Half-Blood Prince, Part 3: Severus Snape

Harry Potter spoiler alert

Snape, the biggest mystery of the book.  The Half-Blood Prince himself!  Doubt is cast upon Snape’s true loyalties as soon as he appears in Spinner’s End.  Bellatrix is very much like Harry in her questioning of Snape.  Narcissa trusts him because Voldemort does, just as every member of the Order trusts him because Dumbledore does, but Bellatrix and Harry both think that the person in whom they have the most confidence may be mistaken.  The fact that Snape is able to answer all of Bellatrix’s questions seems to confirm that he’s evil but also is cause for suspicion that he might not be.  His story is almost too well-rehearsed and he does feel that he must prove himself to Bellatrix.  He asks if Bellatrix thinks it is possible that he has fooled “the most accomplished Legilimens the world has ever seen” (26).  We know that he is an Occlumency expert, so yes, it’s possible.  When he makes the Unbreakable Vow, his hand twitches at the mention of him doing the deed should Draco fail.

Snape’s cover is always that he’s a spy.  He explains to Bellatrix that he remains undercover at Hogwarts because he is able to gain valuable inside information, and everyone but Harry assumes that he is trying to get Draco to confide in him so that he can report back to Dumbledore, not so he can actually help Draco.  His act fools Draco, who is convinced that Snape wants all the glory for himself.  Dumbledore even tells Draco that Snape’s actions were on his orders, but Draco, just like Voldemort, still believes that Snape is a double agent who is truly serving the Dark Lord.  Even Hagrid, who has made it rather clear that he doesn’t like Snape, so trusts Dumbledore’s judgment that he even ventures to guess, “What musta happened was, Dumbledore musta told Snape ter go with them Death Eaters…I supposed he’s gotta keep his cover” (607).  Hagrid never doubts Dumbledore.  McGonagall, Remus, and Tonks all also insist that Dumbledore had “an ironclad reason for trusting Snape” and that “Snape’s repentance was absolutely genuine” (616).

Even if we are to believe that Snape is good, he does have a fascination with the Dark Arts, which has always made me distrustful of him.  Harry is disturbed by the way Snape refers to them as “many, varied, ever-changing, and eternal” (177), but Hermione thinks he sounds like Harry describing facing Voldemort and “that it really comes down to being brave and quick-thinking” (181).  We should always listen to Hermione.  Snape is interested in the Dark Arts, but he also has experience facing them.

Snape turns out to be the Half-Blood Prince, which doesn’t make him look like he’s a good guy since he created some Dark spells, such as Sectumsempra.  Yet again, Hermione is right that “Prince” could be a name, and she’s even right about the connection to Eileen Prince, Snape’s mother.  It’s a bit funny that she thinks “the handwriting looks more like a girl’s than a boy’s” (195).  Her inkling that the Prince is “a bit dodgy” (240) is also correct.  Harry and Ron think he’s just a prankster, but Hermione thinks he has a mean sense of humor and remembers that the effects of Levicorpus seem like what the Death Eaters did to Muggles at the Quidditch World Cup.  Still, Hermione says that the Prince “seemed to have a nasty sense of humor, but I would never have guessed he was a potential killer…” (638).  True, Levicorpus is one thing, but Sectumsempra still disturbs me.  I love how Harry thinks, “The Prince had proved a much more effective  teacher than Snape so far” (239).  He might be better when he’s not sneering at Harry and Harry’s not suppressing an urge to curse him.  The idea that Snape had helped him is “almost an unendurable thought now” (638).  And to think, how much he’s been helping him this whole time.

I do think that Snape might have come to respect and even care for Dumbledore.  He even says to Bellatrix that Dumbledore has been a great wizard.  One reason that I’ve always found it hard to believe that Snape is truly “good” is that he lets people get hurt and killed without flinching as long as he is helping win the battle in the long run, to bring down Voldemort for killing Lily.  Loving Lily doesn’t mean that he believes in the Order’s message and goals, but with Dumbledore, he is no longer unfazed by the deaths that are necessary to achieve the ultimate goal.  Hagrid hears “Snape sayin’ Dumbledore took too much for granted an’ maybe he–Snape–didn’ wan’ ter do it anymore” (405).  Harry thinks that this makes Snape suspicious, but we find out later that Snape is uncomfortable with his promise to kill Dumbledore.  When he kills Dumbledore, there is “revulsion and hatred etched in the harsh lines of his face” (595).  Harry surely sees this expression directed at Dumbledore himself, but it is actually Snape’s reaction to what he must do.  I always wanted to believe that “Severus…please…” was Dumbledore begging Snape to spare him, but the ambiguity made me wonder.

No matter how good Snape may be, he is downright mean and there’s no denying it.  I find it so hard to forgive him because he was really cruel to Harry.  If a teacher taunted a student about his dead father, that teacher would be in serious trouble.  James and Sirius were nasty to Snape, but he’s so immature that he hasn’t gotten over it and takes his anger out on Harry.  For detention, Snape makes Harry go through the records of punishments at Hogwarts and purposely assigns him the years that James and Sirius were at Hogwarts and causing trouble.  He nastily adds, “It must be such a comfort to think that, though they are gone, a record of their great achievements remains…” (532).  He thinks that the familiar names “should add interest to the task” (532).  That is HORRIBLE.  Harry finds out from Trelawney that Snape told Voldemort about the prophecy, and although Dumbledore assures Harry that it is “the greatest regret of his [Snape's] life,” Harry is right about Snape’s hate for his father.  Dumbledore trusts Snape because he knows the power of love that he has for Lily, but I doubt that Snape was ever very upset about James’s death, especially since he spoke ill of him even fifteen years after the fact.  While the debate about Snape was going on, I really wanted him to be evil so I could hate him for all the nasty things he’s done, but I had a feeling that there was more to him.

