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

[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.