The Harry Potter Reread is pondering whether any famous historical figures (who were not purported to be magical) were indeed wizards. Yes, Merlin was, but who else? Hatshepsut? Houdini? Hannibal? Why can the reread only come up with “H” names? This is not working out as planned.
This week, Hermione finally cracks and Buckbeak meets a tragic end… or does he? It’s Chapters 15 and 16 of The Prisoner of Azkaban—The Quidditch Final and Professor Trelawney’s Prediction.
Index to the reread can be located here! Other Harry Potter and Potter-related pieces can be found under their appropriate tag. And of course, since we know this is a reread, all posts might contain spoilers for the entire series. If you haven’t read all the Potter books, be warned.
Chapter 15—The Quidditch Final
Summary
The news of Buckbeak’s fate mends the situation between Ron and Hermione, as he immediately announces his intent to help on the appeal. (He is very awkward about the hug she gives him in response.) At the end of their next Care of Magical Creatures lesson, Malfoy and Friends are gigging over Hagrid’s evident sorrow, which prompts Hermione to slap him clear across the face. Draco retreats in a hurry, rather than chancing a duel with her. The trio head to Charms class, but Hermione suddenly disappears. They find her later, asleep on her books. She’s horrified to have missed a class, but makes it to Divination. The are beginning work on the crystal ball and Harry, Ron, and Hermione are having a hard time taking the class seriously.
When Trelawney stops to predict Harry’s grim future (hurr, pun), Hermione finally steps in and insists that it’s rubbish. Professor Trelawney responds by insisting that Hermione has no talent for Divination, which leads Hermione to walk out on the class for good. Lavender believes this proves another of the professor’s predictions made at the start of the year. Exams begins their steady approach and everyone is going a little nuts trying to keep up with their courses. Ron has also buried himself in hippogriff history to help Buckbeak.
The Quidditch final arrives, and Harry has to be particular this time around—if he catches the Snitch before Gryffindor scores at least 50 points ahead of Slytherin, they won’t have enough accumulated to win the Cup. The game is rough and Slytherin is playing dirty, deliberately roughing the Gryffindor players up. Harry almost catches the Snitch, but Draco grabs hold of his broom tail to stop him. Harry pulls off the a win for the team nevertheless, and the Gryffindors win the Quidditch Cup.
Commentary
This section might as well be a defining tip-off for Ron’s entire character arc. It’s only in coming to the series again that you recognize his pattern: Ron feels slighted (sometimes the slight is real, sometimes it isn’t) and storms off. When he realizes that he’s needed, he rushes back.
There was some very interesting back and forth in the comments about Ron and Hermione’s argument here, who was more wronged and so forth. I think they’re both very clearly at fault for separate aspects of this fight. But conversely, I don’t know that I agree that Ron has reason to be as nasty as he is to Hermione in the previous chapters for a specific reason: I don’t think Ron cares about Scabbers all that much. Not that he’s indifferent, but Scabbers is not truly Ron’s. He’s a hand-me-down, like everything Ron gets. He calls the rat “useless” more than once in the books (he does it when he and Hermione make up, in fact). That doesn’t mean that he has no care for his pet at all, but we receive no evidence to suggest that Ron is super attached to Scabbers until this fight with Hermione becomes a thing in this book. It seems to me that Ron is standing up about this on principle. Maybe Scabbers wasn’t the best pet in the world, but he kept telling Hermione not to let her cat near him, and his rat got eaten anyway. Ron is furious that Hermione didn’t listen.
Which is why I would characterize his behavior as mean when he turns away from her. Ron doesn’t seem brokenhearted over the loss of his pet, he seems like he wants to get even. He wants to punish Hermione for turning a deaf ear on his complaints. In Ron’s mind, Hermione loves that crazy, violent cat more than she values their friendship. So it’s fine if he checks out on her completely, guilt trips her by mentioning Scabbers loudly in crowds, and keeps Harry at his side. He’s not doing it because he sits up in bed at night thinking about how he misses his old pal Scabbers.
This doesn’t diminish Ron much to me as a character even so; these kids are still thirteen years old, and I can’t even begin to list the multitude of dumb (probably also spiteful) things I did at thirteen. Even if you are a really nice kid, very few newly minted teenagers have a such clarity when it comes to the treatment of their peers. They are hormonal and full of feels. This is further demonstrated by the reconciliation of the argument—Hermione throws herself into Ron’s arms, and Ron remembers that part of the reason this fight was so important to him is that Hermione makes him feel lots of emotions and he’d really rather not get into whatit’seasiertobeangrythisisweirdandmakesmystomachdofloppythings.