As Snape flees Hogwarts, Harry chases him, attacking with the darkest spells he can think of, but Snape doesn’t strike back and tells the other Death Eaters, “Potter belongs to the Dark Lord–we are to leave him!” (603).  That might be part of it, but perhaps Snape doesn’t want to hurt Harry, even though he constantly causes him emotional and mental harm.  Snape is super sensitive about being called a coward.  When Harry calls him a coward for the second time: “‘DON’T–’ screamed Snape, and his face was suddenly demented, inhuman, as though he was in as much pain as the yelping howling dog stuck in the burning house behind them–’CALL ME COWARD!’” (604).  This fear of being a coward actually made me respect Snape a little more and made me think he might be good.  Although I often feel that Snape didn’t truly want to be on the Order’s side, since he had always liked the Dark Arts, did care about blood, and became a Death Eater, and only changed sides because he felt that he had to compensate for what he did to Lily, his reaction to being called a coward makes me think that he might have actually wanted to be more open about his true loyalties.  Other members of the Order are known to be enemies of the Dark Lord and openly oppose and fight against him, visibly putting themselves at great risk and clearly making themselves targets for the Death Eaters.  Snape, on the other hand, is trusted by both sides and therefore safe from harm, not in immediate danger, unless of course the other side discovers his deceit.  He sneaks around secretly rather than bravely and boldly defying the side he is against.  Is it possible that he is ashamed of this and wishes he could just be an admirable good guy?

I’ve always hardened my heart against Snape, especially once he killed Dumbledore.  Even if Dumbledore had wanted him to, I could not forgive Snape for doing that.  I really wanted to hate him, but Jo never makes it that easy.

My last post about Half-Blood Prince will be remembering Dumbledore.

Half-Blood Prince, Part 2: Draco Malfoy

Harry Potter spoiler alert

Harry really seems to be paranoid about Draco, so it’s a bit surprising when he turns out to be right.  Harry’s always hated Draco, and everyone tells him he’s being ridiculous, just as they did with Snape.  (For the record, neither of those characters turned out to be truly evil.)  Mr. Weasley doubts “whether You-Know-Who would allow a sixteen-year-old” (135) to be branded with the Dark Mark and become a Death Eater.  Neither Ron nor Hermione agrees with Harry, even though they admit that some of Draco’s behavior is suspicious.  Harry finds it completely out of character for Malfoy “to pass up the chance to demonstrate his power as prefect, which he had happily abused all the previous year” (140) and to miss a Quidditch match and let a substitute play.  When Harry overhears Draco bragging to the other Slytherins, Ron thinks that he was just showing off.  There’s no way to bring a Dark object into the castle, so again Harry just seems to want to blame Malfoy even though it is supposedly impossible for him to be able to do anything dangerous.  Draco even has an alibi for the cursed necklace, since he was in detention with McGonagall, disproving Harry’s theories further.  Hermione and Ron point out that the plan didn’t even work well, since the necklace never made it into the castle, to which Harry’s response is, “But since when has Malfoy been one of the world’s great thinkers?” (257).

Once Harry overhears Snape and Draco, even Hermione admits that Draco must be up to something.  Although everyone still thinks that Snape is getting information from Draco to pass to Dumbledore, it’s clear that Draco is actually working for Voldemort.  Draco also disappears off the Marauder’s Map and is seen less with Crabbe and Goyle, but there are these random girls dropping things on a seventh-floor corridor, which turn out to be his cronies with Polyjuice Potion warning him if someone is coming past the Room of Requirement.  Harry even gets Kreacher and Dobby to track Draco, which helps Harry figure out where he’s going, and Hermione figures out that the room could be Unplottable if Malfoy needs it to be.  Moaning Myrtle says that a boy she has seen in the bathroom is “sensitive, people bully him too, and he feels lonely and hasn’t got anybody to talk to, and he’s not afraid to show his feelings and cry” (462).  Because it becomes clear later that Draco is not a murderer, I’d like to think that some of this grief was guilt over harming Katie and Ron and having to kill Dumbledore, but I think it was more due to fear of messing up, getting caught, or being punished by Voldemort.

When Harry confronts Malfoy in the bathroom, Malfoy is saying, “No one can help me…I can’t do it…I can’t…It won’t work…and unless I do it soon…he says he’ll kill me” (522).  He’s still mostly about self-preservation, and protecting his family as well.  Ginny points out that Malfoy tried to use an Unforgivable Curse on Harry, so my pity for him wanes a bit.  Trelawney hears someone “whooping” in the Room of Requirement the night that Harry and Dumbledore go to the cave, and Harry realizes that Draco must have mended whatever he was working on.

