wanted to ask whose diary Harry is reading before finding in Google it was Twilight. Sorry for being dense, but why is he reading it behind closed doors? If I read the book, I would probably understand the joke. Is Twilight better or worse than HP? Would you recommend it?
*ETA: The whole "here's how good people think about House-Elves" will never stop being fabulous to me. The whole thing works perfectly if you just accept that slavery of basically humanoid creatures is acceptable in this world and the rightful way of things. If only it wasn't so darn hard to do that while also claiming it's anti-slavery in general.
Isn't it again the Chosen Few idea?
Withholding information and manipulating people is horrible, when done by the government, but for the best, when done by DD.
Sneaking and lying is horrible, but slipping a hex into a parchment is not, since only deserving people suffer.
Lucius is just not good enough to deserve a house-elf. They love to serve, but should be well treated. In view of all HP books, Harry releasing Dobby probably isn't as much anti-slavery as it's for punishing Lucius. After all, in the end of each book bad guys suffer and Lucius was the one, who released the Horcrux into the school.
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Judging from those opening sentences....
I haven't read Twilight, but the movie was gloriously silly. And Edward (the object of desire, or, in other words, the totally hot vampire) is dark, handsome, and all-hollowed out cheeks. He was played in the film by Robert Pattinson (Cedric Diggory in GoF) and he was oh-so-brooding and tortured! Like Draco. Only dark. Like Tom. Like yummy, handsome, evil Tom....
Twiligth Books Abridged and Explained
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Oh gawd. That puts it right into perspective, doesn't it?
Chosen few = Talented tenth.
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Do you plan to write any more HP essays in general?
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As to the idea of "stealing" magic. On a first reading I didn't see *anything* about that in the book at all. Neither the stories themselves, nor the notes by Albus Dumbledore. In fact it goes against the stated "truths" as they are presented in at least one of the stories. So I don't know where that interpretation is coming from.
Rowling *did* confirm my own contention that Muggle-born magical children have wizards somewhere in their ancestry. But she had already flip-flopped on that subject in earlier interviews.
What I suspect is that after her inital blunder of claiming that the wizarding gene was dominant (which it quite obviously isn't), someone sat her down and explained why she was making herself sound like a fool in public, and she reversed herself the next time the subject came up. Now if someone would just sit her down and explain why what she shows us is completely incompatible with a "single-gene" theory, the whole thing might sort itself out into something that makes some kind of sense. However she is still apparantly under the impression that it works that way.
She does reiterate the definition of a Squib, acto Albus, as that they are non-magical children of wizarding parents, and that they are much rarer than Muggle-born wizards. Nevertheless, her original plan to introduce Mafalda Prewett the witch daughter of Molly Weasley's Squib cousin and his Muggle wife -- not to mention the existence of "rare" magical gifts such as Parselmouth or the ability of seers -- suggests that there is a spectrum of magical traits which need to be present in a certain proportion in order to activate.
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But that's the kind of development that it's impossible to anticipate.
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Naw, Hermione seems to prefer other people criticising Ron so his self-esteem is crushed and he realises she's the only option for him.
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What's the ultimate lesson? Whom to trust?
It does seem that way. I mean, in Tolkien Frodo trusts Gandalf but that's because he's basically an angel. Tolkien's all about God's authority, which is coherent. I feel like these books are a more familiar form of this sort of thing, that we should just listen to the "right people" who are just defined by the people who are obviously right. There's no real questioning of how everyone would just know that, or whether that's really a good idea, or the bad things in that system--and certainly no real examination of how somebody else could get the wrong idea about who to follow. With somebody like Percy it's just that he was being a git and deep down he knew it--he was acting out of greed or ambition or whatever.
Basically, it's similar to Tolkien only replacing God with a flawed human being for God.
Exactly what you describe with the Chosen Few idea. There's just no thought to how the real reason these people are obviously right is that they're them.
If I read the book, I would probably understand the joke. Is Twilight better or worse than HP? Would you recommend it?
I haven't actually read it, but Harry's view of Tom reminded me of the sparkly vampire hero of Twilight. So I can imagine Harry being a fan of those books when they come out, and reading about beautiful Edward and identifying with the object of his affections. But doing it in secret because he considers it a girl book.
