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deathtocapslock2009-02-06 09:54 am
sistermagpie.livejournal.com) wrote in deathtocapslock2009-02-06 09:54 am
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HBP Chapter Twenty-Eight
*If you give yourself a fruity little nickname, Severus, you get yourself a fruity little chapter title.
*ETA: Flight of the Prince indeed. This is practically Snape taking flight out of the story. Which might be a wise move except we know he'll return to get his head stuck in a bubble and get bitten by a ruddy great snake and die.
*Of all Snape’s moments in canon, his grabbing Malfoy by the scruff of the neck--the scruff of the neck! has got to be one of my favorites. Years of Snape/Draco moments leading up to Snape seizing him up like a kitten and rushing him to safety.
*ETA: Good thing I liked that last moment, huh? By the next book they're relationship has deteriorated to something more like two guys who sat next to each other at a corporate trust-building seminar and never saw each other again.
*Amycus and Alecto are panting excitedly. Now that they’ve killed Dumbledore it’s time to celebrate with soup!
*I’ve read many imo misguided conversations about how Dumbledore wasn’t really killed by Snape here, or that wasn’t an AK, and I swear one of the reasons is that Harry’s still frozen until this chapter. But JKR actually doesn’t say the exact moment he’s unfrozen. She just has him realize it when he’s already unfrozen magically and numb with emo!shock.
*ETA:Yeah, pretty much killed by an AK. They can't take that away from you, Snape!
*Harry throws the Invisibility Cloak aside immediately, because it’s a real disadvantage to fight Death Eaters when you can see them but they can’t see you.
*ETA:So Gryffindor. What's the point of picking people off if everybody doesn't know it was you when they tell the tale? Or sing the ballad?
*The Death Eater buckles from his Petrificus Totalus, such is the force of Harry’s anger. I’ll bet he cast the curse in CAPSLOCK.
*ETA: I guess since the guy didn't spit at anyone it wasn't self-defense-y enough to require a Cruciatas.
*Snape and Malfoy have forced their way through the fight unscathed. It’s kind of wonderfully romantic the way Harry’s trapped on the other side of the fight watching his two most popular slash partners disappear round the corner, possibly never to return.
*ETA: Nope, never to return. At least not in the form they were in in this book. It's like they got sent to some sort of shock therapy over the summer to get back in line.
*So who does petrify Greyback? The line isn’t assigned to a person—or even given an adverb. Harry’s wand isn’t raised and we never hear who saved him. Snape seems to have disappeared. Surely if Ginny did it we’d hear how pretty she was or how sassily she delivered the words?
*Harry’s then distracted by Ginny’s hair flying like flames in front of him—oh for god sakes! Enough!
*Amycus is "locked in combat" with Ginny, by which we mean he’s hexing her and she’s dodging which is a different thing.
*Harry hexes Amycus before he can finish his compliment to Ginny, so I guess we’ll have to imagine what he was going to say. "Pretty Mary Sue who’s stolen my heart?" "Pretty girl with a sassy temper that shows how much you care about others?" "Pretty love interest with a Seeker’s build—I’ll bet you’re great at Quidditch?"
*ETA: I guess I should at least take this moment to be grateful that Ginny was on that bus to shock therapy camp too and won't be back in quite this form in DH.
*Jinxes apparently hurt when thrown during dramatic battles. Good to know.
*Harry has no time to answer Ginny’s question of where he came from. But surely he does have time to tell her how her hair dances like flames when she fights.
*McGonagall shouts "take that!" during fights. McGonagall is so old school, yo!
*Ron’s also fighting, his hair dancing like tiny flames. ETA: Like Heat Miser!
*The Order seems to totally outnumber these Death Eaters and they’re helped by teenagers with liquid luck, yet the DEs seem to be winning. Guess this is payback for the MoM last year.
*ETA: Is it me, or does it seem like the DEs would have been even more hopelessly outnumbered at the final battle? There never seems to be more than 30 on the outside.
*Neville’s semi-tragically wounded but not dead as usual, and directs Harry to Snape and Malfoy running past...why? Did one of them kick him in the stomach? (Hey, Snape might not see him again! He might have.)
*What, doesn’t Neville have any report on how pretty Ginny was in the fight? This is why you're not the hero, Neville.
*Harry goes on, ignoring the mute cries of the people on the ground calling him to come back. The mute call only total drama queens like Harry can hear.
*The floor is soaked with blood, and yet nobody seems to be bleeding except Bill. Is this blood all from Bill? Did Fenrir hit an artery?
*ETA: Maybe they're just bleeding to death from the pain of it all. I've heard Wizard anatomy makes that somehow possible.
*Harry wonders if the Order has secured the Cabinet, but they actually might not know about the Cabinet. The RoR presumably, but not necessarily the Cabinet. Unless of course they skipped out singing "We came through the broken Vanishing Cabinet" which I honestly would not put past Death Eaters.
*ETA:I'd like to remind everyone here that next year it turns out Malfoy could have just said "I need a room with a secret tunnel to Hogsmeade" and that would have worked.
*Harry knocks down some Hufflepuffs in pajamas on his way to catch Snape and Malfoy, a moment that seems to pretty much sum up Hufflepuff’s role in the series.
*The doors have been blasted open for dramatic effect. There must be a special Alohamora for nights like this.
*Above the blasted doors the DEs have scrawled GINNY WEASLEY IS ALL THAT in sparkly blood.
