S.P.E.W. and the treatment of house-elves in the wizarding community.
i flip flop back and forth on whether or not house-elves are born with the desire to serve or whether or not it's brainwashed. but i think that should be irrelevant to how they are treated in the wizarding community, which canonically is basically as a second class citizen unworthy of basic respect and empathy. it's very interesting to note how awful the wizarding community treats every other magical creature, even ones that are able to do their own specific type of magic (elves, goblins, etc).
i always felt that they were brainwashed, mostly because of the way they live. the books never discuss house-elf communities or anything and you hardly ever see they interacting with one another (except for those that work at hogwarts). so for the most part they are isolated from others of their kind and really only now the wizard families or individuals they work for and adopt their views as a result. i think if they had opportunity to be around other house-elves, they would be more likely to have progressive ideas like dobby and a few other rare house-elves had.
and lol at me just calling dobby a progressive house-elf. so sirius.
“Must be nice,” Ron said abruptly, when they had sat down and started serving themselves roast beef and Yorkshire puddings. “To have so much money you don’t notice if a pocketful of Galleons goes missing.”
this is one of my favorite minor moments between harry and ron. it's always fun to see how harry and ron's financial situations affects their friendship and personalities. ron is from a poor family and has had to use secondhand clothes, textbooks, school objects, etc. for basically the entirety of his school career. meanwhile, harry has also dealt with the grief of having to wear second hand clothes (and using secondhand objects pre-hogwarts) but also never has to worry about money as soon as he goes to hogwarts. they're not extremely different, but i think ron's envy over harry's wealth is one of his major jealousies because of his insecurities over his family's lack of it, and it's always interesting to see when it slips out as i don't think he lets that particular one slip out all that often.
This is really Ron's book of angst. Book 5 is Harry's and I guess one could see book 6 as Hermione's considering all the things that go down with her and Ron.
Anyway...IA with you. Ron could be a lot more resentful to Harry all things considered, but for a 14/15 year old boy who is never seen as a standout from his siblings or best friends, I think he handles it pretty well, and he's there for Harry when it counts.
I liked that quote too and it sounded like something someone in Ron's position would say. I didn't feel quite the same about the follow-up 'I hate being poor' or whatever it was. There's a huge difference between things being tight and being poor. At least, I'd assume it would be very difficult for a teenage boy to admit something like that. He has his pride after all.
"Hate mail continued to arrive for Hermione over the following week, and although she followed Hagrid’s advice and stopped opening it, several of her ill-wishers sent Howlers, which exploded at the Gryffindor table and shrieked insults at her for the whole Hall to hear. Even those people who didn’t read Witch Weekly knew all about the supposed Harry-Krum-Hermione triangle now. Harry was getting sick of telling people that Hermione wasn’t his girlfriend."
i was really aggravated at all the hate mail that hermione was getting as a result of rita skeeter's article. it was ridiculous that people were so quick to believe what rita wrote about her, especially the people in the school that knew what harry & hermione's dynamic was. i always wondered why there wasn't some magical way to screen mail. they are wizards after all.
We're supposed to be all media-savvy, but when it comes to celebs there are still a lot of idiots. We've all seen what some people write/post/do when a pic shows up of their fave and there's some girl next to them. And wizards aren't that clever when it comes to media, they seem pretty trusting of anything that reeks of authority.
It's still terrible, but it's realistic. Which is worse, I guess.
i agree. i definitely think it is accurate considering our celebrity culture. it's just upsetting that people, even in real life, choose to forget what they know about someone or something, just because some gossip is more interesting.
i actually think it'd be more understandable from people at hogwarts who never really interacted with the trio but saw them a lot? but people like the draco and pansy, u know they knew it wasn't true, they were just adding fuel to the fire bc they knew it would be annoy the trio.
i always found the fact that random strangers would send her hatemail and then even a cursed letter to be creepy, tho. like, dang, really? she's a 14-year-old girl, not the devil incarnate.
in regards to the jail/justice system, the wizarding world just seems so backwards with a lot of things. they do not need to rely on a lot of things that the muggle world took years to develop and that were constantly evolving and getting better (electricity for instance). and so it seems that they are stagnant and not able to adapt on many fronts, including their justice system. i definitely think they should have taken a hard look at their justice system because i agree, someone's word should be considered, but not a deciding factor in whether a person is sentenced or not.
