PoA Chapter One

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Totally forgot I meant to post this this morning!



Come with me to a time in the distant past, back when starting the book with Harry’s birthday didn’t mean hundreds of pages before he got to school and ending in June didn’t mean Voldemort plotting his evil plans around summer hols. In fact, Voldemort isn’t even in this book, which on the whole will do wonders for his reputation!

Harry Potter is an unusual boy. Not only does he hate summer holidays, but he really wants to do his homework. Wait…what? Who is this intellectually curious boy who wants to practice his magic? Not the Chosen One I know!

Harry’s writing an essay on how Witch Burning in the Fourteenth Century Was Completely Pointless. So basically, he’s writing a whole essay on how Muggles are idiots and completely impotent when it comes to hurting Wizards, as if this is something any wizard might forget if they weren’t assigned it in class. Why do they even care about what Muggles were doing in the 14th century?

Not to mention, it wasn’t pointless whether or not they burned witches since it’s not like the whole period in history was really about chasing down wizards as defined by this book.

If nothing else all the death provided a joke essay for Harry to write, so there’s a point right there!

Btw, was Dumbledore’s sister the only witch in history hurt by Muggles? We relentlessly laugh at Muggles thinking they could ever do anything to even get a Wizard’s attention but when Dumbledore needs a back story suddenly they’re capable of producing brain damage in people who are dropped on their heads from six story windows by their own families.

Which btw makes me think of how unlikely it is that, memory charms or not, there’s no society of deadly Muggles taking out Wizards right and left in stealth. Or….is there?

Harry’s using a quill and a bottle of ink in his bed to write this essay, despite no doubt having ball point pens a few feet away. Surely the quill thing’s lost its novelty by now. Especially since he’s afraid the Dursleys will hear the scratching. Quills aren’t one of those magical things we Muggles can’t handle, Harry. We stopped using them because we invented something better.

The Dursleys have a very medieval attitude towards magic. Understandably, since most of the time they’ve experienced it some wizard has been going medieval on their ass.

The narrator telling us the Dursleys tried to squash Harry’s magic out of him by keeping him downtrodden is like a remnant of that early idea that maybe magic was like creativity or imagination. Remember, before we knew Wizards didn’t really have much of either?

Earlier the Dursleys went out to talk about their new company car in loud voices so the neighbors could hear. Too bad Vernon couldn’t fly the car in through the window while everyone was eating lunch in a big dining hall, huh? That would have been really ostentatious!

Remember this later when we learn that when you have a truly superior transport everyone will flock to you without your asking them too. Nice subtle pointer to the true moral of the series, that Harry is a more deserving version of Vernon.

Harry’s friend Ron is stupid when it comes to telephones, but knows a lot more than Harry about important things because he comes from a wizard family. Take a moment to savor that, Ron. This is the last book you’ll be anything like the authority on wizard life.

OMG, Vernon says he doesn’t want to hear from people ‘like YOU’ to Harry. It’s like he looks down on Harry just because of his magical standing! He must be a bad guy.

Harry assumes Ron told Hermione not to call him, even though she actually knows how phones work, and she’d have been sensible enough to not say she went to Hogwarts. So…would she have said she knew Harry from one of the many other places at which Harry meets people that call him? Because there are none.

One good thing this summer is that Hedwig gets to fly out at night instead of being stuck in her cage. Though she might have been willing to stay in the cage if it meant Harry would let her out four years from now when it comes time to get chased by Death Eaters. RIP Hedwig.

Dudley is enormous and makes loud noises in his sleep. Probably because his weight problems make breathing difficult.

Harry’s never received a birthday card in his life. It’s kind of disturbing how likable Harry still is here. If I didn’t know him better, I’d see a nice young boy who just wants to go to school, be with his friends and do his homework.

Btw, I suspect Harry’s birthday is now an international holiday for wizards. (Even if the world war only took place in Britain.)

Harry goes to the window and enjoys the fresh air without once thinking about how the nice weather conflicts with his own inner turmoil. Weird!

Harry’s also longing for Hedwig because she’s the one person in the house who doesn’t flinch at the sight of him like the Dursleys. Good to know that three years from now Dumbledore will show up and tease them. That will totally make up for this lonely life!

We’re told Harry’s parents didn’t die in a car crash—um, did someone say they did? (I know Harry was told that growing up, but this book just says it apropos of nothing.)

Harry had to admit he was lucky for even reaching his 13th birthday. Again…who is this boy who admits he’s lucky in any way?

Harry expects Hedwig to come back with a mouse in her beak expecting praise. Owls don’t work that way, Harry. You’re thinking of a cat or a dog. Owls don’t catch the dead thing to show you. Owls just eat the mice and expel the bones and fur and things in a little pellet.

The Weasleys are spending the summer in Egypt because they won a prize. This sounds like it might be kicking off an exotic story, but really it’s just a reason to show them in the paper.