*Oh, here’s one thing bleeding...the Gryffindor hour glass is leaking rubies, sweet rubies, precious rubies! So I guess the House Cup will be canceled again this year.
*ETA: You know, mentioning things like the House Cup hour glasses just reminds me of that "maybe the Houses should reunite" idea, which isn't good.
*Not Hagrid too! Harry prays, trying to drown out the prayers of hundreds of readers saying "Please Hagrid too! Please get Hagrid!"
*Hagrid escapes—this time. We’ve got that red stage of Alchemy coming up in the next book. First Black, then Albus—your days are numbered Rubeus.
*ETA: Dammit. Even alchemy can't bring down Hagrid.
*The blond DE is aiming curse after curse at the gamekeeper—oh thank goodness! Someone’s demoted Hagrid back to
*Harry tries to hex Snape with a clear shot from behind and misses. Guess the puppet master drama gods are collecting payment for that improbable rolling-around-without-looking-at-all-but-still-taking-out- two-Death-Eaters-for-good-at-once-with-one hex.
*Snape, who already had me when he grabbed Malfoy by the scruff of his neck, seals the deal by shouting Run Draco!
*A-ha! Harry finally catches up to Snape. He’s got him! Now he can have Snape...err, can have Snape hand Harry’s own arse to him without breaking a sweat. Oops.
*ETA: Nice that Harry actually never came anywhere near Snape as a dueler. Until after the book ended, of course, at which point I'm sure he became the greatest dueler of all time.
*Hagrid’s yelling about his dog in the background as his house burns. It’s amazing how Hagrid can take a situation guaranteed to get my sympathy, a dog in a burning house, and still annoy me with it.
*As I’m sure everyone realizes, Harry’s "Cruc—" makes it clear he doesn’t have it in him to cast a Crucio because he’s good. Malfoy’s "Cruc—" made it equally clear he could cast it because he’s evil.
*ETA:LOL! Yes, I actually wrote that the first time! Remember when we didn't know that Harry's casting torture curses showed that he was good because he was badass enough to do it but chose not to? Except for, you know, when he chose to?
*Harry yells at Snape to fight back, probably assuming his not killing Harry here as he clearly could is further sign of his evil. He’s trying to annoy Harry to death!
*ETA: The Slytherins except Voldemort have probably all just noticed by now that by some magical fiat Harry wins all fights.
*In the next book Harry will probably be longing for a chance to fight Snape one on one for once like he was with Malfoy earlier. Fights where Harry does really badly don’t count.
*ETA: How silly of me, thinking Harry would think about Snape barely at all in the next book. He's left him far behind by then.
*Harry calls Snape a coward for not fighting back. Err...Harry? I know it goes against your six years of Gryffindor training where older students beat up younger ones who are outnumbered, but generally not attacking someone you can just contain easily is considered the opposite of cowardly.
*ETA: Harry never does learn this lesson, does he?
*Ooh, and Snape makes this point himself using the Gryffindor Marauders as an example. That one’s going to go over Harry’s head, I’m afraid. "What would I call my father? A proud stag of a Gryffindor who hated the Dark Arts, of course. Just like me and my friends when we outnumber people. Is this a trick question?"
*ETA: Not like Snape and his Slytherin friends, of course.
*Snape interrupts his final DADA lesson to Harry (God I wish we’d seen more of those, preferably instead of shipping scenes) to yell to the Death Eaters in a frou-frou way: It is time to be gone, my merry men! To Sherwood Forest! The Half-Blood Prince must fly!
*Just in case Harry doesn’t get it, which he doesn’t, Snape then stops a DE from torturing him.
*ETA: I think if I were Snape I might have let that one go. Crucio isn't even that bad, you know. As long as you eventually stop it. And you're doing it in self-defense. Like if somebody spits at your teacher.
*Not only does this not make any impression on Harry, but he feels no shame in wallowing in the oh-so-terrible-pain of a spell he was about to cast on somebody else. Yeah, I know it was Snape who just killed Dumbledore, but the point is that it’s torture.
*ETA: Why was anyone shocked when Harry cast this spell with a quip the following year?
*Harry now hates Snape as much as Voldemort himself. Seems like that would require a surge of affection for Snape, doesn’t it? Voldemort’s not the one he fantasizes about torturing.
*ETA: A surge of hate that will quietly go away before DH. Maybe it was just gas.
*So Harry goes for Sectumsempra, his new favorite spell. The one he’ll use when this is all over and he becomes a serial killer who stalks and kills pretty blond boys in men’s rooms, always seeking to capture that first great rush of using it against Malfoy.
*ETA: Seriously, I think he did. But nobody ever caught him because a) Wizards are completely inept at investigating anything, b) Harry's the head of the police, c) He only goes after Slytherins so killing laws aren't all that strictly enforced for them.
*Boy, Snape gets really mad about people using his spells against him, doesn’t he? I kind of hope it turns out his friend Lily taught them to James—bitch.
*ETA: Not that Lily was bitchy at all. Ever.
*One more clue for the DDM!Snape pile—Snape looks at Harry with the same hatred he looked at Dumbledore, only he doesn’t kill him. Cause maybe the first time he hated what he had to do, and did not hate Dumbledore. (No accounting for taste.)
*ETA: Though why he wouldn't is beyond me.
