PoA Chapter Three

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Sure enough, a few streets away Harry collapses, unable to pull his trunk. Soon he’s panicking since he’s got nowhere to go and has just done serious magic that’s against the law. I’m sure by the end of the series Harry will have learned to control these kinds of impulsive outbursts. It’s not like he’ll come close to killing someone or throw any Crucios or be complimented for same.

While he waits for a deus ex machina, Harry indulges in another “life as an outcast” fantasy. These fantasies actually work early in the series, though, because he still believably feels genuinely powerless.

Props to Harry for his plan to bewitch his trunk, tie it to his broom, cover himself with the cloak and fly to London. Try to imagine DH Harry coming up with a plan that practical and proactive. It can’t be done.

This scene where Harry and Sirius first come face to face is surprisingly touching when you know the end. Except shouldn’t Sirius be stalking the Weasleys instead? Maybe he was just pulled in Harry’s direction because everything revolves around him eventually.

The Knight Bus appears, run by a teenaged, pimply Stan Shunpike, future Death Eater.

Stan drops his professional manner and starts talking in a cockney accent. With a delightful speech pattern like that he could never be evil!

Harry gives his name as Neville Longbottom, which is, like, symbolic because Neville could have been the prophecy boy. And also because we now know that Neville is much more heroic.

Let’s think about Stan for a minute here, since he did become kind of a confusing character for people like me who think the good guys are very often nuts. The only thing we know about Stan’s politics is that he once “bragged” to a girl that he was a DE. Which would indicate he thinks that’s something impressive. But everyone on the good side seemed to dismiss the idea he could be straight off—why? Because Stan’s stupid and bumbling? Aren’t many DEs the same? Because he has an accent and speaks in slang? Like Crabbe and Goyle? Why are people like Harry so convinced he couldn’t join Voldemort based on a few conversations as he drove a bus? Harry’s offended anyone would even investigate him.

Stan refers to the Muggles contemptuously as “Them.” Nope, no possible bigotry there.

Okay, to be fair, being contemptuous of people for not having magic isn’t considered bigotry in this universe. After all, Muggles really are inferior. And they really don’t notice nuffink, they don’—especially when it’s magically invisible. And if they do notice, they don’t remember they did once they’ve been memory charmed. Idiots.

Harry recognizes Sirius from the Muggle news. Again—who is this boy? He saw that news report a week ago. DH Harry can’t place a picture of Grindelwald from one chapter to the next.

Sirius is the most infamous prisoner ever? Is that just because everyone Harry knows must be described in exaggerated terms? Given what we see Wizards do it doesn’t seem like he should be that big a deal.

I love the little dig at Muggle guns here: “a kind of metal wand that Muggles use to kill each other”—as if Wizards don’t use wooden wands to do everything but kill each other several times a day. Muggles are just so violent.

Harry thinks Sirius looks like a vampire. Must be because he’s the sexiest of the Marauders.

Sirius allegedly murdered 13 people with one curse. Kind of puts Avada Kedavra to shame, doesn’t he? How come the DEs weren’t throwing those around in the final battle? Or at the MoM?

Come on, nobody mentions that Sirius was James Potter’s best friend? Wouldn’t that be part of the story any time it was told? Given how interested people allegedly are in the minutia of Harry’s life you’d think all the stories would include that. But it’s like everyone’s interested in Harry and not at all interested in anybody with any relationship to him except briefly Hermione. (And even she gets forgotten soon enough.)

Harry refers to Hagrid as one of the bravest people he knows. Hmmm. He’s also the stupidest. I think the two are related.

Of course Hagrid’s braveness will be outstripped by Snape, the bravest man Harry ever knew blah blah blah.

Harry worries on the bus about whether he’ll be put in jail for what he did. In a shocking twist, no one immediately appears to take the focus off his own wrongdoing and put it on someone wronging him. He actually sits there thinking that he’s in trouble without drowning it in thoughts of how justified he was and the pleasure he feels at Aunt Marge’s suffering. Who is this kid?

I guess part of growing up is growing out of that childish notion that everyone might not validate your rightness all the time.

Don’t worry, this Harry hasn’t gone completely insane. He’s not, like, worried about Aunt Marge or feeling disturbed by the loss of control, whatever the cause. He’s not disturbed by the kind of violence his rage wrought or planning to control himself in the future. But just the fact that he’s expecting punishment without getting all the more angry and therefore getting even angrier at Aunt Marge herself is, well, strange for Harry.

Fudge assures Harry Marge’s memory has been modified. For some reason they don’t modify the Dursleys’ memories. As badly as the Dursleys behave, they do somehow get themselves better treatment than most Muggles. Maybe constantly lobotomizing the Dursleys would be too creepy even for JKR.

