Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is one of my favorite books in the series -- it's got the most Snape action, you see. It's been several long weeks since I fully participated in Alice's Harry Potter Readalong, so I'm very happy to have the time to do it this week. She is officially the bestest for hosting it.
Chapter One: Info dump. Bor-ing. Though I always enjoy getting chapters written without the dubious benefit of the Harry Filter.
Chapter Two: I think we can all agree that this chapter is made of undiluted awesomeness. If I didn't already love Snape, this chapter would still make me swoon. Bellatrix's passionate hatred met with Snape's snarky parries each time. "Of course, you weren't a lot of use to him in prison, but the gesture was undoubtedly fine." And the interplay between Bella and Narcissa--so terrible, so revealing about each sister. There's very little I don't love about this chapter. But it makes me wish quite desperately that Narcissa had reached out to her other sister before it was too late. I think it's clear that Narcissa has no allegiance to the Dark Lord at this point--her not reconciling with Andromeda is one of the missed opportunities in this series that makes me most sad.
Chapter Five: Mollywobbles. I don't even want to know what bits of Molly that were so appealingly wobbly that Arthur made it his pet name for her.
Chapter Six: U-NO-POO. Those twins, bless 'em.
Every time I think of Hermione as brilliant, she does something so insanely un-thought out that I want to shake her. Trying to learn more about that opal necklace is one of those times. But of course her foibles make her much more real than most of the other characters.
Chapter Seven: As if we didn't know Neville's sexual status of virgin, he proudly declares that his wand is made of cherry and unicorn hair. If Book Neville looked like Film Neville, this joke would be meaningless.
Also Chapter Seven: Who the hell throws a luncheon party on a train like that? Slughorn fawns over Harry the way Lockheart used to fawn over himself. But at least Ginny keeps on being the coolest kid on the block, so there's that.
Okay, seriously. There's something I have to say.
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| Too good not to use past OotP |
Anyway, I think we have a pretty good idea what James & Sirius might be like if we had the chance to read their stories: Fred & George. I've always liked the twins' comic relief in the series, and though I think the application of their intelligence is often misguided, I think they may be the smartest characters in the series. Perhaps even moreso than Hermione, but I'm not 100 % certain. Anyway, they blithely stuff Montague in a broken vanishing cabinet for the sake of 10 house points. Maybe a total of twenty (10 per twin). A broken vanishing cabinet where he could have died of dehydration or starvation, I might add (In the twins's own words: "That could take weeks. I dunno where we sent him."). And while Umbridge no doubt would have expelled both of them for far less, I'm not at all convinced that Dumbledore would have. So there you have the parallel: two bright Gryffindor boys who value their own cleverness almost condemn to death a Slytherin boy. Montague had to try to apparate out of it. Since you cannot apparate on Hogwarts grounds, one can only imagine how he managed to do that... ("he nearly died doing it," Malfoy will tell us later in this book). Fred and George might not have known precisely what would happen to Montague, but it's clear that they knew something would. Weeks? A student missing for weeks?! But if it's just a Slytherin, then it doesn't really matter, does it?
JK Rowling claims to be anti-bully and that's why she doesn't like Snape, but it seems she can overlook terrible bullying in her Golden Gryffindors. (True: a teacher bullying a student is a different magnitude from a student bullying another student, but why are all of the exceptions made for Gryffindors?
I LOVE that Dumbledore quote and can't believe that I forgot to mention it!
ReplyDeleteI do think that JKR makes bullying exceptions for Gryffindors, but I don't think that Fred and George really understood what they were doing to Montague. They thought they were sending him somewhere, which indicates somewhere other than the inside of a cabinet, where presumably there would be food and water. Doesn't make it okay, but it makes it better.
I read something once that pretty much said Hermione's not actually that impressive because she never MAKES anything - she's just good at learning magic developed by others, whereas Fred and George (and also the Marauders) actually make original objects, developing their own magic. Maybe like the difference between doing an excellent literary analysis and actually writing the masterpiece? Either way, I think I agree. Hermione is very limited, in more ways that one, whereas Fred and George are creative and think beyond the boundaries of what's already been done.
And yeah, Neville's ridiculously hot. I didn't notice the wand thing, that cracks me up.
I give you that the twins didn't know that the vanishing cabinet was broken, but by their own admission, they said it could have taken weeks before Montague came back to school. WEEKS! So maybe they didn't know Montague would almost die trying to apparate BUT it makes me wonder how James and Sirius couldn't have known that the werewolf prank had "lethal" written all over it.
DeleteI think the twins could have ended up in any house but Ravenclaw. Not because they're not smart enough--I think theyre brilliant--but because they don't care at all about knowledge for knowledge's sake like Hermione does.
But Hermione does make lots of elf hats! ;D
DeleteOh yeah, the twins definitely don't belong in Ravenclaw, but I could see them in any of the others too. And I'm pretty sure James and Sirius DID know that the werewolf prank was lethal. I also think that, as kids, they were pretty terrible human beings.
DeleteJames didn't do the werewolf prank! That was all Sirius. When James heard about it he went to go sort it out. I still think James was a huge poophead in a lot of ways, but he didn't want Snape to die.
DeleteLOVE that point about Hermione. I think she's still extremely impressive, because she puts the pieces together like a boss, even when she's working from a pretty limited pool of evidence. But yeah, she's not basically creative, she's basically critical, in the sense of being very, very good at breaking down and understanding existing systems.
Ahh Mollywobbles. That's so great.