*It’s good Snape delivered those frou-frou lines to the DEs earlier—you can’t just come out with "I, the Half-Blood Prince!" out of the blue. You have to work up to it.
*Harry’s all begging to be killed by Snape, who let’s face it might actually be able to do it, unlike Voldemort. How funny would that anti-climactic ending have been? CHOSEN ONE KILLED BY BITTER POTIONS TEACHER: "He mouthed off in class one two many times!" says killer. With lots of quotes from Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy. And one from Hermione complaining about Harry being a big Potions fake sixth year that she said without knowing she was bitching to a reporter.
*ETA: And yet not half as anti-climactic as camping for months?
*Yeah, Snape’s howling like the dog in the burning house really doesn’t make much sense for ESE!Snape.
*ETA:Or real!Snape, now that I've read DH. I guess he's howling about Lily for some reason.
*Harry gets dazed by Snape’s S&M whip spell. He’ll probably look that one up in the HBP book once he comes to again.
*Buckbeak surprises me by making him dislike him more than I did in PoA or OotP. I hope the ferrets form a food dish army and bring him down. Dook dook!
*ETA: I'm just going to think that happened. Or maybe during the battle Grawp used him to escape.
*Why is Buckbeak screeching at Snape so much? Because once again all animals must adore Harry because they sense his inner-awesome even if he doesn’t like them?
*Hagrid looms above Harry, blocking out the stars...and any hope of getting out of this chapter with dignity. Speak ter me, Harry! Speak ter me!
*It’s good to know Hagrid doesn’t know how to put out fires with magic, what with all the fire-breathing animals he no doubt brings to class.
*Hagrid says something about Dumbledore and Harry feels a searing pain. I suspect the weirdo kind of pain only Dumbledore knows about that you can bleed to death from.
*ETA: Luckily that searing pain will be replaced by whining doubt in Dumbledore's worthiness soon enough.
*Harry tells Hagrid Snape killed Dumbledore on page 556. Hagrid smacks Harry over the head with his umbrella for spoiling him.
*Hagrid, Harry and Fang walk towards Dumbledore’s body. I have a sudden wild hope that Fang will rush up to Dumbledore and start chewing on him.
*There’s a crowd around the body. But first they must get through the crowd of admirers surrounding Ginny.
*Harry feels the aches and pains of the hexes that hit him, but in a detached way, as if someone near him was suffering with them. Which having lived with Harry for six books now I know would mean he wouldn’t notice them at all.
*Harry looks down at the greatest wizard he not only has met but will ever meet. Jeez, that’s the most depressing thing in the chapter. Dumbledore really was not that great.
*ETA: So. Not. Great.
*ETA: Though it's great the way Harry goes from that kind of hypberbole to doubting the guy completely when he finds out he was friendly with Grindelwald when they were neighbors as kids.
*Harry tries to comprehend that Dumbledore will never again speak to him or help him...in the final two chapters of each book.
*ETA: Dammit, Harry, for getting our hopes up that Dumbledore woudln't speak to you or help you in the final chapters of the book? He'll be back against next year telling us what to think even more than usual.
*Greatest wizard ever, but didn’t notice that the locket in the bird bath wasn’t the one they were looking for. That’s got to hurt.
*ETA: Greatest gay wizard ever: because he was totally celibate. Being gay isn't about having sex with members of your gender, people! Dumbledore was the braver kind of gay who dared to care about other men platonically without touching them physically. That's what the homophobes really fear!
*Harry reads a note in the locket from RAB, who already seems like a much greater wizard than Dumbledore. House of Black rulz!!!
*ETA: Meh. He's okay.
*My one regret is that I die never knowing the wonder that is Ginny Weasley. –RAB
*Harry neither knows nor cares what the message in the locket means, which I think we all would have guessed without being told it.
Designated Hero
Mostly it’s Harry himself suffering from this one here, not seeming to realize he’s outclassed by Snape.
"Fruit Cart, Fruit Cart!"
Hufflepuff means "fruit cart" in old English.
Hero’s Death Battle Exemption
Harry trusts this rule so much he doesn’t even notice Snape saving his arse.
IITS
Looking back, you really would think super smart Dumbledore would have noticed that locket had no S on it, wouldn’t you? If he’s going to recognize Tom Riddle’s signature magic and be uppity about the blood?
Informed Attributes
Snape, you coward! Not even brave enough to take out a kid you’ve already beaten with one hand tied behind your back!
Jason’s Rule of Explosive Endings
Before we go, how about we set Hagrid’s house on fire?
Ken’s Second Rule of High Altitude Mortality
I didn’t give this one in the last chapter, but it actually does fit. This is the only AK we’ve ever seen blast somebody off their feet, apparently just so that he can fly over the battlements instead of just hitting the wall.
The Stealth Monster Rule
My, Buckbeak. What dramatic entrances you make!
Misdirected Answering
All that swearing vengeance against Snape? Just forget about it, will you?
Final score: 9
H/D cliché count: Snape taking care of Malfoy in a paternal way!
Slytherin liquid count: The floor slippery with blood, blood trickling from Dumbledore’s mouth, the Gryffindor rubies spilling out like blood from a wound, reference to the green goo Potion, Harry’s eyes burning with tears and Harry and Hagrid squirting jets of water out of their wands to put out Hagrid’s burning house.
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(I think the four of them also took a bubble bath in a magically-expandable tub, but that's another issue entirely. Especially since it seemed to be a totally gen bubble bath, somehow.)