Amusing Twilight Readthrough
* He has an "enchanting laugh", too? Really?
* You know, at some point in Book 4 Stephenie Meyer is going to become bored with all this Adonis crap and give Edward Irritable Bowel Syndrome or something. Or maybe he'll catch rabies from a woodland creature, in a moment of cruel irony.
* It worries me how much I want the rabies scenario to happen, now that I've thought of it...
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***Wasn't that just because he wanted to stay at Hogwarts for ever and ever? He should have arranged to swap with Snape who'd be delighted to get away from it.
*ETA: And also cook their meals, do their laundry and pack their underwear.
***Molly mk II. No wonder Ron fell for her. Don't you just know that in a few years time he will spend most of his free time in his garden shed, tinkering with some hobby?
*ETA: Of course, Dumbledore is just protecting Sybil by not letting her know what's going on in her own life. Only super geniuses like Albus can handle this kind of sensitive information.
***That's how he treats everyone. I bet James and Lily were sick with that, and that's why they'd rather have a friend than Big Daddy for a Secr4et Keeper. Dumbles probably knew who the traitor was and was secretly very smug when the plan backfired.
*Dumbledore again subtly and sadly points out the terrible justice system in the WW without defending his own part in it. Such a tragedy about Sirius. There was nothing I could do. I was too busy turning down three offers to be Minister for Magic and Head of the Wizengamot at the same time.
***And with Sirius in Azkaban there is no-one to rival DD for Harry's affection. Wait - the bastard got out? Let's lock him up in his hated childhood home and make sure the author never lets Harry and Sirius having a long talk about things when they live under the same roof.
*Dumbledore says Voldemort can’t teach at Hogwarts because he doesn’t really want to. Unlike Albus who's 100% committed to his students getting a good education.
***And poor Snape just loves to teach children.
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Ron will definitely be in the garden shed. Or he'll get a television and just watch it all the time.
One of the things I'll always like about James and Lily is that they wanted to choose their own SK. Actually that's something to admire about the Marauders in general, the way they actually kept their own secrets and put their friends above Dumbledore. Of course they all had to pay for it...
Part 1
- Hermione's friendship is as undesirable as it is worthless (unless you do things her way, or die). Unless she's hanging out with Ginny, which makes her look a whole lot better. By hanging out with, I mean being chewed up and spat out by Ginny. Hermione encouraged her to stop openly stalking Harry and get a life, and therefore was instrumental in the getting the lobotomised one to show her some interest. It's beautiful to see Ginny repaying the favour in HBP, helping Hermione in her secret longing for Ron and being a supportive and loyal friend. Girl Power!
- JKR had a chance, and a vast audience, to show strong girls with flaws who who could still be worthy heroines. That you didn't have to be pretty and perfect to be sucessful, or get a boyfriend (if you wanted one). Instead, Hermione and Ginny ended up pretty and (so she thought) perfect and completely unlikeable for it. These two characters are perhaps her biggest mistakes imo. I don't know who I pity more, Ron or Dean. I'll go for Ron. Dean was heartbroken, then over it by DH (and sniffing around Luna). Ron's sad destiny is just beginning.
JKRis terrible at characterization. Her characters change personalities quite drastically to fit a plot. Then change back again WITHIN THE SAME BOOK. Equally worrying, some of the most unpleasant and vindictive characters are held up as people to admire, apparently in all seriousness. Her story-telling had failed her by this point, and she couldn’t remember basic rules of her own world from book to book. I would say she was in trouble by this point, but these books broke records. Unbelievable!
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And then arbitrarily gave anyone or everyone personality transplants to streamine the movement of the plot forever afterward.
She just plain stopped caring.
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I actually didn't mind Sirius in the early books, I just brushed it off as 'moodiness' caused by his time in jail! I LOVED Hermione in the first 3 or 4 books. Yet she was maybe the one who changed the most and for the worst - from strong and vulnerable to Gryffindor's Umbridge. Tiresomely strident with SPEW, was *so* much better than happily accepting the slavery of the House Elves.