Another sign we’re still pre-GoF: the Weasleys are going on a fancy trip and not taking Harry!

Instead of writing about the pointlessness of Muggles, Harry ought to write an essay on the pointlessness of wizards inventing black and white magic pictures for the newspaper just so they can make their world look like the Muggle world just out of date enough to be nostalgic. I might read that essay.

Harry can’t think of anyone who deserves to win a pile of gold more than the Weasleys, because they are very nice and extremely poor. The virtuous kind of poor, where Dad’s an important government official and they’re one of the premiere families in the country.

You can tell because no matter how much gold they get, how many promotions Arthur earns or how many children move out and get well-paying jobs, they always remain the exact same level of virtuous poor where Ron can’t get things as nice Harry.

Ron’s note hopes “the Muggles” didn’t give Harry a hard time. I wonder if his letters to Hermione refer to her family that way too.

Molly wouldn’t let Ginny enter a tomb with mutant skeletons—more stupid Muggles who broke into tombs without knowing how to undo the curse.

I’m sure that overprotection of Ginny will stop by the time she’s 16, though, right? And we learn how badass she is? If only she was out of the house and married to someone like Harry Potter. He would never tell her to stay behind for safety.

So Bill’s a grave robber, basically? And grave robbers work for banks?

The Weasleys have blown most of their money on this one trip to Egypt, but at least they’re going to get Ron a new wand for next year. Thank goodness the old one snapped or Ron would probably be spending another year backfiring on himself.

Percy’s looking smug in the photograph. Get used that word, Percy. It’ll be attached to you until you properly grovel at your brother’s feet. And even then it’ll only be lifted for that one moment.

Ron sends Harry a Sneakoscope that Bill says is rubbish because it kept flashing at dinner. Spoiler alert: it’s because of the rat. Luckily the twins are also at the table, and are also untrustworthy so JKR can cover it up. Probably the more expensive Sneakoscopes are attuned to be able to pick out the bad kind of untrustworthy from the good, fun kind.

Harry looks at the present happily for a few seconds. I love this Harry!

Hermione’s in France. I hope you enjoy that family trip, Grangers. It’ll be your last with your daughter. If you even remember you have a daughter.

Hedwig flew to France all on her own because she knew Hermione would be worrying about customs or something.

The theme of pets/animals having their own agendas starts off right away.

Don’t ask me why Hermione was worried about sending a gift through customs. It’s a wood polishing kit, not a baby dragon.

Hermione’s jealous of Ron’s trip since ancient Egyptian wizards must have been fascinating. Ancient Egyptians Muggles were as lame as the British kind, though.

Hermione’s essay is 2 rolls longer than was asked for. I hope Binns rejects it and makes her write it again within the correct word count.

Hermione gives Harry…an actually thoughtful present. To review: Harry finds pleasure in the good things he does have, Ron is the authority on the wizard world and Hermione thinks about what other people would actually want instead of what she thinks they should have. Who are these people?

Harry’s now got a broomstick polishing kit and a wand polishing kit. Without TV, wizards spend a lot of time polishing wood. Jealous yet?

I assume Hermione’s thoughtful present is also showing that she does have Harry’s best interests at heart when she tattles about the Firebolt.

Quidditch is the most popular sport in the magical world. It’s also the only sport in the magical world.

Also Harry’s the youngest person in the century to be picked for his school team. Which…should not be that impressive.

Harry opens Hagrid’s gift. Phew! At least Hagrid hasn’t changed. Still annoying as ever. It’s a book that bites. Go ahead and open it, Harry. Maybe it will rip your throat out and Hagrid can berate you for scaring it.

Harry stops grinning when he sees his permission slip for Hogsmeade, since he’ll never convince the Dursleys to sign it. The kids lie throughout the books, but it doesn’t occur to Harry to forge a signature?

“Extremely unusual though he was, at that moment Harry Potter felt just like everyone else — glad, for the first time in his life, that it was his birthday.” Awww! It’s sad that all this stuff that explains why Harry is sympathetic will just turn into the explanation for why he’s a pissy ass whenever people cross him.

I saw a presentation on Phoenix Rising about how JKR always does everything at least twice, so now I obsessively look for parallels and things that are going to happen again/have happened again. In this chapter I got:

Things that happen twice:
Vernon made a big show with his car and the neighbors. Later Harry will get that attention for his Firebolt.

That’s not the last time we’ll be seeing that Sneakoscope go off “accidentally.”

It’s a gun. No it isn’t! It’s Chekov! No it isn’t!

Throughout the books, JKR sprinkles lots of things that turn out to be important later on. These are often incorrectly referred to as “Chekov’s guns” because Chekov, when talking about set decoration in the theater, said that if you put a gun over the fireplace in act I it had better go off in act IV. In HP terms, a “gun” is any detail mentioned anywhere at any time, and even with thousands of pages to work with, some of them still didn’t go off. So I’m mentioning them when they appear and noting if they were fired or turned out to be duds:

Bill the Cursebreaker
Bill’s background with curses and magical artifacts will obviously come in handy at some point, say if Harry puts together a crack team of Horcrux hunters.
Status: Dud. Bill, in general, turned out to be important for looking cool and marrying a French person (yeah, he got scarred, but only to show the kind of girl Fleur really is). And Harry never had a crack team of Horcrux Hunters. Or a crack team of anything, really.

