15 February 2013

Harry Potter and Prisoner of AWESOME: Blog--a-long

In honor of yesterday
It's part two of the Prisoner of Awesome Azkaban readalong, sponsored by Alice at Reading Rambo, and that means that the series is starting to hit its stride. PoA has long been my favorite book in the series, at least in memory, but participating in this readalong has already altered my perception of the books and characters, so it will be interesting for me to see if it will continue to be my favorite throughout the series. It is still my favorite of the books so far, by a factor of roughly one gazillion, but we shall see. Namely, I love this book for the tightness of the plotting, the introduction of many interesting secondary characters, the groundwork-laying of important subplots, and the fact that Hermione gets to be a badass in the end. Oddly enough, I rushed through the end of this book and didn't make as many notes as I usually do.

Chapter Twelve The Patronus ends with a bang, and I'm pleased that it provides me with my favorite gif ever.


Chapter Thirteen: Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw.  More quidditch. Yawn. I like watching quidditch in the films, but reading about it doesn't do much for me. Except I think the word "quidditch" is an excellent word, and except for the time when Luna is commentator, but that's not for two more books yet.

p. 264: the twins sneak off to Hogsmeade and return with piles of sweets for the party. Do you reckon it's bought or stolen from basement of Honeyduke's? As much as I'd like to think they bought it, I think it's unlikely. Exhibit A: no money for treating an entire house. Exhibit B: Wouldn't the proprietors of Honeyduke's be likely to report back to the school if a student were in the shop outside of a Hogsmeade weekend? You know, with Sirius Black on the loose and all?

Chapter Fourteen: Snape's Grudge. p. 270. Wait, they have trolls hired to guard the Fat Lady?  What the what? Beyond the matter of their "comparing the size of their clubs," which makes me smirk, what makes these trolls different from the "OMG, troll in the dungeon, everybody head to your common room" panic from book one?

p. 274. See, here's some language play I like: "'Because her cat acted like all cats do,' Hagrid continued doggedly." and then later on the same page, Hagrid whomps those two schoolboys with some Hard Truth: "But I gotta tell yeh. I thought you two'd value yer friend more'n broomsticks or rats. That's all."


That's right. Hermione's been running attending more classes than either Harry or Ron, and she still made time to help Hagrid with his court case.

p. 283. I love this bit from Snape, too: "'What would your head have been doing in Hogsmeade, Potter?' Snape said softly. 'Your head is not allowed in Hogsmeade. No part of your body has permission to be in Hogsmeade.'"

Chapter Nineteen: The Servant of Lord Voldemort. Oh, I get plenty emotional reading this chapter.  If I had been born a man in any century but this one, I would have been among the first to enlist for any war if the cause were just.  I'm embarrassingly manipulated moved by lines like this one on p. 375: "'What was there to be gained by fighting the most evil wizard who has ever existed?'  asked Black with a terribly [sic] fury in his face. 'Only innocent lives, Peter!'"

Chapter Twenty-One: Hermione's Secret. Now, I'm clearly the biggest Snape apologist in this readalong, but even I have to say that it stretches the limits of my credulity that 15 (or so) years later, he remembers precisely which knot on the Whomping Willow to prod in order to crawl in safely. The tree itself would have grown and changed in that time, too.  I know Snape is brilliant, but that might be going too far.

Later in the same chapter, I think it's important to note that Snape, despite his hatred and belief that Sirius is a cold-blood killer, still treats Black more kindly than Black treated him. He conjures up a stretcher for Harry, Hermione and Sirius after they've fainted from the Dementors, whereas Sirius just used mobilicorpus on Snape and allowed his head to be bumped all along the passageway between the Shrieking Shack and the Whomping Willow.

Snape is awesome and basically the best character ever. He's brilliant and complicated and deeply unpleasant and wounded and lonely and loyal and brave. Therefore he deserves as many gifs as I can gif him.


Chapter Twenty-Two: Owl Post Again. When Dumbledore explains to Harry that Pettigrew now owes him a life debt--I had so much fun imagining how that would play out at the end of the series. Frankly, I think my version would have tied multiple plot lines together and come full circle better than the one JKR chose: that Pettigrew, using his new silver arm courtesy of GoF, would protect Harry against Fenrir in some version of the final battle.

All in all, a very satisfying conclusion to the series and a wonderful lead in to the next book. Almost perfect. Assuming, of course, that you are able to swallow the whole time travel issue with all of its paradoxes, which I confess is sometimes a bit of a challenge.