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My one regret is that I die never knowing the wonder that is Ginny Weasley. –RAB
HAHAhahaha! Wonderful! Although I resist seeing her trashed in fanfic, I loathe Ginny in canon. Nothing shows the emotional shallowness of the series like her.
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Part One
Poor Snape tries to do that in DH, too, to the extent of leaving a "Snape-shaped" hole in the window like Wiley E. Coyote or something. Alas, alas, Snape. No one tried harder to escape his fate than you.
*Of all Snape’s moments in canon, his grabbing Malfoy by the scruff of the neck--the scruff of the neck! has got to be one of my favorites. Years of Snape/Draco moments leading up to Snape seizing him up like a kitten and rushing him to safety.
*ETA: Good thing I liked that last moment, huh? By the next book they're relationship has deteriorated to something more like two guys who sat next to each other at a corporate trust-building seminar and never saw each other again.
Really. What was the point of spending a chapter watching Narcissa begging Snape with the tears and all, and all this behind the scenes bonding with Snape and Draco when it came to absolutely nothing? Maybe if we'd gotten to see what was going on at Hogwarts... makes me wonder if Draco and Snape's dots spent a lot of time together on that map. Or did Snape's dot pace around his office like Dumbledore's in PoA?
*Amycus and Alecto are panting excitedly. Now that they’ve killed Dumbledore it’s time to celebrate with soup!
I neglected to say this in the last chapter, but that Campbell's Soup Kids image? That was the same image I had. Which makes it hard to take Amycus and Alecto seriously as sadistic teachers. I wonder how JKR came up with them. Do you think she might have had a traumatic experience with soup as a child?
*Harry throws the Invisibility Cloak aside immediately, because it’s a real disadvantage to fight Death Eaters when you can see them but they can’t see you.
But, if you're going to cast a Crucio at one, it's best to stay under the cloak until you're done.
This reminds me of something on This American Life, where a guy kept asking people: If you could have a superpower, would you rather be invisible or able to fly? Exhibitionists preferred to fly while introverts preferred to be invisible. Luckily, Harry can do both!
*So who does petrify Greyback? The line isn’t assigned to a person—or even given an adverb. Harry’s wand isn’t raised and we never hear who saved him. Snape seems to have disappeared. Surely if Ginny did it we’d hear how pretty she was or how sassily she delivered the words?
It must be the same person who called 11-year-old Snape "Snivellus" after James tripped him. So, my guess is it's Sirius Black.
*The Order seems to totally outnumber these Death Eaters and they’re helped by teenagers with liquid luck, yet the DEs seem to be winning. Guess this is payback for the MoM last year.
It's six Death Eaters, not counting Snape. Minus Snape and Draco and whoever Harry petrified, that leaves four. In the OotP, we have McGonagall, Lupin, Tonks, Bill (but he's out of it right now), so the good guys are down one. But Harry seems to have taken out about three people by now. So, um, yeah. It just seems to be that big blond one left.
The image I have of Blondie is like some kind of whirly-gig fireworks thingy. I mean, he doesn't seem to be aiming at anything, he's just madly throwing off hexes. Seems like that would be hard to fight--and I get the picture of Tonks just standing there watching and scratching her head.
*Neville’s semi-tragically wounded but not dead as usual, and directs Harry to Snape and Malfoy running past...why? Did one of them kick him in the stomach? (Hey, Snape might not see him again! He might have.)
Hmmm. I took that another moment when Neville was semi-comically wounded. You know, just so we remember that Neville isn't nearly as kick-ass as Harry. Big Death Eater fight and Neville ends up looking like he was taken out by eating too many hotdogs.
Re: Part One
LOL! How I love that moment.
Really. What was the point of spending a chapter watching Narcissa begging Snape with the tears and all, and all this behind the scenes bonding with Snape and Draco when it came to absolutely nothing?
It's like the drama of it is only there to be a total misdirect (and from that pov the entirety of the Snape/Draco relationship in books 1-6). It seems like something big is going on but really Dumbledore just wanted him to kill him anyway. Which was clear to me the first time I read it--I mean, I got that this was about killing Dumbledore and it never occurred to me that Snape was actually on Voldemort's side. But I thought the Malfoy stuff was still real and important to Snape. Turns out no, it was just a lot of drama to cover up Snape's real reason for killing Dumbledore and once it was done there was no need for the relationship except to give a little retroactive Rowling's Gun flash in DH when Snape sits next to Lucius after his Sorting.
Re: Part One
[...]
It must be the same person who called 11-year-old Snape "Snivellus" after James tripped him. So, my guess is it's Sirius Black.
Who was otherwise occupied in whatever is on the other side of that Veil at the time, so I'm guessing this is sarcasm. ;) (not that it doesn't tickle my little Snack-shipper fancy.)
Re: Part One
So I just chuckle instead.
Part Two
*The doors have been blasted open for dramatic effect. There must be a special Alohamora for nights like this.
*Oh, here’s one thing bleeding...the Gryffindor hour glass is leaking rubies, sweet rubies, precious rubies! So I guess the House Cup will be canceled again this year.
Wow. It's amazing how much damage the Death Eaters have managed to do, considering that they spent most of their time sneaking quietly through the artificial darkness, clutching like kindergardeners to Draco's sleeve up to the top floor.
