Spoilery Thoughts, Speculations and Notes on Names re: HBP
Okay. I finished HBP. Here are my thoughts, in no particular order.
1. Rowling killed Dumbledore off quite thoroughly, I thought. I mean, poison AND Avada Kedavra AND falling off the Astronomy Tower? I think that's a shoutout to everyone (like me) who bitched about how you couldn't even tell if Sirius was dead or not. You can tell with DD, all right. He's not only merely dead, he's really most sincerely dead.
2. I didn't care that Snape didn't know that telling Voldemort the prophecy would lead to the deaths of James and Lily. First of all, he hated James. Still does hate James. So I'm not seeing vast regret at James's death. Second...I doubt Snape thought Voldemort would go to either the Longbottoms or the Potters, congratulate them on the births of their healthy sons and remind them that kind hearts are more than coronets.
So Snape is still culpable for telling Voldemort something that would get people murdered, whether he knew who the targets would be or not.
3. Umbridge is still in the Ministry of Magic? After sending Dementors after Harry? After attempting to use an Unforgivable curse on a student? Wow. The Ministry of Magic really has no standards, does it?
4. Incidentally, Harry's cast and tried to cast Crucio a couple of times as well. Isn't just using it supposed to give you an automatic, all-expenses-paid vacation to Azkaban?
5. Luna was not the best Quidditch commentator in the books, but she was the one I enjoyed the most.
6. Ron's abrupt infatuation with Romilda Vane was an excellent parody of badfics in which the canon characters fall instantly in love with Sues.
7. I was perplexed that Tonks lost the ability to change form at the same time that her Patronus altered. Was it really Tonks? Was it someone else polyjuiced into her true form? Was she undercover, needing to convince someone that she was depressed, and therefore getting sloppy?
8. Oh, and the Remus/Tonks thing seemed extremely one-sided to me. I didn't sense reciprocation from Remus, just kindness toward Tonks.
9. Dumbledore didn't really share more information with Harry; once again, he just told Harry what he wanted Harry to know. He never did tell Harry how he destroyed the Horcrux that burned his hand, and given that Harry is going to have to destroy four of them, I think that the information might have been significant.
10. What happens if Hogwarts DOES close? Are all the kids going to transfer to Beauxbatons or Durmstrang?
11. I suspect that not only is Horace Slughorn Rowling's tribute to Roald Dahl's Otto Slugworth in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but that his first name is significant as well. It has a couple of interesting meanings: "light of the sun"--which is appropriate for a man who delights in being "in the sun" with the famous or well-connected--and "keeper of the hours."
Horace is from the Latin "Horatius." Hours in Latin is "Horae."
Horae.
Horcruxes.
And, of course, it is Horace Slughorn who tells us the most about them.
12. The brutal-faced Death Eater who reminded me a great deal of the Random Death Eaters was named Amycus. ETA: underlucius informs me that Amycus is "[a] lumpy-looking man with an odd lopsided leer [who] gave a wheezy giggle."
In any event, "amicus" is the Latin word for "friend," though in the scene Amycus is anything but friendly. Overly familiar and contemptuous, actually.
13. Amycus's sister is named Alecto. To quote from Encyclopedia Mythica:
Alecto was one of the Erinyes or Furies in Greek mythology. The Furies were three avenging deities. Their names were Tisiphone (the avenger of murder), Megaera (the jealous one), and Alecto (unceasing in anger).
The article goes on to say:
They were persecutors of men and women who committed parricide, killed a brother, or murdered a fellow clansman.
Alecto is angry with Draco, precisely because he HASN'T murdered a fellow wizard.
14. Cormac MacClaggan may not be a random character. Again, according to Encyclopedia Mythica:
Cormac owned the wonderful gold cup given to him by the sea-god Manannan Mac Lir in the Land of the Living. If three lies were spoken over it, it would break in three; three truths made it whole again. Cormac used this cup during his kingship to distinguish falsehood from truth. When Cormac died, the cup vanished, just as Manannan had predicted it would.