Despite the fact that Harry and Ron have had their fair share of near-scuffles with Draco for his constant stream of bile—Hermione is the first one to lay hands on him. Let’s stop and consider how awesome this is. The female corner of the trio is the first person to rightly strike Draco Malfoy, after all the abuse everyone at the school endures from him on a daily basis. And she doesn’t do it on her own behalf, or even to defend her family like Ron, she does it for Hagrid and Buckbeak. It’s brilliant. Yes, okay, kids shouldn’t be hitting each other at school, but an exception really deserves to be made here. And tellingly, Draco is far more frightened to fight Hermione than he’s ever been of Harry or Ron. Because he should be.
Side note: Cheering Charms. Can we talk about this? I feel like there’s a lengthy point to be made about how, by virtue of magic’s use, the wizarding world basically contains a lot of normalized drug use. For lack of a better way of putting it. This charm makes you happy! This jinx makes your skin all itchy! This potion makes you see flying weasels! I mean, that’s what a Cheering Charm sounds like, doesn’t it? And then later Harry overdoes it and Ron can’t stop giggling and they have to put him in a quiet room to chill out for an hour? I wonder if there are any adverse effects to using those charms too often. Otherwise, you’d think wizards would overdo it. I bet plenty of them do anyway.
Once we get to Divination, it’s clear that the chapter should probably be renamed “Hermione is 100% Done With Your Sh*t.” She’s also delirious and clearly not getting enough rest. I say again: Time Turner User Guide. Chapter 2 should be titled “Sleeping and How to Manage It.” This is practically child abuse, not helping her manage this schedule. Then again, I’m sure Hermione is desperate to keep the teachers from noticing how burnt out she is. One problem with being an over-achieving student; you honestly believe that an inability to do something (even if it’s incredibly difficult) is tantamount to massive personal failure. I think that’s why I actively stopped over-achieving once I hit high school.
Before Hermione’s abrupt goodbye to Trelawney, we also get this choice quip from Ron:
“Would anyone like me to help them interpret the shadowy portents with their Orb?” she murmured over the clinking of her bangles.
“I don’t need help,” Ron whispered. “It’s obvious what this means. There’s going to be loads of fog tonight.”
I had some odd thoughts on the Quidditch final this time around. Normally, I’m really not into the culture around sports, the idea that it’s okay to riot and fight and shame people because of a game or a team they love. Rowling manages to subvert this in her narrative due to house rivalries. It’s still sport culture, but if this were any other story about a match, you’d be directed to root for the Slytherin team—because EVERYONE is hoping they’ll lose. Sport narratives normally go for the underdog (and I know, Slytherin has won many years previously, but for this match the overturn of tropes is still relevant). The whole point is that the reader doesn’t mind Slytherin being unfavored here because this is never just a game—this is about the houses and what they represent. The Slytherins are bullies, and bullies shouldn’t win. Usually the bullies are portrayed as the popular kids, but at Hogwarts, the house system allows for “popularity” to spread out from house to house.
The bullying aspect of Slytherin is further brought to the forefront because Marcus Flint literally changes out the majority of their team for bruisers in the final match. Just big hulking masses, there to body-check and play dirty. The match is fun to read with Lee Jordan’s commentary, and Quidditch overall seems purposed to provide relief from the sadness in various books, but this time around I found myself super keen to get back to the main action. I can understand why Rowling herself eventually grew tired of having to write Quidditch; it’s ultimately just a distraction from what’s really going on.
Chapter 16—Professor Trelawney’s Prediction
Summary
Exams come up, and Hermione is sitting for too many of them, but still refuses to explain it. They’re as rough as can be expected, and Harry has a particularly hard time in Potions, naturally. The Defense Against the Dark Arts exam is a sort of obstacle course that ends with a boggart. Hermione cracks a bit at the end of the test—her boggart is Professor McGonagall telling her she’s failed at her courses. When the trio head back up to the school, they run into Cornelius Fudge; he’s there to check up on the Black situation, and since he was already swinging by, he’s there to stand witness to Buckbeak’s execution. Ron insists that the appeal will help, but the executioner is already there and Fudge doesn’t seem to think so. Hermione stops Ron from mouthing off to his dad’s boss when he realizes that Buckbeak isn’t going to get a fair shake.
The last exam for Harry and Ron is Divination, which each student has to sit for individually. Harry pretends to see a hippogriff in the crystal ball, but disappoints Trelawney when he doesn’t see the animal murdered. As he goes to leave, Trelawney suddenly begins speaking in a voice not her own. She says that the Dark Lord has been alone for years, but tonight his servant will return to him, and that will allow him to come back more powerful than ever before. Once the prediction is complete, Trelawney does not seem to remember giving it.