Bathilda Bagshot
Bathilda Bagshot wrote that book Hermione’s always reading.
Status: Fired! In a way far beyond what one might have expected—she became a snake snuggy.


Special note about PoA: I’ve always had a weird relationship to this book because it’s most peoples’ favorite and Scabbers/the Marauders is one of the best reveals. Yet I never wanted to re-read it. I thought it was because I just hated the Buckbeak story—and as you’ll see I really do hate the Buckbeak story, but reading it again I found it kind of boring. I mean, JKR keeps all the balls in the air, she darts back and forth between all the stuff she’s got to entertain you—Hermione’s secret, Quidditch, Sirius Black news, Snape and Lupin, Buckbeak, Hogsmeade. But in the end PoA is really just like HBP. The real story going on isn’t happening to Harry, it’s happening near Harry, usually just out of his line of vision—and there’s no villain going after him so there’s very little at stake.



The Cricket Rule

Day-for-Night

As Harry looks out the window into a balmy summer night, looking for Hedwig.

Foley Work
Cue Dudley and Vernon snoring and turning over in their creaky beds.

Informed Attributes
Because “youngest player in this century…” sounds a lot better than saying “Because there wasn’t anybody else handy in Harry’s quarter of the small student body, he got to join the school team for the sport everyone’s forced to support because there’s nothing else a year early.”

Nut o’Fun
The mutant skeletons were the best thing in the chapter.

Jabootu Score: 5

Comments

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

I can’t see myself ranting in fury at these recaps as I did at the DH ones (shudder) - I think JKR did a good job here. Nothing in this chapter made me upset, or want to scream. You’re right, PoA is quite like HBP in that key things are happening at a remove from Harry, however JKR manages to keep it interesting (imo) at least he's still in the thick of things. When you compare it to HBP, which is much poorer, you can really see the deterioration in her abilities. Not the writing so much, but the story-telling/attention holding weakness, which eventually torpedoed the series.

---“We relentlessly laugh at Muggles thinking they could ever do anything to even get a Wizard’s attention but when Dumbledore needs a back story suddenly they’re capable of producing brain damage in people who are dropped on their heads from six story windows by their own families.”

Good Point – it’s not a vulnerable child thing either, Neville was a comparable age, wasn’t he? In the late 20th century, we thought these perceptions were helping to establish JKR's world/story and were watertight! It was a few years before we realised they were totally at the whim of JKR’s plot requirements. Consistency? No.

---“Hermione’s in France. I hope you enjoy that family trip, Grangers. It’ll be your last with your daughter. If you even remember you have a daughter.”

Mwah! I can see this reviewing this book will be coloured by what is yet to come. After I read (and was horrified by) DH, I reread the earlier books and they still stood up ok in themselves, but as a guide of what was to come, not so much. Hindsight shows that JKR built strong foundations for a series that turned out flimsier than than a house built of cotton wool.

Also, Bill the Cursebreaker – what a waste of a brilliant possibility. I shall refrain from the list of other people/ideas/items in this series that fall into the same category – but it’s a biggie.

[eir-de-scania.livejournal.com]

"When you compare it to HBP, which is much poorer, you can really see the deterioration in her abilities. Not the writing so much, but the story-telling/attention holding weakness, which eventually torpedoed the series./---/Hindsight shows that JKR built strong foundations for a series that turned out flimsier than than a house built of cotton wool."

100 % agreement on this!

Plus adding, in PoA Jo is still writing a children's book. I found the first three books funny and charming in a very British way. The exaggerations, like the Dursley's stupidity,
comes with the genre. There's still a light-hertedness in the story-telling that faded away in the latter books.

The story still held a lot of promises as well. The trio were still nice kids, we still thought they would mature and we still believed Jo had a coherent wizarding world planned.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Yup, getting into the book the only thing that makes me angry is the Buckbeak story, which I always hated. But in terms of a book and how it's written she's got several pretty good kid-book plots that she's switching between. There's a couple of places where she does that familiar bait and switch where what people are emotional about is kind of contrived, but even then, done in a way that's technically well done since you're pulled along with it.

DH just gets away from everything like that when it tries to half-heartedly go into high-fantasy and wartime mode.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Ah, when we were young and the trio were sympathetic kids!

So many things look very different in retrospect - such as the examples of Hedwig, the Weasley's vacation and the Grangers.

Btw, was Dumbledore’s sister the only witch in history hurt by Muggles?
Nearly-Headless-Nick was killed by Muggles.

