Chapter Thirty

[merrymelody]

Grawp -

This’ll be fun! Who doesn’t like Grawp?

(Am still behind a good five chapters. I’ll post them sooner or later, unless Mirabella/y’all would rather we keep moving in a more linear fashion?)

Comments

[sistermagpie]

I guess it’s probably too late to reschedule again, but why doesn’t Slytherin get a replacement just for this match

Probably couldn't find anybody big, stupid or evil enough to take his place, whereas Gryffindor's just full of pluck.

Which would be okay, if they didn't go around noting the lack of it in everyone else, and how it makes them TEH EVIL!11

Harry was taken out of the game honorably! Montague deserved to be taken out and besides the team is Slytherin, so anything against them automatically adds honor points to the other side.

The Slytherin games are always narrow. (Ravenclaw played Slytherin. Slytherin won, though narrowly. - PoA)Narrowly seems to indicate that either the Slytherin team rocks except for Malfoy, so that they rack up enough points that the other player catches the Snitch and they still win, which makes you wonder why the other player does that--I mean, wouldn't the correct strategy there be to just keep Malfoy from grabbing the Snitch in hopes you'd get a few more points before you caught it? And if

[merrymelody]

Probably couldn't find anybody big, stupid or evil enough to take his place.

Heh. Perhaps they found out what happened to the last? 'So...the Beaters, our Seeker and the (?) Keeper have all been beaten up/hexed by the other team? Last time on the field? And if we win and get more points than them, they'll shove us into toilets? You know, come to think of it, I think I've got too much homework at the moment!'
I miss Flint. He was funny, at least.

If Malfoy never catches the Snitch wouldn't the Slyths have replaced him?Yeah, I've never gotten this 'OMG, they HAVE to have him on the team' - for starters, those brooms are probably fairly out of date three years on

[merrymelody]

Ron's role has always been to be less than Harry.

It's a shame. Wouldn't it have been interesting if Ron were better at something and Harry had to learn to deal with that (the prefect thing doesn't count, since it's soiled by not being cool enough in the eyes of the Order, and also the upcoming Speech of Doom)?
I'll never get why Ron didn't go into Slytherin, where at least he could come to terms in company of never being allowed to achieve/beat anything/one.

[mariagoner]

He's still able to appreciate her good hair.
---
The hair fixation just confirms doubts over Harry's sexuality. I've never met a straight bloke who could tell me whether I had hair or not without looking, let alone one who obsesses over it.
You know that Cho's just a big Barbie doll for him.

I think most of it is just due to the fact that Rowling seems absolutely clueless as to what tends to what, er, attractions young men find most irresistible about young women. (Guess her new husband was too much of a gentleman to englighten her!)

Here's a hint Jo... the prime ones are just a little to the south of the collarbone and to the north of the belly button!

[romeo_ambiences]

either the Slytherin team rocks except for Malfoy...Or then there's the alternative--the Slytherin team is carried by Malfoy

[romeo_ambiences]

heh...use my children as an excuse. *shakes head*

[merrymelody]

Yes, the whole having the Seeker win so many points seems to negate the whole game. Why don't they just have a seeking competition and forget the rest of the players? Oh, well

[sistermagpie]

Basically, any defensive move other than stealing the ball without touching the other person seems to be considered a foul, probably because Gryffindor is always the one going for a goal and the Slytherins are always trying to stop them. I mean in a game where there are players whose whole job it is to smack hard balls at other players, why is blocking someone is a foul? (In fact, why should blocking be a foul ever in any game? It reminds me of that Odd Couple episode where they're playing basketball and Felix is like, "Put your hands down, I'm trying to shoot for the basket.") How is holding onto their broom is so shocking no one's ever seen it until a 13-year-old boy got the idea?

[merrymelody]

The blocking bit is hilarious, because it provokes, in all earnestness: "They oughta change the rules. Flint coulda knocked Harry outta the air." Like, don't worry about the rules that allow people to throw hard objects at other people's heads. Or a game in which people have broken their jaws, died, or gone missing for months. Harry could have gotten a hangnail!111 They should change the rules of a game that's apparently been going several centuries, now that someone so special is at risk!

Yeah, Madam Hooch sounds pretty easily shocked.
(As was McGonagall, just from skimming.)
All bets are in for what house she was in?
(Isn't that like the equivalent of going to a football match and saying 'OMG! The goalkeeper handled a backpass! I HAVE NEVER EVER SEEN SOMETHING QUITE SO SHOCKING!' Hee.)

[sistermagpie]

Yeah it's like, "They should change the rules. Flint coulda knocked Harry outta the air."

Um, yes, Hagrid. But isn't the point to knock people out of the air? Like with bludgers?

Personally, I think Ron should have been fouled in that last game. He kept knocking the ball away from the goal. How is that fair?

Mind you, I DO think it's reasonable to not want to get knocked out of the air. It just seems like a particularly stupid worry to have in this game when you went to the trouble of making that the point.

[merrymelody]

I always thought it was unfair that Harry caught the snitch in his mouth. And was allowed to knock his opponent's arm out of the way. I really wasn't meant for this series, was I?

I DO think it's reasonable to not want to get knocked out of the air.

I kind of lost all sympathy for Harry, (and indeed, all the Quidditch players) when he was all 'I'll risk dying rather than lose a GAME.'
To me, it's kind of the equivalent of saying 'Isn't this guy who played chicken with a lorry brave? He must really want to win! That's dedication!'

[romeo_ambiences]

Maybe I really need to read the Quidditch book because this sport seems rather odd to me. I almost feel as if JKR threw in seekers and snitches to distinguish this wizarding sport from muggle sports like soccer and basketball... As if flying on broomsticks while playing it just isn't unique enough.

So Draco commits a "holding" penalty or foul. *laughs* Holding just happens to be one of the most common infractions in football by *gasp* even professional players. Yep...that's quite the shocking tactic....er....NOT!

Again...it feels as if JKR is trying to force the reader to see Draco and the Slytherins as bad, but doing it in such a ridiculous manner that I have trouble taking it seriously. Are we actually supposed to believe that no one else has ever done anything similar? Can anyone honestly say they follow a sports team that never commits a foul or penalty?

Slytherin may be playing more aggressively and dirtier than the other teams....but I'm not shocked and I can't buy that Hooch is either.

[merrymelody]

Slytherin may be playing more aggressively and dirtier than the other teams...

That's the impression that's given.
It's just a shame that we're supposed to cheer when it's say, the Weasley twins or Wood trying to turn it a blood sport; and look horrified and clutch our pearls when it's anyone else.
(I like how in CoS, there's all this 'There could be Slytherin spies! Everywhere! Anywhere!' but it's kind of casually slipped in that actually, it's the twins who are spying on the other team's practice.)
Or that two of the players on the Slytherin team have been beaten up/hexed in the last season, but they're the ones who are conducting an evil campaign of Machiavellian tactics like...singing.
And that the rules seem to change depending on who's playing, so Hooch is shocked - SHOCKED, I tell you! ;) - at something which must be a registered foul and is, while completely unsporting, actually not very dangerous; but a bat in the head gets the fairly jaded 'That will do!'