ReplyDeleteI don't think F&G are bullies. I think they're pretty normal guys who retaliate against crappy behavior/people. Malfoy and his gang are bullies to everyone - they sneer at and are jerks to anyone not within their own little circle. The Marauders / F&G are good guys generally liked by most people, but they of course have their own little archnemisis-type of relationships (Snape for the Marauders, and here it's Montague for F&G) and that's where their meaner sides come out, as it would in anyone. I think it seems like JK is only favoring the Gryffindors here b/c, well, the Gryffindors and the Slytherins are the two main houses of the series so those characters are going to be the ones highlighted.
Oh also, I still think Ron is the hottest :-) Not in that picture though (why does he look sick??) lol.
Really? You don't find the twins or the Marauders bullies at all? I find that so surprising.
DeleteRon does look sick in that picture--so does Harry, a bit.
UGHHHHH THE MARAUDERS WERE MAD BULLIES. Like, THE WORST. They're that sort of like, Come on, just fooling around, can't you take a joke kind of bully. F&G I can see being cavalier re: another student's safety, I forget the cabinet scene, so I can't comment directly on it. I think if they knew they were putting a student in danger they'd have second thoughts.
DeleteSnape is only a bully because he was bullied, so you could SAY that JAMES is the reason Harry gets so much shit. YOU COULD SAY THAT AND I DO. Nice one, Young James.
Probably because of the hotness of Draco and Neville in that picture *fans self*
Delete"They're that sort of like, Come on, just fooling around, can't you take a joke kind of bully."
DeleteUGH, THIS. The marauders SUCK. Even Lupin, though he's slightly less culpable. I totally blame Harry's father for Harry being shit on by Snape, too. Except that even if Snape hadn't been bullied by James, I still think he would have been really bitter about the whole thing.
(Also Neville is certainly hot but his head looks enormous in that picture. Like, twice the size of Harry's.)
Chapter 5: Ahhhhhh they're like one's parents and I cannot think of this.
ReplyDeleteMmm, Neville. Hello. How you doin'.
Aww, that's a good point about the Weasley twins. But yeah, their callousness bothers me at times.
I think I'm too prurient to care about the parent-like qualities of Molly & Arthur. I'm aware that this makes me, if not a bad person, then perhaps a disturbed one. :0
ReplyDelete"I don't even want to know what bits of Molly that were so appealingly wobbly that Arthur made it his pet name for her." AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!
ReplyDeleteThe thing with Dumbledore and the Dursleys is, YEAH, he's kind of baiting them, but if you look at what he's actually doing, he's sitting them down and offering them a drink, and... That is actually really nice? Really it just makes them look even more socially retarded and gross and horrid.
I feel like we're going to agree THE MOST in this book because of our mutual appreciation for Snape. But WE SHALL SEE!
Well, Dumbles could have just poured them a drink and set the glasses down on the table now, couldn't he? Instead, he bombards the Dursleys with items they're afraid to touch.
DeleteSNAPE. Ahh, yes!
Dumbledore was definitely acting harshly toward the Dursleys, but, I mean, come on. The thing with the glasses would have been better if they had been polite and said no thank you. Not that they would, as you say, because they are terrified of Dumbledore. But they are horrible to Harry, and ferocious, protective Dumbledore comes out a bit in this scene.
ReplyDeleteMore Snape! Looking forward to reading on.
And not just Snape, but pretty much BAMF Snape in this book. Le swoon.
DeleteI looooove chapter 2 so much, and I need to revisit the film because I can't remember if it matches the awesomeness, but it was a scene I was most excited about seeing - Helena B.C and Alan Rickman were both chosen for this scene (well, I know they weren't but they are beyond perfect).
ReplyDeleteI like your parallels between F&G and S&J and it's especially interesting because there has been a lot of J&S hate this readalong but from the scenes we had with them they didn't do anything worse than the twins or HRH (except perhaps the werewolf thing) yet no one seems willing to accept the twins as bullies, or that J&S were also decent people *as well* as bullies. Interesting.
I'm truly conflicted about the twins--I kinda love them, which makes my dismay at some of their behavior so stark in comparison. But it's pretty clear to me that they exhibit some classic bullying.
DeleteOkay, I have to admit something here: when I first saw HRH in your comment my first thought was His Royal Highness. Hah!
I love them still, but I definitely feel conflicted, especially when the same behaviour is displayed by Slytherins and we're supposed to be outraged.
DeleteThat is quite a good point about the twins...but I have a thought. So James and Sirius were clearly bullies, albeit of the more good-natured sort compared with Malfoy and his droogs. They both bully for the sake of bullying, or because they are bored.
ReplyDeleteHOWEVER, Fred and George never bully for the sake of bullying. Most often, they cause general mischief directed at no one in particular. And when there IS a victim, per se, it's always to serve a larger purpose. For example, one could say they were bullying the first years by testing their pills on them, but that wasn't about causing anyone pain...it was about testing a product. And the Montague incident was more of a vengeance thing. So I do not think the twins fit the bully definition.
They are just...entrepreneurs.
Precisely. Entrepreneurial bullies. They're so damn creative and funny, and as twins they're such a single entity in and of themselves that they don't really *need* anybody else in their lives. And it's that carelessness that leads to bad things sometimes.
DeleteEven though I do not have your Snape love, I do really enjoy chapter two. Probably because we get so much Snape snark.
ReplyDeletePoor everyone else who is in a picture with Neville, because they cannot compete. Even with his cherry & unicorn wand (teeheehee).
You make an EXCELLENT point about the twins being their generation's Marauders and how they really do some awful things but Rowling forgives them cos they're just mean to Slytherins. And she really seems to hate the Slytherins which seems mean and everyone in their house is awful. I would like to see some just generally nice Slytherins.
I looooove your Harry Potter re-read reviews. Keep 'em coming! :D
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