We all knew Draco wasn’t going to kill Dumbledore.  We knew, Harry knew, Dumbledore knew, Snape knew, Narcissa knew, Voldemort knew.  He’s rather proud of himself for getting Death Eaters into the castle and disarming Dumbledore, but takes quite a bit of time explaining his plan and saying that he’s going to kill Dumbledore, who says, “If you were going to kill me, you would have done it when you first disarmed me, you would not have stopped for this pleasant chat about ways and means” (591).  Up until this point, Draco insists that he knows what he’s doing and wants to do it, but at this point, he says, “I’ve got to do it!  He’ll kill me!  He’ll kill my whole family!” (591).  Dumbledore offers him protection and Draco just stares at him, not responding, “his wand hand still trembling.  Harry thought he saw it drop by a fraction” (592).  If the rest of the Death Eaters hadn’t come at that moment, things might have gone differently for Draco.  Later, Harry has not forgotten “the fear in Malfoy’s voice on that tower top, nor the fact that he had lowered his wand before the other Death Eaters arrived” (640).  Harry doesn’t think that Malfoy would have killed Dumbledore and he actually feels “the tiniest drop of pity mingled with his dislike” (640).  He even wonders what else Voldemort is forcing Draco to do by threatening to kill him and his parents.  I think Draco was just a scared kid.  Prejudiced, nasty, arrogant, yes, but not a murderer.  I was almost disappointed because I wanted to hate him for everything he’s done and said.

Next up, the Half-Blood Prince himself.

Half-Blood Prince, Part 1: Couples

Harry Potter spoiler alert

While Half-Blood Prince has a lot of darkness and mystery, there is also quite a bit of romance.  After the tension that’s been building for years, the possibilities of Ron with Hermione and Harry with Ginny are finally happening, as well as the newer couples of Tonks/Remus and Bill/Fleur.  The strength of these relationships lies both in the personalities of the characters themselves and their interactions, as well as the way Jo fleshes out their love stories.

I was upset that Fleur was left out of the movie both because of her relationship with Bill and because of how Ginny regards her.  Ginny’s feisty and spunky, making fun of “Phlegm,” her nickname for Fleur, and snapping at Fred, George, and Ron questioning her dating.  Harry has “become so used to her presence over the summer that he had almost forgotten that Ginny did not hang around with him, Ron, and Hermione while at school” (136).  This relationship develops really nicely, with Harry becoming so accustomed to and comfortable with having her around, causing him to feel “a strange twinge of annoyance” when she leaves to meet Dean.  Harry gets to see her on the train again, though, because her Bat-Bogey Hex on Zacharias Smith impresses Slughorn so much.  She defends Harry as well.  I also enjoy when she crashes into Zacharias after he commentates the Quidditch match with his nasty attitude.

Although it’s a little upsetting to watch Ron and Ginny fight, it’s also rather entertaining to see Ginny give it to him.  She calls him a prat when he accidentally punches Demelza in the mouth during Quidditch practice and when Harry tells her not to, her response is, “Well you seemed too busy to call him a prat and I thought someone should” (286).  As Harry and Ron head back to Gryffindor Tower, they find Ginny and Dean snogging, which awakens “something large and scaly…in Harry’s stomach, clawing at his insides” (286). Ginny and Ron have a screaming match that almost turns into a duel and Harry has to keep reminding himself, “You just didn’t like seeing her kissing Dean because she’s Ron’s sister” (289).

I like that Harry can’t “help himself talking to Ginny, laughing with her, walking back from practice with her” (519).  Unlike with Cho, he’s very comfortable with Ginny, just hanging out with her and enjoying it.  The brilliant Hermione, who also knows Harry very well, realizes that he seems quite interested whenever the topic of Ginny and Dean comes up.  He does still care about Ron though, and doesn’t want to do something that would damage their friendship.  But they end up kissing in front of Ron.  Yea, he gets over it.  Now, THIS is a good kiss, not the quiet, awkward Room of Requirement thing in the film.  Harry has detention during the Quidditch final and he comes back to Gryffindor Tower.  The password is “Quid agis?” which for those of you who don’t study Latin means “What are you doing?” or “What’s up?” so it’s sort of funny when he asks the Fat Lady that and she says, “You’ll see.”  And then we have a Harry/Ginny sort of kiss, with Ginny “running toward him…a hard, blazing look in her face as she threw her arms around him” and, “without thinking, without planning it, without worrying about the fact that fifty people were watching, Harry kissed her” (533).  That, my friends, is how Harry and Ginny were meant to get together.

Harry and Ginny have a pleasantly normal sort of relationship for a while, which Harry regards later as “something out of someone else’s life,” too normal and perfect for it to be true for him (646).  The strength of their bond is tested when Dumbledore dies, yet Ginny is the one who is able to lead Harry from Dumbledore’s body.  And even Ginny, who’s always in control and confident, has a tremble in her voice as she tells Harry about Bill being hurt.  She’s tough, but human, and Harry knows it.  After Dumbledore’s funeral, Ginny looks at Harry “with the same hard, blazing look that he had seen when she had hugged him after winning the Quidditch Cup in his absence, and he knew at that moment they understood each other perfectly, and that when he told her what she was going to do now, she would not say, ‘Be careful,’ or ‘Don’t do it,’ but accept his decision, because she would not have expected anything less of him” (646).  She doesn’t cry and she’s not surprised.  The fact that he wants to stop Voldemort so badly might be why she likes him so much.  “I never really gave up on you, Harry…Not really.  I always hoped” (647).

