more on OotP
Jul. 29th, 2003 02:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pauraque_bkI'm surprised to see how little I've updated this month. After the way June dragged on and on, it seems like we can't possibly be more than a week into July, but damn, it's almost August. Too much real-life running around and angsting, I guess.
I've finished re-reading OotP. I ended up catching up with and going at about the same pace as my friend R--- on her first reading, so we talked our way through a lot of the book, which was great. And it's fun to have someone to sit around the computer and wibble over the new PoA movie pictures with you on your lunch break.
Anyway, here are some of my thoughts while reading the book a little more slowly than the last time.
-It seems that Muggles can't testify in wizard court -- if they could, we'd expect Dudley to be called as a witness for Harry's hearing (and perhaps Obliviated afterwards?). This could serve as an incentive for wizards to steer clear of the Muggle world; if they run into trouble, they stand a good chance of being wrongly convicted of a crime due to a lack of acceptable witnesses.
-Molly offers to get Ron a new rat because he "always liked Scabbers". This seems jarringly insensitive. Does she know the full story of what happened in the Shrieking Shack?
-Where the hell are Hermione's parents? There are so few references to them, even in passing. You'd think she'd want to see them when she can, but she spends almost no time at home during the holidays. She's staying most of the summer at the headquarters of a covert organization waging war on the forces of evil -- what kind of permission slip do you have to get for *that*? The Grangers can't possibly realize what their daughter is involved in; she must be lying to them. And in that case, she's lying to Molly and Arthur too.
-I guess Percy never knew where his family was staying, because otherwise he'd have tipped off the Ministry that they were at Sirius's place. It seems funny, though, that he doesn't know.
-Anybody else get the idea that Umbridge may be only part human? There are *so* many references to her looking/acting like a toad, and her vendetta against half-humans has no stated basis -- could it be displaced self-loathing, echoing Voldemort's crusade against his own kind?
-I thought it was interesting that Lucius recognized Padfoot. He'd have already left school by the time MWPP had mastered the transformation, so he wouldn't have seen their animal forms then. Presumably Lucius found out about it from Peter when they were DEs together, before Voldemort's fall. So Lucius wouldn't have *really* known it was Sirius on the platform, it would just have been an educated guess, later confirmed when he heard from Kreacher that Sirius had indeed been with Harry. The fact that Sirius was an Animagus evidently wasn't general DE knowledge, though, since Snape didn't find out until GoF.
-I see that McGonagall started teaching in December of 1956. I wonder what happened, that Dumbledore needed to hire a new teacher in the middle of the school year.
-"[The barman at the Hog's Head] was a grumpy-looking old man with a great deal of long grey hair and beard. He was tall and thin and looked vaguely familiar to Harry." Do we know what Aberforth Dumbledore does for a living? ;)
-Professor Umbridge says that "Lucius Malfoy always speaks most highly of [Snape]." What's the deal here? I'd have thought, after Snape didn't show up for the DE meeting at the end of GoF, Lucius would have realized Snape was a double agent. Maybe Lucius didn't know Snape wasn't there. Or maybe (as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
theatresm recently suggested), Snape *was* there.
Oh, and one more thing I noticed as I was re-reading the end of GoF. Voldemort tells us that Peter ran into Bertha Jorkins at an inn in Albania, convinced her to take a "nighttime stroll" with him, and then overpowered her and dragged her off to his master. This is certainly a side to Peter we've never seen: Charming and collected enough to pick up a woman (who's evidently a perfect stranger to him) at some bar in a foreign country, and persuade her to take a walk with him into the forest after dark. Hm.
I've finished re-reading OotP. I ended up catching up with and going at about the same pace as my friend R--- on her first reading, so we talked our way through a lot of the book, which was great. And it's fun to have someone to sit around the computer and wibble over the new PoA movie pictures with you on your lunch break.
Anyway, here are some of my thoughts while reading the book a little more slowly than the last time.
-It seems that Muggles can't testify in wizard court -- if they could, we'd expect Dudley to be called as a witness for Harry's hearing (and perhaps Obliviated afterwards?). This could serve as an incentive for wizards to steer clear of the Muggle world; if they run into trouble, they stand a good chance of being wrongly convicted of a crime due to a lack of acceptable witnesses.
-Molly offers to get Ron a new rat because he "always liked Scabbers". This seems jarringly insensitive. Does she know the full story of what happened in the Shrieking Shack?
-Where the hell are Hermione's parents? There are so few references to them, even in passing. You'd think she'd want to see them when she can, but she spends almost no time at home during the holidays. She's staying most of the summer at the headquarters of a covert organization waging war on the forces of evil -- what kind of permission slip do you have to get for *that*? The Grangers can't possibly realize what their daughter is involved in; she must be lying to them. And in that case, she's lying to Molly and Arthur too.
-I guess Percy never knew where his family was staying, because otherwise he'd have tipped off the Ministry that they were at Sirius's place. It seems funny, though, that he doesn't know.
-Anybody else get the idea that Umbridge may be only part human? There are *so* many references to her looking/acting like a toad, and her vendetta against half-humans has no stated basis -- could it be displaced self-loathing, echoing Voldemort's crusade against his own kind?
-I thought it was interesting that Lucius recognized Padfoot. He'd have already left school by the time MWPP had mastered the transformation, so he wouldn't have seen their animal forms then. Presumably Lucius found out about it from Peter when they were DEs together, before Voldemort's fall. So Lucius wouldn't have *really* known it was Sirius on the platform, it would just have been an educated guess, later confirmed when he heard from Kreacher that Sirius had indeed been with Harry. The fact that Sirius was an Animagus evidently wasn't general DE knowledge, though, since Snape didn't find out until GoF.