The Weasleys are spending the summer in Egypt because they won a prize. This sounds like it might be kicking off an exotic story, but really it’s just a reason to show them in the paper.

See swythyv's essay Here a Slug, There a Slug

The theme of pets/animals having their own agendas starts off right away.
Kudos for noticing and relating to the Scabbers/Crookshanks storyline.
Harry’s now got a broomstick polishing kit and a wand polishing kit. Without TV, wizards spend a lot of time polishing wood. Jealous yet?

How does polishing wood compare to listening to Celestina Warbeck or the Wyrd Sisters? Wizarding life is indeed lame.

Status: Dud. Bill, in general, turned out to be important for looking cool and marrying a French person (yeah, he got scarred, but only to show the kind of girl Fleur really is). And Harry never had a crack team of Horcrux Hunters. Or a crack team of anything, really.

Others thought there was going to be a more complicated loop: Bill was a Curse Breaker. In OOTP we learn Arithmancy is a required subject for this occupation. Starting from POA Hermione is learning Arithmancy. Ergo: Hermione will acquire important knowledge that will help destroy Horcruxes through this class. Status: Dud. (But it turned out learning Ancient Runes enabled her to read some lame fairy-tales that caused Harry to be side-tracked with an unnecessary obsession as well as explained why Voldemort got obsessed with wands and why he killed Severus.)

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Wizarding life is indeed lame.

But it didn't have to be that way.

Hmm. It surprises me, but I don't think I can remember any story that went more into this, showing how wizards had superior 'movies' with their pensieves. I could see something like video rental shops selling/renting memories for the whole family to enjoy - fully 3-D and interactive virtual experiences.

Oh, there are the WWW Patented Daydream Charms, which is even more interactive.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that link--I'll have something to read this afternoon!

It's actually pretty cool following that animal-theme storyline. I didn't even originally notice it in this first chapter because it really kicks in in the next or the one after that.

I didn't even know about the Arithmancy theory! Though I guess people should know that wasn't really going to be important since...oh dear, maths.

[kitrinlu.livejournal.com]

So glad you decided to do this :)

Harry’s using a quill and a bottle of ink in his bed to write this essay

This seems like both a pain in the ass and a disaster waiting to happen. Does he wash his own sheets, or is Petunia forever scrubbing out inkstains?

Harry assumes Ron told Hermione not to call him, even though she actually knows how phones work, and she’d have been sensible enough to not say she went to Hogwarts. So…would she have said she knew Harry from one of the many other places at which Harry meets people that call him? Because there are none.

Imagine how badly the Dursleys would have freaked out over Harry getting called by a girl!

The Weasleys are spending the summer in Egypt because they won a prize

I have never understood this. Why not stay home and use the money to, I don't know, be less poor?

So Bill’s a grave robber, basically? And grave robbers work for banks?

Is Gringotts the only wizard bank in the world and Bill works for the Egyptian branch, or is he stealing stuff from the Egyptian government and sending it back to England? Either way, his life sounds a lot more interesting than Harry's often is.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

The Weasleys are spending the summer in Egypt because they won a prize.

I have never understood this. Why not stay home and use the money to, I don't know, be less poor?

Because Rowling needed the photo to be seen. So common sense and characterisation (viz the thrift of the Weasley parents) is sacrificed to make the plot go where Rowling need it to go. We ain't seen anything yet!

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

The Weasleys are spending the summer in Egypt because they won a prize

I have never understood this. Why not stay home and use the money to, I don't know, be less poor?

What makes the trip odder is that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley visited Bill in Egypt just last Christmas, in CoS. Of course, none of their children went with them that time, so it would be less expensive. Still, they spent nearly 700 galleons on this trip (since the prize was 700, and Ron reported that "most of it's gone on this trip"). How much did they spend that Christmas? Well, maybe they didn't go sightseeing, and the two of them might have been able to stay with Bill. With seven visitors, they would have had to pay for a hotel.

The decision to spent the prize this way could be seen as consistently demonstrating their values: they care more about each other and the family being together than money. Except that doesn't quite work, because Bill could come to Britain -- in GoF, when there's a World Cup, he *does* come to Britain. So while part of it may be getting the family together, more of it is about a nice vacation in Egypt.

How they want to spend a windfall is up to them, of course. I've seen people point out that poor people deserve to have nice vacations as much as anyone, if that's how they choose to spend their money, and that this sounds like it was an educational trip that all of the kids would benefit from. All of that is fair.

It's just that we saw their Gringotts vault in CoS, and they *emptied* it to buy the kids things for school, so we know that they don't have any kind of reserves in case of a crisis. And unlike modern Muggle society, the WW doesn't seem to have any standard sources of credit. A trip like the one they took may well be worth putting up with secondhand robes and books, but they really do need to have some money saved, even more than people in our society would.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I did always assume he was raiding Egyptian tombs to bring back the money for a British bank. And I guess if you figure the goblins consider themselves to own all the coins they've minted, that's maybe the reason!