Harry actually reminds Fudge he ought to be punished. Just think about that for a second. Harry’s reminded someone he *ought to be punished.*

Fudge explains that justice in the Wizarding World is completely based on who you know and what they need from you at the moment, and right now Fudge wants to suck up to him. Harry’s fragile sense of accountability gives up the ghost, never to be seen again.

The shocks just keep coming. Harry thinks it’s unusual that the Minister of Magic would get involved in a matter of underage magic. By DH he’d find it odd if the Minister of Magic wasn’t involved in anything Harry did.

Fudge refuses to sign Harry’s permission slip for Hogsmeade, though, because he’s not his parent or guardian and rules are rules even if laws are suggestions. W.T.F.?

I’m assuming his refusal is really a hint that he’s trying to keep him at school because of Sirius, but I love that it can be hidden because this is actually believable in this world, that the MoM would have powers that extend to arbitrarily applying laws to suit himself, but not so far as to signing school permission slips.

Hedwig’s waiting for Harry. She’s a very smart owl. Just not smart enough to ditch Harry before she gets killed.


Things that happen twice:

We hear again about Hedwig being an awesome pet who loves Harry because of the animal theme—a theme that also applies to Sirius the animagus too.

Harry dreams of a life of woe after his mistake, much like he did in PS/SS after he went after Neville’s Rememberall.

This is the second time Harry gets hauled in for underaged magic so that we can see that Fudge is giving him special treatment.

The first of many false name scenes. This time Harry gives his name as Neville Longbottom, the other boy born at the end of July to people who thrice defied Voldemort.

By the end of this chapter Harry has already worried far more about getting in trouble for accidentally blowing up Aunt Marge than he worried about accidentally eviscerating Malfoy. For those who think he shows no development.

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

Stan Shunpike
Status: If you think it was fired you're probably a bad guy. He's so obviously innocent!
Stan winds up some sort of poster child for unfair arrests, but might also be one of the few people in Potter history arrested while actually being guilty.

Sirius Black
Status: Fired.
Remember when his name was mentioned in PS/SS? Bang!

Ripper
Status: Fired.
When Snape sees this memory in Harry’s head we can totally say, OMG, I remember that story about Ripper from back in PoA!





Atomic Grenade
Invented by Peter Pettigrew, apparently.

"Fruit Cart, Fruit Cart!"
I’m sure plenty of fruit went rolling when the carts jumped out of the way of the Knight Bus.

Idiot World
Seriously, the Minister of Magic shouldn’t be getting involved in cases of underage magic. Yes, even if the kid was involved with some weirdness involving Voldemort or is possibly being stalked by the prisoner you’re trying to capture only for some reason you don’t just tell him that.

IITS
I guess maybe Peter just never taught the other DEs how to easily take out a dozen people with one spell without even aiming at them.

Nut o’ Fun
If Harry’s got to sit and stew about his problems, he might as well do it in a purple bus with magical powers.

Jabutoo Score: 5

Comments

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Well, yes and no. Whatever the gimmick for the adventure du jour might have been was usually introduced pretty early on, and the spells that were going to prove to be pivotal were introduced anything up to two books earlier. Over the first four books anyway.

That's one of the things that threw me in OotP when Protego was suddenly thrown at us without a proper introduction. Yes, it was refered to a couple of chapters earlier, but not by name. And it was identified after the fact abnd pointed out as being that spell that was refered to in passing a couple of chapters earlier, but it seemed as if Rowling was trying *not* to let the reader know about it until she had used it.

And that was a complete departure from how she had been working previously. It's long enough ago that we've largely forgotten about it, but she had actually built herself a very good reputation for "playing fair" up to that point. Because over the whole first half of the series she *didn't* suddenly throw things at the reader without having made sure that the reader knew about them beforehand. A reader familiar with folklore *might* have figured out that Slytherin's monster was a Basilisk, and even the average reader wasn't astonished to be told so by the time that happened. It is unlikely that anyone would have, but Rowling certainly didn't cheat us over that. No one would have figured out Imposter!Moody, but she did lay a plausible backtrail that led up to him.

Admittdly the Time-Turner was a little different. The reader wasn't told about Time-Turners beforehand. But there were instead a lot of hints and clues that something funny was going on with Hermione's schedule, so that when Albus suddenly told her to use it, the reader wasn't all that much at sea to discover that there was a hitherto unknown "it" to be used.

