PoA Chapter Four

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Since Diagon Alley is full of the most fascinating wizarding shops in the world, Harry has no desire to venture into Muggle London. He’s got a robe shop, broom shop and an ice cream parlor.

Harry likes eating breakfast in the Cauldron and watching the other customers. Almost as if he’s a curious boy with interest in the world around him. I’m thinking Dumbledore must have slipped him something to kill this once he got to school.

One of the people Harry sees is someone who looked “suspiciously like a hag” ordering from behind a baklava. Perhaps Marietta looked suspiciously like a hag in her baklava too.

Btw, are hags yet another creature that aren’t fit for polite society from birth?

Harry also gets free sundaes every half an hour. Wow. Does he look a little more like Dudley by the end of the week or what?

Harry’s tempted to buy himself a set of solid gold gobstones. Luckily just in time he remembers that he doesn’t actually play gobstones.

Harry’s metabolism is no doubt as far-seeing as his financial sense. He won’t be getting fat no matter how many sundaes he eats.

Gobstones squirt nasty-smelling liquid into the other player’s faces when they lose a point. Honestly, for all the claims of how great it is, the wizarding world mostly tastes and smells terrible all the time.

Harry also gets his first look at the best broom ever. What do you think the chances are he’ll get one of these Firebolt things by the end of the book like last time?

Not that this great broom will in any way give Harry an unearned advantage over any other Seeker, of course. Our brooms, like our choices, simply show who we are.

LOL! There’s something wonderful about Harry reminding himself that it’s not like he’s ever lost a Quidditch match on his Nimbus 2000. He might as well have reminded himself that he never seems to lose at anything, really. To be fair, he hasn’t yet entered the TWT.

The bookstore manager has already been bitten several times in one morning by Hagrid’s stupid book. Nice to know Hagrid’s powers of irritation are just that powerful.

Harry’s eye falls on a book about death omens that has a picture of a black dog on the cover, thus neatly making his vision of Sirius look like an omen. Well done there.

Other kids pop up at Diagon Alley, like Dean and Seamus. Harry also sees Neville, but doesn’t stop to chat. Shock.

Arthur has of course heard all about what happened to Aunt Marge. He was probably disappointed he didn’t get a chance to cover that up for Harry himself.

Hermione says Harry’s blowing up his aunt isn’t funny. After all, she’s amazed he wasn’t expelled. Nice foreshadowing of Hermione’s take on the Sectumsempra issue.

The Weasleys are randomly staying at the Cauldron this year because Harry is. (Maybe they’re afraid he’ll get adopted by some other family if they leave him alone another minute.)

Let me guess, will Hermione be staying too? Why yes, she is! Her parents obediently dropped her off by herself at a hotel. Maybe she just lied and told them she had to be there early.

Hermione is taking Muggle studies because she thinks it will be fascinating to see them from the wizard pov. If by “fascinating” you mean infuriating and condescending, I guess.

Hermione’s got extra money because it’s her birthday in September. I know that note’s for us but it almost makes it sound like it’s new information for Ron and Harry. Or at least Harry, whose birthday is the only important one until Ron almost gets killed on his. (Though after that one the Weasleys probably started celebrating it as the anniversary of the time Harry saved Ron rather than Ron’s birthday.)

Hermione says she wants an owl, which gives Ron a reason to pull Scabbers out of his pocket and note he’s looking droopy. He thinks because Egypt didn’t agree with him, but of course really it’s because he’s scared of Sirius!

It also gives us a reason to go to a pet shop: Animals are Important in this Book!

They go to the pet shop, which is also foul-smelling. The clerk makes a point of helping someone else so they have time to look around and give us a nice long descriptive paragraph.

Like nearly everything Ron owns, Scabbers is second-hand. Hey, he finally got a new wand, didn’t he? It’s not even pre-owned!

The witch asks what powers Scabbers has. So are all magical familiars supposed to have powers? I guess Hedwig’s ability to care whether or not Harry has a happy birthday doesn’t count?

The witch says an ordinary garden rat can’t be expected to live more than three or four years. Well, obviously, there’s his power!

So Hermione chooses to buy the cat that attacks Ron’s rat on sight. Yup, that neatly fits their pattern all right. Not exactly optimistic symbolism for that marriage.

Black’s not going to be caught by a 13-year-old wizard, Arthur says, a line that sounds incredibly silly given that you’d think a world war wouldn’t be fought and won by a 17-year-old wizard and his idiot friends, and yet it will.