[papier.livejournal.com]

I have never understood this. Why not stay home and use the money to, I don't know, be less poor?

Ugh, this. I remember reading POA at thirteen and thinking 'wow, no wonder they're poor'. It reminded me of those kids at school who went on holiday every single year without fail, but came to school in tatty clothes. The first time I went on a plane was when I was nineteen, because my parents couldn't afford us to have nice, new things AND go abroad every year. Priorities, people!

There is of course the theory that the Weasleys had to make a show of things by taking a holiday to prove to people that they weren't as hard up as they appeared. It's that whole 'fallen nobility' thing again.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

It's hard to be snotty about this book because for all of its bugs and glitches, the main characters were all still likable, and the storyline was still obviously unfolding according to a plan. A *real* plan, not a pretend one used as an excuse whenever anyone asked Rowling why she did something silly. Rowling knew where she was going when she wrote this book. And she did a cracking good job of doleing out the information that the reader needed to follow it.

Also, the story was still opening up, rather than closing in, and the possibilities seemed endless.

It was becoming more evident that she has a weakness for saying pretty much anything for the sake of a joke, however. Even when the joke was 1. unnecessesary, or 2. shot a hole into her foundation that had to be detoured around for the rest of the series.

But yeah. go back and read the books before Warners had any kind of input, and Rowling still had confidence in what she was doing, and it doesn't take long to remember why we liked them so much a decade ago.

[violaswamp.livejournal.com]

It's hard to be snotty about this book because for all of its bugs and glitches, the main characters were all still likable, and the storyline was still obviously unfolding according to a plan.

Also because it was still a children's book. I don't mean that as an insult. It was squarely within the children's book genre, which has its own conventions that make those bugs and glitches perfectly acceptable.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, in this book a lot of the stuff she has going on doesn't interest *me* personally (or it infuriates me, see: Buckbeak) but it's a school story and it's got school things going on. And the reveal at the end is still great. The whole Scabbers/animals/animagi/Marauders tie-up is pretty damned clever and satisfying!

Though there are still hints of the self-centered ethics that eventually really takeover for me. It's especially fun looking for the later Lupin. He seems a lot cooler in this book.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Yay! A new book! Can we kill Ginny in this one too? :-)

I think the best humour in all this is going to be your contrasting the book with what we know comes up in the sequels, particularly the last two books after the series jump an ocean of sharks. Anyway, I enjoyed the differences you highlighted here.

Actually, I take back my request to kill Ginny ... your answer would have been "Ginny who?". Given as how she'll be almost non-existent for the next two books. But really, we know better - we know she's wonderful and beautiful and a great quidditch player and 'a lot of the boys like her'. It's just that Harry doesn't notice her. Or her awesome awesomeness. At all. Riiight.

Ron’s note hopes “the Muggles” didn’t give Harry a hard time. I wonder if his letters to Hermione refer to her family that way too.

Ah, she loves him for it anyway, the scamp. And for his confounding Muggle driving examiners. They're only Muggles. But he's WON WON.

Can you perhaps keep a counter of the number of moments that pop up in this book that show how Harry and Ginny are soulmates, or how much Hermione loves Won Won? Or the respect that Ron and Hermione have for each other? Hmm. It might not be too exciting keeping score at that. Forget I asked.

Hermione gives Harry…an actually thoughtful present.

You forgot to tell us what Ginny gave him. Darn, my shipping bias is really showing, isn't it? I'm just a bitter survivor from the Interview o' Death when we were told to 'go back and re-read' if we didn't pick up on the ANVIL SIZED HINTS of how AWESOMELY 'Jo' wrote the romance in this series. I'll be quiet now.

Harry stops grinning when he sees his permission slip for Hogsmeade, since he’ll never convince the Dursleys to sign it. The kids lie throughout the books, but it doesn’t occur to Harry to forge a signature?

Heh.

Did the Dursleys actually give their permission for Harry to attend Hogwarts in the first place? Given as how they fled the country to try to escape the deluge of letters? And how Hagrid, in the end, kidnapped him?

If they won't sign a permission slip ... did they sign the paperwork sending him to the actual school? Why doesnt Harry look into this? Why doesn't Hermione look into this?

I assume Hermione’s thoughtful present is also showing that she does have Harry’s best interests at heart when she tattles about the Firebolt.

WAS THERE ANY DOUBT?

*is shocked at Magpie*

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Ginny didn't need killing in this book. Nor, for that matter in the next.

Actually the going theory is that she was murdered and buried in the forest at some point toward the end of OotP and an imposter took her place for the rest of the series.

