The Order of the Phoenix Re-Read: Chapter 4

[slowfox]

I love that Molly specifically excludes Harry from the meeting of the Order that's just started when they arrive - having landed at Grimmauld Place, Harry's obviously expecting to be back in the middle of the action, but instead gets shunted off to join Ron and Hermione. And he's not happy about this at all:

The warm glow that had flared inside him at the sight of his two best friends was extinguished as something icy flooded the pit of his stomach. All of a sudden - after yearning to see them for a solid month - he felt he would rather Ron and Hermione left him alone.

...

He noted that her hands, too, bore the mark of Hedwig's beak and he found that he was not at all sorry.

Hmmm, Harry: the Dark Side I sense in you. This was painful to read, the first time around, because the Trio are finally back together after Harry's miserable start to the summer, and I was expecting things to pick up as they had been. But I think this reaction is much more realistic, and is in keeping with Harry's frustration and sense of isolation as depicted in the preceding chapters.

Page 63, genuine CAPSLOCK!HARRY OMG! Again, on the first read through, this was almost baffling. On the second read through, it was more... irritating - I was all like 'yes, we *know* he's miffed: you don't need to hit us over the head with it'. On this more leisurely read through (I don't think I've ever read a book this deliberately slowly) it feels a bit more in place.

"And some of them are standing guard over something," said Ron. "They're always talking about guard duty."

"Couldn't have been me, could it?" said Harry, sarcastically.

"Oh, yeah," said Ron, with a look of dawning comprehension.

:D Aside from wishing that JKR could find some better dialogue tags than 'said', I love that exchange (even if it's a little harsh on Ron).

And the Twins are great:

"Hello, Harry," said George, beaming at him. "We thought we heard your dulcet tones."

"You don't want to bottle up your anger like that, Harry, let it all out," said Fred, also beaming...

Of mild note is that the Twins are clearly distinguishable. I can't remember whether the indistinguishable Twins game is canon or fanon, but it seems clear that Harry can tell them apart here, at least.

At the end of GoF, Fleur told Harry she was hoping to get a job 'here' to improve her Eeenglish. At the time, I assumed she meant Hogwarts, but it seems from OotP that she simply meant this green and pleasant land. This chapter manages to name-check the whole Weasley clan, but Percy seems to get the best deal, with over two pages of screen time for us to be informed of what he's been up to.

"Snape never eats here," Ron told Harry quietly

Can you just imagine the table conversation had he done so?? More pertinently, just how good is Snape if he can play a Death Eater, manage to attend large meetings of the Order, yet still convince the Death Eaters he's loyal to their cause (admittedly, he gets himself some brownie points in Book VI in that regard, but there must surely be some doubt as to his loyalty in both camps at this point)?

And yay, we finally get to meet Sirius at the end of this chapter - the Sirius who we'd last seen being instructed to 'lie low at Lupin's'. Sometimes I wonder how much of a direction change there was on JKR's part between GoF and OotP... for example, there was that business with Harry asking the Twins to buy Ron some new robes: I assumed that it meant that there'd be need for Ron to wear them in the coming year (and I'm sure that that was just one of the reasons that approximately 91.4% of all 5th year fics feature a Yule Ball). Then there was Fleur's admittedly ambiguous reference to getting a job 'here', which I'd assumed meant Hogwarts, and then, instead of Sirius being at Lupin's place, he's somewhere else completely.

Comments

[cynthia_black]

I really can't think of much to say about this chapter, apart from yay, Gred & Forge!!! I love the extendable ears, and I like that Ginny obviously shares the Twins' mischievous and inventive streak.

Much as I'm not too keen on CAPSLOCK!Harry, I have to say I think it does fit where he is emotionally at that point in time.

I like the introduction to Mrs Black's portrait too. There was a good little one-shot fic I read once or twice called The Reading of the Will, where the portrait, including three feet of wall surrounding it in all directions, was bequeathed to Narcissa and Draco :-D

[slowfox]

the portrait, including three feet of wall surrounding it in all directions, was bequeathed to Narcissa and Draco :-D

Oh, that's a beautiful concept!

Yeah, not much happens in this chapter (nor the next), but Chapter 6 (the Noble and Ancient House of Black) is where the story starts to kick in, methinks.

[aome]

Of mild note is that the Twins are clearly distinguishable. I can't remember whether the indistinguishable Twins game is canon or fanon, but it seems clear that Harry can tell them apart here, at least.

I don't know about fanon, but it seems to me that Harry has always been able to tell them apart, except for the first meeting, of course. It's Molly who can't. :P

As for the discrepency between "lie low at Lupins" vs being at Grimmauld Place - Sirius probably didn't likely consider it a place to stay - he hated being there, after all. He hadn't been there at all during GoF, instead being in hiding in distant lands and then in the cave near Hogwarts. I imagine "lying low at Lupins" was the handiest safe place for him to be in the immediate circumstances, and to have another person near him (who can safely go out) to help with Order stuff. I don't think LLAL clashes with Sirius' present living situation at all; I can definitely see LLAL being a transitory thing, and once Sirius had a safe place to be, and didn't need to be constantly watching Harry, and once the Order was roused and Dumbledore indicated a need for headquarters, then 12G would have come to mind - and Sirius would have had to live there.

I'm assuming Snape can convince the DE's he's loyal to their cause by seeming to feed them some Order information, perhaps? But, yes, I'm sure both sides doubt him - all except Dumbledore, of course. :P

I do love "Don't bottle it all up, Harry" from the twins. :D

He noted that her hands, too, bore the mark of Hedwig's beak and he found that he was not at all sorry.

It occurs to me that this is sort of an eerie peek into what's going to happen to Harry later. (The worst part of the whole book, for me.)

You're getting close to where I've stopped reading - hopefully I can catch up over the weekend.

[slowfox]

I'm hoping that the chapter/day rate will prove OK for you!

The Twins are good in this chapter, but it does feel as though the tale's taking its time to kick in. The next chapter's also kinda slow, but then we get to Ch 6, and the cleaning and that tapestry, and things start to take off :-)

[cesy]

The thing that got me about the capslock was not so much that Harry lost his temper and screamed a lot as that it was hard to read. However much people say that capslock is shouting online, I find it very hard to read, either online or in a book. It would have been much better if she could have put it in proper case, left in appropriate exclamation marks and description, and it would have been perfectly obvious that he was shouting without making it quite so annoying to read.

The banter between the younger generation here is great, though.