Harry goes to tell Ron and Hermione this, but they greet him with the worst kind of news—the appeal was lost, as they suspected. Buckbeak is going to be executed at sundown. They want to go see him, so Hermione retrieves Harry’s Invisibility Cloak from the passage to Hogsmeade, and they all head down after dinner. Hagrid is beside himself, and warns them against being there. Hermione tries to make tea to cover her tears, and in the process of pulling down a milk jug discovers Scabbers alive and well (though he definitely looks worse for wear). The execution party, with Dumbledore in tow, are arriving at Hagrid’s hut, so he ushers the kids out the back and tells them to hurry away. They try to rush off under the cloak’s cover, but Scabbers keeps trying to get away from Ron. The three hear the murmur of adult voices behind Hagrid’s hut and the whooshing of an ax: Buckbeak is dead.
Commentary
I’m always sort of impressed at this point in the book that Ron has not managed to be annoying enough for Hermione to cave and tell the boys about the Time Turner. I know, she’s not allowed to and it’s this big deal, but that’s how secrets work—of course I won’t tell anyone! Except my best friends. They don’t count, right? They’re practically an extension of me.
There are O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s for the big important wizarding tests, with the latter standing for Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests. It strikes me that if all important tests were named more like that, you might feel a bit more respected as a student. It certainly beats “Advanced Placement” exam any day of the week.
Though I know that Hermione had no idea a Boggart would be on the DADA exam, it does make me wonder what form she assumed it would take—she had time to think it over in their lesson, and she clearly didn’t expect what she ended up with, otherwise she would have already considered how to make the scenario funny.
We get the duo from the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures, which brings us face to face with Walden Macnair, Buckbeak’s executioner and former Dark Lord supporter. And I can’t help but point out… guy is reported to have fought for Voldemort, manages to avoid Azkaban, then heads over to the Ministry. They ask him what job he wants, and he’s like, “I’d love to be an executioner.” And no one finds this a little off? Gee, he was a rumored Death Eater and he’d like to spend the rest of his life KILLING THINGS. But he was probably innocent. It just makes you wonder how much people in the wizarding government know, but prefer to leave unsaid.
Hermione is ever practical despite how unfair the situation is when they talk to Fudge. Even as a child, she understands the delicacy of the situation; what’s happening to Buckbeak is wrong, but they won’t get anywhere by badgering the Minister of Magic. Worst case scenario, Ron’s dad gets in trouble for having a mouthy kid. Hermione just gets it. She knows there are channels through which you get things done, and that this is unfortunately not one of them. That awareness is much more impressive than her school smarts. Some people are hardworking and exceptionally gifted when it comes to education. Hermione already has a bead on the political system of a world she was not raised in. That’s not just clever, it’s near-genius. It’s really hard to shake the awe with Hermione sometimes.
I love how even for a good grade, Harry can’t pretend that he sees Buckbeak getting killed. He’s just determined to prevent it by force of will.
Trelawney gives a real prediction! (You have to wonder what triggers real “Sight” in the woman apart from plot helpfulness.) And it’s super creepy. But in all seriousness, this is a defining moment for the series. We’ve seen Voldemort in more than one form, we’ve watched he and Harry duke it out a couple of times, but here is where we’re finally told in no uncertain terms: The Big Evil Guy is coming back. It’s going to get much worse. He’ll be stronger and better than before. This is unavoidable. It makes the prediction one of the most chilling moments of the book by far. The rest of this story is more about discovery, it’s surprisingly untragic. This is the moment we’re meant to fear—it’s a reprieve that warns us of the losses that will mark the end of every single book after this one.
Presumably, Scabbers has been hiding in Hagrid’s hut because Crookshanks is going to have a harder time getting past Buckbeak or Fang? That’s my assumption. Because Hagrid would probably adopt Sirius-as-a-dog. So, not the smartest plan, Scabbers.
Hagrid tries to usher the kids out fast enough to keep them away from the execution. The pacing of this whole section feels so stilted until I remember that the first time you read it, you’re expecting something to come up last minute that will spare Buckbeak. It’s just as baffling from a reader standpoint as it is to the characters that the hippogriff has no chance. Their journey to Hagrid’s hut preys on that with every stop and start. You keep expecting something to happen that changes the game. What we don’t realize is that we’re being set up for a much longer one, and this is only the first step. It’s incredibly smart structurally, but still traumatizing the first time around.