Ginny goes red and mutters hello to Harry without looking at him. It’s amazing the way that if you look back at past books, Peter’s true personality is actually clear in Scabbers and Barty Crouch’s true personality is clear in Fake!Moody…yet the fantastical Ginny of OotP and HBP remains completely hidden. I mean, it’s not even like Harry walks in on something that looks like Ginny being clumsy but on re-read is clearly Ginny having just beaten all her brothers into submission or something.

If only Colin Creevey had been tongue-tied instead of babbling he might have been given a new, awesome personality too.

Percy greets Harry as if they’ve never met, which makes Harry almost laugh instead of get angry and judgmental. Weird, isn’t it?

Percy, of course, can’t hide his personality. He’s already been smug and pompous and he’s just appeared on the page.

Fred and George jump in to elaborately make fun of Percy for Harry.

George is revolted at the idea of being a Prefect, because it would take all the fun out of life, and Ginny giggles. I guess there’s our Big Clue to the firecracker within.

The twins also tried to shut Percy in a pyramid in Egypt. They’re so funny and awesome.

Everyone eats their way through 5 courses at dinner. I’m so glad we’re away from the fat people so we can get down to enjoying all this good food!

Percy curiously asks why the Ministry’s sending cars for their family and George says it’s because of Percy, and they’ll have little flags that say HB for…wait for it…Humongous Bighead! Fred adds that! That’s hilarious! Are these boys really only 15?

So the car for Arthur is “doing him a favor” because he doesn’t have a car anymore. That would be because his car was illegal and his kid lost it. If there’s one thing that says poor, it’s fleets of government cars taking your kids to school, yeah?

Still, it’s nice of the Ministry to do something to make up for Arthur losing his totally illegal car that specifically went against his own area of law enforcement. I doubt anybody in the Muggle world would be that thoughtful.

Arthur feels it makes no sense not to tell Harry he’s in grave danger. Naturally he won’t be winning this argument. Nobody ever tells Harry anything he should obviously know. Though to be fair, Harry never actually seems to want to know anything he should obviously know.

Since Arthur’s not going to tell Harry anything, he resorts to having a loud, angry “As you know, Bob” conversation with Molly while Harry’s listening.

So to bring us up to date: Sirius muttered “He’s at Hogwarts” in his sleep, which everyone assumes refers to Harry because honestly, who the hell cares about any other single person at Hogwarts even if you’re not in jail for killing Harry’s parents?

Molly says Dumbledore would never let anything hurt Harry at Hogwarts, even though Harry’s already almost died at Hogwarts twice in the two years he’s been there.

It turns out Fred and George actually stole Percy’s badge to change it to read “Bighead Boy.” Just as Harry is protected from the harsh reality that everyone thinks Sirius is after him, apparently the twins are kept from the harsh reality that they are pretty much lacking in wit.

Like, remember that scene in Annie Hall where little Alvy has to deal with “Joey Nickles” and his allegedly hilarious jokes? And even though he’s a small child he just wanders away saying, “What an asshole?” I see a lot of that in the Twins’ future.

Harry thinks maybe Sirius should be afraid of Dumbledore since Voldemort was. Nope, one of Sirius’ most appealing qualities was that he wasn’t afraid of Dumbledore. Which is also pretty much why he spent his life in prison and then died young, really.

Worst of everything, of course, is that Harry can’t go to Hogsmeade. Um, yeah. That’s definitely the worst thing about finding out a mass murderer is gunning for you. No unchaperoned trips to the bug, grass and vomit-flavored candy store!

Harry vows not to be murdered. And I have to appreciate Harry coming up with even that vague of a plan. Nobody can accuse him of not fulfilling at least that goal.

Things done twice:

Harry sees a second incredible broom he’ll soon own.

Hermione is attracted to a cat that attacks people, thus becoming another pet owner like Marge and Hagrid.

Harry’s kept out of the loop on a big secret about himself throughout a whole book, much like OotP.

Fred and George fix Percy’s badge to say something different. The badge technology in GoF does NOT come out of nowhere!

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

Firebolt
Status: Fired, just in the way you’d expect.

Arthur says the Ministry is no nearer catching Black than inventing self-spelling wands
Status: Fired, and we didn’t even know it was a gun!
Hey, Arthur, Harry’s already got one of those! It’s just waiting until the seventh book to randomly reveal itself!





Exploitation Filmmakers’ Credo
If Molly didn’t follow this credo her husband would have no reason to exposit information he’s already told her for Harry’s benefit.