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

Oh I agree, her preparation was good in the beginning. She seemed to take much more (or any) care then. I liked the way she originally handled the things you mentioned. Especially as by the end she apparently forgot the spells she'd already established - the spell Hermione used on Nevile in Book One would have been a far better way of dealing with Carrow in Book 7. I appreciated the fact that she introduced certain characters earlier than necessary - eg Cedric before making him a Champion. She avoided the 'Star Trek' RedShirt scenario! (I don't mind extras being killed, but I can't be expected to care)

I liked the Knight Bus because it seemed like an interesting part of the Wizarding Community, not a desparate attempt to move Harry/the plot on after the Marge Incident - she could easily have had Harry broomstick it out of there. The problem with the later books was that she seemed to introduce new things suddenly, just to get herself/the plot out of a corner. Previously she chose what to introduce and when, but by the end she'd lost control. That's hardly a newsflash, but things like the Deluminator (a real pet hate) or that mirror could so easily have been cut out/handled better. Why bring in silly Deus Ex Machina, when they could both have been replaced by better use of the House Elves which she'd established so well and so early on? I'll stop now - House Elves in Deathly Hallows is a real flash point of mine.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

The Knight Bus explained how larger families like the Weasleys herded their brood around without multiple Apparations or wasting Floo powder right and left. And, in a world where there is ample public transportation and a constant influx of Muggle-borns to perhaps want it, it makes sense. It would also serve any under-aged Muggle-born or Muggle-raised like Harry or Tom Riddle who want to get around the magical world without access to a Floo or before they could Apparate.

[oryx_leucoryx]

What bothered me most in this context is side-along Apparition. In COS the Weasleys are concerned about their supply of floo powder and Ron says they only bother with it at all because of the children who are too young to Apparate (in my edition; I understand it wasn't there originally) and then in HBP the Ministry recommends to everyone to side-along their kids. Also, why bother with cross-country broom flight in OOTP if any Order member could have side-alonged Harry? If side-along were a special power only available to Dumbledore I could accept it but when anyone can do it?

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

Imagine side-alonging a herd like the Weasleys! Would they have to make multiple trips? Could they snag two or three apiece at a time? How easy would it be to Splinch a side-alonger? Floo powder or the Knight Bus, IMO. It really would make sense if side-along was a skill that had to be practiced to the nth degree to ensure that the rider wasn't harmed.

I'm just going through things that might equate in real life and I'm getting motorcycle riding. You need a special license or special test with an addition to your license in order to operate one legally on the streets; you can't ride more than one person safely at a time; it isn't exactly the way I'd suggest dragging a large family to the store or to visit Dad in St. Mungo's - the repeat trips would wear the operator out, would eat time, would be fuel inefficient. It just wouldn't be worth it.

My take on the Harrowing and Chilling (literally) Broom Escape in OotP: Within the story I suppose an argument could be made that someone thought Harry needed the exercise after being cooped up with the Muggles, or he would enjoy the flight since he's such a gifted flier; outside of the story I think it would just be to draw out dramatic effect, forgetting that an easier way existed or wanting to save it for that special Dumbledore moment.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

That's because in the opening chapters of DHs the Ministry suddenly was (temporarily) able to trace Apparation, and they didn't want anyone in the Ministry to know where Harry was Apparating to.

This state of affairs only lasted through about chapter 5, of course. By Chapter 9 Harry and Co could apparate to the doorstep of #12 without incident and in Chapter 11 Remus is assuring us that you can only "trace" ann apparation by grabbing hold of someone and going with them. But in the opening chapters the Ministry could trace you, so Harry couldn't just sidealong away.

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

Maybe JKR was happy to contradict herself over this as with so many other things - it irritates me, as well.

I don't blame Molly and Arthur for not wanting to side-along their small army - what a palaver that would have been! However, you're right that in OotP in particular it doesn't make any sense. Not only was it a waste of time and resources, it was potentially dangerous. Whilst Death Eaters were less likely to be hanging around - unlike in DH where their presence would have been inevitable as Harry was of age - was it worth the risk? As JKR didn't need it until HBP, why not make Side-Along illegal for the first five books? Maybe due to the passenger being more at risk of splinching (or something). Then in HBP, instead of the reccomendation, The Ministry could announce that the Law was to be relaxed (for whatever reason) then it would have made more sense. Either that, or say you needed a special licence and Dumbles was the only one in the Order who had one? Both of those are pretty weak, but at least it would have been an attempt to cover up unneccessary plotholes.

Neither explanation would explain why JKR didn't use it in the Seven Potters chapter in DH, but that book is sadly beyond redemption. Unless, as you said, JKR limited it to a special Dumbles power, but then either Hermione would have to be even more of a MarySue in DH, or they'd have to apparate themselves - or even make use of the House Elves...