I mean, there's only six of them. They're outnumbered by the Order plus teenagers. They have to get Draco up to that tower and erect the magical rubber wall that everyone bounces off--and yet they've blasted open the doors and symbolically broken the Gryffindor hourglass, way down on the first floor!
You know, it's really sad, considering how really sub-human these Death Eaters seem, that they did so much better than Lucius and his elite team of assassins in the MoM.
*Hagrid escapes—this time. We’ve got that red stage of Alchemy coming up in the next book. First Black, then Albus—your days are numbered Rubeus.
*ETA: Dammit. Even alchemy can't bring down Hagrid.
Huh. Do you suppose that's why Fred had to die? Because it was the red stage?
*Buckbeak surprises me by making him dislike him more than I did in PoA or OotP. I hope the ferrets form a food dish army and bring him down. Dook dook!
Oh man. All that bother about bringing back Buckbeak and naming him Witherwings and all that, just for this moment. And why is Buckbeak attacking Snape? Why? Because Harry bowed to him that one time three years ago? Or maybe Snape accidentally stepped on his tail and Harry just didn't notice that part?
Re: Part Two
Are we sure the Hufflepuffs weren't just having a big bash at the same time and trashed the place?
Huh. Do you suppose that's why Fred had to die? Because it was the red stage?
I honestly considered that.
Re: Part Two
And... um... being so loyal, the entire House was playing second to Snape for the "Kill Dumbledore" mission in case anything went wrong, so they blasted the doors open to ease Snape's escape (very thorough, those 'Puffs), and, uh... the pajamas are a cunning ruse Snape suggested?
Although I do like the idea of a wild Hufflepuff party. Just think how well-prepared they'd be for a party, too - I bet they put a lot of work into decorating and sneaking in firewhiskey from Hogsmeade.
Re: Part Two
Re: Part Two
Why only the Gryffindor hourglass? Surely Hufflepuff has more Muggle-borns, and Ravenclaw intellectuals would be more disgusted by the violence and stupidity of Voldemort. And the only canonical non-S. DE is a Gryffindor. But I suppose this is just to reflect how HARD IT IS FOR HARRY BECAUSE EVERYONE TRIES TO HARM HIM AND ONLY HIM. He probably mentally filtered out the topazes and sapphires. ("No. They're only after me and the people I sort-of care about.")
Re: Part Two
Re: Part Two
Huh. Do you suppose that's why Fred had to die? Because it was the red stage?
Hey, interesting point. I'm still not convinced JKR had this in mind consciously, but it's always intriguing what will come out without conscious intent...
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*Amycus and Alecto are panting excitedly. Now that they’ve killed Dumbledore it’s time to celebrate with soup!
What? No cake? D: I thought you always celebrate with cake!
*I’ve read many imo misguided conversations about how Dumbledore wasn’t really killed by Snape here, or that wasn’t an AK, and I swear one of the reasons is that Harry’s still frozen until this chapter.
Sounds like some people are in denial. I mean, if Sirius can die with an incident involving drapery (or a killing curse? I'm not sure), then surely Dumbledore can die with a killing curse, right? Although I'm not sure why he was blasted off the tower like that, but there you go.
*Harry’s then distracted by Ginny’s hair flying like flames in front of him—oh for god sakes! Enough!
Does it really say that?
*The floor is soaked with blood, and yet nobody seems to be bleeding except Bill. Is this blood all from Bill? Did Fenrir hit an artery?
Probably not. I mean, if it was a lot of blood, I doubt he'd even be alive.
It seems like more people were injured, but Harry's not noticing.
*ETA: Maybe they're just bleeding to death from the pain of it all. I've heard Wizard anatomy makes that somehow possible.
Like a broken heart?
*Harry knocks down some Hufflepuffs in pajamas on his way to catch Snape and Malfoy, a moment that seems to pretty much sum up Hufflepuff’s role in the series.
Poor Hufflepuffs.
*Harry’s all begging to be killed by Snape, who let’s face it might actually be able to do it, unlike Voldemort. How funny would that anti-climactic ending have been? CHOSEN ONE KILLED BY BITTER POTIONS TEACHER: "He mouthed off in class one two many times!" says killer. With lots of quotes from Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy. And one from Hermione complaining about Harry being a big Potions fake sixth year that she said without knowing she was bitching to a reporter.
I'm sorry to say this, but that would be really, really funny.
*Buckbeak surprises me by making him dislike him more than I did in PoA or OotP. I hope the ferrets form a food dish army and bring him down. Dook dook!
Ferrets! I'm now reminded of Draco being turned into a ferret in GoF. ^_^
*ETA: Though it's great the way Harry goes from that kind of hypberbole to doubting the guy completely when he finds out he was friendly with Grindelwald when they were neighbors as kids.
He sounds like a jilted lover. Poor Harry.
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They're under contract with Campbells so they have to have soup.;-)
Does it really say that?
I don't remember the words exactly but I guess it must have!
Ferrets! I'm now reminded of Draco being turned into a ferret in GoF. ^_^
I was so sure Draco was going to be eaten by Buckbeak in the end. I'm glad that didn't happen.
He sounds like a jilted lover. Poor Harry.
Doesn't he? Which is funny because he sounds that way all through OotP as well. Can't say the characterization wasn't consistent!
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Campbells' is recruitng Death Eaters? That's unusual, I suppose, but soup is always good, especially when it's cold outside.
Y'know what? I wish Ferret!Draco would make a return. He was so adorable.
