CoS 2

[pauraque_bk]

*goggles at suddenly enhanced friends-of list* Hello! I assume most of you showed up for the CoS re-read. Good to have you aboard. Feel free to introduce yourselves, or just jump in whenever the mood strikes you.

For anyone who missed it, black_dog left a couple of great, long comments on Chapter 1 about the nature of second books in a series, and themes we should be watching out for in CoS. I'm sure I'll be looking back on them as we go on. Here and here.


CoS 2: Dobby's Warning

'Harry Potter!' said the creature, in a high-pitched voice Harry was sure would carry down the stairs. 'So long has Dobby wanted to meet you, sir ... Such an honour it is...' (15)

If he's truly "bound to serve one house and one family for ever" (16), where does he get the idea that Harry's a hero and Voldemort a villain? What's to stop him taking what he presumably hears from the Malfoys at face value?

It seems likely that there really is something "wrong" with Dobby, if one takes the other house-elves' brainwashed behavior as normal for their kind. He thinks for himself, which perhaps explains why the Malfoys would gratuitously abuse him as described in this chapter, frustrated with their defective servant.

For a darker take on it, you might theorize that the house-elves are naturally intelligent and free-thinking, but were magically "domesticated" for slave labor at some point in the past, and that Dobby is a throwback to their true normal state. (I don't have OotP with me, or I'd look up exactly what Dumbledore says about the statue at the Ministry.)

So, why does Dobby care so much about Harry? Voldemort's fall probably didn't have any appreciable impact on Dobby's everyday life, but he's decided the Malfoys are bad wizards and anything they want must therefore be bad. He hears Harry destroyed someone the Malfoys venerated, and fixates on him as a personal hero.

(Actually, I'm not sure how much the Malfoys truly *did* venerate him, but that just complicates matters even more.)

'And I thought I was hard-done-by staying here for another four weeks,' he said. 'This makes the Dursleys sound almost human. Can't anyone help you? Can't I?' (17)

At 12, Harry is more overtly compassionate than in the later books. One hopes we'll see this quality come to the fore again.

'Hang on -- this hasn't got anything to do with Vol -- sorry -- with You Know Who, has it? You could just shake or nod,' he added hastily, as Dobby's head tilted worryingly close to the wall again.

Slowly, Dobby shook his head.

'Not -- not He Who Must Not Be Named, sir.'

But Dobby's eyes were wide and he seemed to be trying to give Harry a hint. Harry, however, was completely at sea.

'He hasn't got a brother, has he?' (18)

Heh.

If Dobby is trying to give a hint here, it would seem he has a very good idea of what Lucius's plan is. The threat isn't Voldemort, but Tom Riddle -- before he gave up his name.

'Albus Dumbledore is the greatest Headmaster Hogwarts has ever had. Dobby knows it, sir. Dobby has heard Dumbledore's powers rival those of He Who Must Not Be Named at the height of his strength. But sir,' Dobby's voice dropped to an urgent whisper, 'there are powers Dumbledore doesn't ... powers no decent wizard...' (18)

Again, Dobby may have gotten this notion from hearing the Malfoys talk, and simply assuming that whatever they say, the opposite must be the case. Who in the Malfoy household could possibly have told him Dumbledore was a great Headmaster?

[Harry] jumped the last six stairs, landing catlike on the hall carpet, looking around for Dobby. (20)

Heh. Ninja!Harry.

Dear Mr Potter,
We have received intelligence that a Hover Charm was used at your place of residence this evening at twelve minutes past nine[...] (21)

That was quick. It's possible that Harry is under close surveillance due to his exalted position, or Dobby may have alerted the authorities himself. I like the latter possibility, as it goes nicely with the systematic and rather brutal way Dobby plots to keep Harry out of school. Though he has a moral sense independent of the Malfoys, Dobby is Slytherin in his methodology.


Previous chapters will be saved here. (Oy, I need to re-do my memories.)

Comments

[starpaint.livejournal.com]

Good, useful quotes. Very useful.

Although to me, it seems like something that's been bred into them by now. Just because of how the nature of house-elves is taken for granted at this point. It doesn't seem like something that's done regularly - unless it's well-hidden, which is possible. They've been around as servants for quite some time... so, if it's bred in, it could explain Dobby's partial deviation from the mold. The enchantment is diluted, so Dobby is still bound to the Malfoys, but isn't constrained by brainwashing.

