CoS 17

[pauraque_bk]

In Chapter 16, we discussed whether the books encourage rule-breaking, Harry and Ron's intentions in taking Lockhart down to the Chamber, and how the Basilisk has stayed alive.


CoS 17: The Heir of Slytherin

Then, as he drew level with the last pair of pillars, a statue high as the Chamber itself loomed into view, standing against the back wall.
Harry had to crane his neck to look up into the giant face above: it was ancient and monkey-like, with a long thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of the wizard's sweeping stone robes[...] (226)

It's confirmed a bit later that this is indeed Salazar. Monkey-like! Somehow this detail seems to have escaped Founder-fic.

'Well, that's an interesting question,' said Riddle pleasantly. 'And quite a long story[...]' (228)

And there's nothing Tom/V likes better than a loooooong story.

[Tom:] '[...]I suppose the real reason Ginny Weasley's like this is because she opened her heart and spilled all her secrets to an invisible stranger.' (228)

Hm. Another reinforcement of the idea that it's unwise to confide in people.

Riddle laughed, a high, cold laugh that didn't suit him. (228)

chresimos and I have discussed what we think a "high, cold laugh" is (it comes up again in GoF, where V also has a "high, cold voice"), and decided we don't know. It's high, so it's shrill? A hysterical giggle? But cold too? Dunno.

In any case, it seems this is a vocal quirk of Riddle's that pre-dates becoming a Dark Lord. Though, on the other hand, this incarnation of Tom shares a few odd characteristics with V, such as eyes that glow red (231) which you wouldn't think he'd have had at 16.

[Tom imitating Ginny:] '[...]Dear Tom, I can't remember what I did on the night of Hallowe'en, but a cat was attacked and I've got paint all down my front[...]' (229)

Paint, then, not blood.

'Well, you see, Ginny told me all about you, Harry,' said Riddle. 'Your whole fascinating history.' His eyes roved over the lightning scar on Harry's forehead, and his expression grew hungrier. (229)

Yeah, this makes sense. The diary was made before V's disintegration, obviously, so he didn't know about Harry until Ginny brought him up.

'[...]On the one hand, Tom Riddle, poor but brilliant, parentless but so brave, school Prefect, model student[...]' (229-230)

Just as good at manipulating adults as Harry is!

'[...]on the other hand, big, blundering Hagrid, in trouble every other week, trying to raise werewolf cubs under his bed[...]' (230)

Beg your pardon? Werewolf cubs. If anything, this'd have to be a figure of speech.

'Well, [Dumbledore] certainly kept an annoyingly close watch on me after Hagrid was expelled,' said Riddle carelessly. 'I knew it wouldn't be safe to open the Chamber again while I was still at school. But I wasn't going to waste those long years I'd spent searching for it. I decided to leave behind a diary, preserving my sixteen-year-old self in its pages, so that one day, with luck, I would be able to lead another in my footsteps, and finish Salazar Slytherin's noble work.' (230)

Uh-huh. But now, "killing Mudbloods doesn't matter to [him] anymore" (230), all he wants to do is kill Harry, which I guess would explain why he hasn't actually... er, killed anyone. Perhaps it makes sense... he doesn't want Harry to get in the way of his future self returning to power.

I AM LORD VOLDEMORT
'You see?' he whispered. 'It was a name I was already using at Hogwarts, to my most intimate friends only, of course[...]' (231)

Random Slytherin: Fancy a fly around the pitch, Riddle?
Tom: *righteously enraged* I keep telling you, call me by my proper name!
R.S.: *puzzled* But that is your name...
Tom: *pounding fists* No! LORD VOLDEMORT!
R.S.: ...Uh-huh. Okay, Tommy, catch you later.
Tom: *angst*

'Twice -- in your past, in my future -- we have met. And twice I failed to kill you[...]' (233)

They have indeed met twice, but... huh? If Tom's trying to say something significant here, I can't penetrate its meaning.

Riddle opened his mouth and hissed -- but Harry understood what he was saying. (234)

In Chapter 16, we discussed how little JKR knows about snakes. She has a snake wink in PS/SS (snakes don't have eyelids), refers to a green shed snakeskin (they're white-to-brownish), and invents a spoken snake language when snakes can't hear! It would have been just as easy to make it a telepathic language and drop the references to it sounding like hissing, but apparently neither she nor her editor knew any better.

The movie also has Harry distract the Basilisk with the clatter of a thrown pebble, which is just... *facepalm* Even if the Basilisk had felt the vibration, Harry was right in front of its face; as Tom quite rightly points out, it can easily smell him.

A gleaming silver sword had appeared inside the Hat, its handle glittering with rubies the size of eggs. (235)

idlerat has previously pointed out the phallic imagery there.

Harry could hear Lockhart dangling below him, saying, 'Amazing! Amazing! This is just like magic!' (239)

Not to make too much of a throwaway gag, but does this suggest to anyone else that Lockhart was Muggle-born? If he'd been raised in a magical environment, he never would have had the concept in his mind that something could be "just like magic" without in fact being magic, so it would be impossible for him to "forget" back to that point.


Past re-read posts are here. Just one more chapter left.

