HBP Chapter One

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

So...Half Blood Prince? I figured why not? I'm going to X-post this--anyone let me know if they have some reason they think that's a bad idea.



*I should start out by saying I really disliked this chapter the first time I read it. I remember not liking the writing in it, plus I've lost all patience with any "Muggle Minstrel Show" scenes. And I hope that term isn't really offensive, it just seemed to capture what I wanted to say.

*First paragraph and already the Minister sounds like an overgrown child, worried about his opponent saying everything is his fault. Is it impossible to be a politician and an adult in these books? Doesn't anyone who actually cares about society ever run for public office?

*If Voldemort can randomly collapse bridges and cause hurricanes, why doesn't he whip it out when he's facing Harry and his friends? Is the entire population of Muggles wearing red shirts?

*Two murders are blamed on the Prime Minister's government? Is the murder rate really really low in England? It's not like Floyd and Goober getting chopped up in Mayberry, RFD.

*I'm sure the hurricane in the West Country was not Unnamed Minister's fault--I'm also sure that Unnamed Minister responded a bit more professionally than Unnamed President of a Distant Country.

*Oh, and btw, there was no hurricane. It's lucky that the Muggles in HP seem to have no technology beyond broken telephone booths, TVs, underground trains and Playstations so they can't study any of these phenomena.

*ETA: Of course, if Muggles had regular technology they'd know that the Prime Minister could, you know, set up a camera and RECORD the visits of the various Magic people so it actually wouldn't have to all rest on his word. I'm going to have to assume that in fact all Muggles in Rowling's universe know about the magical world and are just indulging the childish wizards. In fact they've also developed a cure for Memory Charms long ago.

*So Muggles are all becoming more miserable, the pathetic victims of Dementor flatulence, yet wizards are totally fine and there's no mist there.

*You know, given the way wizards operate, particularly the politicians, I imagine a real Muggle Prime Minister might actually be able to dominate them quite easily. I guess that's why he has to be made into an idiot.

*The Prime Minister does not like being made to feel like an ignorant schoolboy--I do not like him being made to look like an ignorant schoolboy, so we're even.

*Another little dig at politicians--the P.M. is sitting in his office, gloating, after years of dreaming and scheming. That's really all it's about. That's totally why Arthur Weasley isn't Minister for Magic, uh huh. He's not a schemer.

*And despite a lifetime of dreaming and scheming, the fifth sight of a man in a green bowler hat who can step out of the wall turns his brains to mush. No thoughts of using that to his advantage. Did this dreaming and scheming ever rise above the level of tricking Mummy into giving him two desserts?

*Apparently SIRIUS is strictly a wizarding name. Who knew?

*The Prime Minister has trouble following stories with names like Hogwarts, Quidditch and Harry Potter in his head. I hate to think how he deals with complicated situations with far more difficult names in other countries.

*If you ask Fudge, Voldemort's not dangerous unless he's got support. I agree. Which is why I'm so scared now that he's got the help of the Kid Who Cries In Bathrooms and Auntie Crazy.

*Don't you think Snape would have had this Prime Minister up to speed and working together in five minutes? Snape for Minister for Magic!

*Apparently the Prime Minister has a persistent habit of wishing to appear well-informed on any subject that came up. It's a good thing the narrator tells me this; because I'd never have guessed with the "Bwah?" slack-jawed act he's been performing up until now. The man's seemingly freshly surprised every time he's told magic exists. I guess being persistent in this habit hasn't made him good at it.

*Three years on Prime Minister has apparently still not discovered that SIRIUS is not that uncommon a name.

*So Voldemort destroyed the bridge unless Fudge "stood aside" for him? Wouldn't he know by now he could kill as many Muggles as he wanted without wizards caring overmuch? It's like saying, "Let me run the government or the Gorillas in the Mist get it!"

*Um, are giants invisible? Wouldn't people have seen them ripping up the trees or tromping over the downs? Oh, I see, some of them did. Only the Muggle grapevine is slow enough that the Wizards have time to go around modifying memories before the news crews show up. Usually news crews and hurricanes go together. I guess these Muggles prefer the traditional method of spreading information--gossiping in toilets. It's a bit slower.

*Naturally, even with hurricanes and bridge disasters to deal with, the P.M. has been following the Amelia Bones "locked room mystery" in the papers. Wizards even die cooler than Muggles.

*Remember when we first heard the description of Rufus Scrimgeour and everyone thought he was going to be important? Fandom should remember the time it wasted on that whenever we get too obsessed about something.