Now, we know that a gold cup belonging to Helga Hufflepuff may be of significance in book seven. Isn't it interesting that such a cup is connected to a mythical man named Cormac?
There are a couple of other clues that MacClaggan's name may not be random. The mythical Cormac "was famous for his wise, true, and generous judgments." The first time we see the HP version, he's being Confunded into misjudgment. And he never ceases to give Harry the benefit of what he considers to be true and accurate information about the team.
15. Merope Gaunt. Most people know by now that Merope is the dimmest star in the Pleiades because she married a mortal. Here's a bit more about her and her mortal husband, according to Encyclopedia Mythica:
"Merope was one of seven sisters: Alcyone, Electra, Celaeno, Maia, Sterope, Taygete and herself. [She] lived on Chios, and was often pursued by [the hunter] Orion. Merope did not love Orion and married a mortal, Sisyphus."
Sisyphus was no bargain. According to at least one version of the story, he raped Merope after she failed to reconcile her father, Atlas, to their marriage. Atlas then, allegedly, beat her to death.
In addition to this particular vileness, Sisyphus did other things to harm people--at least one of which resonates with Voldemort's later actions. Encyclopedia Mythica says:
According to tradition he was sly and evil and used to way-lay travelers and murder them. He betrayed the secrets of the gods and chained the god of death, Thanatos, so the deceased could not reach the underworld. Hades himself intervened and Sisyphus was severely punished.
The husband of the mythological Merope chained death, to prevent death from occurring...just as the son of the Potterverse Merope did.
16. I like Snape/Narcissa almost as much as I like Snape/Lucius.
17. I really, really want Peter to use that silver hand to kill Fenrir Greyback. Fenrir isn't just creepy; he's a walking metaphor for child molestation.
18. Fleur still has an annoying accent. But she has class. Loads of class.
19. I'm glad that of the one vampire we've seen, he was not strikingly attractive, treated the human who claimed to be his friend with contempt, and was far more interested in blood than in conversation or sex.
20. Not related to the book, but I just found this out tonight and it amuses me. Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister is named Pierre Pettigrew. (My first thought was, "Well, he had to do SOMETHING after the Second War with Voldemort was over.")
1. Rowling killed Dumbledore off quite thoroughly, I thought. I mean, poison AND Avada Kedavra AND falling off the Astronomy Tower? I think that's a shoutout to everyone (like me) who bitched about how you couldn't even tell if Sirius was dead or not. You can tell with DD, all right. He's not only merely dead, he's really most sincerely dead.
2. I didn't care that Snape didn't know that telling Voldemort the prophecy would lead to the deaths of James and Lily. First of all, he hated James. Still does hate James. So I'm not seeing vast regret at James's death. Second...I doubt Snape thought Voldemort would go to either the Longbottoms or the Potters, congratulate them on the births of their healthy sons and remind them that kind hearts are more than coronets.
So Snape is still culpable for telling Voldemort something that would get people murdered, whether he knew who the targets would be or not.
3. Umbridge is still in the Ministry of Magic? After sending Dementors after Harry? After attempting to use an Unforgivable curse on a student? Wow. The Ministry of Magic really has no standards, does it?
4. Incidentally, Harry's cast and tried to cast Crucio a couple of times as well. Isn't just using it supposed to give you an automatic, all-expenses-paid vacation to Azkaban?
5. Luna was not the best Quidditch commentator in the books, but she was the one I enjoyed the most.
6. Ron's abrupt infatuation with Romilda Vane was an excellent parody of badfics in which the canon characters fall instantly in love with Sues.
7. I was perplexed that Tonks lost the ability to change form at the same time that her Patronus altered. Was it really Tonks? Was it someone else polyjuiced into her true form? Was she undercover, needing to convince someone that she was depressed, and therefore getting sloppy?
8. Oh, and the Remus/Tonks thing seemed extremely one-sided to me. I didn't sense reciprocation from Remus, just kindness toward Tonks.
9. Dumbledore didn't really share more information with Harry; once again, he just told Harry what he wanted Harry to know. He never did tell Harry how he destroyed the Horcrux that burned his hand, and given that Harry is going to have to destroy four of them, I think that the information might have been significant.