But of course it might have happened anything up to a year earlier. No one was paying any attention to Ginny during Year 4 -- apart from Neville. So we can probably suppose that the real one lasted until after the Yule brawl. But she may not have made it past Easter break.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Actually, though it's certainly better crafted than the later books (and the kids are a lot nicer than they later became), POA was nevertheless my least favorite of the series until HBP, because I hated the conclusion. But I'll wait for that. What I really wanted to say here:

Yes, Bill is a grave robber, and he works for Goblins! Allow me to quote a song I wrote for our band, the Gringotts Grrls (we are goblins!):

Cursebreaker for Gringotts,
You think you are so smart.
You'll pile up all your treasures
In every Gringotts cart.
But you will soon be sorry;
Your greed you'll come to rue,
For, because we're goblins
We're cleverer than you.
Yes! Just because we're goblins
We're cleverer than you!

(Words and music, Mary Johnson and the Gringotts Grrls.)

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

LOL! There is not enough Goblin Rock in the world, truly.

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

Hooray! Thanks, Sistermagpie for doing this!

It is sad to think how nice a kid Harry used to be when he was thirteen. I remember when I read OotP for the first time, I really, really disliked Harry for the whole book. But then I figured out that he was just going through a phase. Being fifteen and I figured he would get better in the next book.

And then he was worse.

Which btw makes me think of how unlikely it is that, memory charms or not, there’s no society of deadly Muggles taking out Wizards right and left in stealth. Or….is there?

I would love to see this as a series. Heh. I just realized it would like BtVS or Supernatural, but for witches instead of demons. It could be great!

Earlier the Dursleys went out to talk about their new company car in loud voices so the neighbors could hear. Too bad Vernon couldn’t fly the car in through the window while everyone was eating lunch in a big dining hall, huh? That would have been really ostentatious!

You're missing the point. Vernon's car is morally reprehensible because he paid for it himself. Harry's firebolt is morally pure because he did absolutely nothing to earn it.

Owls just eat the mice and expel the bones and fur and things in a little pellet.

Which is odd because doesn't he keep giving her pellets to eat? Hehe. I think someone didn't really research owl care and feeding before writing this series!

I love the additions of Parallels and Chekov Guns!

[eir-de-scania.livejournal.com]

I think someone didn't really research owl care and feeding before writing this series!

***JKR said as much in some interview or other. She put in the messenger owls because she though owls were cool.

BTW, Hedwig is/was a male owl...only male snowy owls are pure white, the females are spotted... ;-)

[night-axe.livejournal.com]

Joining the chorus: a likable Trio is downright disorienting.

Harry’s writing an essay on how Witch Burning in the Fourteenth Century Was Completely Pointless.

Someone, somewhere, noted that the mention of a witch who had herself executed forty-seven times "in various disguises" sounds like a comforting fairy tale for wizards to cover up the fact that at one time, Muggles really were killing them. Though surely the witches could have Confunded their persecutors into burning innocent Muggle women instead. Now that would be hilarious.

I’ve always had a weird relationship to this book because it’s most peoples’ favorite and Scabbers/the Marauders is one of the best reveals. Yet I never wanted to re-read it.

Seconded. I forgot PoA as soon as I put it down. In GoF (still my favorite) the Triwizard Tournament is a complete waste of time, but it brings the action. In between regular bouts of danger, Harry's got to solve little puzzles like the screaming egg and the big puzzle of who wanted him in the Tournament and why. PoA has even more puzzles, but as you say, most of them have nothing to do with Harry, and they aren't exactly riveting in their own right. Why does Hermione have more homework than usual? Who sent Harry some new equipment for the dullest sport ever invented? I MUST KNOW.

[eir-de-scania.livejournal.com]

Harry’s writing an essay on how Witch Burning in the Fourteenth Century Was Completely Pointless.

***Wich is why they hanged witches in England. ;-) But they did burn them in Scotland. Only it wasn't the case of an angry mob throwing a suspected witch on a bonfire, it was the local authorities that arrested and interrogated the suspected witch at length before execution. And by interrogation I mean severe torture.

[r-ganymede.livejournal.com]

Harry’s using a quill and a bottle of ink in his bed to write this essay, despite no doubt having ball point pens a few feet away. Surely the quill thing’s lost its novelty by now. Especially since he’s afraid the Dursleys will hear the scratching. Quills aren’t one of those magical things we Muggles can’t handle, Harry. We stopped using them because we invented something better.

I've always wondered if ballpoint pens were actually banned at Hogwarts for some reason, 'cause I can't see Muggleborns putting up with quills for long otherwise. Even a fountain pen would be better than a quill.

Hermione’s essay is 2 rolls longer than was asked for. I hope Binns rejects it and makes her write it again within the correct word count.

I know! None of my teachers would have put up with that. I can think of at least one who would have outright failed the thing for not following directions.

This is one of those areas where it seems like JKR intended Hermione to come off as a really great if overzealous student when she actually comes off as a terrible student. Actually, this is the worst book for that in general, given her plotline in it. But the only problem with her study habits the book ever addresses is the lack of sleep caused by them, not the horrible ineffectiveness of her overall approach to learning. Maybe she wouldn't have so many problems taking all the classes she does if she weren't writing extra rolls for every essay.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Heh. I never thought of Hermione's study habits that way but yeah, she does seem to have a problem prioritizing information. I almost think she'd be the type of person who knew a lot but wasn't able to get to the point, like the type of person who couldn't answer a question without going through a ton of steps and giving you information you don't need.

