(no subject)

[q-spade.livejournal.com]

Ah, my first-ever post here at deathtocapslock! I'm a bit nervous, but writing this post was fun, so...

Molly is still crying over Percy, ever since he "stormed from the house...with his glasses splattered with mashed parsnip (for which Fred, George and Ginny all claimed credit)". You'd think if she cared so much, she could have stopped her teenage kids from acting like toddlers in the presence of their father's boss, eh? (No wonder Arthur never gets promoted.)

I can see Percy working hard and becoming a rich adult, then pulling a Lucius Malfoy by marrying into an old, prestigious family and having Just. One. Child. Wouldn't it be funny if Lucius was once like Percy – the oddball in a huge Pureblood family who broke out and re-invented himself – and he despises Arthur so much because the Weasleys remind him of a miserable childhood?



"He accused me of being 'Dumbledore's man through and through'."

"How very rude of him."

"I told him I was."

Dumbledore opened his mouth to speak and then closed it again. Behind Harry, Fawkes the phoenix let out a low, soft, musical cry. (pg. 357, US hardcover edition) Sorry. I couldn't resist.

Dumbles, of course, returns this unswerving loyalty by basically going "Pfft!" when Harry tells him about Severus and Draco's wee chat. :D



The main thrust of this chapter, however, is devoted to Tom "Marvelous!" Riddle. Dumbledore never discusses the orphanage incidents with the staff or previous headmaster, wanting "to give him that chance" to start fresh. Tom returns the favor by making sure he never gets caught out by Dumbles during his entire stay at Hogwarts, and begins the process of becoming Voldemort:

"As he moved up the school, he gathered about him a group of of dedicated friends; I call them that, for want of a better term, although as I have already indicated, Riddle undoubtedly felt no affection for any of them. This group had a kind of dark glamour within the castle. They were a motley collection; a mixture of the weak seeking protection, the ambitious seeking some shared glory, and the thuggish gravitating toward a leader who could show them more refined forms of cruelty. In other words, they were the forerunners of the Death Eaters, and indeed some of them became the first Death Eaters after leaving Hogwarts.

Rigidly controlled by Riddle, they were never detected in open wrongdoing, although their seven years at Hogwarts were marked by a number of nasty incidents to which they were never satisfactorily linked, the most serious of which was, of course, the opening of the Chamber of Secrets, which resulted in the death of a girl." (pgs 361-362)

This isn't FACT, mind you – this is Dumbledore's conjecture, based on his own opinion and what very few memories he could force out of people. And we find out later in the chapter that memories can be tampered with! Do you hear Fawkes singing again? I sure as hell do.

If Dumbledore is the bestest, strongest, most badass motherfucker in the Wizarding World...why did Tom get away with all this? Why didn't Dumbles deal with him in private? It's not as if Tom had any family to ask after him, for fucks sake! Either Dumbledore ISN'T as powerful as he claims to be, or there's a connection between him & Tom that he's not discussing. Hmmm...



Pensieve Memory One: not for the faint of heart, and best dealt with by those who grew up on a steady diet of crappy B movies. :D (In fact, I'm convinced that Roger Corman would do an admirable job of directing the HPB movie, since Terence Fisher is dead.) It's so over the top, this moment where Tom's Wizarding fantasies collide head-on with the sordid reality of the Gaunts and he...snaps. It should be chilling, or heartbreaking, but instead it's completely ridiculous.

Pensieve Memory Two: Slughorn's tampered memory is slightly easier on the brain, but Rowling completely over-eggs the pudding when it comes to facile Oscar Wilde comparisons. Had Slughorn been more closely modeled on Sebastian Melmoth-era Wilde – haunted by his excessive, decadent past and damaged by bad decisions – he would have more believable (and scarier, I suppose – Ah well).

"No, I think it would be foolish to attempt to wrest the truth from Professor Slughorn by force, and might do much more harm than good; I do not wish him to leave Hogwarts. However, he has his weaknesses like the rest of us, and I believe that you are the one person who might be able to penetrate his defenses." (pg. 372)

With those suggestive words, Dumbledore prepares to whore out his "man" to Slughorn, and I sit here amazed that Scholastic hasn't received more flack for publishing this book!