Chapter 14: Gryffindor vs. Slytherin
Chapter 14: Gryffindor vs. Slytherin
1. I believe, without checking my copy of OotP, that the first and only Quidditch match Harry played in his fifth year, as written by JKR, was also against Slytherin. That didn't end very well, of course, since Harry was banned for "life" from playing Quidditch after that. (Ha! As if. :D)
2. My recollection is that JKR has only mentioned what some of the conditions of the Animagus transfiguration are outside of the books, so IMO, there's nothing in the books to contradict my version here. :)
3. Harry suddenly seemed to be talking Quidditch morning, noon and night, driving the other seven players crazy and making even Quidditch-crazy Ron want to stick Harry's Firebolt in his mouth (or somewhere else, he had threatened more than once).
The legacy of Oliver Wood lives on...
4. She'd basically been saying that her feelings for Draco Malfoy wouldn’t stop her from doing her duty as a Seeker any more than her feelings for Harry had....Her feelings for Harry. The question was, were those feelings past tense? Harry wondered.
La la la la la....
5. As much as Hermione said she was out of control around him, Harry knew that when necessary, he was able to control himself with her. He had heeded Sandy twice now when she had warned them of an impending interruption. He could control his urges; Ron would quite rightly feel that he had no excuse, should anything further happen between him and Hermione.
Harry's conscience is pricking him...
6. Dumbledore smiled, shaking his head. "Whose idea do you think it was to bring the golden griffin here? I thought it might give you an idea."
So I have manipulative Dumbledore--but not quite in the way some people accuse him of being manipulative. And it's nothing compared to his character in the alternate reality in the sequel.
7. He was planning to make Eutharsos Potion. It was at least three-thousand years old and gave a person courage by making them feel safe whether they were or not. He had heard Angelina and George talking about it; they were going to be partners when George attempted to harness the Sun Bulls.
I couldn't resist bringing some classical mythology into my version of the NEWTs. Nothing like a little something from the Argonatica, yes? This chapter also gave me an opportunity to refresh my memory on Ancient Greek, which I took as a classics major.
8. He was supposed to boil the roots of Eupatorium fistulosum to make the potion.
I also found a book called Gardener's Latin to be very useful while writing this chapter.
9. He felt the same as he did the first time he’d gotten his glasses when he was seven. He’d been having trouble seeing the blackboard at school, and the school nurse tested his eyesight and told the Dursleys that he would need glasses. The first time he’d put them on, he was amazed; the world looked so crisp and clear! The leaves on trees had distinct, individual outlines; they were no longer a mass of green and yellow.
So very many people I know have had this same sort of experience upon wearing glasses for the first time I decided that Harry would also.
10. "Your mother," he said so softly that Harry had to strain to hear him, "was quite simply the most brilliant potions student that Hogwarts has ever seen."
I really didn't expect JKR put this sort of thing in the canon books, but you can bet I was doing a little dance when Slughorn essentially told Harry the same thing in the sixth book!
11. "Don't do that again!" Ron and Sandy said simultaneously, Ron in English, Sandy in Parseltongue. Hearing their exclamations overlapping but with the same meaning, Harry collapsed in laughter again, pounding Ron's mattress and leaning on one of the posts at the foot of the bed for support. He looked up at Ron, who glowered at him. He wondered if he'd done that because he was still feeling the effects of the Eutharsos Potion.
It strikes me now that there are similarities in the way someone behaves on Eutharsos Potion and on Felix Felices... which is yet another reason why I think there may actually be more similarities between this fic and HBP than OotP.
12. Ginny had named her fluffy black kitten MacKenzie, because Parvati and Lavender discussing MacBeth had made her want to read it, and then she came to the conclusion that of course a witch should have a black cat with a Scottish name, and MacKenzie was the Scottish name she liked best.
This is pretty close to why I named my own cat MacKenzie 27 years ago: black cat=witch's cat, witches->MacBeth, MacBeth->Scotland and Scottish names.
13. Alicia and Angelina shared the seventh-year girls' dorm with two other girls, but Katie wasn’t one of them as she was a sixth-year.
I didn't know this for certain when I wrote the fic, but I was also pleased to learn that Katie was one year behind Alicia and Angelina in canon. (Honestly, getting a lot of this right was sheer good luck!)
