02 HP Prisoner of Azkaban
Ch2 Aunt Marge’s Big Mistake
>Get it? It’s because she is fat!
>Considering how high anti-intellectualism score was in CoS, Jo should get off her soapbox and stop preaching about evils of modern entertainment.
>” ‘… the public is warned that Black is armed and extremely dangerous. A special hotline has been set up, and any sighting of Black should be reported immediately.’” Oh, oh, oh! Proper use of Checkov’s Gun? I think I’m going to faint!
>For all attitude narrative gives us, Vernon is right. This type of announcement is supposed to both help police and warn the population. “This criminal can be somewhere in this country. Watch out.” only is going to numb population to potential danger.
>Whut? Harry has spent the last 5 weeks with his family, yet he learns only now that Marge is visiting? I suppose he was too busy daydreaming about Tom to notice Petunia preparing house for her sister-in-law visit.
>Woah Harry is so bratty here, I can see hints of OotP!Harry. It doesn’t matter that calling Marge “Aunt” is polite and simplifies things. Nope, Harry is resentful that Durslays force him to call her that because she isn’t blood relative.
>I kind of get a vibe that Jo is harping so much on Marge because she prefers to breed dogs instead of settling down.
>Oh my, Harry once again cannot understand that one-upping Birthday Boy/Gal on their birthday is a big social no-no.
>A dog breeder gives you dog biscuits as a gift. A normal person could possibly think that the dog breeder saw some kind of talent in them and is trying to encourage them into the career. Obviously, Harry has to take it as a bland insult against him.
>Harry, you managed to get one of the more gentle and child-friendly breeds of dogs to chase you up the tree by “accidentally trodden“ on his pawn? Somehow I doubt it.
>” ‘All right,’ said Harry bitterly, ‘if she does when she’s talking to me.’” Great, more of teenage backtalk and hubris. I’m starting to miss PS’ dumb Harry.
>Honestly, Harry has no grounds to make such demands. He is, in what he considers, an abusive household where adults already proved they will follow through if he steps over the line. Hormones or not, this is plain dumb. +1 To LOL
>Vernon’s demands are quite reasonable: behave properly, don’t do magic and if asked to keep up with the story we made up. That is less than an average teenager is asked during family meet-up. Sure to Harry the story Durslays made up is insulting, but considering the situation, it’s only one that would stop Marge from researching too much or asking too many questions. After all, it’s not like Harry planned to stay in the mundane world after he finished his education.
>” ‘Well,’ said Harry, choosing his words carefully, ‘it’ll be hard work, pretending to Aunt Marge I go to that St Whatsits …’ [..]‘Exactly,’ said Harry, looking calmly up into Uncle Vernon’s large, purple face. ‘It’s a lot to remember. I’ll have to make it sound convincing, won’t I? What if I accidentally let something slip?’” That is… incredibly manipulative for Harry. I’m almost impressed.
>I love how Harry assumes that Marge simply likes to complain. It’s not like she could simply be expressing her worries for Vernon’s charge.
>Ugh Harry’s POV of this scene makes me nauseous. Dursleys and Marge are horrible people so they obviously cannot have genuine affection for each other. Ugh
>Colonel Fubster/Marge=OTP?
>” ‘Don’t you smirk at me!’ boomed Aunt Marge. ‘I can see you haven’t improved since I last saw you. I hoped school would knock some manners into you.’ She took a large gulp of tea, wiped her moustache and said, ‘Where is it that you send him, again, Vernon?’” Yeah, Marge is aggressive in this scene, but at this point, she thinks Harry is a criminal. Her behaviour before that could have been quite different.
>I love Vernon in this scene, he is like those guys who hold signs so in-studio public will know how to react on trashy talk shows :D
>Huh, I’m bit confused. Harry and Durslays think that he is responsible for wine glass going kaboom, but Marge already admitted she once destroyed glass in such fashion. As far as I know, wizards have no way of telling if they performed accidental magic, so Harry’s immediate assumption that he is responsible for the destruction is a bit perplexing. +1 to LOL +1 to Uncovered
>So far we have two characters who drink on occasions and one who is a somewhat functional alcoholic. Take a guess which of them is evil and which can do no wrong to our protag.
>For all Harry’s whining about having to sit with his evil relatives, Vernon already has seen how not keeping an eye on his nephew can end.
>Doesn’t Marge’s rant seems kind of familiar? I just can’t quite remember where I have heard such ideas….Hmmm
>In all seriousness Harry is a dirty hypocrite. If Hagrid said such things while swapping Harry’s name with someone else’s, Harry wouldn’t think twice about it.
>You kind of have to wonder how many parents of muggleborns have struggle with both well-meaning and outright spiteful relatives advising them on their obviously under-performing kids.
>Well, James was unemployed. As far as I can tell he lived off his inherence and spent his days as knock-off Robin.
>” ‘Go on, boy, go on. Proud of your parents, are you? They go and get themselves killed in a car crash (drunk, I expect) -’” I don’t know if my version of ebook is some kind of Chinese knock off or something, but that usage of bracket pretty much shattered my in-zone mode and send me on research trip through the internet. I hope you are proud of yourself Jo.
>Harry took Hagrid’s lessons on Wizarding etiquette to his heart. Only since Marge doesn’t have any children he had to deal out the punishment onto her. +1 to Uncovered +1 to CC
>My memory might be rusty, but I seem to recall Harry using his wand to cast spell on Marge in PoA movie?
>Also apparently MoM doesn’t detect accidental magic shattering wine glass, but can detect House Elf levitating deserts or Harry accidentally turning Marge into balloon… I have so many questions. Many of them are about Tom’s pre-Hogwart’s shenanigans.
>Once again violence against non-magical people is treated like prime comedy.
>” ‘She deserved it,’ Harry said, breathing very fast. ‘She deserved what she got. You keep away from me.’” Yeah no. Marge made a lot of mean spirited comments, but that doesn’t mean she deserves to be turned into a living balloon. Even if you think she is full of herself. :P
>Hah, first hints of the series moving towards YA territory: Protagonist runs away from home and doesn’t make any kind of plans before running away.
Crime Count: 1
Death Count: 0
Freud Would Be Proud: 0
Leap of Logic: 2
Uncovered: 2
Spell Count: no intentional spell casting so 0