While I love Harry/Ginny, Ron/Hermione is without a doubt my favorite ship.  Ron is easily jealous about anything, whether it’s romance or attention, so he’s bitter about Harry and Hermione both being in the Slug Club and sneeringly suggests that Hermione hook up with McLaggen, and Hermione, who already Confunded him so that Ron could become Keeper, angrily says that she was going to ask Ron, who totally wasn’t expecting that, and Harry is stuck in the middle of an awkward conversation.  He thinks about the possibility of his best friends getting together for the first time, worrying that they would split up and destroy their friendship or stay together and become embarrassing to be around.  They’re a little politer  to each other for a while, but nothing’s ever that easy with Ron and Hermione.  When Ron and Ginny argue and she taunts him for never having snogged anyone, he gets hung up on the idea that Hermione snogged Krum.

Ron is quite nasty to Hermione through a lot of the book.  I get really angry with him, but his only excuse is that it’s all because he likes her.  He’s so desperate to impress her and make her jealous that he hurts her in the process, but she hurts him physically.  With birds.  Ron clearly feels guilty and a little proud of himself for making Hermione jealous.  Hermione stops even trying to hide the fact that she wants to make Ron jealous from Harry, explicitly stating that she brings Cormac to Slughorn’s Christmas party because “I thought he’d annoy Ron most” (317).  Honestly, Ron says, “Er-my-nee,” while he’s still unconscious.  How could anyone doubt this relationship?  Hermione even blushes when Ron says, “I love you, Hermione,” just because she helps him fix his homework (449).  I sob when they’re sitting together at the funeral and they’re both crying.

I never thought about Tonks and Remus together until Jo introduced it, but I really like their story.  I was upset that Tonks seemed so sad when she’s usually so bubbly, but the Sirius theory didn’t seem right.  Just like Snape’s Patronus becomes a doe because of his love for Lily, Tonks’ becomes “an immense silvery four-legged creature” (158), which Harry mistakes for Sirius in dog form, but turns out to be Lupin in wolf form.  It does make sense.  Tonks and Remus are both in the Order and fight together for the same values, but he thinks he’s too old, too poor, and too dangerous.  He loves her too, so much that he thinks she “deserves somebody young and whole” (624).  Once McGonagall says, “Dumbledore would have been happier than anybody to think that there was a little more love in the world” (624), there is no denying this couple.  At Dumbledore’s funeral, Tonks’ hair is once again bright pink and she’s holding hands with Remus.  Yay!

Bill and Fleur seem like an obnoxious couple at first, partly because of the way Molly and Ginny respond to them, but it’s really sweet how Fleur is finally accepted by the family.  I gain so much respect for Fleur when she says that Bill being scarred changes nothing, that she still loves him, that she doesn’t care, that the scars show that he’s brave, and that she’s good-looking enough for both of them, which makes me giggle a bit.  And that’s enough for Molly, realizing that Fleur really does care about her son, and when she offers Auntie Muriel’s tiara, the two women realize that they both just love Bill.

I just want to point out that every pair of people pointed out sitting together at Dumbledore’s funeral end up together.  It’s at a difficult time like this that people realize who matters most to them and who is the greatest comfort.  Tonks and Remus, Bill and Fleur, Harry and Ginny, Ron and Hermione.  And then it’s mentioned that Neville is “being helped into a seat by Luna.  Neville and Luna alone of the D.A. had responded to Hermione’s summons the night that Dumbledore had died, and Harry knew why: They were the ones who had missed the D.A. most…probably the ones who had checked their coins regularly in the hope that there would be another meeting” (642).  I will always imagine that they wound up together.

And those are the couples of Half-Blood Prince.  More on the sixth book to come.

Order of the Phoenix, Part 4

Harry Potter spoiler alert

Previous post here: Order of the Phoenix, Part 3: Dumbledore’s Army

It’s quite interesting that Luna, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny are all incapacitated in the Department of Mysteries, leaving Harry and Neville to protect the prophecy.  Harry AND Neville, the two boys to whom the prophecy could have applied.  Whatever the prophecy said or Voldemort decided, Neville was definitely destined for greatness.  Or, even better, he just chose to be great.  He runs into the Death Chamber to help Harry and screams, “DON’D GIB ID DO DEM, HARRY!” even when Bellatrix tortures him (800).  Harry and Neville are the only ones who ever hold the prophecy and it breaks when it falls from Neville’s pocket, the one about whom it could have spoken if Voldemort had not decided to go for Harry instead, and the two of them are the only ones who see it, even though they are unable to hear it.

The Fountain of Magical Brethren in the Atrium of the Ministry is symbolic of the prejudice of wizards who are supposedly the good guys.  Dumbledore points out to Fudge at the end of Goblet of Fire that he is too concerned with blood purity and needs to think about other races, such as giants.  The Ministry shows a false image of equality.  Once it is infiltrated by Voldemort, it is completely upfront about persecuting Mudbloods and the new statue depicts wizards on mounds of dead Muggles, but it’s unfortunately not that much of a stretch from the bigotry lingering under the surface.  Although wizards, centaurs, goblins, and house-elves are all represented, the last three are “all looking adoringly up at the witch and wizard” (127).  Harry later notices that the wizard looks “rather weak and foolish” and the witch has a “vapid smile like a beauty contestant,” while the goblins and centaurs are uncharacteristically staring “soppily” at humans and “only the house-elf’s creeping servility looked convincing” (156).