28 comments:

  1. Aw man, you're right. Freda and George bought the candy. Never thought of that before. I'm so disappointed. But I agree that this is one of the best of the series and the first to really start the plot of the series. The first two books are just stories that really can stand on their own, but this one really starts setting up for the end, forming a cohesive plot. Yes, JKR will incorporate the diary in later on but I don't think that was her original intention. This book, however, sets up up for a lot of future plots and twists.

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    1. I don't think I'd thought about the candy in previous readings of this book. Made me sad.

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  2. I laughed out loud for several minutes at the Harry gif. Oh mercy. That is the best thing ever.

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  3. And now I feel bad about the poor Honeydukes proprietors, trying to make their books add up and failing cos F&G keep stealing from their stock.

    I love Hagrid in this book. I love him in general, but in this one especially.

    Snape is way nicer to unconscious Sirius than Sirius is to unconscious Snape. Of course, Snape's plan WAS to give Sirius over to the Dementors for their kiss, while a similar fate did not await Snape (RHYMES) so yeah. He loses some points here.

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    1. Re: Honeyduke proprietors...maybe they'll think they have a rodent of unusual size lurking in their cellar, and thus we'll have the second Harry Potter/Princess Bride crossover. The first one being, naturally, that when Harry dueled Voldemort he said, "Hello, my name is Harry Potter. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

      Oh, wait, he didn't say that. Talk about missed opportunity.

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    2. Excuse me, I need to spend the rest of the afternoon searching for a Harry Potter/Princess Bride tumblr

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    3. This Princess Bride/Harry Potter thing makes me really happy. SIDE NOTE OF GREAT IMPORTANCE: Have you seen Homeland? Did you know that Saul from Homeland played Inigo Montoya? "SAY WHAT?" I hear you ask. But it is true. And wonderful.

      Carry on.

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    4. I love sidenotes OF GREAT IMPORTANCE. I have never seen Homeland, but I have heard so many incredible things about it, so perhaps Alice should host a Homeland blog-a-long? Let's vote on it.

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  4. Okay, but, also, can we not give Snape all that much credit for the stretcher thing? He does the stretcher when he has some time to think about his choices. When he's got Lupin all tied up and helpless (wow, that came out sounding very slashy, which was not my intention), he's going to DRAG HIM. Across the ground. All tied up. Not cool, Snape.

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    1. "tied up and helpless" tee hee. i love Harry Potter slash and I seem to recall reading a few good Lupin/Snape ones.

      But I'm afraid I will continue to give Snape ALL OF THE CREDIT, EVER. For it is my way.

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    2. You're right, he IS planning to drag Lupin. Maybe that's prejudice because of the werewolf thing and him not seeing Lupin as fully human? I need to reevaluate. You people make me think so much!!

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  5. I. Love. That Hagrid tried to get H&R to see the error of their ways. At first, when Hagrid sent an owl inviting only Harry and Ron to his house, I was HORRIFIED. Very upset. But of course I needn't have worried.

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    1. Oh my, yes. The first time through I was so indignant about Hermione. Guess I should've trusted Hagrid's good heart not to exclude her without a reason.

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  6. Can I argue with your description of Snape? I cannot! (ALTHOUGH I'm actually not a HUGE fan of Snape juuust at the moment. Although I of course am because of the things I know. But can I let that influence me? I AM SO CONFLICTED I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!)

    I loooove your ending idea though! I am not as well versed in Potterness as many, but DOES Pettigrew ever repay his debt? Actually... don't tell me, I'll find out for myself! :)

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    1. Snape. His story arc is arguably more important to this series than anyone else's except Harry's. I love him, but I can understand your conflict. My love for him is founded as much in fanon as canon, to be honest.

      but ooh, Pettigrew. Just you wait!

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  7. I was going to mention the stealing/buying Honeydukes merch thing too but I forgot! You would assume that they stole it since surely the Honeydukes owners would contact the school, but they also bring back Butterbeer so that means going to the 3 Broomsticks and that'd mean going through the shop and without a bunch of students or Harry's handy cloak surely they'd be pretty easy to spot?

    I don't know, I think JK just wanted to have a little nod to the map between the twins and Harry and didn't really think about the ramifications - because come next book they get all their goodies from the House Elves in the kitchen.