Fun aside at the end of the reread today! I got a tattoo (my third and biggest). It’s a Harry Potter one. It seemed extra appropriate given this reread and the book we’re on, so I am shaaaaaaaring it with all of you because you’re part of the reason it happened:
Emmet Asher-Perrin is now unfortunately going through the healing stage where the tattoo just ITCHES all the time. You can bug her on Twitter and read more of her work here and elsewhere.
Awesome new tattoo!
I like when Ron finally gets on the Quidditch teams in the later books and I started to enjoy reading about Quidditch again but by this point in the series it does seem to be more of a distraction than anything.
This is one of my favorite movies in the series and probably my third or fourth favorite book. The Trelwany prophecy scene was one of the most intense in the series because, you’re right, it’s when we as readers and Harry seem to finally realize he’s coming back for real, he will be stronger, and it is not going to be pretty.
If I wasn’t re-devouring the Kingkiller Chronicles at the moment I would have to start my own Harry Potte re-read your posts make me want to read them again so bad, every time!
Love the tatoo!
I’ve come to think of the Ministry at this point in time as S.H.I.E.L.D. before the Hydra reveal. It’s rotten at the core.
This potion makes you see flying weasels!
I’veI may know people who have used that potion! Usually comes on little pieces of blotter paper. So I hear.Re: Ron and his defense of scabbers to Hermione…
In the early 90’s I turned 16 and “got” my first car, which was an almost 10 year ford mustang that used to belong to my older sister. It barely ran, the t-tops leaked, the interior door handle on the driver’s side didn’t work, so to open the door I had to roll down the window, stick my hand out, and open the door from the outside. When it rained, I could turn doughnuts without trying. I hated the damned thing. It reminded me of how poor I was. Put it this way: I managed to get a “scholarship” to a big basketball camp, which led to a offer to attend a private high school tuition-free. I didn’t take it. Why? Because the rich kids almost certainly would have looked down on me and my car (at this school, the kids drove beamers, you know?)
Here’s the point: one day when driving home from work at my summer job, the transmission pulled the engine into it, totally destroying both, due to a free repair done by a guy with just enough car knowledge to replace the old transmission with one he shouldn’t have. When this happened, and I realized that fixing the damned thing would be much more than the car was worth, I was devastated. Why? Because it was my car. Mine. And I had so flipping little.
And when you’re poor, you bad-mouth your own stuff, because you learn that by doing that, you steal the thunder from other folks who would say the exact same thing, except when they say it, it hurts more. So I would tell anyone who would listen how awful the car was. I would point out the door handle/window thing. I’d laugh off the leaks. And I did it first, because having someone point these problems out was devastatingly embarrassing to my 17 year old self, even if the person didn’t mean anything by it.
So, Ron belittled his pet, his wand, his robes, and everything else, but they were still the only things he had. Of course he defended his pet to the point of driving a friend away if he had to, because he knew (or thought he knew) the real value of his pet, even if no one else saw or he could admit it.
So lay off Ron, damn it.
Awesome Tattoo! I’m so Jelly! I’m gonna have full length(not the short one shown on the covers) D’Angeline Marque of Namaah on my back one day, JUST YOU WAIT!
I bet plenty of them do anyway.
I show you, Dedalus Diggle.
Because Hagrid would probably adopt Sirius-as-a-dog.
That would hurt Fang’s feelings, and so Hagrid would do no such thing.
Nice tat Emily.
The Trelawney prediction was so shocking, the first time I read it. She’s been established as such a sham, and divination in general has been dismissed as not a real or vital part of Magical education, yet now we find that even a fake like Trelawney apparently DOES have true powers (even if she doesn’t remember her true predictions, only the fluff she does with crystal balls and tea leaves). From a writing perspective, it’s a little clunky once you realize that all the seemingly extraneous characters all end up serving the series plot.
Cheering charms are awesome, but I assume that their effectiveness wears off if you use them too much, or you develop nasty side effects like losing the ability to smile, so wizards and witches aren’t constantly using them.
@@@@@ 3 wiredog- LOL. It also
comesmay come in liquid form. Er, so I’ve been told.From a writing perspective, it’s a little clunky once you realize that
all the seemingly extraneous characters all end up serving the series
plot.
Not really, IMO. We aren’t seeing every moment of every day of Harry’s life. We only see what serves the plot anyways.
At the point of discovery (or as they were leaving the hut), Ron should have apologized for being angry with Hermione. This would have been followed by a token, “no, no, I should have watched CS more closely.” Then the matter closed.