The destruction and use of the fountain are also of significance.  Harry ducks behind it and is “protected” by the wizards and magical creatures.  First, he takes cover behind the wizard, whose head is blown off, but Dumbledore still has this piece guard Harry while Dumbledore and Voldemort duel.  Then the centaur, whose arm is blown off.  Harry is aided by a centaur, Firenze, in his first year, and the centaurs also carry off Umbridge.  Dumbledore brings the statues to life, and the house-elf and goblin are also of help, just as Harry receives help from Dobby, Kreacher, and Griphook.  The witch statue pins Bellatrix to the ground.  I like to think of that as a dose of what Molly Weasley will give her later.  Dumbledore wisely says, “The fountain we destroyed tonight told a lie.  We wizards have mistreated and abused our fellows for too long, and now we are reaping our reward” (834).

I feel terrible about it, but Dumbledore is sort of right about deserving some blame.  He admits, “If I had been open with you, Harry, as I should have been, you would have known a long time ago that Voldemort might try and lure you into the Department of Mysteries, and you would never have been tricked into going there tonight” (826).  Hate to say it, but it’s true.  As usual, his reasoning makes sense, about trying to distance himself from Harry so as not to give Voldemort an incentive to use Harry, and he’s also right about “a show of him [Voldemort] stir[ring] behind your eyes” (828).  Still, Harry’s hostility toward Dumbledore was not eased by the feeling that he was being ignored.  Dumbledore also thinks that Voldemort hoped that he “would sacrifice you [Harry] in the hope of killing him” (828).  In Deathly Hallows, we find out that he must.  Dumbledore keeps the prophecy from Harry until now because he “cares more for your happiness than your knowing the truth, more for your piece of mind than my plan, more for your life than the lives that might be lost if the plan failed” (838).  But the thing that makes up for all of the mistakes is, “Harry looked up at him and saw a tear trickling down Dumbledore’s face into his long silver beard” (844).  That’s when I know that Dumbledore truly loves and cares about Harry, and that might have also been when I started to fear that he might die in the next book.

Finally, the prophecy.  Self-fulfilling prophecies make my brain hurt.  Number one, Voldemort’s an idiot and totally screwed himself over.  Number two, Neville also turns out to have a huge part in taking down Voldemort by killing Nagini.  So Voldemort chose Harry, but Neville proves to be a threat too.  The prophecy really changes nothing for Harry.  He’s known that he would either defeat Voldemort or die trying, not because he must, but because of what Voldemort has done to him.  Voldemort acted out of fear and hate when he head the prophecy, but Harry acts out of love for those Voldemort killed and continues to threaten.  Voldemort hoped that the prophecy would tell him how to destroy Harry, but it’s ambiguous.  Firenze says when he teaches Divination that it is “foolish to put too much faith in such things” (as in methods of seeing the future) (604).  Firenze’s priority seems to be “to impress upon them that nothing, not even centaurs’ knowledge, was foolproof” (604).  Exactly, the future is never definite because it is impacted by human choices and actions.  The prophecy can’t say that Voldemort will kill Harry or vice versa because the future can be changed.  One will kill the other because they decide to do so but they have another two years to make choices that affect which way it will go.  Voldemort may be a slave to prophecy, but Harry is not trapped by his destiny.  His love for Sirius stops Voldemort from possessing him, and that capacity for love which will bring him through everything is “power the Dark Lord knows not” (841).

The end of this book deals a lot with the concept of death.  Harry tries to speak to Sirius in the two-way mirror, but it doesn’t work, so he goes looking for Nearly Headless Nick to ask about ghosts.  The ghosts of Hogwarts have always been portrayed as entertaining.  They welcome students to the school, float around and say hello, but we get a look at Nick’s regrets.  He was afraid of death and chose to remain behind, but isn’t sure whether it was the best choice.  Maybe it felt right while he could still communicate with friends and family, but it’s been over 500 years now and everyone he knew is long gone.  Luna assures Harry that she’ll see her mum again, and he’ll see Sirius again, for they were just lurking out of sight behind the veil.

The book ends with that feeling of togetherness that I so love.  The Order warns the Dursleys not to mistreat Harry.  At the beginning of the book, Harry felt so alone and angry but now, “he somehow could not find words to tell them what it meant to him, to see them all ranged there, on his side” (870).  He realizes that he is not alone and that there are people who care about him.  Harry spends so much of this book feeling like no one understands or cares.  He even feels dangerous and worries that something is wrong with him, that he could be the weapon.  Once he finds out about the prophecy, he knows that part of the journey is his burden alone, but Ron and Hermione will be by his side until the end.  Whatever the prophecy might say, whoever Harry has lost, he will never be truly alone in his fight against Voldemort.

Isn’t it just the best book?  Half-Blood Prince is next!

Order of the Phoenix, Part 3: Dumbledore’s Army

Harry Potter spoiler alert

Read the previous post here: Order of the Phoenix, Part 2: The Umbridge Post

Dumbledore’s Army is the part of the book that gives me that feeling I love of everyone coming together in defiance.  Unity, rebellion, oh, it’s wonderful!  The Sorting Hat warns, “For our Hogwarts is in danger/From external, deadly foes/And we must unite inside her/Or we’ll crumble from within” (207).  The DA is a chance for the houses to unite, and Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff are all represented.  Yea, we’ve given up on Slytherin.  The students get a lot of action.  Ron and Hermione don’t get to do as much in Goblet of Fire, but now they get to be involved.  The two of them always insist on helping Harry, but Ginny, Luna, and Neville also want in.  They fight off the Inquisitorial Squad and all of them want to help, Neville pointing out that “this is the first chance we’ve had to do something real” (761).  Oh man, I love Neville so much.

