CoS 12

[pauraque_bk]

Remember mctabby's friending frenzy?

It's back!

My own flist is so full it wants cutting, but all you super-great people who are new to the fandom should jet on over. It's like a debutante ball! With gay sex!

Also, anyone in HP who doesn't have mctabby friended is either loony, or merely ignorant of her greatness.

---

From Chapter 11:

What house was Lockhart in?

Is Goyle the smart one? / Is Harry's behavior toward Snape justifiable?

Millicent rules!



CoS 12: The Polyjuice Potion

[Dumbledore:] '[Phoenixes] can carry immensely heavy loads, their tears have healing powers and they make highly faithful pets.' (155)

Emphasis not added. Oh, Dumbledore, you just know everything, don't you! It certainly seems we're meant to think that D is already planning for what will eventually happen in the Chamber.

'I must ask you, Harry, whether there is anything you'd like to tell me,' he said gently. 'Anything at all.'
Harry didn't know what to say. He thought of Malfoy shouting, 'You'll be next, Mudbloods!' and of the Polyjuice Potion, simmering away in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Then he thought of the disembodied voice he had heard twice and remembered what Ron had said: 'Hearing voices no one else can hear isn't a good sign, even in the wizarding world.' He thought, too, about what everyone was saying about him., and his growing dread that he was somehow connected with Salazar Slytherin...
'No,' said Harry, 'there isn't anything, Professor.' (156-157)

Typically, Harry is unwilling to confide in an adult, even one he trusts and admires. Some of these things he mightn't want to say because he doesn't want to disappoint D, but not all of them would make him look bad -- they're just worries he has, and he won't share them.

Meanwhile, what's D thinking here? He already has a fair idea of what's going on, so is he testing to see how much Harry trusts him?

'Yeah, he's nipping off to the Chamber of Secrets for a cup of tea with his fanged servant,' said George, chortling.(157)

How does he know it's got fangs? We don't know it's a basilisk yet, do we?

'Positive,' said Hermione, shifting Scabbers the rat so that she could sit down on the end of [Harry's] four-poster. (158)

*splutters* Peter was sleeping with Harry! I never noticed this! Haha, oh my.

Also, note that girls can get up to the boys' dorms, but not vice-versa (OotP). Old-fashioned moral senses are at play.

[Hermione:] '[...]Once they're asleep, pull out a few of their hairs and hide them in a broom cupboard.'
Harry and Ron looked incredulously at each other.
'Hermione, I don't think--'
'That could go seriously wrong--'
But Hermione had a steely glint in her eye not unlike the one Professor McGonagall sometimes had.
[...]
When Hermione bustled off to check on the Polyjuice Potion again, Ron tuerned to Harry with a doom-laden expression.
'Have you ever heard of a plan where so many things could go wrong?' (160)

I wanted to attribute some morality to Ron and Harry here, some sense that knocking out a couple of boys and locking them in a closet might be considered wrong. But it just isn't there... they're worried that they'll get in trouble (note that Ron sees potential consequences; he isn't stupid), not worried over right and wrong. They also don't let C & G out of the closet at the end of the incident (168), though admittedly they could be putting themselves in danger by doing so. (Then again... C & G still wouldn't know Harry and Ron had put them in there, just that they let them out.)

Immediately, his insides started writhing as though he'd just swallowed live snakes -- doubled up, he wondered whether he was going to be sick -- then a burning sensation spread rapidly from his stomach to the very ends of his fingers and toes. Next, bringing him gasping to all fours, came a horrible melting feeling, as the skin all over his body bubbled like hot wax, and before his eyes, his hands began to grow, the fingers thickened, the nails broadened and the knuckles were bulging like bolts. His shoulders stretched painfully and a prickling on his forehead told him that hair was creeping down towards his eyebrows; his robes ripped as his chest expanded like a barrel bursting its hoops; his feet were agony in shoes four sizes too small...
As suddenly as it had started, everything stopped. (162)

My. Favorite. Part.

JKR's done something wonderful here -- created an exaggerated metaphor for adolescence. Harry and Ron become (grotesquely) masculine, to their pain, horror, and wonder. Hermione, meanwhile, turns into a pussy (thanks to idlerat for pointing that out)! :D

There's a fic, 'Know Your Enemy' (R, Harry-as-Goyle/Ron-as-Crabbe) by donnaimmaculata, that extends and plays with this concept in what I found to be a delightful way. Donna does exactly what JKR does, but turns the sexual implications literal in a way JKR can't.