Ginny isn't such a good example because she hardly had a character at first. She just suddenly developed a bad one.
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I personally think irrecoverable burnout makes a better explanation for what is visible to the reader. But sheer cowardice works too. And Given her steadily growing determination to tell the reader what to think rather than leave them to draw their own conclusions, there is something to be said for the possibility that the story tried to hijack the author.
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I think often JKR's view on characters is one from the outside, like a satirist. I always get a feeling of "this is how people are" in the characterization. Like with the girls--the whole "you're a woman, you understand" there's always this streak of "here's how girls act about boys." They all act that way.
Part 2 - Why Harry HAS to get the memory
- I'm a fan w*nker of vast magnitude, but even I have nothing when it comes to Harry having to get the memory from Slughorn. Why not ask Snape? Obviously Slughorn would lie, but I'm sure Snape could read the truth in his mind, being a MIND READER. I'll try though.
- I said before that Dumbledore should have had two years to live. He could have told Harry that after he turned 17, they'd have some intensive lessons about Horcruxes, which weren't a subject for children, and HOW TO DESTROY THEM. In the meantime, he'd tell him some basic, background information and get him involved in other ways. Trying to get Slughorn's memory would be a test of sorts - great practice in the sort of subterfuge which Harry would need in the future. If it didn't work, Dumbledore would ask Snape, or make his own arrangements, but he'd rather Harry try first, after all, subtlety wasn't his strong point, and he could hardly rely on Miss Granger forever. Ho ho ho!
- Dumbles could say that if anything happened to him before these lessons, he'd left a package containing 'everything you ever wanted to know about Horcruxes but were afraid to ask' with Snape, who he totally trusted. Another fan w*nking suggestion of mine was that the reason why Dumbles didn't want any adults on the Horcrux hunt was that he worried that they would work out Harry's little problem and try to stop him going to his death. In that situation, Snape would probably make him sandwiches for the journey.
- In DH, Harry wouldn't trust Snape, understandably for once. He'd never try to contact him for help, and therefore all the information and clues that Dumbles had painstakenly collected (because he wasn't such a b*stard as to leave him helpless with such a vital and massive job to do) would be out of Harry's reach. That'd make a lot more sense than what JKR gave us. Honestly, JKR did far more to destroy Dumbles' character than Rita Skeeter.
I know it's average, but it's more than JKR bothered to do. How could she come up with all of this, get millions of people interested in her characters than just stop making the effort? Unless her sense was eaten away by fame and she genuinely thinks these are great books.
Also, Harry is always a little bitch. He and Ginny must be such a lovely couple.
Re: Part 2 - Why Harry HAS to get the memory
In Harry's 6th year, give him the basic Tom information, and a practical lesson on finding a Horcrux, followed by a practical lesson destroying it. Then, expire gracefully, after instructing Harry to continue getting information from Snape (helping to locating the other Horcruxes and building up enough trust for Snape to deliver the final message.) In the down time, Harry could puzzle out that Hallows stuff.
But the poison changed plans a bit, so he wanted Snape there when he died in order to at least provide a bonding moment, and the instructions about getting information, and hopefully having Snape help destroy that pesky locket. In this case, Harry would probably have ended up as the Master of the Elder Wand, which would be a good thing.
Then Draco ruins it by getting the mastery and interrupting Operation Die Gracefully. Instead, Dumbledore has to stall and hope that Snape arrives in time...
And it ruins the whole "reconcile Snape and Harry" plan. Hmm... Maybe Dumbledore would have done better to wait fifteen minutes before going on the Horcrux Hunt to deal with Harry's emotions and bring Snape in settle that matter before they left.
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***Or with McGonagall, whom both Harry and DD trusted? I was furious with JKR through OotP for not letting McG give Harry some real advice and explanations. But that would ruin The Plot, sorry
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Re: Part 2 - Why Harry HAS to get the memory
I imagine Harry and Ginny being the terror of parent/child gatherings.
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Thank you. This above all else makes me uncomfortable with HP as a whole. After DH, nothing stands out as starkly as the story's insistence on a persons status in society overruling a system of ethics or laws. It made me angry when I finished the last of it. Why stop at a double-standard, when you can have a kaleidoscope of injustice.