-I see that McGonagall started teaching in December of 1956. I wonder what happened, that Dumbledore needed to hire a new teacher in the middle of the school year.
-"[The barman at the Hog's Head] was a grumpy-looking old man with a great deal of long grey hair and beard. He was tall and thin and looked vaguely familiar to Harry." Do we know what Aberforth Dumbledore does for a living? ;)
-Professor Umbridge says that "Lucius Malfoy always speaks most highly of [Snape]." What's the deal here? I'd have thought, after Snape didn't show up for the DE meeting at the end of GoF, Lucius would have realized Snape was a double agent. Maybe Lucius didn't know Snape wasn't there. Or maybe (as
theatresm recently suggested), Snape *was* there.Oh, and one more thing I noticed as I was re-reading the end of GoF. Voldemort tells us that Peter ran into Bertha Jorkins at an inn in Albania, convinced her to take a "nighttime stroll" with him, and then overpowered her and dragged her off to his master. This is certainly a side to Peter we've never seen: Charming and collected enough to pick up a woman (who's evidently a perfect stranger to him) at some bar in a foreign country, and persuade her to take a walk with him into the forest after dark. Hm.
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no subject
Date: 2003-07-29 03:12 pm (UTC)Re: Bertha Jorkins. Sirius said that he knew her in school, so that lends to the idea that Peter knew her, too. And she'd have known Peter and Sirius, as she was a gossip, and she'd have known the story about poor Peter dying at the wand of Sirius Black. Imagine her surprise upon seeing Peter alive and well in Albania. Peter might not have had to be particularly charming (and given his *looks* at that point, as described in PoA?), but he would have had to have been quick and clever with a lie - that he really escaped Sirius, that he was hunting down a shade of Voldemort, etc.
Molly's comment about Scabbers was pretty in-character. For all that she's a doting mother, she's oblivious to her children as *people* and not just her *babies*. That's evidenced in her treatment of Bill (the condescending motherly comments about his hair), and the fact that she still picks maroon out for Ron (when he clearly hates it), and her refusal to really understand what the twins are up to. Even if she knows the Shrieking Shack story (and I'm pretty positive that she doesn't), she'd still say that about Scabbers because she wouldn't *see* the connection between the rat and the man. The rat was in the family too long.
Have missed you....hope life is going well. How is your mom doing?
no subject
Date: 2003-07-29 03:58 pm (UTC)MWAAA HAAA! (This in relation to Dumbledore's memory of Bertha being hexed because she "teased" someone about snogging Florence behind the greenhouse. And who is the most renown hexer in that bunch of students, I ask you?) Either that or Peter -- "Sorry about that incident, old girl -- I was a real prat. Say, you wouldn't like to get out of all this smoke and fug and take a nice little stroll, hmmm?"
*Amy returns to Snapefic, giggling evilly and twitching her fingers*
no subject
Date: 2003-07-30 11:22 am (UTC)"Well... I *did* accidentally overhear Florence telling Mabel that you gave her an *awfully* good time over by the hydrangeas that day..."
And after all, Peter's a hero! Posthumous Order of Merlin, wasn't it? He may not be much to look at now, but just *think* of the attention she'll get when she tells all her friends back at the Ministry who she spent the evening with in Albania...
;)
no subject
Date: 2003-07-29 05:13 pm (UTC)You make a good point about Molly. I can't really see her digging too deeply into the Shrieking Shack incident; it would force her to see the kids as people who are dealing with situations that would put any adult to the test. She seems to have a similar blind spot for all children, not just her own, which might explain why it doesn't occur to her that Hermione could be putting one over on her parents.
How is your mom doing?
Up and down, but it's still more psychological than physical misery -- not to say that mental/emotional stress is meaningless, but the fact that she's stayed physically strong so far is encouraging. One of her doctors actually said he was encouraged the other day, which put me into a better mood than probably was reasonable... At the moment, she's standing behind me, cutting up potatoes (her computer is in the kitchen). It's good to see her doing ordinary things.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-29 04:06 pm (UTC)'Tis an excellent question. More evidence of Hermione's willingness to Do What Must Be Done?
I guess Percy never knew where his family was staying
Hmmmm. Either that or one just pops a message on the owl's leg, and they somehow know the location of the other party.
I see that McGonagall started teaching in December of 1956. I wonder what happened, that Dumbledore needed to hire a new teacher in the middle of the school year.
Oooo, interesting point for Minerva fic. I bet it involves a mis-transfiguration.
Do we know what Aberforth Dumbledore does for a living?
Hopefully nothing involving reading or goats. (No, we don't know anything at all about Aberforth's current whereabouts/life, though I seem to recall Albus indicating that he was somewhat reclusive (?).
Re: Jorkins and Peter: "convince" could mean anything from sweet-talking to Imperio.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-29 05:29 pm (UTC)It almost looks like a way of presenting Slytherin values in a positive light, in a way that isn't threatening because Hermione isn't actually a Slytherin. I'll be interested to see where JKR goes with this.
Either that or one just pops a message on the owl's leg, and they somehow know the location of the other party.
I think this is correct. Harry is routinely able to send owls to people whose location he doesn't know. I'd guess that post owls have some kind of internal homing device that tracks people they've met, supplemented by a hugely complicated mental map that includes addresses and such. The brain capacity on these guys must be incredible, and they apparently understand speech. They must be sentient, or nearly so. Don't tell Hermione. ;P
I bet it involves a mis-transfiguration.
Good idea! Hm, plot bunny...
Re: Jorkins and Peter: "convince" could mean anything from sweet-talking to Imperio.
Good point, though the way Voldemort puts it implies that he took her outside and *then* forced her to come with him. Which would make sense, as you wouldn't want to place somebody under an illegal curse in the middle of an inn if you didn't have to. But it's definitely vague enough to be interpreted in any number of ways.