The Order of the Phoenix Re-Read: Chapter 2

[slowfox]

Still left puzzling over just how much of a Squib Arabella Figg really is: how, indeed, do Squibs operate in the magical world? Anyway, it seems clear that she can communicate with her cats (but then Filch can communicate with Mrs Norris (and as a second aside, it's interesting how Mr Tibbles and Mrs Norris both get titles, whereas none of the other pets we meet in canon do, do they? And they're both... familiars to Squibs. Hmm)), but I did think that some of the sayings were... a little forced

... well, it's no good crying over spilt potion ... but the cat's among the pixies now.

Although what's more interesting is what Mrs Figg says just before that:

... and Dumbledore said we were to keep you from doing magic at all costs ...

Aside, of course, from the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, and, I s'pose, the reasonable assumption on Dumbledore's part that Harry wouldn't necessarily have invoked magic unless under threat, it still seems an odd stricture to have imposed.

Once Harry and Duddykins are back indoors at 4 Privet Drive (with the exception of some of Big D's stomach contents), we get reminded again that Harry has a temper:

With a feeling of mingled dread and anger, Harry removed his foot slowly from the stair and turned to follow the Dursleys.

I do remember thinking that the later chapters, with CAPSLOCK!Harry were something of a surprise, but to be fair, JKR is signposting the direction for us. It's just a bit of a direction change from GoF, I guess...

...and Arthur was certainly working late, since his owl implies that he's also at the Ministry when Dumbledore arrives there, and we know it's late since it was dark outside, and this is August.

Page 33 has the big surprise:

"And what the ruddy hell are Dementors?"

"They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban," said Aunt Petunia.

I'm sure I can't have been the only person who read that for the first time and went Whu?

Throughout this whole exchange, Harry's quite testy:

"Nothing," said Harry, slightly less calmly...

"Yeah, I did, but I didn't use -" Harry began, angrily...

"How many times do I have to tell you?" said Harry, temper and voice both rising...

"FINE!" yelled Harry, and in his temper...

...said Harry, speaking fast, fighting to control his temper...

...and now his temper was rising again...

Which just seems so contrary to any Harry that we've experienced in Books I-IV, although there was his strop with Ron between the Goblet of Fire and the dragons.

Then there's Aunt Petunia's Howler: Remember my last, Petunia. Which I had hoped would get explained a little bit more than it eventually did. Nonetheless, it did go some small way towards explaining why the Dursleys didn't immediately throw Harry back out onto the street.

OTOH, it seems rather un-Dumbledore to resort to such crude threats: you'd expect him to be more Obi-Wan with it: You must do what you think is right, of course....

So at this point, Harry's been confronted by a pair of Dementors in Little Whinging, is narked that he seems to be being deliberately kept out of whatever loop just happens to including Ron and Hermione, and now has the threat of expulsion hanging over him.

We've had a single hint about the Department of Mysteries, deflected with Harry's own psycho-analysis of his dreams, and it's clear that he's got some anger management issues to deal with. It's also clear that there definitely is some value to Harry staying at Privet Drive (witness Vernon being zapped whilst trying to strangle Harry in Ch 1), and that Petunia, at least, has had to be coerced into allowing him to stay there.

Comments

[cynthia_black]

Y'know, I'd never really compared Mrs Figg properly to Argus Filch until now, and it certainly does pose a lot of (unanswered) questions about the place of Squibs in the magical world - Mr Filch seems to operate pretty well within it, but it doesn't look as though Mrs Figg could :-/ Interesting point about their 'familiars' though.

I love the shock element of Aunt Petunia knowing what Dementors are, and the bit that says, "And all of a sudden, for the first time in his life, Harry fully appreciated that Aunt Petunia was his mother's sister." And as we find out more in Snape's memories in the last book, Petunia does know a great deal about wizarding matters, from listening in to conversations. It's also clear to me that Harry has a room at the Dursleys because Petunia did still have some fondness for her sister, and that she's the one instrumental in keeping him there, especially but not just on this occasion. She may resent him a lot, but she does actually want to protect him.

However, Harry finding out that both Mrs Figg and his aunt know far, far more than he thought they did only heightens his exasperation at the lack of answers he continues to get. I always did think that Harry never asked enough questions in the earlier books, but I suppose this is the payback for that.