*You know, I like Kingsley Shacklebolt but I still get really pissed off at the whole "best worker I've ever had" crap. Arthur Weasley, the guy who studies Muggles, can't even work a turnstile, but they can stick any wizard in an important government position and he's automatically better than the Muggles.

*Another point to the Prime Minister for not being able to articulate why Kingsley's skill does not make it okay that he's a mole.

*Chorley is acting like a duck due to a poorly performed Imperius. I think this may be more evidence that Draco did not actually Imperio Rosemerta. It seems far beyond his abilities.

*But for heavens sake, you're wizards! You can do magic! Surely you can sort out -- well -- anything! Yes, this is a man I'd feel good about as Prime Minister. Hagrid was totally right in his reasons for why Wizards can't live openly around Muggles. We're just so darn stupid!

*Yeah, like I said, I really hated this chapter even the first time. Good thing Spinner's End was next. Snape does wonders to clear the mind of teh stupid.



Exploitation Filmmakers’ Credo
AKA Muggle Prime Ministers' Credo: No, this dummy can't remember what he saw five minutes ago! OMG, MAGIC!!

Idiot World
Does this need further explanation?

Informed Attributes
Watch out for those scheming politicians! They might...um...bluster and bleat at you.

Misdirected Answering
I, for one, am SO GLAD JKR finally found a place to put this chapter into the books. Since day one I've been wondering if the Minister for Magic communicated with the Prime Minister via owl, firechat, floo powder or talking portrait. Finally I know, and we can move on to the actual story.

The Stealth Monster Rule
I didn't even see the giants sneak into England and stomp all over Swindon! And since they didn't leave any footprints, we can only suspect they were there!

Whooshing Powder
Poof! Chapter's over.

Final score: 6

Comments

[q-spade.livejournal.com]

WOW am I psyched to see you post! :D

I've lost all patience with any "Muggle Minstrel Show" scenes.

Too fucking right. Even if the Wizarding world WAS in some way more enlightened or intellectually superior to the non-Wizarding world, it's still a very bigoted way to put that idea across. And after six books, I'm NOT convinced Wizards are "better". They're more powerful in some ways, yes. But better?

If Voldemort can randomly collapse bridges and cause hurricanes, why doesn't he whip it out when he's facing Harry and his friends?

This is such a gap of plausibility for me – If Voldemort is so very powerful, terrifying and dangerous, WHY does Rowling hesitate to write him as such? As it stands, Harry should be the one everyone's scared shitless off. He consistently comes across as far more powerful and dangerous than Voldemort, especially since he doesn't have the brains or thirst for knowledge Riddle had.

Chorley is acting like a duck due to a poorly performed Imperius. I think this may be more evidence that Draco did not actually Imperio Rosemerta. It seems far beyond his abilities.

Ooo, interesting. I'll file that in the back of my brain for future reference.

Don't you think Snape would have had this Prime Minister up to speed and working together in five minutes? Snape for Minister for Magic!

Hell yeah! Too bad he's not a people person...

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

WOW am I psyched to see you post! :D

Thanks!:-D

Too fucking right. Even if the Wizarding world WAS in some way more enlightened or intellectually superior to the non-Wizarding world, it's still a very bigoted way to put that idea across. And after six books, I'm NOT convinced Wizards are "better". They're more powerful in some ways, yes. But better?

Like I said below, she should really just avoid Muggle culture as much as possible, because it just shows up how more efficient it is. Voldemort versus 24's Jack Bauer--who'd win? Even the weakling President currently on that show is more on the ball than this PM. And yeah, I realize it's a kid's book, but clearly she's trying to make the situation "very serious" with collapsing bridges and hurricanes, so she's opening herself up for me to think that way.

As it stands, Harry should be the one everyone's scared shitless off. He consistently comes across as far more powerful and dangerous than Voldemort, especially since he doesn't have the brains or thirst for knowledge Riddle had.

I guess because Harry's so obviously a loving boy. Bwahahaha! Sorry, couldn't say that with a straight face. Note the way that not only are people not scared of Harry but they think the best way to deal with Voldemort is to let Harry take care of him.

[q-spade.livejournal.com]

And yeah, I realize it's a kid's book

The HP series started out as kids' books, certainly. And Scholastic, the publisher in the States, is one of the bigwigs in educational & children's lit so the series continues to be marketed in that way here. But I'm quite sure I've read somewhere that Rowling no longer considers the series to be specifically geared towards children and she expects her audience to "grow up with" the HP books.