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*ETA: Why was anyone shocked when Harry cast this spell with a quip the following year?
"I guess you know now not to CROSS me."
"No need to get so CROSS."
"Looks like you've been made Commanding Officer of your crew ............. you know, Crew C.O. ...."
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*ETA: Good thing I liked that last moment, huh? By the next book they're relationship has deteriorated to something more like two guys who sat next to each other at a corporate trust-building seminar and never saw each other again.
[...]
*Snape and Malfoy have forced their way through the fight unscathed. It’s kind of wonderfully romantic the way Harry’s trapped on the other side of the fight watching his two most popular slash partners disappear round the corner, possibly never to return.
*ETA: Nope, never to return. At least not in the form they were in in this book. It's like they got sent to some sort of shock therapy over the summer to get back in line.
It just boggles me that JKR let the interaction between these three characters drop. I mean, I know I'm biased because it was their interaction that I was most interested in, but... I think my interest was valid, darn it! :) I mean, Harry's coming of age, and there's his bad father figure character (Snape) and his bad brother figure character (Draco). It's primal! How did JKR, who created those characters and their tensions, who wrote these scenes, just walk away from them? How??
I think that by refusing to continue the story this chapter (and pretty much, this book) is telling, JKR has written the first coming-of-age tale in which the hero doesn't come of age. Harry is physically an adult by series end. But he's living his eleven years old self's dream, and that's not a good thing.
I think either JKR got bored (tired of dealing with her characters she just frog-marched them to an ending, any kind of ending) or... meh, I'll end up trying to psychoanalyze her, so I'll stick with bored. ;)
*ETA: Dammit. Even alchemy can't bring down Hagrid.
Very disappointing, I agree. :D Though, since Harry never really grew up, it makes sense that Hagrid, that representative of everything childish (self-involvement, self-pity, etc.) survived.
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But in this case it's like the book actually ended at a climax and by *setting up* all this stuff to play out, it seemed. So it wasn't just expecting stuff to go on, it was like waiting for what happened next in the story. I still can't convince part of my brain that it's still waiting for that second half of the story JKR described book 7 as!
Though, since Harry never really grew up, it makes sense that Hagrid, that representative of everything childish (self-involvement, self-pity, etc.) survived.
Ha! Yeah, that was the true quest, to preserve that as a sacred thing. Was there any judgment Harry made about anybody at 11 that wasn't true? Even Snape he had down when he was 11 by the end of the year: he hates you, but he doesn't want you dead. And he's an asshole.
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Aaagh, that pissed me off no end - above all, because I don't understand it. If she wanted to show how kick-ass Ginny is, why didn't she do it? Because Harry had to be the big hero, rescueing her? Then why not let her be attacked by two people or blast her wand to smithereens or something? As it stands it's nothing but a severe case of blatant misinformation.
Unless of course they skipped out singing "We came through the broken Vanishing Cabinet" which I honestly would not put past Death Eaters.
LOL! From now on, I will always picture the DE like the seven dwarves from the 1937 version of Snowwhite by Disney with their ho-ho-ho song when coming back from their mine.
I'd like to remind everyone here that next year it turns out Malfoy could have just said "I need a room with a secret tunnel to Hogsmeade" and that would have worked.
Or maybe not. Remember it's only Gryffindors that get things just when they need them, without working for them.
Dammit. Even alchemy can't bring down Hagrid.
Course not - remember, this is the series where all ended well by being exactly as fucked up as before!
Harry yells at Snape to fight back, probably assuming his not killing Harry here as he clearly could is further sign of his evil.
Ahaha. It seemed so obvious at the time this was meant to show Harry as a slightly delusional and very immature teenager. In the wake of DH, where torture is badass and not liking to torture is sign of cowardly spinelessness, we have to reconsider. Courage now seems to mean "lack of reluctance to do whatever you can do".
A surge of hate that will quietly go away before DH.
Ha! I knew there was something that Sirius and Snape could bond over and this is it. Harry's love and grief for the one fizzles to nothing in about the same time as does his overwhelming hatred of the other.
doubting the guy completely when he finds out he was friendly with Grindelwald when they were neighbors as kids.
Actually, there is a kind of logic here. In a world where nobody ever develops, this means that Dumbledore would still be friendly and plotting politics today if Grindelwald took residence in the Forbidden Forest (or Hagrid's hut!). So, with this POV, Harry's doubts make sense.
"Fruit Cart, Fruit Cart!"
Hufflepuff means "fruit cart" in old English.
SO TRUE!!!!!
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Bizarrely, I think JKR said she felt she needed to show that Harry could do these things to show how he's great for not using them. Except, of course, that she showed that he did use them. And also...was anybody really worried that Harry's awesomeness was in question because we thought he couldn't perform these 3 spells? Harry's never been impressive in terms of the advanced spells he can do.
Actually, there is a kind of logic here. In a world where nobody ever develops, this means that Dumbledore would still be friendly and plotting politics today if Grindelwald took residence in the Forbidden Forest (or Hagrid's hut!). So, with this POV, Harry's doubts make sense.
Yes! In our world it would be weird to learn that your great grandfather was a Nazi when he was 16 (and a German citizen during that time) but you'd probably at Harry's age be able to consider the times and the man as having changed. He didn't yet have Lily's example for how you can be awesome and still temporarily duped by a Slytherin type.