14. "I know that Rule #5 of Quidditch is that there are no substitutions during the game; if a player is injured, he leaves the game and that team plays with one less player, correct?" The other team members nodded in agreement. "But can you switch which players are playing which positions part of the way through the game?" He looked at them all. Angelina and Alicia looked at each other; so did Ron and Fred, Ginny and George.
"There's no rule against it," said George. "What did you have in mind?"
It's true that this is what the rules say in Quidditch Through the Ages. If JKR meant to prevent switching people around in different positions, she didn't write the rules that way. :)
15. He noticed that they’d added some girls to replace players who had graduated...
:headdesk: Yes, I know you don't "graduate" except at the university level in the UK (well, I know now). This is still standing in chapter 14, which seems silly to edit now, but in the sequels and prequel I'm fairly certain I don't make that mistake.
16. Crabbe and Goyle were Beaters.
Okay, it was technically also an accident (or serendipity) that I called this, but COME ON, if Crabbe and Goyle were going to be in any sort of position on the Slytherin team, was it going to be anything other than Beaters for them?
17. They stood for what seemed a very long moment, eyes locked, emerald green and storm grey.
Yeah, yeah, I see the slashiness now. And I wasn't even trying here. (As opposed to later, when I was just being a big tease about these two. Hee!)
18. He itched to get it, but he knew he dared not; that would be a foul called a Snitchnip. Only the Seeker was allowed to touch the Snitch.
More foreshadowing for the sequel! (In addition to Harry's position as Keeper being foreshadowing for that.)
19. He grinned at her and threw his arms around her, then kissed her soundly on the mouth, quickly, before he lost his nerve.
Now, I confess that it had occurred to me that a Quidditch victory celebration would be a very opportune moment for a Harry/Ginny kiss, but I never expected JKR to agree!
20. Harry turned and found himself face to face with Hermione. She was livid. She brought her foot down on his left foot quite hard and turned on her heel, pushing people out of her way. Harry yelled and started to hop on one foot, his eyes squeezed shut in pain.
In retrospect, I liked JKR's canaries that Hermione sent after Ron better than the foot-stomping. Hermione really would have thought of a good magical comeback, wouldn't she?
1. I believe, without checking my copy of OotP, that the first and only Quidditch match Harry played in his fifth year, as written by JKR, was also against Slytherin. That didn't end very well, of course, since Harry was banned for "life" from playing Quidditch after that. (Ha! As if. :D)
2. My recollection is that JKR has only mentioned what some of the conditions of the Animagus transfiguration are outside of the books, so IMO, there's nothing in the books to contradict my version here. :)
3. Harry suddenly seemed to be talking Quidditch morning, noon and night, driving the other seven players crazy and making even Quidditch-crazy Ron want to stick Harry's Firebolt in his mouth (or somewhere else, he had threatened more than once).
The legacy of Oliver Wood lives on...
4. She'd basically been saying that her feelings for Draco Malfoy wouldn’t stop her from doing her duty as a Seeker any more than her feelings for Harry had....Her feelings for Harry. The question was, were those feelings past tense? Harry wondered.
La la la la la....
5. As much as Hermione said she was out of control around him, Harry knew that when necessary, he was able to control himself with her. He had heeded Sandy twice now when she had warned them of an impending interruption. He could control his urges; Ron would quite rightly feel that he had no excuse, should anything further happen between him and Hermione.
Harry's conscience is pricking him...
6. Dumbledore smiled, shaking his head. "Whose idea do you think it was to bring the golden griffin here? I thought it might give you an idea."
So I have manipulative Dumbledore--but not quite in the way some people accuse him of being manipulative. And it's nothing compared to his character in the alternate reality in the sequel.
7. He was planning to make Eutharsos Potion. It was at least three-thousand years old and gave a person courage by making them feel safe whether they were or not. He had heard Angelina and George talking about it; they were going to be partners when George attempted to harness the Sun Bulls.
I couldn't resist bringing some classical mythology into my version of the NEWTs. Nothing like a little something from the Argonatica, yes? This chapter also gave me an opportunity to refresh my memory on Ancient Greek, which I took as a classics major.
8. He was supposed to boil the roots of Eupatorium fistulosum to make the potion.
I also found a book called Gardener's Latin to be very useful while writing this chapter.