Hero’s Death Battle Exemption
Harry reminds all those people, in his head, how wonderfully he’s managed to keep himself alive so far. It’s good to have your name in the title!

Idiot World
Arthur says the Ministry’s pulled people them all off their regular jobs to find Sirius. I love that the Ministry is so useless they would look for a fugitive by deputizing a bunch of accountants (without the accountants doing anything useful like checking financial transactions that could lead them to Sirius, of course.)

Spring-Loaded Cat
Hey, an actual spring-loaded cat!

Jabootu Score: 4

Comments

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

And then OotP happened and I was like...really? Because that and HBP so clearly lays out what makes her ideal for Harry and wow, I'd love to hear what other parents had to say about having to deal with the two of them at school meetings.

Heh!! :-)

But yes, it was a big U-turn for Ginny, wasn't it? We assumed that she was all blushing crush!girl, but otherwise *nice*, in those first four books ... but then the 'real' Ginny materialised in book 6.

(I think her characterisation in OotP, while consistent with the horror we saw of Ginny in the last two books, was still within acceptable/nice behaviour. Of course, we didn't see that much of Ginny in OotP.)

I get what Rowling tried to do, the clever "only seeing her through Harry's eyes" thing, hence we don't see the 'real' Ginny in those early books, but (a) the concept itself that the SUPER FANTASTIC HEADSTRONG FEISTY AND INDEPENDENT Ginny was such a doormat when Harry was in the vicinity is something of a contradiction and mocks her character, and (b) I refuse to believe that NOTHING of the SUPER WONDERFUL GINNY WHOM A LOT OF THE BOYS LIKE was picked up by Harry (either himself or via her brother Ron) in those first 4-5 books.

It was a neat idea, but the execution was too exaggerated, too contrived.

And apart from that, the 'real' Ginny was an obnoxious little girl who didn't warrant the applause and free passes she received in book 6.

It's funny to see how many fanfic writers were, like you, shocked by the change in Ginny's character, how they couldn't see it coming. So many stories featuring a warm, gentle, emphatic, kind and soft Ginny in those pre-OotP stories, almost all of them ... and even the ones written between OotP and HBP, I think. But after HBP they were replaced with the brutish girl of the canon, a Ginny who would fight Harry in chapter 1 for daring to drop her as his girlfriend and so forth.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Yes, in OotP I was rolling my eyes at all the set ups for Ginny to be awesome and take-no-shit and cool, but it wasn't until HBP where every word out of her mouth was a put down and everybody except Harry (and Luna, who was almost like a pet) was dirt beneath her feet. Very strange.

Especially because looking at that girl if somebody asked how she'd act when she was freaked out over a boy she liked I'd probably guess she'd be too loud and aggressive. I mean, maybe I would just be wrong. But it's still weird to remember that Ginny's quiet, shy behavior was covering up a loud, completely non-shy girl. I really can't imagine this girl having the relationship she had with Tom in CoS. I guess in retrospect she wasn't really supposed to be quiet and shy and truly struggling during her first months in a new environment where she wasn't sure about her ability to make friends, she was just a cool girl complaining about her brothers and Harry Potter not liking her the way cool girls do.

Of course, it would probably be harder to show Harry getting interested in her that way. Not because it could be done, but JKR gets a lot of stuff done just by having Ginny perform in OTT ways--hexing Zach, telling people off, winning at Quidditch, yelling at Ron, putting down Slytherins, crashing into Zach, being pretty enough that everyone dates and talks about her, sticking up for Luna. The other Ginny might some quiet moments where it's just her and Harry.

[montavilla.livejournal.com]

There was such a quiet moment in OotP. The famous "chocolate egg" scene. If that had been their relationship, I would have been flying the H/G flag from the top of the mast.

But in HBP, she becomes such a horrible person! The way I justified it was that she was going through a stage of bitchiness, just like Harry had gone through his horrible asshole stage in OotP.

Problem was, Harry emerged from that stage to be even more selfish. And Ginny wasn't anything at all. Unless you want to consider her behavior during the battle of Hogwarts as regressing back into the sulky ten-year-old kicking at her mother's shins because she can't go to Hogwarts with the older kids.

At least it all spared Cho Chang and Michael Corner the horror of ending up with those two!

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Yup, I was even going to mentioned the chocolate egg scene as an example. Though for me that book had already made clear that she wasn't about quiet moments. She wasn't yet the relentlessly obnoxious person of HBP but she'd already been recast as the mouthy person in charge of the room when she opens her mouth instead of the quiet girl Harry would be surprised by when they were alone. And of course, it's the person in HBP that Harry's knocked out by. That's the behavior he likes.