Which is all well and good, but...if she wants to reach out to an older audience, she can't make stupid mistakes or over-simplistic generalizations and expect to fall back on the "But it's a kid's book!" excuse. (Besides, kids are only as stupid as you allow them to be – if they're consistently exposed to more complex scenarios, they'll soak the information up like sponges and figure things out with a bit of time & effort.)

I guess because Harry's so obviously a loving boy. Bwahahaha!

Dear Gods, she's got one more fucking book to prove that Harry is actually CAPABLE of feeling & comprehending love – never mind being able to harness that power in order to bring balance to a damaged world – and as time goes on, I'm less and less convinced she's got the chops to do it. It'd be great if she pulls it off, but after reading HPB I've not got high hopes.

[teratologist.livejournal.com]

From the point of view of the publishing industry, I think this chapter is proof positive that Rowling's editors - and Rowling herself - have come to take both the readers and the world's forest resources for granted. It makes me dislike her when wearing my Natural Resources major hat as well as my Slytherin hat.


(Yes, both hats are green.)

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I couldn't believe this was the first chapter. As was said below, it basically just comes down to a big Dumb Muggle routine--and it raises more questions than it answers. I wouldn't have minded this one just going to that rubbish bin on her site with Dean's backstory and Draco and Theodore Nott talking.

[jollityfarm.livejournal.com]

I'll get my own chapter up soon (I'm at chapter 19, fun with an unconscious Ron).

Doesn't anyone who actually cares about society ever run for public office?

It's enough to make one want to turn to anarchy, honestly. One gets the impression that not only does Rowling not understand quite a lot of things, she doesn't really care either.

It's lucky that the Muggles in HP seem to have no technology beyond broken telephone booths, TVs, underground trains and Playstations so they can't study any of these phenomena.

It's sad when one has to artificially stunt the Muggle culture to make the stunted magical culture look better, when it is clearly not :(

So Muggles are all becoming more miserable, the pathetic victims of Dementor flatulence, yet wizards are totally fine and there's no mist there.

I think the flowery scent of Ginny probably triumphs over Dementor-stink. I now have an image of Ginny as "Perfume Girl", choking enemies to death with her scents of rose, lavender and lilly. Cue the crazy fans writing whole essays on the significance of said flowers. Even though this is a hypothetical situation, I still want to tell them to shut up :/

You know, given the way wizards operate, particularly the politicians, I imagine a real Muggle Prime Minister might actually be able to dominate them quite easily.

I could probably dominate them, and I'm as dozy as hell. Isn't there also a thing in the Jabootu scores that says something about a story where everyone has to be made stupid in order for it to work?

That's totally why Arthur Weasley isn't Minister for Magic, uh huh. He's not a schemer.

He's too good for this world.

Wouldn't he know by now he could kill as many Muggles as he wanted without wizards caring overmuch?

"We can't hurt the savages! Then they won't work!"

Arthur Weasley, the guy who studies Muggles, can't even work a turnstile, but they can stick any wizard in an important government position and he's automatically better than the Muggles.

I'm reminded of someone calling Tolkien's elves "a whole race of Mary-Sues". I kind of get this impression here.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

It's enough to make one want to turn to anarchy, honestly. One gets the impression that not only does Rowling not understand quite a lot of things, she doesn't really care either.

She does tend to say a lot of biting things about different classes of people, but when you think about them they don't really hold up. Like how Umbridge is bad for interfering in good education, and also bad for trying to replace bad teachers (who are friends of the headmaster) with good ones. Or the Dursleys are bad for aspiring to traditional public schools and also bad for not being good enough for a traditional public school.

It's sad when one has to artificially stunt the Muggle culture to make the stunted magical culture look better, when it is clearly not :(

Seriously. I mean, I can see why she doesn't want to deal with Muggle culture because she would really have to step up her game, but that's all the more reason to just avoid it. Jack Bauer from 24 and his Sprint cell phone could pretty much take out Voldemort without needing a full 24 hour season.

I think the flowery scent of Ginny probably triumphs over Dementor-stink. I now have an image of Ginny as "Perfume Girl", choking enemies to death with her scents of rose, lavender and lilly. Cue the crazy fans writing whole essays on the significance of said flowers. Even though this is a hypothetical situation, I still want to tell them to shut up :/

LOL! Yup, and if the stink gets too bad she gives them the old bat bogey hex to clean out their noses.