[elanor-x.livejournal.com]

Harry Potter is an unusual boy. Not only does he hate summer holidays, but he really wants to do his homework. Wait…what? Who is this intellectually curious boy who wants to practice his magic?

Don't be so shocked, sistermagpie. Harry really wants to do it only since he can't come near Dudley's computer / TV. Also, the forbidden fruit is sweeter and imo he would think less about it, had the Dursleys not forced him to hide. As soon as he's at school, the enthusiasm will wane. (Or not in this book? Has Hermione started doing their homework from book 1 or only in GoF, as a sign she turned into a romantic interest?)

Harry’s writing an essay on how Witch Burning in the Fourteenth Century Was Completely Pointless.

JKR is still following children's books' conventions here. When the books became darker (from JKR's pov, at least), we got Ariana. I refuse to believe 2 Muggle boys drove a pureblood witch insane by chance, but during the centuries of prosecution no helpless children were caught. What about Muggle-borns doing accidental magic? "Nobody was hurt" cheapens it. Pet theory: the books were written many years ago by Lucius Malfoy's likes, who couldn't care less as long as prominent purebloods were safe.

Which btw makes me think of how unlikely it is that, memory charms or not, there’s no society of deadly Muggles taking out Wizards right and left in stealth. Or….is there?

Why not use them as weapons for army's secret missions instead , like in "Push" movie? (Watched only its' trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afT1fAwSr-Q )

Harry’s using a quill and a bottle of ink in his bed to write this essay, despite no doubt having ball point pens a few feet away. Surely the quill thing’s lost its novelty by now.

To be fair, in Harry's place I would use only quills for hand-in assignments too, since I wouldn't want to remind the teachers of my different, Muggle upbringing all the time. We know how wizards respect Muggles and their inventions, don't we? Artur Weasley is viewed as a joke (partly) because of his hobby by everyone from his wife to Lucius Malfoy. Harry especially has no reason to love Muggle world and want to promote his Muggle-ness. Being Harry, he probably hasn't thought about it though and uses quills by default, without thinking. Besides, such considerations would be too deep for this book (or for every book in this series?)

Re: Ron always staying poorer than Harry. Not surprising since Harry: a) inherited a fortune b)gets lavish gifts heaped on his from all sides.

Harry opens Hagrid’s gift. Phew! At least Hagrid hasn’t changed. Still annoying as ever. It’s a book that bites.

He has sort of changed since his gift is the most useful out of 3 - it's the book Harry would be otherwise expected to buy for school! Had Harry had as much money as Ron/Tom Riddle, he would have been more grateful.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

>>When the books became darker (from JKR's pov, at least), we got Ariana. I refuse to believe 2 Muggle boys drove a pureblood witch insane by chance, but during the centuries of prosecution no helpless children were caught. What about Muggle-borns doing accidental magic? "Nobody was hurt" cheapens it. Pet theory: the books were written many years ago by Lucius Malfoy's likes, who couldn't care less as long as prominent purebloods were safe.<<

The book was written in 1947 by Bathilda Bagshott. Who had some family skeletons to hide, historically speaking. For that matter,since she was already a famous wizarding historian by then, I wonder whether Albus commissioned it. He had an interst in keeping a lid on a few historical deatils as well.

And we know from DHs that the book never gets into 20th century history...

[elanor-x.livejournal.com]

I thought it was because I just hated the Buckbeak story—and as you’ll see I really do hate the Buckbeak story, but reading it again I found it kind of boring.

Can't wait for your recap of it!

Personally, I enjoyed HP as a cross between detective and usual boarding-school story, so POA was likable. I understand you hate the narrative's treatment of the Buckbeak story, but can't you love it by tuning out JKR at her most judgmental and viewing her voice as the way Harry (a child!) perceives it, while we as adult readers can laugh at the goofiness of it all: Draco as a drama queen (or is it movie contamination?), Harry fuming at Malfoy's chutzpah of showing the arm to Pancy, then wanting to use the same trick on Choe in OoTF. Of course, Draco's injury is one of those things, which happen in life, not some punishment for being Evil. Isn't school story supposed to have such incidents? JKR probably went too far trying to stress who the Bad Guys were for children's sake since I don't believe she would be super-OK, had her child being hurt like Draco.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

It's not those parts of the story I hate it's the whole weird attempt to parallel Buckbeak and Sirius as innocents convicted of crimes without really explaining how that works. And meanwhile the one person the most guilty and deserving of censure gets off scott-free! Sure Malfoy gets to annoy the Trio and milks his injury, but he's actually the only person who learns that he did something wrong and has to correct it because of the consequences. It's Hagrid, of all people, who becomes the victim even though he's largely responsible for every bad thing that happens. The whole "Hagrid's ineptnes gets excused and rewarded" is one of my least favorite strains in the whole series and this book is the high point.

