PS 10

[pauraque_bk]

Man, it's a jungle out there. I'm starting to feel like I need to arm myself to the teeth just to venture out into my friends list. Is there no civilization? Is there no decency, sir? *sips tea*


In Chapter 9, I noted again that black_dog has greater analysis skillz than I do. Lots of other good stuff in that chapter too, go scroll a bit down the page if you hit the post early on.


PS 10: Hallowe'en

Before I read this book, I never knew Britons put an apostrophe in Halloween. O, the things that fandom taught me.

'Potter's been sent a broomstick, Professor,' said Malfoy quickly.

'Yes, yes, that's right,' said Professor Flitwick, beaming at Harry. 'Professor McGonagall told me all about the special circumstances, Potter. And what model is it?'

'A Nimbus Two Thousand, sir,' said Harry, fighting not to laugh at the look of horror on Malfoy's face. 'And it's really thanks to Malfoy here that I've got it,' he added. (122)

Good on McGonagall for telling Harry not to open the broomstick package at the table, but... special circumstances? Okay, they've already broken the rules to let Harry on the team, it stands to reason they could also break the rule that prevents him from having his own broom. But Harry is *rich*, dude. Doesn't it seem a bit excessive to use school funds to buy a top-of-the-line piece of sports equipment for the use of one kid? A kid who could easily afford to pay for it himself?

Flitwick certainly seems cheerful about the prospect of the rules being broken in favor of Gryffindor. Doesn't he have any aspirations of Ravenclaw taking the house cup? Then again, he seems pretty starstruck by Harry... he's the one who falls over backwards when he sees Harry's name on the roll.

'So I suppose you think that's a reward for breaking rules?' came an angry voice from just behind them. Hermione was stomping up the stairs looking disapprovingly at the package in Harry's hand. (123)

I'm with Hermione on this one.

At either end of the pitch were three golden poles with hoops on the end. They reminded Harry of the little plastic sticks Muggle children blew bubbles through, except that they were fifty feet high. (123)

This reads like Harry is starting to think of "Muggle children" as different from himself.

'Now, Quidditch is easy enough to understand, even if it's not too easy to play. There are seven players on each side. Three of them are called Chasers.' (124)

And thusly Wood exposits the rules of the game for the benefit of the readers. However, JKR seems to have forgotten that Ron has already explained the rules of Quidditch to Harry, to the point of starting to take him through "the finer points of the game" (81).

I believe it was malograntum who first pointed out to me that it's sort of strange to capitalize the name of a sport, along with all its equipment and positions. We don't talk about a Quarterback passing the Football (or a Batsman swinging a Cricket Bat, for that matter).

'This,' said Wood, 'is the Golden Snitch, and it's the most important ball of the lot[...]' (125)

I hear that there's some sort of evidence that one of James's ancestors invented the Golden Snitch, and that's how the Potters made their fortune. However, the nature of this evidence presently escapes me.

Harry's partner was Seamus Finnigan (which was a relief, because Neville had been trying to catch his eye). (126)

This sort of tripped me, because Neville would have no reason to be catching Harry's eye -- Flitwick is *putting* them into pairs. Harry has a tendency to assume motivations for Neville that don't seem obvious (or sensical) to me at all.

'It's no wonder no one can stand her,' [Ron] said to Harry as they pushed their way into the crowded corridor. 'She's a nightmare, honestly.'

Someone knocked into Harry as they hurried past him. It was Hermione. Harry caught a glimpse of her face -- and was startled to see that she was in tears.

'I think she heard you.'

'So?' said Ron, but he looked a bit uncomfortable. 'She must've noticed she's got no friends.' (127)

Of course it wasn't too long ago that _Harry_ didn't have any friends either, which I'd like to think contributes to his marginally greater compassion for Hermione.

And hey, what does Ron know -- Neville seems to like her well enough.

[...]Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the Hall, his turban askew and terror on his face. Everyone stared as he reached Profesor Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table and gasped, 'Troll -- in the dungeons -- thought you ought to know.'

He then sank to the floor in a dead faint. (127)

Like Crouch Jr, Quirrell keeps up a fairly elaborate charade for most of a year, and also like Crouch, does so with considerable gusto and theatrical panache. This dramatic entrance, followed by a faked fainting spell -- then later, he sinks down "clutching his heart". I don't think he _enjoys_ playing his role nearly as much as Crouch did, but he certainly does it well.

Is Voldemort attracted to theatrical types? Or are they attracted to him?

As they jostled their way through a crowd of confused Hufflepuffs, Harry suddenly grabbed Ron's arm.

'I've just thought -- Hermione.'

'What about her?'

'She doesn't know about the troll.'

Ron bit his lip.

'Oh, all right,' he snapped. 'But Percy'd better not see us.' (128)

Of course, the confused students have to be Hufflepuffs. We don't see any hordes of confused Slytherins or Ravenclaws wandering the corridors bumping into things, I notice.

It doesn't occur to Harry or Ron that they could just _tell_ Percy (or another authority figure) that Hermione is in the bathroom, and not have to cope with the situation on their own. This is very typical of Harry (he doesn't trust authority), and I think the idea is that Ron feels guilty that it's his fault she went off on her own in the first place, thus he wants to save her himself.

Harry then did something that was both very brave and very stupid: he took a great running jump and managed to fasten his arms around the troll's neck from behind. (130)

I love the fact that the narration acknowledges that an action can be both these things at once.

[Hermione:] 'I went looking for the troll because I -- I thought I could deal with it on my own -- you know, because I've read all about them.' (131)

I don't really see why this is any better than the truth. She was in the bathroom, Harry and Ron went to warn her. What would it matter what she was doing there? Why does making herself look bad make them look better?

Harry was speechless. Hermione was the last person to do anything against the rules, and here she was, pretending she had, to get them out of trouble. It was as if Snape had started handing out sweets. (131)

This is very clever. Harry doesn't take the next logical step: maybe his early judgment of Snape isn't entirely accurate either.

But from that moment on, Hermione Granger became their friend. There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them. (132)

This leaves me a bit cold. I'll buy that they became friends after this incident, but it really wasn't the shared danger that made Harry and Ron like her, it was the fact that she broke rules to save their hides.


Past re-read posts are yadda yadda yadda.