Friday, March 8, 2013

Twitchy little ferret, aren't you, Malfoy?

Happy Friday everyone. Once again we have another Harry Potter readalong post (and thank you Alice for hosting this potteralong).

As with every week, there are spoilers below. And also bitching about really minor details and the fact that Rowling can't do math. The usual. So let's go

I LOVE Hermione's scenes when she's yelling at Ron about taking her for granted and not thinking anyone else would want to go to the dance with her. Hermione, you rule

Harry and Ron were both jerks during the dance. But not really more than normal 14 year old boy jerks. Doesn't mean it's OK, but it does mean (from my perspective) it's understandable. And had the girls smacked each of the boys upside the head, that would have been understandable too.

When Harry is caught in the trick step and he drops the egg AND the Marauder's Map, and Filch, Snape and Moody show up, how many times did you mumble "Motherfucker"? It was 7 for me. 
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I'd like to get an indication of how much help all of the other Champions are getting. Cos Harry would have been screwed at pretty much every step of that second task. He couldn't figure out the egg without both Cedric and Moaning Myrtle telling him what to do. He couldn't figure out how to stay underwater for an hour without Dobby. Hell, he would have missed the task ENTIRELY without Dobby. And he couldn't find his way to the hostages without Myrtle again.* We know Fleur and Krum were told about the Dragons before the first task by their headmasters (probably) and Harry told Cedric but are any of them getting this much help? This is getting sad.

Another point to add to the 'I love you Rowling, but you suck at math" file, she has Hagrid pull out a picture of him as a young boy with his father sitting on his shoulder. Except then she says in the picture Hagrid is smaller than he is now, about 7-8 feet tall. Which...that's not HUGE. It's bigger than the average person sure, but not so big that a full sized normal adult man can fit on his shoulder. 

Sirius is back. More back than just head-in-the-fire-place back. Now it's spending-most-of-his-time-as-a-dog-and-living-off-rats back. Which he's doing because he CARES FOR HARRY THAT MUCH. Because he's great.
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Though I kinda feel bad for Buckbeak who's probably thinking "What the hell is this? We were hanging out somewhere nice and warm and now we're back here living in a cave that who knows how the hell I fit in AND I'm living off scraps? This is bullshit, food guy."**

Sirius's story about Barty Crouch and him being all I HATE DARK WIZARDS RAWR. I get that it's sad and sucks that Crouch sent his son to Azkaban and that makes him seem all heartless. But if he DIDN'T do this, and he kept his son out of Azkaban and got him special treatment, wouldn't that be what we're bitching about? Poor Crouch was screwed either way.

Winky gets drunk on butterbeer so does that mean butterbeer is kinda alcoholic? Cos even Harry(?) says something about it not really being that strong before Dobby tells him it's strong to house elves. Is the "beer" part of the drink true, albeit very light? I thought it was more like root beer.*** Cos, you know, children are drinking it.

Krum is all nervous Harry is dating Hermione and it's the cutest thing. Aww even though he's a professional Quidditch player Krum is intimidated by Harry. Which he really shouldn't be. Sorry Harry.

Oh hey, Crouch as showed up. And he's clearly delusional and spouting nonsense and apparently wandering around the forest. So that's creepy. And while I'm glad Harry ran to get help, I can't help but think it would have been a good idea to first move Crouch OUT of the forest. Maybe out into the open. Not to say that would have prevented what happened from happening, but still.

ALSO, so I know Snape is a super asshole and obviously Harry hates him, etc. but I couldn't help thinking it would have probably been a good thing for Harry-Snape relations if he had tried to bring Snape outside when he realized he couldn't get to Dumbledore. Like instead of yelling at Snape that he needed to get Dumbles for him if he had been like "Fine Snape, you have to come quick!!" First up, then Snape sees that Harry is serious because OBV Harry wouldn't be asking Snape for something if it wasn't a big deal. And Snape helping Harry would put them both in a better mindset about the other. They're not going to be besties but less tense? Think how much better Snape's rescue of HRH would have been in Prisoner of Azkaban if Snape actually HAD rescued them instead of sending Sirius to the dementors.
How things could have been****
Next week, we finish things up with Goblet and THINGS WILL BE REVEALED. Can't wait.

*Who he totally blows off when she asks him if she'll visit him again. Jerk. Although she did admit to watching prefects get naked just ALL the time so that's pervy and maybe best not to visit her. Not that I think that was Harry's logic, but you know.

**I assume pets primarily know their owners as the food people. Does Buckbeak count as a pet? Kinda? Pet/fellow fugitive?

***Wow this post has a lot of asides today. Anyway, I once had an actual beer at a bar that TASTED like someone had first filled the glass with butter. It was gross. And the closest I've come to "butter beer"

****Googling "Snape & Harry" brings up a LOT of images that I'm pretty sure if you click on them you get put on a watch list. The more you know.

Title quote from page 404

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Scholastic, 2000