'You know, I'm surprised the Daily Prophet hasn't reported all these attacks yet,' [Draco] went on thoughtfully. 'I suppose Dumbledore's trying to hush it all up. He'll be sacked if it doesn't stop soon[...]' (166)

Draco has a point here. Nothing in the papers? That does sound like a cover-up.

Malfoy started taking pictures with an imaginary camera and did a cruel but accurate impression of Colin: 'Potter, can I have your picture, Potter? Can I have your autograph? Can I lick your shoes, please, Potter?' (166)

Draco's a good impressionist -- there are a number of times in the series when he imitates people, always cruelly but accurately. He's a performer, and a good one.


Previous re-read posts are here.

Comments

[thatfangirl]

'Yeah, he's nipping off to the Chamber of Secrets for a cup of tea with his fanged servant,' said George, chortling. (157)

How does he know it's got fangs? We don't know it's a basilisk yet, do we?

I noted this during my own re-read of CoS and decided that the serpent is the symbol of Slytherin, so it's not out of the question for George or anyone else to guess that the monster is fanged. Also, non-snakey things can have fangs, can't they?

[biichan.livejournal.com]

.......................

The more I reread this book, the more disgusted I get with Albus. That scene in the office is pretty much the crowning flourish of it all. And the idea that he'd be doing a cover-up seems just so... accurate.

I wish I'd read these more in depth before I got into fandom! There are so many things about the books that I didn't notice the first time around.

Like McGonagall!Hermione. A more fitting comparision has never been made.

[cleverthylacine]

Impressionist!Draco has always been a favourite of mine. I swear to Ghod, that child is me, except without the boobs I had when I was 12.

[slinkhard.livejournal.com]

I'm rather partial to Umbridge!Hermione, myself.

[arclevel.livejournal.com]

The glint in Hermione's eye reminds me of something I meant to post a couple chapters ago. When Draco-as-heir is first suggested, Hermione's very skeptical and with good reason, since they have nothing even resembling evidence (probable cause, if you will) to suspect him. Once Hermione comes up with this plan, though, she pushes the boys constantly to go through with it. Part of that, as discussed, was that Hermione is especially at risk and thus quite understandably scared. I don't think that covers all of it, though, given the low likelihood of this plan to get results and her doubts about their suspect. Honestly, I think she sees it as a massive (intellectual) challenge. She's found a reason to do this extraordinarily complicated potion, and dang it, she's going to do this potion, even if it means stealing ingredients and knocking out classmates.

I do think Dumbledore's incredibly manipulative, but I tend to think of this scene more as really heavy-handed foreshadowing than anything deliberate of his part.

Nothing in the papers? That does sound like a cover-up.

Agreed. Who do you think's doing the covering? At this stage, I think Fudge is still getting along with Dumbledore, and I think he wouldn't want people to know. The average person probably thinks Hogwarts = establishment = Ministry. OTOH, I could see Dumbledore covering up with no one realizing he's doing so, or questioning it. OTOOH (I need more hands), at some point people apparently find out. Isn't that why Fudge carts Hagrid off to Azkaban? People are worried, so he needs to "be seen doing something"?

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

The glint in Hermione's eye reminds me of something I meant to post a couple chapters ago. When Draco-as-heir is first suggested, Hermione's very skeptical and with good reason, since they have nothing even resembling evidence (probable cause, if you will) to suspect him. Once Hermione comes up with this plan, though, she pushes the boys constantly to go through with it. Part of that, as discussed, was that Hermione is especially at risk and thus quite understandably scared.

It's also interesting to think about how the line of justification goes because of it. She says that killing Muggleborns is worse than doing a difficult potion, which is an attempt to justify her actions. Unfortunately for it to hold up Malfoy would actually have had to have been killing Muggleborns, which he isn't. Most countries have laws protecting people against this kind of invasion of privacy precisely to guard against the idea that just because people are scared nothing else matters. Because *somebody* (Ginny Weasley, as it happens, working with a ghostly Tom Riddle) is setting a basilisk out in the school, Hermione has decided it is okay for her to brew a Potion she's not supposed to, steal ingredients, disrupt Snape's class, knock out two (three actually--Millicent would have had to have been taken care of), sneak into another common room, take the bodies of three other students, and then spy on a student by making him think he's with his friends so you can get something on him. And they do--Draco mentions a secret at the Manor which Ron passes on to his father, who has been conducting raids.