Fred and George are the best rebels.  They always have been rebellious, causing mischief and breaking rules, but now they stand up to Umbridge.  Hermione admits that many of their products are truly impressive and display brilliant magic.  The scenes with the fireworks, Portable Swamp, and escape on their brooms are so satisfying.  And that last line, “Give her hell from us, Peeves” (675).  Harry notes that Peeves had never taken an order from a student before, but now salutes the twins.  Oh, the twins.  They are symbols of hope.

This is the book in which Ginny becomes the girl we, and Harry, love.  She’s got spunk, spirit, skills, and a sense of humor.  She has a bit of a mischievous streak and gets involved in some of Fred and George’s plots and joins in their war dance and chant of “He got off” when Harry is cleared of all charges (156).  George even says, “Size is no guarantee of power…Look at Ginny…You’ve never been on the receiving end of one of her Bat-Bogey Hexes, have you?” (100).  One of the troublesome twins admits that Ginny can be formidable.  And she’s learned quite a bit from them, as demonstrated in the line of the series that truly encompasses Ginny, “The thing about growing up with Fred and George…is that you sort of start thinking anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve” (655).   When she insists on coming to the Ministry, her jaw is set “so that her resmblence to Fred and George was suddenly striking” (761).  She’s started to date and by supposedly giving up on Harry, can now talk to him.  She snaps at him when he avoids everyone after Mr. Weasley’s encounter with Nagini and seems “quite unabashed” when he gets angry (499).  She finally says, “Well, that was a bit stupid of you…seeing as you don’t know anyone but me who’s been possessed by You-Know-Who, and I can tell you how it feels” (499).  There is a fire in Ginny and I like it.

While Ginny is maturing and dating, Harry’s focused on Cho, but it’s pretty clear that it won’t work out.  I think there are even more little hints, aside from the obvious fights they have.  Things like Cho suggesting the acronym D.A., for Defense Association, but Ginny improving on it by making it Dumbledore’s Army.  Ginny also “got the Snitch right out from under her nose” (704).  I feel like Harry’s the Snitch and Cho thinks she has him, but Ginny does.  I think that Harry is looking for a light relationship with Cho.  He first started liking her just because she was pretty and sweet, not because he was good friends with her and started to feel something more.  Of course he doesn’t always want to talk about Cho’s dead ex-boyfriend, whose death he witnessed, but he and Cho could be of some comfort to each other, yet he doesn’t really know how to deal with her crying.  When he and Ginny get together, they deal with things together, but Harry doesn’t seem to want a deeply emotionally attached relationship with Cho.

The Gryffindor in Hermione really comes out in the D.A.  Although Ron notes that from Hermione’s example, “I didn’t think there was anything in the universe more important than homework” (325), she is not satisfied by schoolwork if it is not really teaching her something.  School and rules usually come first for her, but she’s also the first one to demand that they break them to learn something useful, which “is more much important than homework” (325).  Her focus is still on learning, but not just for grades–for real life.  And she starts using Voldemort’s name!  When she explains her Protean Charm on the fake Galleons, Ravenclaw Terry Boot asks why she’s not in Ravenclaw and we find out that the Sorting Hat “did seriously consider putting me in Ravenclaw during my Sorting, but it decided on Gryffindor in the end” (399)  Whether it was due to her choice, as she did say on the Hogwarts Express in the first book that she’d like to be in Gryffindor but wouldn’t mind Ravenclaw, or because the Hat sensed her bravery, we got her in Gryffindor.  There are times when she gets really horrible “I told you so” moments.  She sees the lack of sense in Harry’s vision of Voldemort torturing Sirius and thinks that Voldemort might just be trying to lure Harry into the Department of Mysteries under false pretenses.  Bingo, Hermione.  She’s willing to help Harry anyway.  She’s absolutely brilliant with her fake crying act and leading Umbridge into the Forbidden Forest.

Ron and Hermione get so jealous of each other when it comes to romance, but Hermione encourages Harry in pursuing a relationship with Cho, clearly because she doesn’t like him and doesn’t mind.  With Ron, it’s a different story.  I get a little excited when Hermione kisses Ron on the cheek before the Quidditch match and he “touched the spot on his face where Hermione had kissed him, looking puzzled, as though he was not quite sure what had just happened” (404).  And then she makes statements like, “Ron…you are the most insensitive wart I have ever had the misfortune to meet” and “Just because you’ve got the emotional range of a teaspoon doesn’t mean we all have” (459).

I’m really rooting for Ron when he plays Quidditch.  He’s always lived in the shadow of his brothers and now he’s finally a Prefect and a Quidditch player, a pretty good one, but his confidence is so easily damaged, and of course the Slytherins would take advantage of that.  Honestly, they all should get detention and lose House points for their nasty pins and “Weasley is our King” lyrics, which go beyond insulting Ron’s Quidditch abilities.  It makes me so happy when the Gryffindors turn the lyrics around.  And of course, Ron is always the most loyal friend, defending Harry when Seamus thinks he’s mad and backing him up without question.

My final post on the fifth book will concern the climax, battle at the Ministry, prophecy, and ending.