[biting-moopie.livejournal.com]

And of course, it's the person in HBP that Harry's knocked out by. That's the behavior he likes.

IAWTC. And that's exactly the problem I have with their relationship, it's based on douchiness rather than those rare shared moments. I really like that chocolate egg scene and was sad that it wasn't further built upon.

[horridporrid.livejournal.com]

There was such a quiet moment in OotP. The famous "chocolate egg" scene. If that had been their relationship, I would have been flying the H/G flag from the top of the mast.

Oh, I'd forgotten about that scene! Yes, that was a lovely one that fit with the Ginny we'd caught glimpses of before, imo. The same Ginny who looked after Ron when he asked Fleur to the dance in front of a whole bunch of people.

And Ginny wasn't anything at all.

*nods* That's why I don't have any strong feelings about Ginny. She's just... not there. She never gets to be.

I had this feeling, way back when, that there was this schism in the Weasley family. And that Ron and Percy were on one side and the twins were on the other. (My theory was that Ron was more like Percy than the twins but thought he should be like the twins and that was where his awkwardness came in.) Anyway, I had Ginny pegged as being quietly on Percy's side. So in a sense, I kind of feel bad for that version of Ginny. That she was as hard done by as Percy was.

[tdotm.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. I don't know if Ron is *like* Percy, but I think he understands where he's coming from - they were both bullied by the twins. Percy because he's so different from the Weasley template (and maybe not overly humourous?) Ron because he's the next youngest. If Percy had left home just because of the twins, I'll bet Ron would have totally understood. It's a shame JKR didn't get Ron to follow up on his threat to call them out on their sh*t after the Hogwarts fight in HBP. She missed a chance to develop both Ron and the twins with that - but she'd long started to always take the easy way out in her story.

I'd also have thought that early Ginny would have been on Ron/Percy's side. She seemed more likely to have had a (smaller) amount of bullying at their hands, rather than being their devoted protégée. I didn't mind her being a little spoiled, that would be inevitable, but she was totally unlikeable. Harry's closest emotional relationship in canon is with Ron in my opinion (platonic!) so it makes sense that Harry would be attracted to a hot tempered, but basically goodhearted Ginny - Ron in a skirt. Instead he ended up with a nasty hard-faced spiteful cow - Fred in a skirt. I actually feel sorry for him. A little.

Also, somewhat off topic - Percy should have been a spy. I wanted to see the twins grovel goddammit! Fred's death was a cop-out...

[horridporrid.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. I don't know if Ron is *like* Percy, but I think he understands where he's coming from...

Yeah, not that they're all carbon-copies, but that there are two types of cloth on display here and Ron and Percy are on one side and the twins are on the other. You've got the lively and charismatic and outgoing side (I'm being deliberately neutral here *g*), and then you've got the other side who... well, aren't. ;) And I did see it as the twins really squelching any behavior they didn't approve of. That Ron saw what happened to Percy and determined that wouldn't happen to him.

...it makes sense that Harry would be attracted to a hot tempered, but basically goodhearted Ginny - Ron in a skirt. Instead he ended up with a nasty hard-faced spiteful cow - Fred in a skirt.

"Fred in a skirt"! That's a perfect way of putting it. Which is probably why Ginny of the latter books seemed so off to me. That's not how earlier Ginny was. It just wasn't. A young Fred would not have appreciated Percy looking out for him. And Ginny seemed to appreciate Percy in the beginning.

Also, somewhat off topic - Percy should have been a spy.

YES! Oh, I was hoping... and then it all went horribly, horribly wrong. (Percy is one I still see worthy of a rescue.)

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Oh, totally. Ron isn't like Percy, particularly, but he worries over practically every impulse towards "good behavior" he has. He and Percy are the Prefects. Percy is overly defensive and pompous about it, embracing the whole thing like Hermione. Ron folds like a wet paper canoe.

[sunnyskywalker]

Percy should have been a spy

I bet we could still make it work... Aberforth called Percy, iirc? Why would he do that unless they were already in communication and Abe thought Percy could be counted on? He wouldn't mention it when he showed up for the battle, because it's too complicated and they don't have time, so he just sticks with the part about how hard it was to get out (which was true). Long explanations can come later. Or he might want to maintain his cover as much as possible - if the Hogwarts defenders lose, he can claim he infiltrated them as a fifth columnist under the "repentant son" ruse under the orders of someone now conveniently dead. Or something.