[aome]

I've often thought it would make an interesting fic to explore how Filch - a squib - got the job of caretaker at Hogwarts in the first place. In my own imagination (since I doubt I'll ever write it), he had an elder sibling come to Hogwarts, and was so terribly resentful and wistful about it, the elder sib eventually asked if there might be some way to bring Argus to Hogwarts too - and thus he was offered this job.

[slowfox]

OTOH - where do Squibs go to school? Do they just get abandoned by their families, since, as we know, the Muggle/Wizard interaction thing is, at best, incredibly limited?

[cesy]

That's a very good question. Are they just taught at home by tutors? What would other Squibs do for work? I imagine they'd struggle to pass as Muggles, at least at first try.

[slowfox]

It's an intriguing one, indeed - we don't know how prevalent Squibs are within the Wizarding world, of course. Mebbe there's a Squib version of Hogwarts?

[slowfox]

She may resent him a lot, but she does actually want to protect him.


I'm not sure I agree on that point - I think that the only reason that Harry's been kept at the Dursleys is because of some threat from Dumbledore, as the Howler reminds. So really, she just wants to protect her own family, and as a consequence, that means having to put up with Harry for a few weeks a year...

[glittertine]

Yup, agree with that. I never got the feeling Petunia cares for Harry at all.

[cynthia_black]

No, I don't think she cares for Harry - she cared for Lily, and that's *just* enough motivation (with a push from Dumbledore) to allow him to stay at Privet Drive. To her, Harry is a constant reminder of the sister she lost to 'that world', and so she'll never actually care for him. But it's that I think JKR was pointing to in the mother's sister bit.

[aome]

I thought the wizardized sayings were kind of cute. :)

About the underage magic restriction thing ... this is a plot hole, I suppose (one of JKR's many :P) but - IIRC, in DH we learn, as Harry comes of age, that they can only detect magic done in the *household* - they assume that kids in wizarding households have their parents to keep them in line, of course, but that's why Harry got in trouble for magic done by Dobby - it was done in a household where none was supposed to occur. (Witness that Fred and George were surely doing magic as part of their WWW product development but never got caught because their magical noise would not be discernable from legitimate magic done there.) Anyway - if the tracking spell is placed on a location and not on a specific person, how did they know *Harry* did magic several streets away from his house?

As I said for Ch 1, Harry's behaviour does not seem out of place to me; I would probably feel the same if, coming off a complete adrenaline-pumping event, I was treated as the cause of the problem, rather than the saviour, and if I was receiving a pile of completely conflicting, upsetting and frustrating messages to boot.

On the other hand, I still find myself irked by the totally incomprehensible "Remember my last". Who talks like that? I can't imagine even Dumbledore saying something so strange. Cryptic he might be, but he usually does speak in complete sentences. And why wouldn't Harry recognise the voice? Even magnified, he certainly had no trouble recognising Mrs Weasley's. :P "Remember what I told you" would, at least, make more sense. :P

I did, however, get a big kick out of the knowledge Petunia apparently has harbored all these years, as well as Vernon's complete inability to pronounce "Dementor". :D Also, we get a glimpse of DH information, with "that awful boy" - whom we assume to be James but actually probably points to Snape.

[slowfox]

Yep, it seems bizarre, the whole 'we detected magic' thing - surely the Burrow must've been setting off alarms left, right and centre!

Yep, the Howler just seems bizarre - it's so unlike Dumbledore in tone, and fails to convey any really helpful information, aside from getting us out of the particular plot hole that's rapidly opening up here, 'well why don't the Dursleys just boot Harry out, then?'. There obviously has to be some form of coercion somewhere... was just hoping that exactly what inducement that might have been would've been made more explicit...

[aome]

I have to wonder if there was true coercion, or if Dumbledore was just really good at playing up to family guilt and sense of responsibility. Look at his own background; he clearly felt that pain and guilt all his life. So - no matter how much Petunia hated her sister and thought she was "abnormal" - perhaps there was still a sense of obligation and Dumbledore exploited that.

[slowfox]

Possibly so, but even then, Remember my last, what kind of a message is that? It's screaming for backstory at some point as to what 'his last' was... and it must've been pretty bad to get Petunia to about-face so promptly. But it just seems so out of character for Dumbledore - wouldn't have expected him to stoop to such crude thuggery, really...