The Woes of Mrs. Weasley
The chapters start getting long here.
I keep meaning to do Lexicon style headings: In which Harry is an asshat, Molly cries and Remus is saintly.
( Read more... )
I keep meaning to do Lexicon style headings: In which Harry is an asshat, Molly cries and Remus is saintly.
( Read more... )
That's how we know he was a good guy, because he never actually rose through the ranks or anything, he just goofed around and was made Super Cool Head of Everything in 7th year because he'd probably achieved the development Dumbledore was waiting for. Honestly, wouldn't you be pissed off if you had been a Prefect at Hogwarts in those days?
God, yes. I would laugh my ass off if he was awarded it for the exact same reason the Gryffindors got the House Cup in PS - a heroic act having nothing to do with school whatsoever (in this case, saving Snape's life.)
And yes, Dumbledore seems to do things specifically with an extremely small amount of people's (those who are personally useful to him) 'best interests' at heart - Ron gets prefect because it was his dearest wish to have individual recognition apart from his friend and brothers (and because Harry had higher things on his mind, of course!) but what if Dean Thomas wants some recognition? Ah well, he hasn't shown Dumbledore much loyalty yet, so fuck him!
Likewise, Sirius gets forgiven all his mistakes by Dumbledore, who presumably knows his family background and how 'he'd achieved the development Dumbledore had been waiting for' by rejecting their beliefs; whereas Lucius, Rookwood, Snape, Avery etc. go running into Deatheaterhood (which certainly isn't Dumbledore's responsibility, but if he treated that generation similiarly to how he treats the current one, he deserves a large portion of blame.)
He's never been a real leader within his year. Hermione yes, she's obviously done stuff so you'd expect it, but this comes down purely to Harry being the title character.
That's one of the reasons I loathe The DA so much (*dreads that plotline*) - Harry's never shown any indication of being a natural leader or teacher of anything.
Certainly, in an emergency he's the person one would turn to, but that doesn't equal being cooperative or helpful to people in day to day situations. (I'd want Snape around in an emergency, but that doesn't make him any better a teacher.)
Harry has never taught anybody anything, and I've no reason to believe he'd be any good at it whatsoever except JKR wants me to.
(I often find the worst teachers are people who are naturally skilled, as Harry is at DADA and Quidditch, for example; because they have no idea about conveying how to do things, because they've never struggled. I'd think Neville would be better at that than Harry. Likewise, even Hermione isn't brilliant at tutoring, as she prefers to just do the work for people rather than explaining.)
Hermione and Harry, while being brilliant in their respective fields, have never shown any people skills - Hermione in PS and PoA for instance, regularly pissed people off by having no empathy whatsoever - her reaction to Lavendar's bunny, for example; and Harry doesn't even know the names of most of the students around him, and is insular and extremely quick to judge.
...having her realize that Sirius just didn't want to get his own hopes up by telling Harry he could stay at #12 if he was expelled is too much.
Innit. Especially since, like her interaction with Ginny and Cho, any discussions they've had 'onscreen' have been limited - we've never seen Hermione have a one-to-one conversation with any of these people, neither have we seen any of these people show any closeness/familiarity with her (beyond 'Hermione, you're so smart!' from Sirius and Ginny and her discussion of dates in GoF. Woo, indepth stuff!)
Reply
Imagine Lupin and Sirius being responsible for a child. I doubt it would be some idealised NA style happy families - Sirius would be strangling the kid and having temper tantrums every second day; Lupin would be responsible and caring until he thought the kid might affect his livelihood or damage his bond of trust with others, then he'd be risking it's life. If I were Molly and Arthur, I'd feel safer just buying a Rottweiler as nanny.
You know, as odd as it sounds, I don't buy Molly seeing Harry dead in the Boggart scene. It's a misstep, imo. I don't think JKR should be mushing together Molly's feelings for Harry with her feelings for her own kids in that type of situation.
No, I didn't like that.
There's this idea that a 'true' parent should treat all their children exactly the same and that say, the Dursley's blatant preference of their natural child to Harry is repulsive and unmotherly especially on Petunia's part; but it's so unrealistic.
Molly is not Harry's mother. She didn't give birth to him, she met him when he was 11, she sees him on holidays.
That's the same as her connection to Hermione, and I didn't notice her in the Boggart sequence.
There's no way that when it came down to it, Molly wouldn't choose her 'real' children over Harry; and much as that would likely disgust most fans, I'd warm to her much more. (Coming back to NA, but that was one detail I really loved - when Harry and Hermione offend Percy, she cuts them down; as she did to Hermione in GoF. In canon presently, I'm not sure she wouldn't side with Harry over any of her children.)
Right now she's like a deranged version of Petunia, with all her snapping at these disappointing kids while idolising and smothering the new one (or as someone else put it 'It's like the Two Faces of Eve!' ;)
Arthur's making this sinister noises about Lucius being "well-connected" when meanwhile what else is he, especially if he's running to Dumbledore to report that Lucius was at the Ministry, which he did out in the open?
Oh, yes. 'God damn that Lucius Malfoy and his radical political extremist group! I better go and tell the head of mine, right away!'
I mean, much as I can understand Harry's shock at seeing him again after GoF, I do like the line about how dare he look at Harry!
I mean, what did they expect?
How can he so baldfacedly have meetings with people! Important people! Shouldn't Harry and Arthur know every detail? And report it immediately?
I mean, what the hell is Dumbledore going to do, arrest Malfoy for continued refusal to drop dead, cause damnit, they rilly rilly want him to!
Reply
Leave a comment