Or maybe he was a free agent who passed information to Dumbledore when he thought Dumbledore would use it well and stuck to his own projects when he thought Dumbledore would screw up. Or maybe he was Dumbledore's man - Aberforth Dumbledore's. Or he and Aberforth and Neville had allied by DH into their own anti-Voldemort triumvirate, each with their own cells, which worked with Albus's people when it worked out but didn't work for Albus. Lots of possibilities!

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

Or he and Aberforth and Neville had allied by DH into their own anti-Voldemort triumvirate, each with their own cells, which worked with Albus's people when it worked out but didn't work for Albus.

I like this one. We pretty much see that going on with Neville's cell at Hogwarts, which is loyal to Harry. Percy's cell could be loyal to the ideal of a functional and effective ministry; Aberforth's could be geared more toward freedom for witches and wizards generally, accepting shopkeepers, retired people, anyone not at Hogwarts or the Ministry.

And they don't work for Albus or let his portrait in on their plans. They might work with Order members when it works out but they don't give them any idea of the scope of their operations. I suppose there could be Order/AltGroup crossovers, maybe Snape networks with Aberforth, maybe Remus does, and Augusta Longbottom would fit right into that group. Dean Thomas is working undercover for Neville's cell - unfortunately, he and his got captured but there were other Muggle-borns out there hiding and spying and saving the ones who had no cell affiliation. That would explain Colin Creevy at the Battle of Hogwarts, too - an outside agent called in for the fight.

[oryx_leucoryx]

And being better at security things they avoided Lee Jordan's radio station.

[sunnyskywalker]

Seriously. Worst code names ever.

[sunnyskywalker]

I bet the trolley witch from the Hogwarts express works with Aberforth. Maybe Florian Fortescue, too, and that's why he got caught and carted off (not that the DEs necessarily understood that they were fighting multiple factions). I like your idea of Colin being an agent called in - I also bet he finally put his camera skills to good use during that last year somehow.

Percy has had plenty of opportunity to be disillusioned with every other faction out there, and I'd definitely buy him working to make his ideals of effective, responsive, and hopefully principled government a reality. Sometimes this means making alliances, or sucking it up and grovelling when you need to get a job done.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Let's not forget Justin Finch Fletchley. A Muggle-born from a family who would have sent him to Eton would have ties in places wizards wouldn't know about. Maybe he was on the Muggle anti-terrorism front.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

Especially because looking at that girl if somebody asked how she'd act when she was freaked out over a boy she liked I'd probably guess she'd be too loud and aggressive.

And making all the wrong moves where the guy's concerned - like Romilda Vane. I was really toying with hopping on the Ginny Used A Love Potion bandwagon after HBP. It could swing either way with the hints and blinds that were thrown in, or that we thought were thrown in, from PoA I think it was, where Molly, Ginny and Hermione are laughing about love potions at the Leaky Cauldron, to the scene at WWW in HBP. The Ginny we saw as she emerged from her shell would, I think, sneak a potion to whoever she liked at the time, without thinking about the consequences; the family she came from would never discourage such impulsive actions, though I couldn't see Molly wanting her baby to do that.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

I never bought into the love-potion theories after HBP came out, I think because I'd found that book to just be so bad, and also because Rowling's "Interview o' Doom" showed that she honestly and sincerely thought that H/G was a match made in heaven.

But I gather there were a whole *host* of love potion references in the sixth book. Things I never noticed, like Celestina Warbeck singing 'hot cauldron of love' over the wireless at Christmas. As well as all the other more blatant cases - Slughorns Amortentia (sorry if I muffed the spelling), Romilda, the WWW products.

Although Rowling's self-indulgent self-praise stopped me from considering the love potion possibility I do see how such might have transpired in the series. Pureblood!Ginny could have easily done just what you suggested. And Harry's monster seemed to be a disjoint part of him (myself, I've always gone with the theory that it was Riddle's soul fragment in Harry that lusted for Ginny; with the 'monster' now gone Harry should likewise be free of that attraction :-)).

Do you know of any decent love potion fanfics that do a good job on this sort of thing?

[horridporrid.livejournal.com]

But I gather there were a whole *host* of love potion references in the sixth book. Things I never noticed, like Celestina Warbeck singing 'hot cauldron of love' over the wireless at Christmas.