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- “Harry throws the Invisibility Cloak aside immediately, because it’s a real disadvantage to fight Death Eaters when you can see them but they can’t see you.”
Mwah ha ha! What a waste of oxygen this fool is!
- ‘So who does petrify Greyback?’ This sort of thing annoys me. It’s like when Remus and Tonks are seen lying dead in the next book. The End. I know Harry can’t witness everything, but surely there should be some sort of debrief later. Remus could have been discussing this at Bill’s bedside, how he got Greyback in the name of all the children he’d attacked – not fending off Tonk’s ill-timed declaration of passion. (If there’d been a couple of extra chapters at the end of Book 7, we could have had closure on all the dead, but no.)
- I wish someone had got Ginny with the ‘Baldus the Bitchus’ charm. Would Harry have been as attracted to her shiny smooth head, as he was to her cascading mane of distractingly fiery silky locks? (See JKR, you can drop the word flames sometimes). Plus you’re right, Ginny in Book 7 is different - about the 4th incarnation. Sadly, she appears so little, that this Demon is the one who makes the permanent impression.
- I just lost it when reading this recap. I was cracking up and I’m not even drunk! You were definitely in uber-sarcastic mood when writing this. Though I can't see what other mood you could be in.
- I thought for a while that when she said the Houses should re-unite, that she meant that one person showing all the best characteristics of all the houses would be the person to prevail. Then the Houses would gradually come together more. Not completely, but there should be an air of friendly competition amongst *all* the Houses, not just between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. And Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. I thought JKR was being cunning with her clues. I won’t make that mistake again.
- Snape is so cool here – for the most part. Why did JKR forsake him? Why cling to her unlovable ‘hero’ instead? Instead she chose that the hero should be all powerful, marry someone sporty and popular and never be upstaged. In which case why make him such an under-achiever?
- Sadly Rufus Scrimgeour satisfied the red stage of alchemy. So we kept Hagrid, a good two books after he ceased to be relevant and instead lost the ones who were actually interesting.
- The loss of the characters of Snape and Draco was ridiculous. The interaction of these three would have been the enjoyable Book 7 and she completely rejected it. She could easily have arranged it so that they were all together at Hogwarts, if only for the first half of the book. She really made the wrong choices in the second half of this series.
- I *so* wouldn’t have told us about RAB here - who didn't know who he was, and therefore had a chance to work out a chunk of what was going to happen? I mean apart from Harry. And HERMIONE! I’d have ended the note with a small crest instead – that Harry recognises when he’s in Regulus’ bedroom at Grimmauld Place in Book 7, unimpressed at the lack of posters of naked women. (That Sirius – what a heterosexual guy!)
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I suppose if Ginny lost her hair Harry could make it into a wig. And realize he was only attracted physically to the hair. And Draco would totally be willing to wear it as a wig occasionally in bed.
Instead she chose that the hero should be all powerful, marry someone sporty and popular and never be upstaged.
Oh god, they sound like such a horrible couple. I always imagine everyone scheduling PTA meetings in secret so they don't have to deal with the two of them.
OMG, I forgot Rufus. I should have been worried as soon as that name was introduced.
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OoooOooo... yes.. heheh. *is oblivious*
(That Sirius – what a heterosexual guy!)
lol. OMG totes straight I mean duh?
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Well, JKR had to do that. They went too far along the way to becoming more interesting than Harry himself.
So who does petrify Greyback? The line isn’t assigned to a person—or even given an adverb. Harry’s wand isn’t raised and we never hear who saved him. Snape seems to have disappeared. Surely if Ginny did it we’d hear how pretty she was or how sassily she delivered the words?
I heard a theory that Neville did it. Or the huge blond DE, who threw curses everywhere without looking.
ETA: I guess I should at least take this moment to be grateful that Ginny was on that bus to shock therapy camp too and won't be back in quite this form in DH.
Actually she seemed IC in DH to me. Remember how she asked Luna, instead of Cho, to show Harry Ravenclaw's Common Room? Never forget about getting a man, not even in the final battle!
The Order seems to totally outnumber these Death Eaters and they’re helped by teenagers with liquid luck, yet the DEs seem to be winning. Guess this is payback for the MoM last year.
As the books progress DEs become more and more dangerous. In OoTF - they lose in the Ministry. In HBP they already win and in DH they raise to a new level and take over the Ministry.
ETA: Dammit. Even alchemy can't bring down Hagrid.
He's The Giant Who Lived, as resilient as our Prophecy Boys.
ETA: Nice that Harry actually never came anywhere near Snape as a dueler. Until after the book ended, of course, at which point I'm sure he became the greatest dueler of all time.
I am sure he would still be worse than DD though.
Harry now hates Snape as much as Voldemort himself. Seems like that would require a surge of affection for Snape, doesn’t it? Voldemort’s not the one he fantasizes about torturing.
Even in DH Harry hardly thinks about V. About his Horcruxes yes, but not about the man himself. In HBP he thought less about V's backstory than about Snape's worst memory in OoTF despite the prolonged sessions with DD. V is more like a force of nature this way despite JKR's attempts to make him a deep character in this book.
ETA:Or real!Snape, now that I've read DH. I guess he's howling about Lily for some reason.
May be he had a Stockholm syndrome of sorts (thus howling about DD). We're probably supposed to understand that Lily and DD were the only people Snape ever cared about.