One to new nits. My thought with the boggart is that Hermione wasn’t afraid of failing the exams. It was that she would fail the trust and expectations that accompanied the time turner. McGonagall, I suspect, may have tried to talk Hermione out of it, and this image was confirmation that she was right. It’s hard to take that disappointment when you’ve struggled so hard.
I don’t like Hermione hitting Draco. For one, violence is impolite. Second, it undermines her intelligence and skill – I’d expect Crabbe and Goyle to produce a violent response to offense. Three, there is no consequence for this. I doubt Draco hitting Hermione gets ignored.
Macnair shouldn’t have gotten the job her got. But, if he stayed out of Azkaban, he was clearly legally found to have been not guilty or at least not guilty of a major offense. If the former, there is no reason for him to get the job; the latter, it might it be unfair to deny that he had been rehabilitated after his (minor) sentence was completed?
Oh, and I enjoyed Hermione’s last trip to Divination. The ultimate in kudos is that she was the first to be willing to call out a teacher, in class, when it could have harmed her academic career. Ron and Harry called out Lockhart outside of the classroom when it was too late for such an impact. Absolutely impressive!
@@.-@
Agreed!
Quidditch has always been rather ridiculous as a sport. The snitch makes it so that 90% of the time what the other players are doing don’t even matter . . . but we’ve all heard this before. It’s still nice to see Harry accomplish tangible milestones to break up what could sometimes be depressing middles of the book.
I love the ending to this book probably more than any other in the series. Can’t wait for the next few posts!
I’m gonna have full length(not the short one shown on the covers) D’Angeline Marque of Namaah on my back one day, JUST YOU WAIT!
If you do this — and let me be the first to say it would be the coolest thing ever — you have to do as Emily did and post a picture.
I don’t like Hermione hitting Draco. For one, violence is impolite. Second, it undermines her intelligence and skill – I’d expect Crabbe and Goyle to produce a violent response to offense.
I saw her action as similar to that of Billy Budd. Of course, that didn’t work out well for him, but Hermione’s reaction was both milder and IMO justified.
if he stayed out of Azkaban, he was clearly legally found to have been not guilty or at least not guilty of a major offense.
In many cases I’d agree, but it’s clear that the Ministry was corrupted by Voldemort in the First War, so I doubt we should accept Macnair’s “not guilty” finding any more than we should, say, Lucius’.
@10, I absolutely will. The issue is expense. I cannot even begin to fathom the cost of such an undertaking. Hell, it took Phedre three years to pay for hers!
Just wanted to say..absolutely *amazing* tat. Love!!
And er…on topic…I just wanted to state that I always loved the Quidditch sections. I like watching sports in general, so maybe that’s part of it? Anyway, I got disappointed when later on, we barely saw any Quidditch because Harry is banned/detention-serving.
Love the tattoo Emily!
@@.-@ YES! You get it.
I absolutley love Ron, and the thrashing he gets from a large part of the fandom really irks me. Don’t even get me started on how the films cut so many of his positive character defining moments. Defenders of Ronald Bilius Weasley unite!
Hell, it took Phedre three years to pay for hers!
To say nothing of the way she earned the money.
FSS@@.-@ – Totally agree.
I think this completely misses the point about Ron’s character in an attempt to defend Hermione. The books definitively point out that Ron does bad mouth his (mostly hand-me-down) stuff as defense mechanism and in response to his feelings of insecurity about being poor, measuring up to his bothers, etc. He clearly does care deeply about his things. The next book just tells us this outright when Ron if complaining about Pig (Pigwidgeon, his new owl).
Also, I think the Hermione slapping Malfoy works because: A) he’s really asking for it (not to adovacate violence, but really) and B) she’s the least likely person we would think of doing it. I mean, if your such an #$% that even this level headed person over here slapps you… It also works because she is a girl slapping the male bully. If Ron or Harry had done it, a fistacuffs would have likely ensued, with Crabbe & Goyle pounding on the offender; yet they hesitate with Hermione. There is just no way to win that one: either you respond in kind and you’re hitting a girl, or you get your $%# beat by one; the only option is to cut your losses and run. One could argue that the confrontation could escalate (I’m not sure if that’s the right word for it, considering how benign some of the minor hexes are compared to, say, a black eye), but it seems that they were in relatively close quarters and this may not have been possible or effective at this stage of their training. Besides, the trio of Malfoy, Crabbe & Goyle in these scenes have always seemed to represent a traditional school yard bully, as Grabbe & Goyle certainly do not seem to project any type of magical threat until the seventh book when they ‘blossom’ under the new Dark Arts regime.
I absolutely agree with #4. Amen. One of those things you had to live through to fully understand, perhaps.
