16 HP Chamber of Secrets
There is chance I won't be able to post this entry tomorrow so you guys get it a day early. Enjoy! :)
Ch16 The Chamber of Secrets
>Kids being bewildered by upcoming exams reminds me the infamous patch note for the Sims 3 stating that in case of meteor strike kids cannot leave school and are going to die.
>IMHO the school shouldn’t stay open. This whole situation is like something straight out of Battle Royale or Danganronpa, only in this case staff and students can leave at any moment...
>Of course it was Dumbledor’s idea... +1 to CC +1 to LOL
>Poor Ron, his teachers and parents are setting him up for failure =(
>I'm not sure if it says more about characters or the author that non of students who are close to the victims asked if teachers are close to curing them
>Also McGonagall is either insane or used to be the most incompetent law enforcer in history of law enforcing. She doesn’t seem to be setting some kind of trap, yet she informs whole student body that soon, potential witnesses will be cured... +2 to LOL
>Ginny: I’ve got to tell you something.
Harry: What is it?
Ginny: I saw you guys going to Forbidden Forest, but don’t worry I won’t tell anyone!
>Percy: Well, er, if you must know, Ginny, er, walked in on me the other day when I was - well, never mind -
Harry: Don’t worry! There is nothing shameful in polishing your own wand!
Percy: Ahhh....yes, I just remembered something. I-I should go! +1 to FWBP
>So, Harry lies through his teeth about not sneaking around and instead wanting to visit Hermione. I must admit that it was remarkably manipulative of Harry. Especially since he doesn't seem to understand why it worked in the first place.
>Considering that at this point boys didn't see their friend for a month, you would expect more enthusiasm from them.
>Woah, Pomfrey's bedside manners are horrible. Sure Hermione might not hear her friends, but it could comfort them. If, you know, they cared, that is.
>”It lay clenched on top of her blankets, and bending closer, he saw that a piece of paper was scrunched inside her fist.” And then boys discovered what Hermione was protecting this whole time in her hand: an Autograph of Lockhart!
Harry: I knew it! Lockhart is responsible for the attacks!
Ron: Let's burn him like Quirrell!
Harry: Let’s stake him first just to be sure he isn't vampire!
>Food for the thought: Hermione not only destroyed school’s property (+1 to CC), but also probably unintentionally halted someone else’s investigation. Good Job!
>I want to point something out: wizards have to have some way of controlling Basilisks. Basilisks aren’t naturally occurring creatures, yet they are important enough to warrant entry in the book Hermione destroyed. The entry consists all most important information about its creation and habits. And yet while Salazar was famous for his paraseltongue ability nobody suspected “Slytherin’s Monster” to be Basilisk. This means that paraseltongue is not default way of handling those creatures.
>It would be more interesting, if Nick did die again and kids had to figure out why Justin isn't dead.
>Heh, at no point of this conversation, boys realize in how much danger they put themselves by plotting and brewing their illegal potion at entrance to monsters' lair. Ah to be young and that blind...
>”‘What’re we going to do?’ said Ron, whose eyes were flashing. ‘Shall we go straight to McGonagall?’
‘Let’s go to the staff room,’ said Harry, jumping up. ‘She’ll be there in ten minutes, it’s nearly break.’” That is... actually pretty mature and responsible thing to do. Especially coming from these two. Which makes following scene even more bizarre.
>”‘No,’ said Harry, glancing around. There was an ugly sort of wardrobe to his left, full of the teachers’ cloaks. ‘In here. Let’s hear what it’s all about. Then we can tell them what we’ve found out.’” *snort* that is the second time in this book when Harry decides to hide in wardrobe. This time he even took his best friend with him! +1 to FWBP
>Ah yes McGonagall once again shows us how to not handle heavy calibre of crisis situation. You don’t wait until morning next day to evacuate! You drag all students out of the building and send in professionals to deal with this kind of shit. +1 to LOL, +1 to CC
>”But it was Lockhart, and he was beaming” Another Red Herring from Jo. No seriously, now I want to read an ff where Lokhart was only pretending to be this oddly incompetent celebrity and in reality was responsible for the attacks. Why would he attack muggleborn students? Well to create situations where he could do some easy heroing!
>I like to imagine that staff was egging on Lockhart to not only kick him out of the meeting room, but also so by feeding him to the Slytherin's monster they would have more time to deal with this situation. It fits well in HPverse
>The meeting ended and our hero doesn’t try to stop his Head of House and inform her that he does know how to get to the Basilisk. Granted he might be in shock, but to him Ginny is this random girl who happens to be Ron's younger sister. Heck I don't even think they talked directly to each other in this book! +1 to LOL
>Ron: It wasn’t some stupid thing about Percy at all. She-
Harry: You mean she didn't want to talk about Percy's polishing technique?
