PS Chapter Fifteen: "The Forbidden Forest"
* Hermione is “trembling” at the prospect of having to face McGonagall, which is something of an about-face given that just last chapter she was almost singing with joy at the thought of Malfoy being given detention. I guess she’s worried about being given the kind of non-funny detentions only heroes get.
* I’m not sure why Neville should be feeling hurt at Harry - even if he and Hermione did feed Malfoy the dragon story, they obviously didn’t intend for Neville to get involved.
* McGonagall’s explanation has got a bit of a gap in it - if the Gryffindors had just fed Malfoy a story about a dragon to trick him into wandering around at night, why would they need to get out of bed too?
* “I’ve never been more ashamed of Gryffindor students.” Crikey, Professor, calm down. Going around after curfew isn’t exactly the most heinous crime in the world.
* Also, for those of you who are keeping track, Harry, Neville and Hermione wandering about after hours > the Marauders publicly humiliating young Severus.
* “In one night, they’d ruined any chance Gryffindor had had for the House Cup.” Well, I’m sure his fellow housemates will be understanding. After all, it’s not like the House Cup actually does anything, right?
* Given Gryffindor’s house ethos, I’d have thought that they’d regularly blow their chances of winning the Cup by breaking rules, probably in some spectacular and dangerous fashion.
* “The rest of the team wouldn’t speak to Harry during practice, and if they had to speak about him, they called him ‘the Seeker’.” Wow, what a bunch of childish arseholes. Is there any doubt after this that Gryffindor is really the house of the petty and vindictive?
* It’s a pity that Hogwarts’ pastoral provision is such a joke, since otherwise one of the teachers might have realised that Harry, Hermione and Neville were being bullied and done something to stop it.
* Ah, the good old days when we could realistically believe that Harry might get thrown out for excessive rule-breaking.
* “Like Harry, [Hermione] felt they deserved what they’d got.” Wait, what?! All they were doing was trying to save Hagrid’s sorry arse - who, incidentally, still hasn’t done anything to help them or even apologised. If anybody deserves punishment for what happened in the last chapter, it’s Hagrid.
* Not that this stops Hagrid from giving Malfoy a patronising mini-lecture about how “Yeh’ve done wrong an’ now yeh’ve got ter pay fer it.”
* So not only has Hagrid endangered the children by roping them into his little illegal dragon-breeding scheme, he’s now endangering them again during the detention WHICH THEY ONLY HAVE BECAUSE OF HIM. Gah, I’m starting to hate Hagrid so much here.
* WTF if up with Hagrid telling Malfoy that Fang’s “a coward”? Is he just trying to scare Malfoy? Or is he just displaying his usual gross negligence by giving Draco a guard which will run away at the first sign of danger?
* Apparently “It’s not easy ter catch a unicorn, they’re powerful magic creatures. I never knew one ter be hurt before.” Don’t worry, though, I’m sure it’s no match for three eleven-year-olds, a high-school dropout and a cowardly dog.
* Harry’s worried about something happening to Neville, because “It’s our fault he’s here in the first place.” Well, actually it’s Hagrid’s fault, not that anyone ever acknowledges this.
* Centaurs don’t care about anything closer than the Moon. Except for Harry Potter, because he’s Just That Awesome.
* Given their great speed, hard hooves and sharp horns, I don’t think unicorns can really be described as “defenceless”. Still, killing one will land you with “a half life, a cursed life,” apparently. Not that we’re ever told what exactly a half life looks like or how it differs from a regular, non-unicorn-killing, life.
* Luckily Harry meets up with Hagrid and Hermione. Draco, Neville and Fang are all still unaccounted for, but since they aren’t main characters there’s no need to worry about them.
* “It sounds like fortune-telling to me, and Professor McGonagall says that’s a very imprecise branch of magic.” Huh, so it turns out Hermione and McGonagall’s contempt for divination is foreshadowed as far back as PS.
* Dumbledore gives Harry back the invisibility cloak, because he took such good care of it last time.
* I’m not sure why Neville should be feeling hurt at Harry - even if he and Hermione did feed Malfoy the dragon story, they obviously didn’t intend for Neville to get involved.
* McGonagall’s explanation has got a bit of a gap in it - if the Gryffindors had just fed Malfoy a story about a dragon to trick him into wandering around at night, why would they need to get out of bed too?
* “I’ve never been more ashamed of Gryffindor students.” Crikey, Professor, calm down. Going around after curfew isn’t exactly the most heinous crime in the world.
* Also, for those of you who are keeping track, Harry, Neville and Hermione wandering about after hours > the Marauders publicly humiliating young Severus.
* “In one night, they’d ruined any chance Gryffindor had had for the House Cup.” Well, I’m sure his fellow housemates will be understanding. After all, it’s not like the House Cup actually does anything, right?
* Given Gryffindor’s house ethos, I’d have thought that they’d regularly blow their chances of winning the Cup by breaking rules, probably in some spectacular and dangerous fashion.
* “The rest of the team wouldn’t speak to Harry during practice, and if they had to speak about him, they called him ‘the Seeker’.” Wow, what a bunch of childish arseholes. Is there any doubt after this that Gryffindor is really the house of the petty and vindictive?
* It’s a pity that Hogwarts’ pastoral provision is such a joke, since otherwise one of the teachers might have realised that Harry, Hermione and Neville were being bullied and done something to stop it.
* Ah, the good old days when we could realistically believe that Harry might get thrown out for excessive rule-breaking.
* “Like Harry, [Hermione] felt they deserved what they’d got.” Wait, what?! All they were doing was trying to save Hagrid’s sorry arse - who, incidentally, still hasn’t done anything to help them or even apologised. If anybody deserves punishment for what happened in the last chapter, it’s Hagrid.
* Not that this stops Hagrid from giving Malfoy a patronising mini-lecture about how “Yeh’ve done wrong an’ now yeh’ve got ter pay fer it.”
* So not only has Hagrid endangered the children by roping them into his little illegal dragon-breeding scheme, he’s now endangering them again during the detention WHICH THEY ONLY HAVE BECAUSE OF HIM. Gah, I’m starting to hate Hagrid so much here.
* WTF if up with Hagrid telling Malfoy that Fang’s “a coward”? Is he just trying to scare Malfoy? Or is he just displaying his usual gross negligence by giving Draco a guard which will run away at the first sign of danger?
* Apparently “It’s not easy ter catch a unicorn, they’re powerful magic creatures. I never knew one ter be hurt before.” Don’t worry, though, I’m sure it’s no match for three eleven-year-olds, a high-school dropout and a cowardly dog.
* Harry’s worried about something happening to Neville, because “It’s our fault he’s here in the first place.” Well, actually it’s Hagrid’s fault, not that anyone ever acknowledges this.
* Centaurs don’t care about anything closer than the Moon. Except for Harry Potter, because he’s Just That Awesome.
* Given their great speed, hard hooves and sharp horns, I don’t think unicorns can really be described as “defenceless”. Still, killing one will land you with “a half life, a cursed life,” apparently. Not that we’re ever told what exactly a half life looks like or how it differs from a regular, non-unicorn-killing, life.
* Luckily Harry meets up with Hagrid and Hermione. Draco, Neville and Fang are all still unaccounted for, but since they aren’t main characters there’s no need to worry about them.
* “It sounds like fortune-telling to me, and Professor McGonagall says that’s a very imprecise branch of magic.” Huh, so it turns out Hermione and McGonagall’s contempt for divination is foreshadowed as far back as PS.
* Dumbledore gives Harry back the invisibility cloak, because he took such good care of it last time.