Btw, have you noticed the way bad Snape gets his made-up spells turned against him yet nobody ever turns that bat bogey on Ginny. I guess her spells are so cool and special nobody can do them. Or else everybody really just agrees with us that it's a stupid hex nobody should want to do.

Isn't there also a thing in the Jabootu scores that says something about a story where everyone has to be made stupid in order for it to work?

Yup--Idiot Picture. I chose Idiot World for this scoring since we were dealing with a head of state.:-)

[gillieweed.livejournal.com]

Or else everybody really just agrees with us that it's a stupid hex nobody should want to do.

I'd go with this except we are talking about Rowlingworld here and so...I think people are afraid to do it because Ginny might go all animagus on them. Well that's her next thing, we all know it don't we! Our only hope is that she can only manage to turn into a puffskin.

[q-spade.livejournal.com]

Btw, have you noticed the way bad Snape gets his made-up spells turned against him yet nobody ever turns that bat bogey on Ginny.

Wouldn't it be awesome if this happened in Book 7 – Ginny's power over airborne mucus gets turned against her, with hilarious and gooey! results?

[musouka-manga.livejournal.com]

There were things I disliked about both the first two chapters, but this one is definitely the worse of the two.

I think what really gets me about the first one is that it seems so useless. It's just a "stupid Muggle" flipping out and making hi-larious mistakes about the Wizarding World. It would have fit in much better with one of the earlier books (as would the info dump on Tom Riddle), but I don't see why JKR had to use it at all.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Yes--it just undercuts everything anyway. I guess it's supposed to make us think things are getting bad now, but she's got to do that in the WW during the story and she really doesn't that much. Plus it just begs the question of why, if Voldemort is a wizard trying to take over the WW, he saves his best stuff for Muggles. There's a reason we all supposedly went through the first war without a clue.

[musouka-manga.livejournal.com]

The "war" aspect of this book was completely lackluster. I never felt like anyone was really in danger from Voldemort, except perhaps the Malfoys. Reading a few newspaper articles is supposed to make it hit home? I also think there was more talk about which tattoo Harry supposedly had.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I never felt like anyone was really in danger from Voldemort, except perhaps the Malfoys.

Absolutely--and that threat at least makes sense. It seems like Voldemort only really targets one adolescent at a time, and so far he's not been able to kill either of them.

[violaswamp.livejournal.com]

I remember not liking the writing in it, plus I've lost all patience with any "Muggle Minstrel Show" scenes. And I hope that term isn't really offensive, it just seemed to capture what I wanted to say.

Word. Kinda goes against the "OMG DEs ARE EVIL CUZ THEY LOOK DOWN ON MUGGLES" thing, no?

It could have been funny if she'd been making fun of a specific Brit politician, like Blair or something, in a subtle way. But she's not.

[violaswamp.livejournal.com]

You know, I like Kingsley Shacklebolt but I still get really pissed off at the whole "best worker I've ever had" crap. Arthur Weasley, the guy who studies Muggles, can't even work a turnstile, but they can stick any wizard in an important government position and he's automatically better than the Muggles.

Yeah. What's with that? And Arthur "studies" Muggles in the same way some British pukka sahib "studied" India during the Raj.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

And word on the P.M. thing. He seems to be just a "generic politician" making it clear what she thinks of politics, which is extra scary when you consider that the "good" person interested in politics is Hermione "I have ways of making you follow my orders" Granger.

[merrymelody.livejournal.com]

Oh, honey, I'm so glad you're starting a new reread! I've really missed them since the GoF one, and I'm gonna make a proper effort to keep up with them (and maybe do my own soon-ish) this time because they really are a treat.
Now it's just a question of whether to reply here or at t_s! ;)

I really disliked this chapter.

It's only plus point is we're out of Harry's POV. *gulps air dramatically*

I think this may be more evidence that Draco did not Imperio Rosmerta.

I was discussing this at mistful's recently, remind me to find the link.
I seriously seriously doubt the issue will come up until Harry sees fit to try an Imperius first. Then either Harry'll succeed and Draco will fail because he's less talented magically, or Draco will succeed and Harry fail because Harry's heart has The Power of Love, or there'll just be another flaying to distract the issue.
But the important part is that there has to be some kind of comparison drawn. Otherwise how will we know who to feel smug about beating?