Ron: *chocks* Get your mind out of gutter!
Harry: What are you talking about? +1 to FWBP
>Good to know that even Ron buys into whole "only targeting muggleborns". If I didn't know who HoS is I would be suspecting that he simply targeted convenient victims. Ginny might be pureblood, but she comes from poor family that has many children. If HoS wanted to do something bolder than before, but still not too risky Ginny could be on his list of potential victims.
>Wait what? Lockhart? The guy who you consider an idiot? The guy you think is either fraud or incompetent? The same guy who turned your BBF's arm into pool noodle? That is guy you want to inform about your findings?
How about Sev or Minnie? Both are more competent and more believable that you would choose (if only to get rid of Sev)+1 to LOL
>I'm surprised that MasterAuror!Minnie didn't just seal the kids up in the tower so they won't go on suicidal missions like this one.
>Where the hell this comes from? Up until this chapter boys treated Lockhart like known fraud. Now they cannot believe he is running away after what he wrote in books. Jo, your editor called and asked me to tell you that he doesn't appreciate you missing your appointments! +1 to LOL
>”‘Do use your common sense. My books wouldn’t have sold half as well if people didn’t think I’d done all those things.” Heh, if Lockhart stopped at this point he could claim that he is fantasy author and had to claim he did all those things because otherwise WW wouldn't buy his books.
>The only reasonable explanation for why Lockhart admits anything is the curse. Heck, he could just lie that MOM asked the school to evacuate everybody so they can enter and search the castle.
>”‘So you’ve just been taking credit for what a load of other people have done?’ said Harry incredulously.” Oh my Harry, you should be quite familiar with this concept! After all it was you who claimed in PS that if you survived Voldie once you might be lucky the second time, as if the survival was your doing in the first place.
>Wait, so information in these books should be reliable, because he gained it from his victims. That means that the werewolf cure should work... WTF Jo??? Could you please at least try to keep consistency within a book? +1 to LOL
>Why the hell are you announcing you are going to wipe their admittedly empty brains? How the hell did this man managed to con his previous victims? Did it go something like this:
Lockhart: I'm truly sorry, you cannot even imagine how much this is going to hurt me, but it is sacrifice I'm willing to make
Victim: It's ok, go ahead Mr. Shiny teeth. +1 to LOL
>Guys you know you could just drag him to Minnie and this way both mobilise teachers and make sure Lockhart pays for what he did to his victims. Heck I bet you could even upgrade his sentence by telling them that he tried to wipe your memories... +2 to CC
>Now million dollar question: when plumbing was introduced to Hogwarts? Either the castle went through major renovations where whole walls were stripped so giant pipes could be put into them (and thus potentially exposing location of CoS) or somehow wizards started using pipes way before muggles. There is one problem with the second option: until 18th century wizarding population was openly living alongside muggle one.
>Now I have to wonder just how much Hogwarts' layout changed after introduction of pipes that were big enough for Basilisk to use. And how the hell the Heir managed to justify using such big pipes? Was he a headmaster? So many questions so little answers.
>Whoever is responsible for creating the entrance to CoS should be fired. That is not very discreet... +1 to Uncovered
>You would think that with Diary!Horcrux sliding down this pipe so often, it wouldn't be so slimy anymore. Also kids didn’t even wait to confirm that Lockhart survived the slide... +1 to LOL
>+1 to SC for Harry
>Jo must think very little of builders of Hogwarts. It's the second time she claims that walls deep under school are wet or even water is dripping down them. This would suggest that the castle is slowly flooded by the lake and at some point in future it will become even bigger safety hazard.
>Wait a moment.... Jo, when snake molts it doesn't tear off his whole skin, just gets rid of top layer of it! It's colourless! +1 to LOL
>So the Basilisk is 6 m long at least? Hmm not as big as the movie makes it look like...
>That is not how explosions work! If the explosion was bad enough to damage the tunnel then shockwave should knock boys down, if not away. For that matter Lockhart should have lost his arm and quite possibly hearing. +1 to LOL
>Darn, usually I don't like movie adaptations, but CoS movie did good job with aesthetics in this part of the book. Or at very least better job than Jo.
>”The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight, and Harry, shaking from head to foot, walked inside.” And then he was promptly eaten by Basilisk. The END +1 to DC
Crime Count: 5
Death Count: 1
Freud Would Be Proud: 3
Leap of Logic: 12
Uncovered: 1
Spell Count: Harry: 1