I guess you could read that Dobby's getting his ideas from twisting what the Malfoys say, but as vvvexation said, he could have heard of it from other house-elves or some such. And he does say, "Dobby remembers how it was when He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was at the height of his powers, sir! We house-elves were treated like vermin, sir!" (p177-78, US edition) - which implies he communicated with other house-elves back then, and that his appreciation for Dumbledore's opposition to Voldemort (p15) could stem from back then.

[pauraque]

I think the enchantment is on the elf race as a whole, but can be broken in specific cases.

"Dobby remembers how it was when He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was at the height of his powers, sir! We house-elves were treated like vermin, sir!" (p177-78, US edition)

Ah, I'd forgotten this. That does make it clearer, thanks.

But why would elves have been treated more poorly during Voldemort's reign? How do they fit into V's worldview? Now I'm starting to wonder if the history between elves and wizards is even longer and more bitter than I'd imagined. What would move the wizards to enslave a whole species? Just an amoral desire for creatures to serve them, or did the elves somehow give them cause for fear?

Hm.

[idlerat.livejournal.com]

In Pawn to Queen (which I do not recommend as a whole) Riley posited that the elves were once extremely vicious and dangerous. They were controlled by a spell invented hundreds of years ago by Esmerelda the Transformer, who... surprise surprise... was an ancestor of Snape's.

[pauraque]

Yeah, that's about what I was envisioning, though I think it could be subtler than that, too. Just that the elves were more powerful than the wizards, and the wizards got nervous.

[fennie-snake.livejournal.com]

On the topic of house-elves...I read a disturbing essay by no_remorse a while ago, to the effect that house-elves were JKR's parody of conventional '50's style house-wives...and once I'd read it I couldn't get that idea out of my head, because it makes perfect sense, in a gruesome Stepford Wives sort of way.

The house-elves take on the burden of the unpaid menial labour in the wizarding world (well, somebody has to do it) and for some sad reason they don't mind at all. They're tied to one household for the rest of their natural lives, and are quite content to stay in that role - or are they?!?

Which makes me wonder if we're supposed to make a connection with Aunt Petunia; who I am sure has a lot more going on inside her than meets the eye, and is almost certain to make a Dobby-like bid for freedom before the end of the series...

[pauraque]

Wow, I can't say I'd ever thought of that parallel!

What makes you so sure Petunia's going to come out of her shell? I agree she'll have more of interest to do (I liked the suggestion that she was invited to Hogwarts but chose not to go), but I'm not sure she'll ultimately choose anything other than her Muggle life.

[fennie-snake.livejournal.com]

I don't know...I've always had a soft spot for Petunia I don't think she'll come out of her shell completely but maybe make some unexpectedly courageous gesture. It seems like the kind of thing JK Rowling would do, though, and she dropped a few hints in an interviews as well that there was more to Aunt P. than met the eye ... though I can't remember the quote. Also, there's that bit in OotP where Harry realises for the first time that Petunia is his mother's sister, and the only person in his family who understands who Voldemort really is..which underlines the fact that taking Harry in at all, knowing the risk to herself (and her Duddykins) , was really a very brave and un-Muggle thing to do. All things considered.

[wolfie-thu.livejournal.com]

Is this the one you mean? (from the Edinburgh Book Festival)

Is Aunt Petunia a Squib?

Good question. No, she is not, but-[Laughter]. No, she is not a Squib. She is a Muggle, but-[Laughter]. You will have to read the other books. You might have got the impression that there is a little bit more to Aunt Petunia than meets the eye, and you will find out what it is. She is not a squib, although that is a very good guess. Oh, I am giving a lot away here. I am being shockingly indiscreet.

There's also some interesting information about Petunia that J.K. added to her official site very recently. In the F.A.Q poll section, she explains that Dumbldore had sent letters to Petunia before the letter he left with Harry on the Dursleys' doorstep.

So yeah, there's definitely more to Petunia than what we've seen so far.

[fennie-snake.livejournal.com]

You might have got the impression that there is a little bit more to Aunt Petunia than meets the eye, and you will find out what it is.Oooh, yes! Thank you. Shockingly indiscreet, indeed.

[black-dog.livejournal.com]

On this point, it's kind of interesting that the Ministry enforcers mis-attributed Dobby's hover charm to Harry. If they have such effective tools for detecting magic, why couldn't they recognize the signature of House-Elf magic? Does this suggest that the Elves, left to their own devices, have some powers that baffle the wizards and give them reason to feel insecure?

[pauraque]

Yes, good! I'm liking this theory more and more.