I also like that even the Prime Minister is trying to sound 'braver than he felt' (no security around? Dude, eleven year old wizards have bodyguard-esque pals, Harry can command an entire trainful of people to liquefy his enemies, and the Muggles just sit waiting for intruders to mince them?)
I imagine even the woman who sells sweeties on the train or Petunia's friend Yvonne are totally obsessed with not appearing cowardly.

And the whiskey offering is interesting, just because it reminds me of the Dursleys chapter later.
Fudge might get stick from the authorial voice, but he doesn't slam glasses into Muggle's heads. Probably because he's too cowardly to, though.

And the end line is hilarious with the non-portentousness of it:
'OMG, there are wizards with black hats? Noooo! I thought you were all reliable, kindly sorts with your mind-raping sticks and spies in my office!'
I dunno, it kind of sums up the dominant mindset. The trouble for the good guys is that their opponents aren't hopelessly outmatched and helpless. WOE!

Is it impossible to be a politician and an adult in these books?

Well, sure! Being a politician equals being a namby-pamby wet blanket who's job is to buzzkill the brave soldier-types by reminding them that there's a whole society outside of Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore. Real men (no women politicians, of course) just ride roughshod over the law and do what they want.
Plus caring about society means you have to respect the wishes of others including commie pinkoes who might have different views on say, education - like the hiring of incompetents at their children's schools, or the uselessness of theory lessons.

the P.M. is sitting in his office, gloating, after years of dreaming and scheming.

With that and Dudley, perhaps all Mugglea are just innate Slytherins? Ethnically cleanse us at once!

Did this dreaming and scheming ever rise above the level of tricking Mummy into giving him two deserts?

Tsk, tsk. All cunning is animalistic and base (and all non-cunning intelligence is useless and cold-blooded.) If Prime Minister was really smart, he'd know that all the right answers are found...in your heart.

Only the Muggle grapevine is slow enough that the Wizards have time to go around modifying memories before the news crews show up.

Yeah, you'd think the Internet and mobile phones might prevent a cover-up. (But then wizards have JKR's even better invention - patronuses!)

Fandom should remember the time it wasted on that.

And Mark Evans.
Of course, I'm still relieved that the 'lion-like' guy wasn't Godric Gryffindor.

Another point to the Prime Minister for not being able to articulate why Kingsley's skill does not make it okay that he's a mole.

Be fair. Do you think JKR could?

Watch out for those scheming politicians! They might...um...bluster and bleat at you.

Well, of course. Schemers = Slytherins = Cowards. If they were honest open fellows, ironically, you know you'd be in some danger.

Since day one I've been wondering if the Minister for Magic communicated with the Prime Minister via owl, firechat, floo powder or talking portrait.

LOL!

[little-aphid.livejournal.com]

Tsk, tsk. All cunning is animalistic and base (and all non-cunning intelligence is useless and cold-blooded.) If Prime Minister was really smart, he'd know that all the right answers are found...in your heart.
Gryffindors practically embody truthiness. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truthiness)

I imagine even the woman who sells sweeties on the train or Petunia's friend Yvonne are totally obsessed with not appearing cowardly.

I find it depressing that I can't even imagine a character, good or evil, that doesn't give a rat's ass if someone thinks they're a coward. Even the so-called "cowardly" characters like Draco get offended if their bravery is called into question. Of course, JKR is the author who thinks Harry's "your mom"esque insults are the epitome of wittiness, so maybe they'll get offended at anything.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

It drives me crazy--there's not one person in this universe who's pround to have a reasonable sense of danger? I mean, "coward" in this universe sometimes seems to mean "doesn't like danger for the sake of danger."

[merrymelody.livejournal.com]

JKR kind of mocks the Gryffindor ethos with McLaggen at least (didn't he miss the last Quidditch auditions being hospitalised for swallowing something dangerous on a bet?) she just seems to be implying that this is one of the lucky students who aren't forced to use their bravery in more productive ways, sniff sob.
Except Harry, for example, has been hospitalised for Quidditch injuries as many times if not more, than he has for fighting evil.

[gillieweed.livejournal.com]

ZOMG! Truthiness! Go Stephen!
*and now back to your regularly scheduled programming*

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

But the important part is that there has to be some kind of comparison drawn. Otherwise how will we know who to feel smug about beating?

Yes, it's really hard! Is he more evil than Harry for being able to cast it or just more lame than Harry for not being able to? Or maybe it's like the killing--he's evil for ever considering it but cowardly for not going through with it.