The fact that these boys are innocent never comes up--it's just assumed that finding out takes precedent--guilty until proven innocent. Meanwhile Harry suffers from being unjustly accused of being the Heir while, ironically, Malfoy is one of the only students in school proclaiming his innocence.

Honestly, I think she sees it as a massive (intellectual) challenge. She's found a reason to do this extraordinarily complicated potion, and dang it, she's going to do this potion, even if it means stealing ingredients and knocking out classmates

Plus while Harry might have issues about trusting adults, you'd think Hermione would see how logical it would be to go to Dumbledore with her suspicions. It's not that hard to believe that perhaps this little adventure wasn't completely motivated by the desire to save Muggleborns. There may have been a just a little personal curiosity here, not to mention the bonus of getting to put one over on Malfoy and his friends. They really *want* him to be guilty.

So what they get out of this is they get to humiliate Crabbe and Goyle (both by knocking them out and by getting into their bodies), splash the Slytherins in class, learn secrets Malfoy wouldn't want them to know, enjoy the thrill of success with the Potion and, a few years later, an advantage on their O.W.L.S.

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

Most countries have laws protecting people against this kind of invasion of privacy precisely to guard against the idea that just because people are scared nothing else matters.

Or used to, at any rate. *sigh*

[pauraque]

Sigh indeed. :(

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I almost didn't even want to write it.

*sigh*

[slinkhard.livejournal.com]

knock out two (three actually--Millicent would have had to have been taken care of)

Millicent left for Xmas, I thought? Hermione was going to say she (Millicent) had changed her mind (interestingly, the Trio have gone from assuming Crabbe and Goyle to be "bodyguards" and "goons", to having faith that Malfoy is so close to both them and indeed, all his housemates (Millicent being a random selection who accidentally got hair on Hermione) that he'll tell "his best friends" anything.)

[pauraque]

You're right, Millicent was gone for the holiday. Hermione was planning to say that she'd decided to come back, which strikes me as an immensely dumb idea. Not to mention that there's no indication that Millicent and Draco are actually friends.

[slinkhard.livejournal.com]

I know! Imagine it: 'Hi, guys! Remember me, your bestest ever friend? I know we never talk in front of the other houses but surely we're all Evil together, we must get along! I know I said I was going home over the holidays, but surprise! I decided that instead of seeing my family, I'd sit with you (my best friends, after all) in a dark room. So....any clues on the Heir of Slytherin? Malfoy?'

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that is a stupid idea. She decided to come back for a little under an hour and then go home again?

[t0ra-chan.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing that Hermione didn't trust Harry and Ron to pull it of alone. Wouldn't be the first time she didn't trust them (all the times she knew something, but didn't tell them). Heck, one such instance is even in this book, when Hermione figured out what the monster is. Does she tell her best friends her suspicion? No, she runs to the library to make absolutely sure that she is right.

[pauraque]

The fact that these boys are innocent never comes up

Right. The Trio has decided they're "the bad guys", so anything they do to them is somehow justified.

You could say Hermione is punished for her folly by being turned into a cat, but I'm sure she doesn't see it that way. It wouldn't occur to her that it went wrong because it was a *bad and wrong plan*.

[arclevel.livejournal.com]

No, of course not. It went wrong because Millicent is teh ebil and has *gasp* a cat! (I, too, am clearly evil, though I don't commit the heinous crime of having hair that could be mistaken for Athena's.)

Do any of them ever even *mention* their Polyjuiced Adventure after this? The only time I can think of is when Ernie suspects Malfoy (late in the book), and Ron (plus Harry to a lesser extent) is very rude about it. Because obviously it's not Malfoy. After all, they underwent a horrible plot breaking tons of rules, injuring people, and invading privacy to find out that it wasn't, so everyone else should just know.