Comments

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Oh, I definitely agree it makes the series more interesing--and imagine how insufferable it would be if everybody actually lived up to the image they have of themselves as being open-minded!:-)

I think where it gets into more trouble is (as usual) what you do with Muggleborns. It makes perfect sense for wizards to say, even if they could cure all Muggle diseases, "Not our problem." But how does that work when you've got "Muggles" (which Muggleborns are in many ways) saying the same things? Do none of them feel strongly enough about their own families that they would want to help them? That, to me, sounds like exactly the sort of area where in a realistic situation there would be a big breakdown. On the one hand Hagrid is right in saying wizards would open themselves up to trouble if Muggles knew they existed, but otoh you've got this ongoing exchange program with people like Hermione.

I'm not sure where I ultimately stand on the Potions issue. Stitches didn't seem to work too well on Arthur even though one would think they should work just the same on Wizards as on Muggles, since both have skin etc. So I could believe that Potions might all have bad effects on Muggles.

[arclevel.livejournal.com]

I thought it was just the venom that reacted badly with Arthur's stitches. Or that there wasn't even a reaction, but it just didn't work. That would require the bandages to be changed, and I think Molly would be nearly as upset. I think that if Arthur had merely fallen off a broom and split his head open, stitches would have worked. Of course, I have no real basis for this (and will eventually get around to a major post on wizards, Muggles, and health, but not soon), but it's my theory, anyway.

[arclevel.livejournal.com]

I forgot to respond to the other half. I agree with you that Muggle-born kids should be more bothered than they apparently are. We don't see Hermione doing this directly, that I've noticed, but the extent to which she's assimilated is really quite creepy. I think I really first noticed it when she was taking Muggle Studies, then again in GoF when she talks about "Muggle substitutes for magic." She seems to have forgotten that she used to be one of them. Harry has, too, but he has no positive connections to the Muggle world, so it's less surprising. These are the only Muggle-raised kids we know well enough to know about this. I like to think some do care.

I wonder what Mr. Finnegan thinks of the Wizarding World. Seamus tends to act more like a pureblood than a Muggle-born, which suggests his upbringing had very little "Muggle" to it. Was Mr. Finnegan expected to assimilate, too?

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think it's just not really something the series is really concentrating on (the stitches idea sounds very logical to me too, that if Arthur cut his head normally presumably stitches would work--in fact, fanon often assumes that there are times where wizards "have to do it the Muggle way, which is very uncanonical but probably shows how Muggleborns really would think!).

I've just recently noticed how in OotP Hermione asks to borrow Hedwig to tell her parents about being prefect because that's "something they can understand." It's kind of chilling how she talks about her parents like mentally challenged children, and reminds you that she's been living with the Weasleys for most of the summer, it seems. Plus when she had a chance to get a pet she didn't get an owl but a cat, so she doesn't even have the kind of access to communication that Harry and Ron have!

[arclevel.livejournal.com]

I'd never really looked at that scene like that, but it does fit into that pattern, doesn't it? I think I see the "something they can understand" less as, "My parents are such morons," and more as, "My parents don't get my world." Both are common teenage attitudes, but the first is not the sort you expect from Hermione. The second, OTOH, makes sense because her parents really don't live in the same world as she does. However, I think most kids (who got along with their folks) would build a bridge to some extent, if only so that their parents *could* understand their achievements. I think this comment indicates that Hermione assumes her parents won't understand anything from the magical world, and in fact they don't, but I think they don't because she doesn't really talk to them about it.

Yeah, it's disturbing that she spends all of that summer away from home. Additionally, I don't think she's been home for Christmas since SS, has she? Now, I have an unusually good relationship with my mom, but I still can't imagine not going home for Christmas four years in a row as a teenager. I've seen people take this as evidence that the Grangers fall in with all the other sorry parents we see in canon, but I don't think we've got any evidence of this. I think the problem here is Hermione, and I feel terribly sorry for her parents.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I'm sure that is how she meant it--that it's not magical. But still, I just get the same feeling you do, that this has nothing to do with her parents and everything to do with Hermione deciding to cut herself off. We hear later from Dean, I think, that he doesn't let his parents know what's going on in the WW either. Hermione seems to almost spend less time at home than Harry does. I'd feel terrible if I were the Grangers, myself, particularly since it's not even like she stays at school with her friends; she stays with another family! It's not even just a case of worrying whether she's in danger; part of her feeling that they "don't understand" seems to give her the idea that anything her parents might say about her own behavior is useless. Again, that is a normal teenaged attitude, but it's strange coming from Hermione, particularly since other kids in the WW are actually more bound up with their families. The WW is a very family-oriented place.

[arclevel.livejournal.com]

I think what Dean said was specifically more to do with not telling his parents about Cedric's death. I can see that, even if he tells his parents some things about his school life. Why bother them with tales of murder? (Though if it were me, I think I'd tell. But that's me.)

I agree about Hermione. I expect that when she's at home, she's a good little girl and obeys the rules. But I think if they had much to say about her actions at school or involving the war (including where she spends her summer), I think she'd be respectful and then ignore anything she didn't agree with because they don't understand what's at stake (so she feels).

A lot of this really is fairly normal teenage attitudes, but when you combine that with Hermione's certainty that she knows absolutely everything and her insistence on being fully witch (and thus abandoning her Muggle roots) I think she feels a stronger justification for ignoring her folks than most teens have, and has more options for actively ignoring them without massive fights. (Of course, I'm mostly speculating here, but still, it seems likely.)