I also like that even the Prime Minister is trying to sound 'braver than he felt' (no security around? Dude, eleven year old wizards have bodyguard-esque pals, Harry can command an entire trainful of people to liquefy his enemies, and the Muggles just sit waiting for intruders to mince them?)

Oh god, yes. And also, I don't know that Muggles would be that scared. We don't believe in magic, so let's face it, being told "a wizard did it" would probably get the response of laughter, not fear. Funny how all the Muggles, while being totally clueless that magic exists, somehow know when to be scared. Also funny that it doesn't seem to work on the Muggles reading the books.

I dunno, it kind of sums up the dominant mindset. The trouble for the good guys is that their opponents aren't hopelessly outmatched and helpless. WOE!

I wish she'd had the Minister yell at the guy. I mean, he's supposed to be taking care of the magic end. Rather than shivering and asking the Minister whatever we poor Muggles are to do, I'd think he'd get pissed.

Plus caring about society means you have to respect the wishes of others including commie pinkoes who might have different views on say, education - like the hiring of incompetents at their children's schools, or the uselessness of theory lessons.

Things would be so much easier if people would stop not being able to recognize the clearly superior people and just let them run everything. Jeez. It's usually right there in the blood!

Yeah, you'd think the Internet and mobile phones might prevent a cover-up. (But then wizards have JKR's even better invention - patronuses!)

LOL! Yeah, love to see how that works. Let's have a gossip-off. We'll see who gets the message across from Cornwall to Yorkshire faster, the Muggle with the cell phone and the text messaging or the wizard releasing a shimmering lemur from his wand that lopes gracefully over the land and then...communicates however lemurs communicate something.

Of course, I'm still relieved that the 'lion-like' guy wasn't Godric Gryffindor.

Oh, me too. Good point. She probably thought we'd be all excited thinking it was him: THE MOST BRAVEST GRYFFINDOR OF ALL! ::swoons::

[gillieweed.livejournal.com]

...communicates however lemurs communicate something.
Lemurs communicate like this (http://www.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2005/05/27/dd_madagascar_lemurs.jpg).

[gillieweed.livejournal.com]

I got as far as the hurricane and everything else was a blur. Sorry, I live in FL and we take our hurricanes seriously. We watch them form as tiny mists off the coast of Africa, diligently track their every move and the speed of every gust and the pressure inside the eye...and never, never does a hurricane appear suddenly out of nowhere. What you certainly must be referring to, Ms. Rowling (and as-ever absent editors) is a tornado. Surely you mean a tornado and for the sake of making things tidy, that scenario has Been Done in that Star Trek TNG episode where that girl found out she was actually a member of the Q.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I thought the same thing--does she maybe mean a tornado? Luckily we Muggles are so dumb probably the only way we know about the existence of either is that wizards told us what they were. Without magic you can't do anything!

[galaxianomiko.livejournal.com]

Voldemort can randomly collapse bridges and cause hurricanes

I'm sorry, but did this strike anyone else as terribly lame? Aside from being sort of unimpressive and PG, you're not exactly striking fear into the hearts of people if they don't even know you exist, you know?

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Lame and useless. Muggles don't know who's causing these things, and Wizard's only interest in Muggles is keeping themselves secret, so why would you kill Muggles to threaten wizards?

[gillieweed.livejournal.com]

Because the wizards fight back?

[blueinkedpalm.livejournal.com]

Perhaps Voldemort is more intelligent than generally supposed and is actually attempting to highlight the supposed 'good guys' indifference towards the people group they are supposed to be protecting? Or has reasoned that Muggles are more expendable than a low wizarding population and killing enough of them will somehow shock the wizards into compliance?...

...nah, didn't think so.

[(Anonymous)]

Found this late - as usual. Thank you for this whole LJ, which I will now read with great pleasure. I really didn't like this chapter - and she says it took her how many years to write? It does read like the Muggle Minstrel Show. I was really narked, because all I could think of was that a real PM would have sorted this whole Wizard popping into the office to indimidate/patronize: surveillance would have been set up and the SAS would have banged in on queue to shoot the arse off anyone even trying. That really would have happened in real life. I thought the chapter was dreadful because it was a totally unconvincing shot at reality, and the crass writing just jarred my suspension of disbelief and highlighted how stupid much of the rest of the Potterverse is.

No LJ, but my name's Creamtea and I'm from Fiction Alley Park.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Oh hi! I recognize your name--and yes, this chapter really wasn't a good start to HBP to me. Even though I knew it was stupid, I still felt offended on the part of my Real World. Stop dumbing us down!