9. He felt the same as he did the first time he’d gotten his glasses when he was seven. He’d been having trouble seeing the blackboard at school, and the school nurse tested his eyesight and told the Dursleys that he would need glasses. The first time he’d put them on, he was amazed; the world looked so crisp and clear! The leaves on trees had distinct, individual outlines; they were no longer a mass of green and yellow.
So very many people I know have had this same sort of experience upon wearing glasses for the first time I decided that Harry would also.
10. "Your mother," he said so softly that Harry had to strain to hear him, "was quite simply the most brilliant potions student that Hogwarts has ever seen."
I really didn't expect JKR put this sort of thing in the canon books, but you can bet I was doing a little dance when Slughorn essentially told Harry the same thing in the sixth book!
11. "Don't do that again!" Ron and Sandy said simultaneously, Ron in English, Sandy in Parseltongue. Hearing their exclamations overlapping but with the same meaning, Harry collapsed in laughter again, pounding Ron's mattress and leaning on one of the posts at the foot of the bed for support. He looked up at Ron, who glowered at him. He wondered if he'd done that because he was still feeling the effects of the Eutharsos Potion.
It strikes me now that there are similarities in the way someone behaves on Eutharsos Potion and on Felix Felices... which is yet another reason why I think there may actually be more similarities between this fic and HBP than OotP.
12. Ginny had named her fluffy black kitten MacKenzie, because Parvati and Lavender discussing MacBeth had made her want to read it, and then she came to the conclusion that of course a witch should have a black cat with a Scottish name, and MacKenzie was the Scottish name she liked best.
This is pretty close to why I named my own cat MacKenzie 27 years ago: black cat=witch's cat, witches->MacBeth, MacBeth->Scotland and Scottish names.
13. Alicia and Angelina shared the seventh-year girls' dorm with two other girls, but Katie wasn’t one of them as she was a sixth-year.
I didn't know this for certain when I wrote the fic, but I was also pleased to learn that Katie was one year behind Alicia and Angelina in canon. (Honestly, getting a lot of this right was sheer good luck!)
14. "I know that Rule #5 of Quidditch is that there are no substitutions during the game; if a player is injured, he leaves the game and that team plays with one less player, correct?" The other team members nodded in agreement. "But can you switch which players are playing which positions part of the way through the game?" He looked at them all. Angelina and Alicia looked at each other; so did Ron and Fred, Ginny and George.
"There's no rule against it," said George. "What did you have in mind?"
It's true that this is what the rules say in Quidditch Through the Ages. If JKR meant to prevent switching people around in different positions, she didn't write the rules that way. :)
15. He noticed that they’d added some girls to replace players who had graduated...
:headdesk: Yes, I know you don't "graduate" except at the university level in the UK (well, I know now). This is still standing in chapter 14, which seems silly to edit now, but in the sequels and prequel I'm fairly certain I don't make that mistake.
16. Crabbe and Goyle were Beaters.
Okay, it was technically also an accident (or serendipity) that I called this, but COME ON, if Crabbe and Goyle were going to be in any sort of position on the Slytherin team, was it going to be anything other than Beaters for them?
17. They stood for what seemed a very long moment, eyes locked, emerald green and storm grey.
Yeah, yeah, I see the slashiness now. And I wasn't even trying here. (As opposed to later, when I was just being a big tease about these two. Hee!)
18. He itched to get it, but he knew he dared not; that would be a foul called a Snitchnip. Only the Seeker was allowed to touch the Snitch.
More foreshadowing for the sequel! (In addition to Harry's position as Keeper being foreshadowing for that.)
19. He grinned at her and threw his arms around her, then kissed her soundly on the mouth, quickly, before he lost his nerve.
Now, I confess that it had occurred to me that a Quidditch victory celebration would be a very opportune moment for a Harry/Ginny kiss, but I never expected JKR to agree!
20. Harry turned and found himself face to face with Hermione. She was livid. She brought her foot down on his left foot quite hard and turned on her heel, pushing people out of her way. Harry yelled and started to hop on one foot, his eyes squeezed shut in pain.
In retrospect, I liked JKR's canaries that Hermione sent after Ron better than the foot-stomping. Hermione really would have thought of a good magical comeback, wouldn't she?