I agree with #12, sonofthunder. I actually really like the Quidditch matches. Maybe it’s because I like sports, but it adds dimensions to the characters and give insight into how Harry approaches challenges and develops strategies. His reactions, his feints, his misdirections, his developing skills, and maybe most significantly his confidence are all actually fleshed out in the sport.
IMO Harry’s character would be less without the training he undergoes playing Quidditch. JKR could have simply had him play without writing the play-by-play, but we couldn’t have seen the application of his development and strategies without the matches. And so many things happen during them to advance plot points (bucking broomstick, dementors, Malfoy as dementor, Cedric Diggory, the crush on Cho, and others) that I have never been bothered by their inclusion.
And they (the matches called by Lee Jordan) are amusing.
Trelawney’s prediction here serves two purposes. First, of course, it announces the return of Voldemort in a more substantial form, and that is important. It lets us know that the stakes are going to be a lot higher in the future.
But it also begins to offer us some justification as to why Dumbledore has her around. She’s such an obvious fraud and her methods would make a carnival card reader roll her eyes in disdain. The other teachers clearly don’t much care for her or her subject. I don’t think Dumbledore has expressed his opinion of divination yet, but he has no more love for it than any of the others. But he keeps this woman around and inflicts her on year after year of students. If readers have given any thought to it at all at this point, they have to be wondering why. Now we get our first glimmer and when the big prophecy is revealed later, we feel like it might mean something.
As for Hermione hitting Draco, I never really gave it much thought before. It was something that the moment called for. Kids shouldn’t be hitting each other, but sometimes an exception has to be made and this is one of those times. I hadn’t considered before, but Hermione basically getting away with this may also have motivated Draco’s nasty little curse in the next book. Of course, he gets turned into a weasel and Hermione gets to do something about her oversized teeth because of that. Nothing ever seems to go right for poor Draco.
The movie scenes from these chapters nearly to the book’s end might be my favorite part of the whole film series. I’m partial to the PoA movie overall, but especially here.
The Quidditch matches in these books are the only team-sports events (real or fictional) that I’ve ever cared anything about. Aside from the one year I spent in my elementary-school basketball team, that is.
This week I tried to do write the questions for my post in anticipation of my doing Owlay’s Spot once again but came up short. Here are the questions for today:
So, Hagrid says that Buckbeak liked London. This would appear to imply that he took him to see the sights. What do you all have to say about this? Is there fanart or fanfiction about this? How do you think Hagrid managed to keep Buckbeak hidden?
Is there fanfiction (or fan reconstruction) of Buckbeak’s trial?
Hmmmmm………………….. Ron looks “terrified” when Hermione throws herself crying on him. He also pats her awkwardly and looks relieved when she lets go of him.
Matter of fact, Ron is going to get an owl at the end of this term.
Was there anything Hagrid could have done on Buckbeak’s trial to save him? How differently would have things gone had he not been nervous?
Exactly what did Hagrid do to make sure that Buckbeak’s final days until his execution were his happiest?
Did you also know that somebody even wondered if all it took to defeat Voldemort was a Cheering Charm? Seriously, what do you think a Cheering Charm would have done to Voldemort?
Did we ever learn the name of the other member of the duo from the Commitee (the old one)?
It seems like Trelawney’s prophecies are triggered when she is not feeling well. This makes me wonder, how many prophecies do you think she uttered that went unrecorded because she was alone in the room?
I love it and I am so jealous!
Couple of things.
1. As nice as it sounds Hermione wasn’t the first to hit Draco. Ron was way back in book 1 during a the match with ravenclaw. He and Neville were in a full on fistfight with Draco and his Thugs. That said she was the first to really shut him up so props to her.
2. Scabbers. I never mentioned my thoughts in the debate, basically I see both sides and both made mistakes.
2b. Scabbers is most likely in hagrids because hagrids house is a bit of a
mess in my view. Pleanty of hidy holes, pleanty of crumbs.
3. Lets take a moment a think how awesome a idea a magic obstacle course as a final exam is. Lupin teacher of the year.
No offense Owlay… but you really aren’t contributing anything to the comment section every week with your list of questions, since generally there is already a conversation going.
Was there anything that Hagrid could have done at Buckbeak’s trial?
I’d guess that calling the famous Harry Potter as a witness, to testify both about his own safe ride and Draco’s deliberately irresponsible behavior, would have helped.
@16 “There is just no way to win that one: either you respond in kind and
you’re hitting a girl, or you get your $%# beat by one; the only option
is to cut your losses and run.”