Why is Buckbeak screeching at Snape so much? Because once again all animals must adore Harry because they sense his inner-awesome even if he doesn’t like them?
It's JKR trying to plant more false clues about Snape's evilness and deciding to drive him away similar to Umbridge in OoTF. Btw, it's nice of Snape not to kill Buckbeak on the spot, thus completing additional Draco's mission from PoA.
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That is a good point about Ginny in VII. She definitely retained some parts of her personality, thank goodness. She only pretended to not care who Harry dated in OotP as part of her "I'm not interested" act.
That is so true about the LV backstory--it really isn't necessary at all. Even the reason Dumbledore gives for the Pensieve trips means nothing--Harry doesn't have to know Voldemort at all. He learns everything he needed to learn in scenes like at the end of GoF where the guy would rather duel with him than just kill him. The scenes are really only there for the same reason DD's backstory is in DH: JKR loves backstory.
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***So does many of her fans, to be fair. But I do agree, Harry doesn't need it. Nor does the story, or the plot.
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For that matter, looking the matter over, Greyback had just broken away from a fight to tackle Harry, and with everyone else still engaged in fights, Neville is the most likely person that Greyback had been fighting.
Of course my favorite speculation is that after whipping around the corner at the end of the hall, Snape had urged Draco to continue, took one look back around the corner and fired off that one last spell. After all, he knew how much was dependant on Potter, and we know what he thinks of werewolves.
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Well, JKR had to do that. They went too far along the way to becoming more interesting than Harry himself.
Win!
As the books progress DEs become more and more dangerous. In OoTF - they lose in the Ministry. In HBP they already win and in DH they raise to a new level and take over the Ministry.
Good point. If the Death Eaters had been more competent earlier in the books, the HP books would have been more interesting (and it would be more satisfying when the DE were defeated). I think JKR made the Death Eaters competent too late.
Remember how she asked Luna, instead of Cho, to show Harry Ravenclaw's Common Room?
My word, yes. Ginny's jealousy is abnormal (although I suppose JKR thinks it is normal). Poor Cho. She's been slapped down hard enough by JKR in OoTP. Cho didn't need to be one upped by Ginny *again*.
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Having one of Snapes old school books ending up in a Hogwarts store room instead of on a shelf at Spinners End is high up on the Incredible Stupid Plot Points list, by the way.
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The problem (like the ones in DH) is that it's held back so long that it becomes meaningless. If, say, Harry had found out that the book belonged to Snape when Snape demands it (in the bathroom scene), then it wouldn't have come right after the biggest, most mind-blowing twist in the series: (Snape killed Dumbledore!)
Also, Harry would have had to process the idea that he was becoming friends with teen Snape, along with the idea that teen Snape had turned vicious. Which is, I suppose what JKR thinks happened to Lily. She was friends with this guy, but he suddenly turned on her like a pit bull..... bwhahaha..... sorry, had to take a moment to laugh at the thought of Lily being the innocent victim there.
Anyway, back to Harry. It would be more like OotP, where Harry has to process the idea that his father was a jerk. Instead of spending those detentions whining about not getting to be with Ginny, he could have wondered why funny, creative teen Snape turned into such a bitter person. He might have even asked a couple questions about what was going on... and gotten a few answers... and started to almost like adult Snape.
At which point, he finds out that Snape caused Voldemort to target his parents (gasp!) and then Snape kills Dumbledore (double gasp!)! Wouldn't that have been an even better twist?
As it is, Harry never really processes that Snape is the Prince.... and his seething hatred goes nowhere, either. And, suddenly, Hermione is using Snape's spells in DH when she refused to have anything to do with them in HBP, without any explanation.
And Snape is forced to turn into Snidely Whiplash (hehe complete with "whiplash" spell) in this chapter in order to say, "I was I! The Half-Blood Prince!" Like Snape would even know that Harry had found that name in the book.
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LOL! Wouldn't it have been great if Harry just said, "You're who?" Because Harry barely knows his actual classmates' names. He could have easily gone the whole year using spells written in his book without creating an idea of the person who originally wrote them or looking for the name in it. Or even if he had seen it he might have said, "Darn, the person didn't write their name in it" and forgotten about the lame "Half-Blood Prince" thing because it made the kid look foolish.
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At which point, he finds out that Snape caused Voldemort to target his parents (gasp!) and then Snape kills Dumbledore (double gasp!)! Wouldn't that have been an even better twist?
If only HP canon *had* been like this. Ah well. There's always fanfic.
And, suddenly, Hermione is using Snape's spells in DH when she refused to have anything to do with them in HBP, without any explanation.
When does Hermione use Snape's spells? *is curious*
Like Snape would even know that Harry had found that name in the book.
I know! Plus it was so OOC for Snape to sound so cartoonish and stupid.
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Not to mention totally contrived and unconvincing.
HBP Chapter Twenty-Eight
Clearly the nod in the epilogue is actually Draco's shorthand of "I know that you just killed another random blond man in the men's room. I'm grateful that you never came back and finished the job in my case, really I am. Now please to be leaving my pretty blond son alone D:"
Re: HBP Chapter Twenty-Eight
Re: HBP Chapter Twenty-Eight
Subtle our hero is not.
I quoted that scene on my LJ (http://lilian-cho.livejournal.com/248564.html), and now I'm beta-ing a SerialKiller!Harry fic for my friend \o/
Meta begetting fic = awesome.
Re: HBP Chapter Twenty-Eight