Don't remember if this came up earlier. The only recipe they know of for Polyjuice is in the Restricted Section. Most uses I can think of for the potion (this one, for instance) are severely unethical, but the Restricted Section is defined to us as being resources for advanced students of DADA. So is Polyjuice Potion considered a Dark Potion? Is making it a Dark Art? Is it making or using it illegal? Of course, it's distinctly possible that the book's there because of *other* potions in it, but in that case, why would Snape have mentioned this book particularly? Surely this recipe would also be in other books.

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

Typically, Harry is unwilling to confide in an adult, even one he trusts and admires.

This is pretty much Harry's big fault. He might complain that no one tells him anything, but he rarely tells anyone, especially anyone adult, things that *they* might need to know either.

Also, note that girls can get up to the boys' dorms, but not vice-versa (OotP). Old-fashioned moral senses are at play.


I do wonder about that. Obviously we're meant to take it as given that women are more common in government/business/etc. in the Wizarding World than the Muggle one, but the most prominent women are homemakers or in traditionally 'feminine' fields (teaching and nursing).

they're worried that they'll get in trouble (note that Ron sees potential consequences; he isn't stupid), not worried over right and wrong.

It seems that when Harry does worry about something, he general does worry about what will happen if he gets caught, not if it's wrong on the face. Heck, in the OotP Pensieve scene, he *knew* it was wrong (the text states it flat out), but Harry's only concern is whether he'd have time to snoop without being discovered. It's a really ugly side to Harry's development, that his morality hasn't progressed beyond "I won't do this because don't want to get caught".

Draco has a point here. Nothing in the papers? That does sound like a cover-up.

Slytherins often have valid points. They just don't get listened to.

Draco's a good impressionist -- there are a number of times in the series when he imitates people, always cruelly but accurately. He's a performer, and a good one.

A costume designer I know told me that all theater people are Hufflepuffs. When I said, I was pretty sure Slytherins were actors, her response was "Oh, *actors... they're Slytherins, all right, but all the techies (ie the ones who actually make theater work, in her opinion) are Hufflpuffs.".

Because of that, I rather have an image of Snape and Sprout being co-sponsors of the Hogwarts Drama Club...

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Typically, Harry is unwilling to confide in an adult, even one he trusts and admires. Some of these things he mightn't want to say because he doesn't want to disappoint D, but not all of them would make him look bad -- they're just worries he has, and he won't share them.

Definitely--and yet on many levels he's got good reason not to trust them. If Dumbledore is indeed setting things up here and being manipulative Harry's smart not to reveal himself emotionally. It's odd he doesn't bring up certain other things, though. Dumbledore knows Malfoy's background as well as anyone, so I'd think Harry might have brought up his yelling about Mudbloods in the hallway.

How does he know it's got fangs? We don't know it's a basilisk yet, do we?

I think it's just that Slytherin=snake and Harry's a Parseltongue so that also brings in the snake thing.

I wanted to attribute some morality to Ron and Harry here, some sense that knocking out a couple of boys and locking them in a closet might be considered wrong. But it just isn't there...

Nope. There's never any thought to this being wrong or how Harry, who is also a prime suspect, would feel if someone did it to him, even after it's revealed that all three boys are just as innocent as Harry here. This is a real trend throughout the books after this, where just about any action decided upon is always assumed to be justified.

Draco has a point here. Nothing in the papers? That does sound like a cover-up.

This is also really interesting to me given that I'm re-reading OotP, which deals so much with the manipulation of the press. From the main characters' pov it's always bad when the press prints lies that reflect badly on them, but at the same time I don't think they've got any problems manipulating the press to their own ends (I don't think they mind a cover-up here). The trouble is they always seem to think the world at large should instinctively know what to believe and what not to believe, and how would they? Why are people silly for believing the Prophet in OotP when it says things about Harry when the Trio gets information from the Prophet as well? And why should anyone believe Harry's interview in the Quibbler when the Quibbler also prints nonsense? If there is a cover-up in CoS it's very possibly Dumbledore behind it, setting the trend for a press that's there to push an agenda rather than give people the truth.

And yay Malfoy the performer. His impressions are always described as cruel, but many of them are surely done by other students. I mean, here what's he doing but imitating very obviously strange behavior by a student to a couple of friends--and he seems mostly disgusted at Colin's fawning over Harry.

Personally, I of course hope that Malfoy's being a performer leads to something interesting because, as I've said elsewhere, Harry doesn't seem to really see all the ways he's performing.