My adult self is disappointed at Hermione hitting Draco – especially as she alone of the trio is so good at not getting a rise out of him, one of the few things that will frustrate a “verbal” bully like Draco. My early teenage self, however, took full advantage of the can’t win situation you describe above :)
@@@@@ jorgecurvos, as a non-sports fan who tended to skim over the Quidditch sections, it had never occurred to me how much you can learn about characters by “watching” them play. Very glad you pointed that out and I will have to keep a closer eye on Quidditch matches in my re-reads.
@@@@@ Owlay, love the mental image of someone trying a Cheering Charm on Voldemort (so long as I don’t have to hold the wand that does it… no self-respecting hat would ever sort me into Gryffindor!)
@24 – I disagree. Some (sometimes most) of the questions do trigger additional thinking about the text.
Buckbeak in London – plothole, I guess. I can’t see how he would have avoided the whole Secrecy of Magic Act or whatever it’s called. Unless “London” just meant the Ministry via ? and Diagon Alley. My guess is this has something to do with why he would have lost, even without a stacked deck. I do wonder if Umbridge was involved.
My guess on a Cheering Charm is that it would have been ineffective. Assuming that the Charm works like a drug, my guess is that as a result of his splitting his soul, he is also immune to the effects of certain “drugs.”
Last thought – predictions. Is there any defined process to get prophesies to the Ministry? My guess is that they magically appear there whenever one is uttered (as opposed to educated or uneducated guesses). So, it wouldn’t matter if she was alone. For example, Harry was the only witness to the return of Voldemort prophesy and he didn’t extract it. By the time they would have gotten him to the Ministry, it would have been a degraded memory. I can’t imagine they would allow that many prophesies to be lost.
I’ll come out at say what I’ve been holding in the last bunch of weeks re: Hermione and Ron. I am quite sure some of the defences of Hermione can be pinned down directly to the fact that a lot of people here, including the re-reader, identify strongly with Hermione. Nerdy people with social issues who were likely picked on as kids. It skews viewpoints greatly because they see themselves in her, and therefore are less likely to find any fault in her (Some of the more ludicrous “Ron is a meany when he’s wrong but Hermione is just being Hermione” arguments spring to mind).
Ron’s character might be the most “real” of the three. He’s poor, he’s in an awkward position where he’s both over-mothered and under-appreciated. He isn’t one of the two older boys who seem “cool” and are the elders to boot, he isn’t one of the twins who have each other as a support unit, and he lacks the distinction of being the youngest who is the only daughter anyway. He hangs around with a hero and a genius. He has forever been second fiddle, so it’s really easy to see where his almost neurotic insecurity comes from. He more than any of the three has to fight himself, and that’s an exhausting battle. He makes mistakes, and he has issues, but he has to eat crow on a steady diet throughout the series. He is more redemptive than any of the others by far. Hermione is much less complex and every bit as self-focused.
I can say this, because I WAS Hermione. I moved around as an Airforce brat. I was usually the top student in not only my class but my school. I was always giving all the answers in class, raising my hand and going on to teachers. Her entire MO is close to a carbon copy of mine. Just like Hermione, this did not endear me to my classmates. It took a lonely few years to realize a few things. I was not enriching anyone’s experience. I was showing off half the time and it showed. I was often wasting the classes time. In retrospect, half my teachers found me an exhausting distraction. Even though I felt like I was proving myself, I really wasn’t. I eventually got over it. I learned there was a time and place for that kind of thing, and it wasn’t everywhere and every time. If I really wanted to talk to the teacher, I did it after class. I still worked hard and “showed off” in my assignements papers and tests. I learned how to be more personable and not drive people away. I still did nerdy self-directed research in my own time. I still tried to learn and expand my horizons. I just figured out how to do it without alienating myself, and I was better for it.
Hermione does tone it down a bit, but at this point, she is still very selfish about all this. She thinks being right and correct trumps almost everything else. It’s arrogant and a poor use of her gifts. Ron is coming from a position of weakness when he’s being a jerk. She’s coming from a postion of strength. My mom got through to me with the line “Discretion is the better part of Valour”. I think Hermione does learn it by the end.
I have nothing against Ron. He’s definitely among my Top 10 characters, but:
“Ron is coming from a position of weakness when he’s being a jerk.”
So what? That might explain it, but it doesn’t excuse it. He treated Hermione badly for several month and got rightfully called out for it by Hagrid. Just like Hermione, he, too, had still a lot of growing up to do. Which isn’t a surprise, of course, since they are only 13 at this point.
I just think, that in this specific situation Hermione is in the right.
Really nice tat! I really have to get myself a HP one, one of these days!