Order of the Phoenix, Part 2: The Umbridge Post

Harry Potter spoiler alert

Read the previous post: Order of the Phoenix, Part 1

Here we go, my least favorite character in the entire series.  If I had this woman as a teacher, I think I would drop out of school.  She represents everything that is messed up in the education system and much more.  Her attitude, and the attitude of the Ministry, which is interfering far too much, is that “a theoretical knowledge will be more than sufficient to get you through your examination, which, after all, is what school is all about” (243).  I’m tearing my hair out.  I feel myself calling out and getting detention right now.  This is a belief that I find the school system perpetuating for my generation and it makes me sick.  Here’s a tip to the Board of Education and equivalent wherever you may live: If J.K. Rowling has Dolores Umbridge say it, it’s a bad thing.  Whether or not Harry is lying about Voldemort being back and there is an immediate threat, the students should still learn how to use magic, not just be able to answer questions on it.  Parvati notes that they won’t even be prepared for the practical part of their Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. if they aren’t allowed to practice spells.  The testmakers themselves realize that they need to be able to perform spells.

Then we get to Umbridge’s detention.  I always get so angry at Harry for not reporting what is clearly ABUSE.  Then again, if Hermione doesn’t tell anyone, I suppose there really isn’t anything they can do about it.  It still annoys me because if it’s happening to other kids too and their parents complain, the Ministry would lose its undeserved legitimacy.  But with the way its power mounts and Umbridge is able to take over completely, I’m going to give Harry, and his friends, credit and say that they would’ve done something if there was something that could be done.

Done with Umbridge yet?  Of course not.  Malfoy verbally attacks the Weasleys, starting with “Weasley is our King,” and moving on to Mrs. Weasley and the smell of their house.  Then he goes to Harry with, “Or perhaps…you can remember what your mother’s house stank like, Potter, and Weasley’s pigsty reminds you of it” (413).  So he covers Harry’s dead mother and there’s probably an underlying meaning regarding her status as a Muggle-born.  I’m glad when Harry and George attack him.  McGonagall is furious with them, even though they were provoked, but Umbridge, oh, I’m going to kill her, gives them a lifelong ban on playing Quidditch and locks up their brooms.  How could she even make it lifelong?  What about when they’re out of school and she no longer has authority over them?  And wouldn’t they still be allowed to use brooms for transportation, just not to play?  It’s just so beyond sense!  And THEN, she applies the punishment to Fred too, because he WOULD have attacked Malfoy also if not restrained.  That toad was definitely in Slytherin.

Then there’s Umbridge’s hatred of “half-breeds” such as centaurs.  She cites the law which classifies them as having “near-human intelligence” (754).  Then she goes into, “Filthy half-breeds!…Beasts!  Uncontrolled animals!” (755)  Big surprise that she would head the Muggle-born Registration Commission, with an attitude like hers.  How satisfying when the centaurs just carry her off.

Even Hermione’s intellect and thinking skills can’t get to Umbridge.  Snape has learned to ignore her even when her work is perfect, but Umbridge actually takes points from Gryffindor because Hermione uses her brain after reading the entire textbook and disagrees with a statement in it.  According to Umbridge, the “Ministry-approved method…does not include inviting students to give their opinions on matters about which they understand very little” (317).  If they’re learning it, shouldn’t they understand it?  Interestingly enough, Harry uses his knowledge from his escapades outside of class to help him on his O.W.L.s.  Even for a question about levitation on his Charms exam, he has “a fleeting memory of a club soaring high into the air and landing loudly on the thick skill of a troll” (712) rather than remembering a teacher tell him.

McGonagall is my favorite teacher.  I adore and admire her.  She’s strict but fair and she actually teaches and cares about the students.  I really enjoy those moments when she gets competitive about Gryffindor, but the best is her reaction to Umbridge.  Ron is excited for Umbridge to inspect McGonagall because “Umbridge won’t know what’s hit her” (309).  McGonagall ignores her obnoxious “Hem, hem”s and condescendingly asks, “I wonder…how you expect to gain an idea of my usual teaching methods if you continue to interrupt me?  You see, I do not generally permit people to talk when I am talking” (320).  And Umbridge looks “as though she had just been slapped in the face” (320-1).  I want to high-five McGonagall right here.  She’s extremely loyal to Dumbledore, preparing to aid him in battle against the Aurors trying to take him to Azkaban, but he says, “Hogwarts needs you!” (620).  Yes, it does!  In the following commotion, she forces Harry and Marietta out of harm’s way because she actually cares about the students.  I really love when she screams at Umbridge and defends Harry when Umbridge says that he has no chance of becoming an Auror and when she tells Peeves, “It unscrews the other way” (678) when he wants to cause mischief for Umbridge by loosening a chandelier.  She defends Hagrid and takes four Stunners for it, landing her in St. Mungo’s, and Harry realizes “he had always expected Professor McGonagall to be there, irascible and inflexible, perhaps, but always dependably, solidly present” (730).  As Peeves chases Umbridge out of the school, McGonagall is “clearly heard to express a regret that she could not run cheering after Umbridge herself, because Peeves had borrowed her walking stick” (857).

Coming next, the group formed in response to Umbridge’s invasion: Dumbledore’s Army.

Order of the Phoenix, Part 1

Harry Potter spoiler alert

We come now to my favorite book in the entire series.  It took me a long time to pick a favorite, but Order of the Phoenix wins for the development of the relationship between Harry and Sirius, the spirit of rebellion and unity displayed by the organizations created by both students and adults, the corruption of the Ministry of Magic, the love-to-hate Umbridge who is almost worst than Voldemort himself, and Harry’s angst and isolation but undying support from his friends.  I felt so frustrated the first time I read this book.  Harry was angry at everyone, even the people who were trying to help him, the rest of the Wizarding World wouldn’t listen to him, and Umbridge made me want to punch something.  But when I reread it, I want to give Harry a hug and Dumbledore’s Army inspires me to pick up a wand and curse Umbridge.

