pauraque_bk

Chapter 8: Best chapter discussion yet! We got on James=Harry, and somehow it became all about Sirius and manipulation and emotional maturity and whee! Go look. It's great stuff.

PS 9: The Midnight Duel

Harry had never believed he would meet a boy he hated more than Dudley, but that was before he met Draco Malfoy. [...] Flying lessons would be starting on Thursday -- and Gryffindor and Slytherin would be learning together.

'Typical,' said Harry darkly. 'Just what I always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Malfoy.' (107)

Damn, Harry. Shall we just call you Eeyore? As explained, this is only the second class Harry has with Draco -- how is it "typical"? Methinks Harry has a persecution complex.

At breakfast on Thursday [Hermione] bored them all stupid with flying tips she'd got out of a library book[...] Neville was hanging on to her every word, desperate for anything that might help him hang on to his broomstick later. (108)

It doesn't occur to Harry that Neville might be interested in what Hermione is saying, or that he might simply like her.

They were half hoping for a reason to fight Malfoy, but Professor McGonagall, who could spot trouble quicker than any teacher in the school, was there in a flash. (108)

All that's happened at this point is that Draco snatched Neville's Remembrall away; she breaks them up, and Draco leaves. It's hard not to wonder where this eagle eye was in the days when MWPP were going after Snape... or maybe that's _why_ she's particularly sensitive to bullying now.

[Draco:] 'Did you see his face, the great lump?'

The other Slytherins joined in [laughing].

'Shut up, Malfoy,' snapped Parvati Patil.

'Ooh, sticking up for Longbottom?' said Pansy Parkinson, a hard-faced Slytherin girl. 'Never thought you'd like fat little cry babies, Parvati.' (110)

I believe this is the first thing we see Parvati do (besides being Sorted). She also sticks up for Harry later on, telling McGonagall that Draco started it.

And ah, how do I love Pansy? She's such a pitch-perfect Mean Girl (at least the way I remember them).

He thought of Hagrid, expelled but allowed to stay on as gamekeeper. Perhaps he could be Hagrid's assistant. His stomach twisted as he imagined it, watching Ron and the others becoming wizards while he stumped around the grounds, carrying Hagrid's bag. (112)

This hurts every time I read it.

'Excuse me, Professor Flitwick, could I borrow Wood for a moment?'

Wood? thought Harry, bewildered; was Wood a cane she was going to use on him? (112)

HA! Only in fic, Harry...

'I shall speak to Professor Dumbledore and see if we can't bend the first-year rule. Heave knows, we need a better team than last year. Flattened in that last match by Slytherin, I couldn't look Severus Snape in the face for weeks...' (113)

I like the rivalry between McGonagall and Snape. It shows that she respects him as an equal, despite the fact that he's much younger than her, and she was once his teacher. I think this is why he-- well, I won't say he likes her, but at least doesn't dislike her, which is about as far as he ever goes.

On the other hand, I wonder if she realizes how it's going to burn him up to see James's son getting special treatment because he's ever-so-good at sport. :P

'Anyway, we've got to go, Lee Jordan reckons he's found a new secret passageway out of the school.'

'Bet it's that one behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy that we found in our first week. See you.' (114)

With a little help from MWPP, I daresay! They got the map their first year. It's not like they found everything on their own.

'I'm his second, who's yours?'

Malfoy looked at Crabbe and Goyle, sizing them up.

'Crabbe,' he said. (114)

Alas, Goyle gets no love. The movie has confused this point, but in canon, Crabbe is the tall one.

'Don't leave me!' said Neville, scrambling to his feet. 'I don't want to stay here alone, the Bloody Baron's been past twice already.' (116)

Neville doesn't come with them in the movie, and indeed, I can't think of a narrative reason that he does in the book. As he says, Madam Pomfrey mended him in an instant, so JKR's not stuck with him being there, she chose it. Why?

'Malfoy tricked you,' Hermione said to Harry. 'You realise that, don't you? He was never going to meet you -- Filch knew someone was going to be in the trophy room, Malfoy must have tipped him off.' (118)

I love that Draco does this. It never occurs to Harry and Ron that Draco would use his House traits and defeat them with cunning instead of brute force.

'What do you think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?' said Ron finally. 'If any dog needs exercise, that one does.' (120)

What an odd reaction! Sounds more like something Hagrid would say.

Past re-read posts are riight thurrrr.