I wonder if that's just where JKR's mind went when it came to love? I mean, that it was foreshadowing, or creating an atmosphere for, everyone falling in love with their various soul mates? Didn't JKR say that the infamous "love room" at the DoM had a cauldron of that love potion? (I seem to recall raising an eyebrow at that little tidbit.)

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Didn't JKR say that the infamous "love room" at the DoM had a cauldron of that love potion?

I dimly recall that being the case.

Meh. I can see now that Rowling's treatment of 'love' in the sixth book was much like her writing of the Hallows and brand new wand lore in the seventh - throwing everything she could think of into the mix without any great regard for what it all meant or how it would stick together. It might have been 'creating an atmosphere' but it also created a big mess as well. :-)

[horridporrid.livejournal.com]

Not thought out, no. ;)

But... I don't know, some of her answers to her interviews (probably the worst way to judge someone's actual opinion, but what the hell *g*) leave me thinking JKR has some odd views on what love is. Or maybe an odd way of articulating her views. Either way, I'm not surprised that I tend to be drawn to relationships I think she didn't mean to draw me towards. (Example: I find the Malfoy family a lot more loving towards each other than the Weasley family.)

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Oh god, yes. Because it said so much about what "love" was supposed to be, given all that stuff about Harry's power of love. This is what's going on in the secret room where they're studying the most powerful force? They're taking love potions (which produce sexual obsession) and jumping each other. Wow.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

This is the kind of thing that convinces me that in Rowling we've got a walking, talking illustration of burnout.

She throws in a comment from her mouthpiece Albus about the "greatest mystery" in all nature as a throwaway line at the conclusion of an adventure. It really isn't a half bad concpt and the fans-who love a mystery grab it and run with it. She, however, simply threw it in because is sounded portentious, so, having done so, she forgot about it. This wasn't something that she's planned. It wasn't something she'd built into the narrative, it was just something tossed in to give it a gloss of "instant depth".

A year later she sits down and starts writing the book with the official Riddle backstory. Now, this I think was planned. Not worked out in detail, but she always did intend to give us the Riddle backstory in Book 6. She just never thought to fully build it into the narrative, since nothing she tells us in it actually connects to anything else in the story, and the trajectory she gives young Riddle doesn't even connect to what everyone has to say about his original rise and VoldWar I.

But in any case, whether this has been something she's intended from the beginning or it's something she's pulled out of her hat once she sat down to write it (my suspicion), she ends up giving us a book in which love potions -- which have been treated as a complete joke heretofore -- are revealed to be downright wicked, borderline Dark, and effectively evil. Moreover, she plays the Efniessin card and implies that this scourge of the ww could *only* have been a monster because he was concieved from the use of a love potion rather than being born of parents who truly *loved* one another.

So she finishes her extended term paper and turns it in and forgets about it, and some years later in an interview (since I'm pretty sure the statement was made post DHs), somebody asks her about the throwaway statement about the great mystery that she wrrote some five years earlier, and she thinks; "er.. something about love, wasn't it?" and pops out with the statement about love potions, since she has no recollection of the context of either theme.

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

You know, this might explain the otherwise inexplicable thing: in interviews, Rowling tends to come off like a pupil who's been copying high brow stuff from the top student somehow and when being asked about the same topic is reduced to throwing around random words without the faintest idea as to meaning and implications. Logically, this should be impossible with an author when talking about her own frigging work - but somehow it IS fact. *ponders*

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

You will also notice that this complete randomness mainly affects questions about the back half of the series. She really did think about the first half, and while things that she honestly missed -- like the missing 24 hours -- are still missing in action, she usually gives a coherant answer to a question asked about details from the first three books.

Unless, of course, it's something that she contradicted later. In that case she can't remember which version she needs to endorse to make herself look good.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Luna, who was almost like a pet.

I'm glad you said that. I had a discussion once about dear Ginny and her friendship with Luna was raised by my opponent as an example of just how wonderful and friendly Ginny was.

Except, yeah; 'almost like a pet', as you say. With Luna sadly and abjectly grateful for the awesome!Ginny's patronage. And let it not be forgotten how we first met Luna, with Ginny calling her (behind her back) 'Loony' straight off and then 'suppressing a giggle' at her behaviour.

I really can't imagine this girl having the relationship she had with Tom in CoS.

That's a great observation. Not the out-of-Harry's-view Ginny that we're told was so powerful and forceful. Nice! Even if you've rationalised your way out of the contradiction :-(. Which I like too - the 'cool girl complaining about her brothers and Harry Potter not liking her the way cool girls do', heh. :-)