*Hermione has never heard of Horcruxes, which suggests that (a)the information is only avaliable to the extremely determined, in a very few hard-to-reach places, and (b)that this will prove Harry's greatness and superiority once he does find out. One wonders how Sluggy got the information, but that's not this chapter.
I vaguely assumed that reports of Horcruxes were circulating orally in Dark magic-friendly circles, as opposed to being printed in above-ground publications. (There's a theory that the significance of Grindelwald, and Dumbledore defeating him, is that G. had made a Horcrux and D. only defeated him after destroying it; perhaps stories of this nature prompted Tom to speak to Slughorn.) But what struck me as more curious was Slughorn saying that Dumbledore (the *Transfiguration* master at this time) was hostile to any study of the Dark Arts. You'd think people would be more interested in the DADA master's take on this topic.
*I am slightly uncomfortable with this idea of good magic and bad ("Dark") magic, but that's probably my Discworld experience. Many of the spells etc used by the good guys in this series are, to my mind, more creepy than the idea of simply killing a lot of people, which is fairly standard as evil goes. Memory charms, for example, or Legillimency.
But isn't it awfully con-veeeee-nient that Dark magic can be defined in terms of a handful of proscribed practices, leaving the good guys with an arsenal of spells that they can use in good conscience, as long as they don't think about them too much?
*Well, Hermione, it's nice to know that you're needed after all, but in real life, being so damnably smug about how lost those silly boys are without your guiding hand would just piss people off.
Am I evil to hope that in Book Seven Hermione will be imprisoned/captured/otherwise incapacitated, and Harry left at a loss without her help?
*The phrase "reminding himself irresistably of Voldemort" is a hopeful one, though. By "hopeful", I mean that it might be shown that Harry is not so pure of heart as to be utterly immune to the lure of power.
In which chapter does Harry start using the Half-Blood Prince's hexes? Sure, Muffliato seems harmless (the first one's always free!), but you then you want bigger and bigger kicks, and before long you find yourself in some skanky washroom, throwing around Sectumsempra, not caring what it does to others.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2006-02-14 02:45 pm (UTC)I vaguely assumed that reports of Horcruxes were circulating orally in Dark magic-friendly circles, as opposed to being printed in above-ground publications. (There's a theory that the significance of Grindelwald, and Dumbledore defeating him, is that G. had made a Horcrux and D. only defeated him after destroying it; perhaps stories of this nature prompted Tom to speak to Slughorn.) But what struck me as more curious was Slughorn saying that Dumbledore (the *Transfiguration* master at this time) was hostile to any study of the Dark Arts. You'd think people would be more interested in the DADA master's take on this topic.
*I am slightly uncomfortable with this idea of good magic and bad ("Dark") magic, but that's probably my Discworld experience. Many of the spells etc used by the good guys in this series are, to my mind, more creepy than the idea of simply killing a lot of people, which is fairly standard as evil goes. Memory charms, for example, or Legillimency.
But isn't it awfully con-veeeee-nient that Dark magic can be defined in terms of a handful of proscribed practices, leaving the good guys with an arsenal of spells that they can use in good conscience, as long as they don't think about them too much?
*Well, Hermione, it's nice to know that you're needed after all, but in real life, being so damnably smug about how lost those silly boys are without your guiding hand would just piss people off.
Am I evil to hope that in Book Seven Hermione will be imprisoned/captured/otherwise incapacitated, and Harry left at a loss without her help?
*The phrase "reminding himself irresistably of Voldemort" is a hopeful one, though. By "hopeful", I mean that it might be shown that Harry is not so pure of heart as to be utterly immune to the lure of power.
In which chapter does Harry start using the Half-Blood Prince's hexes? Sure, Muffliato seems harmless (the first one's always free!), but you then you want bigger and bigger kicks, and before long you find yourself in some skanky washroom, throwing around Sectumsempra, not caring what it does to others.