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Jan. 2nd, 2006 06:20 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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deathtocapslockAh, my first-ever post here at ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
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!
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!
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Late as ever.
Date: 2006-01-08 02:27 pm (UTC)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?
You'd think. Apparently, though, there is only one way to act in front of a boss that is obviously No Good. See also: the beginning of CoS. We all know Dobby did that one, but Vernon was clearly in the wrong for getting angry about it.
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
It'd have to be quite an extensive re-invention, considering that Draco seems to have a rather different view of his family. But yeah, that could be interesting in itself. Everything Lucius has told everyone about himself is a lie. Mind you, canon'd balls that up by having this be Proof that Lucius isn't to be trusted, rather than exploring his reasons for it.
Dumbledore never discusses the orphanage incidents with the staff or previous headmaster, wanting "to give him that chance" to start fresh.
In other words, leave him alone and act surprised when that doesn't quite work out for the best. My, how could we have foreseen that the childrearing equivalent of "LALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!" wouldn't produce the best results?
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...
:O I am suddenly imagining a situation in which Voldemort actually isn't the only descendant of Salazar Slytherin's that Harry's met (I was going to say "still living", but, er...). After all, Salazar Slytherin lived a thousand years ago, he must have hundreds of descendants floating about, inbreeding or no. Perhaps this is how Dumbledore knew all about the cousin-marrying and such. Some rebellious descendant decided to marry a less-than-pure individual and was Cast Out as pennance, and from thence sprung our Laddy Dumbledore. It might also explain a little about Aberforth and his supposed weirdness :/
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!
Indeed. Penetrating defences? Harry's a honey trap now.
Better Late Than Never.
Well, admittedly I'd prefer the "Lucius is a Faker that Cannot Be Trusted – AND HE FOOLED THEM ALL!!!" over the "Lucius is a Dumb Blond With A Penchant for Sadism". And hair conditioner...whoops! That's fanon. ;) Draco certainly wouldn't be the first kid whose world fell out from under him because his Dad was a complete bullshitter!
:O I am suddenly imagining a situation in which Voldemort actually isn't the only descendant of Salazar Slytherin's that Harry's met...Perhaps this is how Dumbledore knew all about the cousin-marrying and such. Some rebellious descendant decided to marry a less-than-pure individual and was Cast Out as penance, and from thence sprung our Laddy Dumbledore. It might also explain a little about Aberforth and his supposed weirdness :/
Yes, there is something slightly Gauntesque about Aberforth's attachment to goats! :D
On a more serious(!) note, both goats (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horned_god) and snakes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpent_%28symbolism%29) are unfortunately saddled with infernal symbolism. So one has to wonder what Aberforth will contribute to Book 7 in terms of both information and characterization.
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Date: 2006-01-08 09:54 pm (UTC)It's possible that the Malfoy family (i.e. Lucius' parents & siblings) had a similar family dynamic to the Weasleys while not necessarily sharing in their material lack. There could have been the same vibe of "We are a perfect, happy family and if you dare suggest we aren't then you can fuck right off!" Rich families are no strangers to dysfunction!
In which case, Lucius could have decided to fuck right off and do his own thing while still having the manners, background, perspective etc. of an aristocrat. (And if his Mum missed him as much as Molly seems to miss Percy, she may have slipped him some cash on the sly – who knows?) ;)