The Order of the Phoenix Re-Read: Chapter 11

[slowfox]

And suddenly, in the midst of Harry fretting about him being able to see the Thestrals when nobody else can, Neville rematerialises with the Trio (plus Ginny). He can't have been with them earlier, since otherwise surely he'd have volunteered the information that he could see the things too.

Then we have the Sorting Hat's new song. Now, if I remember correctly, the Sorting Hat's the culmination of all four Founders' brains, so when it sings

...For instance, Slytherin
Took only pure-blood wizards
Of great cunning...

it seems to imply that only pure-bloods are ever sorted into Slytherin. A half-blood wouldn't, shouldn't stand a chance, no? Or was the half-blood Prince not sorted into Slytherin?

Of course, we all know that Hufflepuff taking 'the rest', and being one who 'taught them all she knew' is absolutely not a euphemism... although I remember a fic-writer once commenting that you never hear of students complaining that they'd been sorted into Hufflepuff, so there have to be some compensations, right? :p

I do like Ron's commentary (aside from JKR's ubiquitous 'said' tag):

"Branched out a bit this year, hasn't it?" said Ron, his eyebrows raised.

You can see why JKR engineered things to make sure Harry was present for as few Sortings as possible: writing new songs for the Sorting Hat wouldn't be something I'd look forward to, for sure.

We have Umbridge's stultifyingly dull 'welcome' speech, and then we have Harry's altercation with Seamus, which leads to Neville and Ron firmly declaring their allegiance to the Boy Who Lived, Dean trying to keep out of it, and Seamus most definitely signing for the sceptics' camp.

There's also, of course, reference to the other students' suspicious glances at Harry, so it is definitely starting to feel like Hogwarts might not be the welcoming home he was expecting it would be.