@5 and @10 I have a Kushiel tat! It’s “Love as thou wilt” with a parchment frame. You can see it on my tumblr:
http://pottergeekelyn7.tumblr.com/post/98819346113/tattoolit-love-as-thou-wilt-from-kushiels
Oh my God, I would love to read a Kushiel reread! I should write an email to Tor to sugget it. Or maybe the sister site, Heroes and heartbreakers would be more appropriate.
I like Owlay’s questions, even though I don’t reply, because they make me think about stuff I hadn’t thought about.
I look at the Ron/Hermione situation like this: they both behaved childishly. Being that they are both children, that’s not much of a shock.
@25, Thing is the whole thing with Buckbeak was political, and Hagrid knows better than to get Harry involved in something so blatantly political, he’s just a kid.
@33 I do think that Hagrid deliberately did not use Harry, but feel that it is more likely because there is no way any teacher would take him away from Hogwarts and the perceived protection that he had there.
Ok, I just noticed that the Hogwarts admission letter said that students could “also bring and owl OR a cat OR a toad.” Somehow, Ron got away with bringing a rat, which doesn’t appear to have been allowed.
@35: I saw an explanation for this in a fan-fic which held a reasonable amount of water.
The suggestion was that this construction limits students to only one of those three animals, as opposed to forbidding others. So if you have an owl, you can’t also have a cat.
If you think about it, we see or are told of many pets which are none of those three: Lee’s tarantula, for example, and Percy’s Scabbers. You would have thought that Percy would be the last student to be found breaking rules, and he’s not worried about keeping his brothers in line (or at least, attempting to) so it must be permissible to have a rat. I’m guessing we just don’t see that part of the Rules & Regulations.
I can’t deny that’s a possible reading, but it’s far from the most natural one.
Do we know if Percy brought Scabbers to Hogwarts?
I don’t know whether it’s stated explicitly, but he swaps Scabbers for Hermes when he’s made Prefect, which implies that he took Scabbers.
Having said that, I don’t recall any indication that Gred or Forge brought any pet (and we simply have no information about Bill and Charlie) so it’s always possible that Scabbers stayed at home: maybe Percy was too embarrassed to take such a poor excuse for a pet to Hogwarts, he does seem the most worried about his dignity.
(I assume we’re saving until the relevant chapter the Fridge Horror of realising that Peter—an adult male and a marked Death Eater—had the run of the Burrow right up until Ginny became a teenager, or did I already miss that?)
Fantastic tattoo!
I also skim through Owlay’s questions – sometimes they aren’t relevant to my thoughts but sometimes the are.
It’s funny that this is my favorite book of the Potter books because I kind of hate time travel. Was Buckbeak ever actually executed? Was there a ‘fist time’ this time loop ever occurred? What were the trio actually hearing that time?
On a readerly level, I love Hermione slapping Draco, but on a more adult level…not so much, as I hate to be one of those ‘violence is okay if the person really deserves it’ kind of people.
Great insights onto both Ron and Hermione’s characters. I definitely had shades of Hermione growing up too by the commenters above.
What if Hermione is hiding what her real fear was? Maybe? I don’t know. Earlier in the year the boys completely shut her out so what if it was rejection/invalidation in some form?
Once again I am later to the party – but I am catching up!
I always figured that Tralawney’s predictions were triggered by being near a powerful wizard (or witch, let’s not be sexist). The first one was in Dumbledore’s presence – and he is considered one of the most powerful living wizards in the world. The second is in front of Harry – and while Harry doesn’t excel like Dumbledore did, he is clearly fairly powerful or he wouldn’t survive in the later books. Besides, at this point Harry’s power is actually equal to Harry plus a smidge of Voldemort (who is considered the second most powerful living wizard, at least).
The tat is awesome! And I love reading the comments (all of them) because they often raise questions that never even occurred to me before. I am really enjoying the reread – I am so glad I found it!
I’m horrendously late to the reread, but – since I’d already determined to reread after watching all 8 movies right after New Years – I’m jumping in. I’m not sure how it hit me the first (half-dozen or so) times that I read this one, but this most recent time through PoA, I was incredibly sad about quidditch being almost a non-entity in the movies, in particular because of the scene at the very end of the championship chapter. For all that it is a distraction and could (and rightfully does in the movies) get cut, that moment, with Wood in tears as they hand the trophy to him was profoundly powerful. Of course, that might be because, despite my lack of aptitude for it, I played soccer all through my high school years and us winning districts my senior year after not having pulled it off the previous four…. HUGE STINKIN’ DEAL especially for nerdy old me.