When Harry first arrives at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, he is absolutely furious at Dumbledore, Ron, and Hermione for keeping him out of the loop.  He screams “every bitter and resentful thought that [he] had had in the past” (65) regarding his being left out when he’s the one who’s had to face and overcome challenges.  I get mad at him for taking it out on his best friends, but I can’t help but feel some sympathy because his situation is very aggravating and he’s been through so much.  Really though, yell at someone who deserves it.  (He does yell at Dumbledore later, who confesses that he is more to blame.)

Much of the time at number twelve, Grimmauld Place is spent cleaning out the house.  There are lots of random objects to go through: “a musical box that emitted a faintly sinister, tinkling tune when wound, and they all found themselves becoming curiously weak and sleepy until Ginny had the sense to slam the lid shut; also a heavy locket that none of them could open, a number of ancient seals and, in a dusty box, an Order of Merlin, First Class, that had been awarded to Sirius’s grandfather for ‘Services to the Ministry’” (116).  Hold up, rewind!  Heavy locket that no one could open?  And then Kreacher keeps trying to steal things, and we’ve heard about Regulus being a Death Eater…It’ll all make sense once we learn about Horcruxes and Slytherin’s locket and Kreacher’s Tale in Deathly Hallows.  I love how Jo can just slip something so significant into a list of old stuff.

Mrs. Weasley’s encounter with the boggart freaks me out, especially because some of her fears do have reason behind them.  “Half the f-family’s in the Order, it’ll b-b-be a miracle if we all come through this…and P-P-Percy’s not talking to us…What if something d-d-dreadful happens and we had never m-m-made up?” (177).  Unfortunately, she’s right about some of this.  With a family of nine involved, there’s a lot at risk.  Ginny almost dies in Chamber of Secrets, Ron has adventures with Harry every year, his closest brush with death being when he’s poisoned in Half-Blood Prince, Arthur just makes it after being attacked by Nagini in Order of the Phoenix, Bill is attacked by Greyback in Half-Blood Prince, George loses an ear in Deathly Hallows, and Fred dies, right after Percy has returned and made amends with the family.  I love my fellow Weasleys.

Harry and Sirius commiserate about their isolation.  Harry is desperate for news, while Sirius gets all of it but can’t do anything about it.  Harry doesn’t know what’s going on but keeps getting dragged into it, while Sirius “would have welcomed a dementor attack.  A deadly struggle for my soul would have broken the monotony nicely” (82).  As Harry says in Prisoner of Azkaban, incidentally in regard to looking for Sirius when he still think he’s dangerous, “I don’t go looking for trouble.  Trouble usually finds me,” whereas Sirius has always been reckless and daring with a thirst for adventure.  Harry, although also a bit reckless, has learned to be more cautious and is scared of Sirius getting caught, but Sirius says, “The risk would’ve been what made it fun for James” (305).  Hermione thinks “he’s really frustrated at how little he can do where he is” (378).  Hagrid says, “He was never one ter sit around at home an’ let other people do the fightin’.  He couldn’ have lived with himself if he hadn’ gon ter help” (855).  Sirius dies a hero’s death and his final moments are spent having an adventure and protecting Harry, which are all he wanted to do.

After Deathly Hallows, my attitude toward Snape changed, but there are still some things for which I blame him.  Even though he’s technically a “good guy,” he can still be pretty nasty and holds grudges.  Just as Harry refuses to forgive Snape for taunting Sirius about his lack of usefulness, I get really angry at Snape for rubbing it in when it’s already bothering Sirius so much.  I wonder if he feels at all guilty after Sirius’ death.  That’s the thing about Snape: we know that he’s ultimately on the Order’s side, but he’s still allowed people to be hurt and killed without flinching.  Is it all part of his act?  Does it actually bother him, but he can’t show it?  Is he not bothered at all as long as he is doing what he needs to do for Lily?  Does he feel that the means justify the ends?  Is it worth a few lost lives if he completes his mission?  Is he truly “good” or only being good for Lily?  There are some things I’ll never figure out about Snape.  He constantly insults Harry’s dead father.  Yet again, Hermione trusts Dumbledore’s judgment.  Snape does check on Sirius and send a message to the Order when Harry warns him about Padfoot being at “the place where it’s hidden” (745), but Dumbledore admits that “some wounds run too deep for healing” (833) concerning Snape’s grudge against James and Sirius.

One of the most frustrating things about Order of the Phoenix is that Harry is fighting two wars: one with Voldemort and one with the Ministry.  The Ministry is supposedly also against Voldemort, but it takes a firm anti-Potter and anti-Dumbledore stance because they don’t want to deal with the possibility that Voldemort might be back.  The Minister and Daily Prophet should be on Harry’s side, but instead they make Harry’s life even more difficult.  Maybe Voldemort would have been defeated sooner if the government and media didn’t waste so much time trying to stop Harry from saving all their lives.

Hagrid talks about the giants fighting each other, but wizards aren’t so different. He says, “Yeh’d think, seein’ as how their whole race is abou’ finished, they’d lay off each other but…” (430).  This sounds a bit like the way the entire Wizarding World is facing a serious threat from Voldemort, but instead of working together, the Ministry attacks Harry.

Next is the toad whose head I would like to tear off: Dolores Jane Umbridge.