Definitely. For example, the whole parchment/quill/ink thing makes no sense. I get that magic screws up electricity, but pen and paper should still work. So should basic typewriters for that matter. That's a small detail, but it's so telling of their mentality.
There aren't any details about how the Ministry works, if there are elections, but it doesn't seem likely. And a lot of positions are inherited and a lot of institutions are funded by donations and it invites corruption and incompetence.
I'm really kind of appalled at their justice system and Dumbledore's influence. People got out or stayed in prison pretty much on one person's word vs another. Snape at the very least should have gotten a trial and Dumbledore's word alone really shouldn't be enough. IA. i think it was mentioned in padfoot returns that crouch sent sirius to azkaban without trial and that's just fucked up. like, i get it was a time with a lot of hysteria and you couldn't trust anybody, but the right to a trial is...just that, a right
( ... )
"Harry - what do you think you are playing at, walking off into the forest with Viktor Krum? I want you to swear, by return owl, that you are not going to go walking with anyone else at night. There is somebody highly dangerous at Hogwarts. It is clear to me that they wanted to stop Crouch from seeing Dumbledore and you were probably feet away from them in the dark. You could have been killed.Your name didn't get into the Goblet of Fire by accident. If someone's trying to attack you, they're on their last chance. Stay close to Ron and Hermione, do not leave Gryffindor Tower after hours, and arm yourself for the third task. Practice Stunning and Disarming. A few hexes wouldn't go amiss either. There's nothing you can do about Crouch. Keep your head down and look after yourself. I'm waiting for your letter giving me your word you won't stray out-of-bounds again
( ... )
lmao ia with your last sentence. that's why i love the added bit immediately after where harry says he feels mildly indignant that sirius of all people was telling him that.
I feel like people always forget about this Sirius by the time they get to OotP. The one that ate rats, and lived in a cave to be close to Harry, and who did give sensible advice. It's only when he's locked up and succumbing to depression does he regress and give Harry shitty advice.
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i flip flop back and forth on whether or not house-elves are born with the desire to serve or whether or not it's brainwashed. but i think that should be irrelevant to how they are treated in the wizarding community, which canonically is basically as a second class citizen unworthy of basic respect and empathy. it's very interesting to note how awful the wizarding community treats every other magical creature, even ones that are able to do their own specific type of magic (elves, goblins, etc).
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and lol at me just calling dobby a progressive house-elf. so sirius.
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this is one of my favorite minor moments between harry and ron. it's always fun to see how harry and ron's financial situations affects their friendship and personalities. ron is from a poor family and has had to use secondhand clothes, textbooks, school objects, etc. for basically the entirety of his school career. meanwhile, harry has also dealt with the grief of having to wear second hand clothes (and using secondhand objects pre-hogwarts) but also never has to worry about money as soon as he goes to hogwarts. they're not extremely different, but i think ron's envy over harry's wealth is one of his major jealousies because of his insecurities over his family's lack of it, and it's always interesting to see when it slips out as i don't think he lets that particular one slip out all that often.
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Anyway...IA with you. Ron could be a lot more resentful to Harry all things considered, but for a 14/15 year old boy who is never seen as a standout from his siblings or best friends, I think he handles it pretty well, and he's there for Harry when it counts.
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i was really aggravated at all the hate mail that hermione was getting as a result of rita skeeter's article. it was ridiculous that people were so quick to believe what rita wrote about her, especially the people in the school that knew what harry & hermione's dynamic was. i always wondered why there wasn't some magical way to screen mail. they are wizards after all.
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It's still terrible, but it's realistic. Which is worse, I guess.
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i always found the fact that random strangers would send her hatemail and then even a cursed letter to be creepy, tho. like, dang, really? she's a 14-year-old girl, not the devil incarnate.
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There aren't any details about how the Ministry works, if there are elections, but it doesn't seem likely. And a lot of positions are inherited and a lot of institutions are funded by donations and it invites corruption and incompetence.
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