pauraque_bk | GoF 19

Highlights from Chapter 18:

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sistermagpie: The wand-weighing is just obscene. ♥

-Snape and Hermione, Snape and Draco.

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millefiori: I believe Hermione is wrong about Ron being jealous.

GoF 19: The Hungarian Horntail

Harry has at last found love at Hogwarts. His close friend, Colin Creevey, says that Harry is rarely seen out of the company of one Hermione Granger, a stunningly pretty Muggle-born girl who, like Harry, is one of the top students in the school. (276)

pilly2009 mentioned earlier, Colin is probably innocent here. Presumably Rita asked him if Harry hung out with any girls, and Colin told the truth. You could postulate that Colin deliberately put forth the rumor out of some kind of jealousy, but there's not much evidence for that.

Harry was full of admiration for the way [Hermione] was handling the situation. [...]

'Ignore it,' Hermione said in a dignified voice, holding her head in the air and stalking past the sniggering Slytherin girls as though she couldn't hear them. 'Just ignore it, Harry.' (277)

More martyr!Hermione. She's quite the saint here, even after Pansy compares her to a chipmunk.

You miss [Ron]!' Hermione said impatiently. 'And I know he misses you.'

'Miss him?' said Harry. 'I don't miss him...'

But this was a downright lie. Harry liked Hermione very much, but she just wasn't the same as Ron. (278)

*basks in the Harry/Ron-itude*

What? You Sirius/Remus people have your pseudo-canon slash pairing, and I have mine.

This makes it sound like Ron told Hermione flat-out that he misses Harry, which I doubt. Again, her knowledge is probably based on her reading of his feelings.

Viktor Krum was in the library an awful lot, too, and Harry wondered what he was up to. (278)

He's actually following Hermione around, if I recall correctly. I wouldn't accuse Viktor of being less than gentlemanly, but it is maybe a little unusual for an 18-year-old to be dating someone just barely 15.

Hagrid had his usual enormous tankard in front of him, but Moody was drinking from his hip-flask. (282)

Drinking Polyjuice, of course.

Hagrid now bent down on the pretext of reading the S.P.E.W. notebook as well, and said in a whisper so low that only Harry could hear it, 'Harry, meet me tonight at midnight at me cabin. Wear that Cloak.' (283)

This Harry/Hagrid moment brought to you by Out-of-Context Theatre.

Four fully grown, enormous, vicious-looking dragons were rearing on their hind legs inside an enclosure fenced with thick planks of wood, roaring and snorting[...] (286)

Potterverse dragons are clearly animals, not intelligent beings. Sirius notes that they're "powerfully magical", but unlike many dragons of European myth, they don't speak, nor do they seem to have a hypnotic gaze. Dragons are presented as awesomely important in a lot of modern fantasy, but Rowling seems mostly uninterested in them except as plot devices and obstacles.

'I didn't know you were bringing [Madame Maxime], Hagrid,' Charlie said, frowning. 'The champions aren't supposed to know what's coming -- she's bound to tell her student, isn't she?'

'Jus' thought she'd like ter see 'em,' shrugged Hagrid, still gazing, enraptured, at the dragons. (287)

Hagrid never explains why he brought Harry out here, but presumably he's trying to give him an advantage. He knows Maxime isn't supposed to see the dragons (he admonishes her not to tell anyone), but if he really thinks she won't tell Fleur, he's kidding himself.

skelkins mentioned last chapter that it often seems Hagrid isn't being held to the same standards as the other characters -- his childish aspects are dismissed as part of a semi-bestial (even Unfallen) innocent nature. Under that reading, it simply doesn't occur to him that Maxime would tell Fleur, because that would be cheating, and he doesn't understand sin, right?

But if that's what JKR is going for, it doesn't work for me. He's cheating to help Harry, after all, though I'd guess that in his mind he's just trying to even the playing field. I think it's more that he's so infatuated with Maxime that he barely cares what she tells Fleur.

I also like

iibnf's reading that Hagrid uses people's assumptions of his childishness to get away with certain things.

He had no doubt whatsoever what Karkaroff was up to. He had sneaked off his ship to try and find out what the first task was going to be. [...] By the looks of it, the only champion who would be facing the unknown on Tuesday was Cedric. (289)

Pure, innocent Cedric! I have to link back again to the discussion on cheating from Chapter 17 here.

'Karkaroff,' said Sirius. 'Harry, he was a Death Eater. You know what Death Eaters are, don't you?' (291)

This is the only useful information Sirius really provides, I think, though Harry could have gotten that info another way. When the conversation starts, Harry spills his guts about the emotional trials he's been through, with no one believing him, and his anxiety about the dragons, and Sirius comes back with "Well, we can deal with dragons, but what I REALLY wanted to tell you was that Karkaroff's evil, and now let me talk about my experiences in Azkaban and how he got let out and how very bitter I am." If Harry was hoping for some fatherly comfort, he was disappointed.

[Sirius:] '[Bertha Jorkins] disappeared in Albania, and that's definitely where Voldemort was rumoured to be last ... and she would have known the Triwizard Tournament was coming up, wouldn't she?'

'Yeah, but ... it's not very likely she'd have walked straight into Voldemort, is it?' said Harry. (292)

Shush, Harry, I'm trying to suspend my disbelief!

Sirius's dialogue here sounds paranoid, except that he's mostly correct -- Voldemort is plotting to use a DE to destroy Harry, it just isn't Karkaroff.

And what exactly are these rumors about V's whereabouts, and how would Sirius hear them? For me, this is a very precarious attempt to make a plot fit together that really doesn't make as much sense as the author wants it to.

'But you can [defeat the dragon] alone,' said Sirius. 'There is a way, and a simple spell's all you need. Just--'

But Harry held up a hand to silence him, his heart suddenly pounding as though it would burst. He could hear footsteps coming down the spiral staircase behind him. (293)

Sirius's advice being interrupted at the crucial moment here reminds me of the useless mirror in OotP. Sirius wants to help, and Harry wants to be helped, but the functionality of the relationship is always blocked in some way.

He knew that Ron had no idea what he'd walked in on, knew he hadn't done it on purpose, but he didn't care -- at this moment he hated everything about Ron, right down to the several inches of bare ankle showing beneath his pyjama trousers. (294)

Oh, showing a little ankle, is he? *wolf-whistles*

I couldn't really get what JKR was saying here until a later paragraph where Ron's "too-small" pyjamas are mentioned, so I guess what's going on is that in Harry's rage at Ron, he even resents his poverty.

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