[elanor-x.livejournal.com]

Harry stops grinning when he sees his permission slip for Hogsmeade, since he’ll never convince the Dursleys to sign it. The kids lie throughout the books, but it doesn’t occur to Harry to forge a signature?

Forgot to mention! Iirc in the movie (or in the book too?) Harry asks McGonagall to sign, but she refuses. What is definitely right is that she refuses to let him go and we are made to understand that Dursleys' permission has nothing whatsoever to do with it. The teachers want to keep Harry safe and probably wouldn't let him go with the permission either.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Certainly not that year, with the grounds surrounded by dementors.

[oryx_leucoryx]

For those who like to pick nits:

It takes Hedwig 2 days to fly from Surrey to wherever the Grangers were staying in France and back. And Hedwig didn't know in advance where that might be.

The photograph was published in The Prophet a week earlier - so around the 23rd. This was followed by several nights of Sirius muttering 'He's at Hogwarts', his escape, and Remus' appointment, which must have been finalized on the 30th - book lists can only be finalized once all teachers decided on their respective ones. (Why was the Hogwarts owl delivering its message at night? Were all other students woken up in the wee hours?)

Also, this year Percy got his Head Boy appointment well before the book lists were sent out. (Compare to Ron and Hermione receiving their badges with the book lists at the very end of summer in OOTP. Maybe Dumbledore really was hoping to have Harry as prefect but when he couldn't prevent Umbridge's appointment as teacher decided to give up on that.)

[horridporrid.livejournal.com]

Ooh, you've started! *slides in just under deadline*

To review: Harry finds pleasure in the good things he does have, Ron is the authority on the wizard world and Hermione thinks about what other people would actually want instead of what she thinks they should have. Who are these people?

Hee! In a way, it's a relief to see that, I wasn't crazy, there was a reason to like these characters way back when. :) But also, how not-hard it seems to show the Trio as likable!

Harry's enjoying his homework (an implication of Harry reading - I didn't think it existed!) and is excited about being a part of this strange and wondrous new world. He's interested in the happiness of his pet, which means it's sweet that she's just as interested in his happiness.

Both Ron and Hermione (!) being interested in and involved with their families, setting up a lovely contrast with Harry's loneliness. (Made sweeter by Harry being happy for his friends rather than bitterly jealous, as he eventually becomes whenever they seem happier than him.) But also showing the two of them being interested in Harry as well. Ron doing his best to call, then warning Hermione not to when it all goes badly. (I like that there's the background hint that Ron and Hermione have a friendship with each other apart from Harry.)

And all told with a minimum of words. It's so strange to see that JKR really could write.

Throughout the books, JKR sprinkles lots of things that turn out to be important later on. [...] So I’m mentioning them when they appear and noting if they were fired or turned out to be duds:

A theory I think sprang from PoA was that the WW really did have a systemic problem with their views of Muggles. That it wasn't just a "Slytherin problem". The essay that seems a joke on the surface but also appeared to remind young students that Muggles tried to kill them with fire back in the day; Arthur Weasley being poor because his interest in Muggles (and, at this point at least, the fair treatment of same) holds him back; even Ron's throw-away line referring to "the Muggles". I think it was all grist for the "this is a problem to be fixed" mill.

I'd list that one a dud. Unfortunately. As was this:

...a remnant of that early idea that maybe magic was like creativity or imagination. Remember, before we knew Wizards didn’t really have much of either?

At this point, I think the WW was still a place I wanted to return to. And I definitely thought it was pretty much down to creativity and imagination. I still don't know why JKR thought that was a bad idea.

Honestly, I think the theory that JKR went horribly off the rails at some point (GoF?), and never got back on, is a darn good one. (Jodel_from_aol is a big proponent of that one, iirc.) I think JKR's still going strong in PoA... It'll be interesting to see if I still think so by the end of this re-read. Either way, she still seems to be enjoying herself.

And now... to the comments! :D

[oryx_leucoryx]

Not sure what happened, my comment below was supposed to be a reply to this post.

[oryx_leucoryx]

A theory I think sprang from PoA was that the WW really did have a systemic problem with their views of Muggles. That it wasn't just a "Slytherin problem". The essay that seems a joke on the surface but also appeared to remind young students that Muggles tried to kill them with fire back in the day; Arthur Weasley being poor because his interest in Muggles (and, at this point at least, the fair treatment of same) holds him back; even Ron's throw-away line referring to "the Muggles". I think it was all grist for the "this is a problem to be fixed" mill.

I'd list that one a dud. Unfortunately.

Well, DH confirmed the attitude to Muggles and Muggle-borns was not confined to Slytherin, or Ted Tonks and the others would have had more support. But the dud aspect was that nothing was done to change things. And why would anyone change an attitude that is shared by so many? Everyone accepts it.