10. What happens if Hogwarts DOES close? Are all the kids going to transfer to Beauxbatons or Durmstrang?
11. I suspect that not only is Horace Slughorn Rowling's tribute to Roald Dahl's Otto Slugworth in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but that his first name is significant as well. It has a couple of interesting meanings: "light of the sun"--which is appropriate for a man who delights in being "in the sun" with the famous or well-connected--and "keeper of the hours."
Horace is from the Latin "Horatius." Hours in Latin is "Horae."
Horae.
Horcruxes.
And, of course, it is Horace Slughorn who tells us the most about them.
12. The brutal-faced Death Eater who reminded me a great deal of the Random Death Eaters was named Amycus. ETA: underlucius informs me that Amycus is "[a] lumpy-looking man with an odd lopsided leer [who] gave a wheezy giggle."
In any event, "amicus" is the Latin word for "friend," though in the scene Amycus is anything but friendly. Overly familiar and contemptuous, actually.
13. Amycus's sister is named Alecto. To quote from Encyclopedia Mythica:
Alecto was one of the Erinyes or Furies in Greek mythology. The Furies were three avenging deities. Their names were Tisiphone (the avenger of murder), Megaera (the jealous one), and Alecto (unceasing in anger).
The article goes on to say:
They were persecutors of men and women who committed parricide, killed a brother, or murdered a fellow clansman.
Alecto is angry with Draco, precisely because he HASN'T murdered a fellow wizard.
14. Cormac MacClaggan may not be a random character. Again, according to Encyclopedia Mythica:
Cormac owned the wonderful gold cup given to him by the sea-god Manannan Mac Lir in the Land of the Living. If three lies were spoken over it, it would break in three; three truths made it whole again. Cormac used this cup during his kingship to distinguish falsehood from truth. When Cormac died, the cup vanished, just as Manannan had predicted it would.
Now, we know that a gold cup belonging to Helga Hufflepuff may be of significance in book seven. Isn't it interesting that such a cup is connected to a mythical man named Cormac?
There are a couple of other clues that MacClaggan's name may not be random. The mythical Cormac "was famous for his wise, true, and generous judgments." The first time we see the HP version, he's being Confunded into misjudgment. And he never ceases to give Harry the benefit of what he considers to be true and accurate information about the team.
15. Merope Gaunt. Most people know by now that Merope is the dimmest star in the Pleiades because she married a mortal. Here's a bit more about her and her mortal husband, according to Encyclopedia Mythica:
"Merope was one of seven sisters: Alcyone, Electra, Celaeno, Maia, Sterope, Taygete and herself. [She] lived on Chios, and was often pursued by [the hunter] Orion. Merope did not love Orion and married a mortal, Sisyphus."
Sisyphus was no bargain. According to at least one version of the story, he raped Merope after she failed to reconcile her father, Atlas, to their marriage. Atlas then, allegedly, beat her to death.
In addition to this particular vileness, Sisyphus did other things to harm people--at least one of which resonates with Voldemort's later actions. Encyclopedia Mythica says:
According to tradition he was sly and evil and used to way-lay travelers and murder them. He betrayed the secrets of the gods and chained the god of death, Thanatos, so the deceased could not reach the underworld. Hades himself intervened and Sisyphus was severely punished.
The husband of the mythological Merope chained death, to prevent death from occurring...just as the son of the Potterverse Merope did.
16. I like Snape/Narcissa almost as much as I like Snape/Lucius.
17. I really, really want Peter to use that silver hand to kill Fenrir Greyback. Fenrir isn't just creepy; he's a walking metaphor for child molestation.
18. Fleur still has an annoying accent. But she has class. Loads of class.
19. I'm glad that of the one vampire we've seen, he was not strikingly attractive, treated the human who claimed to be his friend with contempt, and was far more interested in blood than in conversation or sex.
20. Not related to the book, but I just found this out tonight and it amuses me. Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister is named Pierre Pettigrew. (My first thought was, "Well, he had to do SOMETHING after the Second War with Voldemort was over.")