    "'What would your head have been doing in Hogsmeade, Potter?' Snape said softly. 'Your head is not allowed in Hogsmeade. No part of your body has permission to be in Hogsmeade.'" < Snape is so sassy. I love him.

    I am a bad sci-fi fan because as soon as time travel is introduced I just accept it (unless it's REALLY bad)because I end up hurting my head because it's so easy to get lost in all the paradoxes that are present the second time travel is mentioned. So there are definite issues with the time-tuner in this book, but I just shrug and go "what evs, JK, I'll follow this if you keep it down to a bare minimum and save my brain"

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    1. You know, I suppose it's not impossible that the twins took up a collection from the House for the party. Or that Percy, having just won 10 galleons from Penny for winning the match, might have donated something. I'd much rather think that than think the twins were stealing. And you're right about the butter beer -- unless it's also sold at Honeydukes (and my local candy shops sell interesting sodas, but it's a stretch), they *would* have had to go out into the town.

      I tried hard to look for something good to illustrate Harry's head being in hogsmeade to go with Snape's snarkiness but I failed.

      Re: the time turner. yes, i agree. you either have to accept it in this world or not, otherwise too much time is spent trying to figure out what the what in terms of the linearity or circularity of time.

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    2. I'm going to choose to believe they took a collection or got help from Percy, because otherwise I'm very disappointed in the twins and I don't want to be. At least not on this point.

      Do the twins know accio? I suppose they could accio the butterbeer from the basement at Honeydukes? Although the owners may investigate if they see a crate of butterbeer fly through their store...

      Or maybe it's night time? And the store is closed? In which case maybe they take their stuff and just leave money on the counter.

      Anyway, far too much of my time has been spent worrying over this point. It's the plumbing thing all over again.

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  8. I couldn't think of a way to work that scrotum gif into my post so good job.

    That line! From Snape, about Harry's head! I laughed and laughed and laughed. I am riding the Snape train with you, sister.

    'as many gifs as I can gif him' - AHhhhhhhhhh lulz.

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  9. I love that "riding the Snape train" can have SO many meanings. Now I'm in the mood for some fanfiction. ANd then it made me want to come up with something clever about Snape and sistahs along the line of Sistah Souljah and I came up with nothing. I expect it may be the tequila talking, though. I'll leave it to cleverer minds than mine to come up with the right term.

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  10. Sports kind of bore me, but I think Rowling did a decent job with making the Quidditch parts as enjoyable as possible. Jordan's commentary is hilarious, something almost always happens when there's a match (dementors, boneless arms, etc), and she usually wraps it up pretty quick.

    Love this book so much. SO EXCITED for book 4! So many big wizarding events!

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  11. Quidditch - still don't get all the rules and plays, but the McGonagall and Jordan exchanges are priceless!

    Though Snape really needs to learn to pick on someone his own age, I have to admit that he is definitely kinder to Sirius than Sirius was ever to him.

    I love JKR's concept of the life debt, because I remember going nuts and scouring the next books trying to find a hint of the life debt being repaid.

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  12. LUNA'S COMMENTARY IS THE BEST THING IN THE WHOLE SERIES

    Oh, how I am looking forward.

    Snape's immense unpleasantness prevents me from liking him as a character, but I get why he's really interesting to some people. I super-like some lady characters who're horrible (*cough*Bellatrix*cough*). So there's that.

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  13. Bellatrix is a horrible person but a wonderful character. I'm no apologist for her, but I think she ties with Umbridge as Best Villain for the series.

    And yes, everything about Luna is terrif.

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  14. I am CACKLING at the scrotum GIF so, so hard.

    Also, YES to this: "That's right. Hermione's been running attending more classes than either Harry or Ron, and she still made time to help Hagrid with his court case."

    She is way too good for them.

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  15. "All the GIFs that I can GIF him."
    I see what you did there and it made me lol.

    I think that all of the living adults of the Marauders generation suffer from NOT GROWING UP. And while I very much like Snape, he has had the most opportunity to mature - what with being a teacher of children at a school and therefore in a relatively safe, secure environment surrounded by peers instead of ostracized as a werewolf or, say, locked up in Azkaban.

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  16. Aw, we both used HP-style Valentines.

    I will co-marry Snape with you. I will co-marry him so hard. To me, he is perfect.

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    1. He is the BEST EVER. Do you ever read fanfiction? Swoon! I can recommend some good Snape ones if you like...

      Off to see your HP style valentine, as I don't remember what it was...

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Please, sir, may I have some more? (Comments, that is!)