The Order of the Phoenix Re-Read: Chapter 10

[slowfox]

Y'know, I'm surprised that Sirius is depicted as being stir-crazy as he is, since he obviously managed to stick 12 years at Azkaban, and he can't have been at Grimmauld Place that long, really. 'twas certainly a risk, though, going out into the world as Padfoot, since Wormtail would surely have revealed his Animagus form to the Death Eaters.

I'd initially thought that Ginny called Luna by her proper name constantly, but clearly not, since she refers to her as 'Loony' from the outset. I'm a bit disappointed in Ginny for that, although it does tally with her calling Fleur 'Phlegm' later on in the series.

Luna's introduction bothered me on the first read: here was this brand new character being foisted upon us, and there was a very deep fear that she might prove to be a MarySue type character, but this time in fanon. However, I definitely warmed to Luna through books V and VI, to the extent that I now think she's awesome, so I was looking forward to her introduction this time 'round, but again find myself a bit underwhelmed by her.

OTOH, I do like that Cho seeked out Harry on the Hogwarts Express, even if it didn't end up being fantastic timing from Harry's perspective. GoF demonstrated that Cho didn't necessarily follow everyone else's lead when it came to opinions of Harry, and even though I had divined that Harry's true partner was Parvati^* by the time OotP was published, I do like PoA/GoF Cho.


"Well, there are two fifth-year prefects from each house," said Hermione...

Sometimes you really have to wonder about JKR: unless Harry has the observational faculties of a stupefied hamster, he would surely by now have known that prefects were drawn in pairs from each house's fifth-years. This seems to me to be one of the classic cases of using characters to deliver exposition so that she doesn't lose her Harry!PoV in the telling of the tale. But it just seems a little... forced.

And this extends to the other prefects' names. The Slytherin ferret is, of course, just 'Malfoy', and although we could've got away with 'Parkinson' for his counterpart, it seems appropriate that Hermione uses her full-name. I do think some of Ron's rubbing off on Hermione with the "thicker than a concussed troll..." remark, though :-)

Anyway, it seems a little... over formal to refer to Ernie and Hannah by their full names. How many fifth year Ernie's or MacMillans can there be at Hogwarts? Surely Ron'd just say 'Macmillan'? And I highly doubt that there's more than one Padma at Hogwarts, so the 'Patil' does seem superfluous.

However, having picked holes in the dialogue, I have to say that this was brilliant:

SIRIUS - BLACK AS HE'S PAINTED?
Notorius mass murderer or innocent singing sensation?

Like Harry, I too had to read that sentence more than once to make sure I was following the thread. The Quibbler is deliciously loopy.

Malfoy hints that they were aware that Sirius was with Harry on the platform. Quite what they (The Bad Guys) can do with that information we don't know - presumably Sirius is safe enough whilst he remains inside an Unplottable location? But it does hint that Malfoy's privy to some of the Death Eater's deliberations (I do wonder if, deep down, Draco had as miserable a summer as Harry did, not being allowed to attend the Death Eaters' meetings and so on...)

No Hagrid to collect the first years. Quite why Harry was surprised when, again, just about every single fifth year fic out there has Hagrid still away in France on Official Hogwarts Business, I have no idea. I'm a bit surprised that they all seem so taken aback by his absence, though.

And finally, the chapter closes with the Thestrals - at this point, all that we know is that Harry and Luna can both see them, and that Ron can't. We learn later that Neville can see them, but even though he was in the same carriage as Harry, Ginny and Luna, they seem to have become separated between the Hogwarts Express and the 'horseless' carriages.



* and you think I'm joking...

Comments

[aome]

unless Harry has the observational faculties of a stupefied hamster

Ron seems to have, though - how many times has he failed to recognize some bit of magic that Hermione knows about? He comes from a long line of wizarding families - surely he's heard about a LOT of magic along the way, even if he can't do it yet?

I never really picked up on the prefect discussion being strangely formal and informative; didn't stop to think that, duh, they would have known that/recognized those kids before. And yet, those kids are described by full names later on, ie when they arrive at the Hogs Head, so it seems kind of consistent anyway. One of Will's friends is constantly referred to (at least, in his absence) by his full name, by us and by my BIL/SIL - it just kind of stuck that way.

I never questioned it until now and yet now that you point out the whole thing with the "boy and girl prefect from each house" obviousness issue - you would think that most students (at least, second-year and up) would know by now what pulls the carriages. Surely there are enough students in each year, even a handful, to see them right away and be perplexed that others couldn't, and to ask someone about it. Or, if they come from wizarding families, it's possible they already know what they are, or have means to ask their parents, or whatnot.

Luna, like Dobby, pretty well grated initially, but then grew on me. :-)

As for Sirius being restless - yes, he spent 12 years in Azkaban previously, but a) he probably spent most of that time incapacitated by Dementors; and how do you feel when you're depressed? Like you don't want to go anywhere or do anything and b) he had no hope of freedom. However, he has now spent 2 years moving around as he pleased (as the dog, anyway) and I'm sure, after that taste of freedom and movement, going back to hiding - where he is ALMOST free, but not, surrounded by people who CAN come and go as they please, and in full grip of his mental facilities - is terrible.

[soupytwist]

I could almost word-for-word echo this!

And re. the last thing, I also always thought JKR did quite well at showing that it's not just being cooped up that's causing Sirius problems: it's being cooped up there, specifically, the house he spent his youth trying to escape. Having managed all that, got so far (even if "far" includes Azkaban), to then end up stuck right back where he started with his entire crazy family history literally screaming at him all day from the walls and not able to do anything about it despite having already left it once as a teenager... I'd go nuts in that, too.

[slowfox]

it's being cooped up there, specifically, the house he spent his youth trying to escape.

Ah, yes, good point - yep, Sirius certainly doesn't like it at Grimmauld Place, and since he escaped many years previously, I can see that being forcibly kept effective prisoner there now that he's notionally 'escaped' would be more than a tad galling.

[slowfox]

nd yet, those kids are described by full names later on, ie when they arrive at the Hogs Head,

Ah, yes, but description in text is different to characters' speech. Or at least, I think it should be. Obviously, for people like Michael Corner, who Harry's never met before, you need both names, but most others would, in colloquial speech, surely be denoted by which ever name most uniquely identified them - 'Malfoy' or 'Padma', for example.

As an aside, I do remember at school we had a plethora of 'Sarahs', and there would be long discussions that featured exchanges like this:

"So then Sarah said..."
"What, Sarah Sarah?"
"No! Sarah Sarah..."
"Oh..."

Mystifyingly, this would make sense to the parties involved, and they'd know which Sarah they were talking about. At least, they always seemed to, at any rate...


Luna, like Dobby, pretty well grated initially, but then grew on me. :-)

Nah, I've never been a Dobby fan, but will definitely hold a hand up to being partial to Luna, just because of her habit of saying... untactful truths, which proves helpful later on.

And I agree wholly with your point about the Thestrals: as Luna says, she's been able to see them since she arrived at Hogwarts - and clearly other students must have been in the same position, so you'd think, as you say, that conversation would've circulated the school eventually as to their presence.