I've often wanted to overlay her writing with her income and publicity. See if there's a correlation between her increasing status with the decreasing empathy for the more powerless characters in HP.
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Do we know who takes over the Headmastership after DH? I can't see McGonagall leaving Divination on the syllabus any longer than she had to.
In my personal canon Trelawney moves to Australia after being kicked out of Hogwarts, and ends up living next door to a lovely ex-pat couple named Wendell and Monica Wilkins.
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Only that it was a man (she used the term 'new headmaster' rather than 'mistress' in one of her endless interviews, iirc) and that McGonagall was too 'old' (despite being younger than Dumbledore.)
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No mention in the seven "official" as to whether there might have been a short term Head between the Battle of Hogwarts and the time Albus Severus Potter boarded the Hogwarts Express. But the intro to Beedle states flat-out that Minerva did become Headmistress after Snape.
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Nothing in canon to confirm it, though.
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If only there was something that Harry excelled at without trying. Like, oh, a wildly popular and lucrative sport. Auror!Harry is kind of like making Neville a teacher. I know when I think of characters who are naturally good with people and loved the Hogwarts experience, I think of Neville. Though they're both better off than Ron, who gets to be George's guinea pig when he's not failing at being an Auror.
*ETA: Ah, the whole "Lost Boys" idea that imo doesn't really work out. Especially when Harry starts roping Snape into it.
I don't see what makes them all members of the set of "lost" ones. Unless you count being set apart and connected to each other by the plot, there's no trait that all three have in common. Okay, problematic backgrounds, but with a difference. Middle class Harry was loved by his parents before being abused by his aunt and uncle. Lower middle class Tom is raised by strangers, but not abused. Working class Snape is unloved and possibly abused by his parents. And as you say, they certainly didn't all find a home at Hogwarts. Harry and Tom were both at the top of the food chain, Snape was at the bottom.
Ironically, with Snape and Harry it seems like it could easily have been the other way round. Imagine if Snape at eleven had found himself the toast of the WW. Strangers wanting his autograph. James and Sirius getting in line to befriend him. Groupies. The Slug Club. Praised to the skies for his Potions skillz. Or imagine if Harry had to go to Hogwarts without being inexplicably good at a game he's never played and without anyone knowing they're supposed to revere him. How would the twins, for instance, react to the sullen little boy raised under a Muggle rock? And how would Harry like being Neville?
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But not as hard as imagining 27-year-old Harry running an entire department after never showing a talent for anything but being a title character.
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Neville wouldn't be a terrible teacher. He'd surely be kind to his students. With a bit of a stretch, I can see him in his thirties projecting the kind of unflurried competence that makes Sprout hands down the best teacher at Hogwarts. What I can't figure out is why he'd want to teach. He's a solitary kid who doesn't particularly crave human contact. It doesn't seem like shyness or social ineptitude -- he's friendly and polite, just not communicative except once or twice when he gets carried away by something plant-related. That's not a mentality I'd expect to choose teaching as a vocation. Those postwar fics where he's an independent researcher, supplying hospitals with medicinal plants etcetera, always seem right for him.
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Harry and Hermione are so overly confident of their abilities, I can't see them ever changing. They had enough potential lessons, which were completely unlearnt. Hermione has the brains to do anything, but no people skills and no imagination. She just parrots other people's discoveries. Snape had true brilliance in abundance. Harry was an arrogant incompetent. It'd be like working for the bosses son - only there because of his name. What a nightmare. I could imagine him being executed by his own troops when Ron was on holiday.
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So, it was easy for me to see Neville taking that experience with the boggart as a defining moment for himself and imprinting on Lupin as a role model. And it's the nature of a gardener to nurture things--like small children.
And he's not handicapped by his shyness. He was, after all, someone who got a date before either Harry or Ron without any outstanding qualities.
But Harry as an auror. I shudder to think about it. Or rather, I go and read Maya's amazing Drop Dead Gorgeous which gives a great depiction of Harry-as-auror. He works entirely on instinct, goes into bizarre rages, and can't do paperwork for beans. (Thank goodness Draco is around to save his butt every 30 or so pages.)