[trobadora]

Typically, Harry is unwilling to confide in an adult, even one he trusts and admires. Some of these things he mightn't want to say because he doesn't want to disappoint D, but not all of them would make him look bad -- they're just worries he has, and he won't share them.

Which is one reason why his righteous fury in OotP at not being told things seems so hypocritical to me. Not that it wasn't stupid of Dumbledore not to tell him what he needed to know - but who the hell is Harry to complain about people keeping important things secret?!

I wanted to attribute some morality to Ron and Harry here, some sense that knocking out a couple of boys and locking them in a closet might be considered wrong. But it just isn't there... they're worried that they'll get in trouble (note that Ron sees potential consequences; he isn't stupid), not worried over right and wrong.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the only "justification" they had for their actions was that they (well, at least Harry and Ron) believed Draco to be guilty. Given that a large percentage of the rest of the school believed Harry to be guilty - are we to think that it would therefore have been "justified" for some of those other students to drug Ron and Hermione, stuff them in a closet, and impersonate them via an illegal potion in order to sound out Harry?!

The complete lack of moral compass in scenes such as this is very disturbing to me. Harry, at least, has grown up under circumstances that may explain, if not excuse, his rather sociopathic frame of mind; but what excuse do Ron and Hermione have?

[slinkhard.livejournal.com]

But who the hell is Harry to complain about people keeping important things secret?!

Yes, I love that their suspicions of Malfoy are strong enough to warrant knocking out two of his friends, but that they're willing to risk this mini-murderer running around school petrifying people rather than tell anyone.
Especially since their great plan for tricking Malfoy into 'revealing himself' doesn't actually leave them in a much better place than they began - they know he's the Heir, but all they have as evidence is hearsay.

[trobadora]

Harry & Ron always "know" things and are willing to do nearly anything to "prove" themselves right. Funnily, their attitude is exactly the same that got Sirius thrown into Azkaban without a trial - the Ministry "knew" it was him, so why bother? I'm starting to think there must be something about magic that burns out certain areas of your brain. "In dubio pro reo" certainly is a concept unheard of in the magical world.

[hagia-sophia.livejournal.com]

Well, we are told in the very first book that wizards and logic are incompatible... :)

[lycoris.livejournal.com]

*splutters* Peter was sleeping with Harry! I never noticed this! Haha, oh my.

SILENCE BEAST! YOU MAY HAVE BROKEN ME INTO WRITING PETER/RON BUT THERE WILL BE NO PETER/HARRY! It's not like I thought of a sequel to the Peter/Ron that was Peter/Harry because I wouldn't do that

[pauraque]

Bwahaha. You knoooooooow you want to.

[lycoris.livejournal.com]

I know I DON'T want to! :D

Help! My livejournal has disappeared and I can't seem to contact the support request board!

[(Anonymous)]

This is nakedcelt. I can't login, all it says is "Sorry, database temporarily unavailable". I can read my userinfo page but not my entries page ("Sorry, database temporarily unavailable") or my friends page ("Sorry, database temporarily unavailable") or the comments on my entries via friends-of journals ("Sorry, database temporarily unavailable") or the support request I just posted ("Sorry, database temporarily unavailable"). It only seems to be happening on my journal. Please find somebody who can help!

Re: Help! My livejournal has disappeared and I can't seem to contact the support request board!

[pauraque]

At the moment, users on the Madcow cluster are having problems loading their journals and/or logging in. (I don't know for sure if you're on Madcow, but that's my strong guess given what you're reporting.) As the saying goes, system administrators are currently investigating the problem. Snafus like this do happen from time to time, and it's very rare to see any real data loss. I can see all your entries right up to October 26.

I don't have any word on how long this is gonna take to fix, but my guess is it probably won't be too long. Since we're not on the support board, I guess I don't get to apologize on behalf of LiveJournal, but I am sorry!

HELP!

[(Anonymous)]

nakedcelt here again — I just checked my posts on mordecai5's friends page and all of them before 21 October are blank!! I am panicking here, I don't know what to do! I can't even contact LiveJournal Support! Has my account been deleted and if so, for the love of God, why?

Re: HELP!

[cs-luis.livejournal.com]

If it's any consolation, I can read your entries on your regular journal page. :-) Keep trying to log in! I don't think your journal's been deleted.