UnFunny Things; Perspective; Chapter 37 Comments - LONG

Mon Apr 9 17:24:01 UTC 2001

No: HPFGUIDX 16155

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Chained By Freedom <screamingsilence at g...> 
wrote:
> That, and just the image of Moody(even if it is the imposter) 
> turning Draco into a ferret...I just get this hilarious image of a 
> white ferret being bounced like a basketball, squeaking like a 
> squeak toy every time it hits the floor *starts giggling* How can 
> someone NOT find that funny???

I have to admit, on my first read, I did. But the second time, 
knowing who "Moody" was, oh, I did *not* laugh. I found it 
horrifying - given what we know about Crouch Jr - he's someone who 
would torture 2 people until they were insane, he spent time in 
Azkaban which probably unhinged him further, he is sorely disapointed 
that Voldemort didn't torture every single Death Eater - I just saw 
this as an indication that DaDA class was probably HELL for the 
Slytherins that year - and that Crouch Jr really wanted to make the 
Malfoys suffer. He hates them - all those Death Eaters who walked 
free - he says so to Harry multiple times - and this transfiguration 
is just a physical manifestation of that hatred - directed against a 
*fourteen* year old who has, to the best of our knowledge, *never* 
personally seriously physically injured anyone else. Even in GoF, 
when he had the opportunity to curse Harry, and, btw, *did*, what did 
he do? A tooth growing curse (when Harry sent *boils* back at him) - 
<sarcasm on> Oh, my that's scary and dangerous and full of dark magic 
<sarcasm off>. 
Pathetic. That's what I think of Crouch, and to be honest, what I 
thought of Draco in the end of GoF as well. Ebony wrote
> 
> All joking aside, I would have been more angry if there had not 
> been some sort of physical retaliation at Draco's words.  Heidi 
> does a great job explaning the method behind Draco's 
> "madness" in her fanfiction SoC, but just thinking of pure canon, I 
> always thought his remarks on the train scene were among his 
> dumbest.  No wit there at all.
> "Mudbloods" and "Muggle-lovers" seem to pack the same nasty 
> emotional punch that the "word that starts with n and rhymes 
> with figure" carries in the United States.  (Which makes me 
> wonder if underprivileged Muggle-borns call themselves 
> Mudbloods as an insidious form of self-hatred.)

I absolutely agree with Ebony here. it's pathetic. It is just 
purposeless and silly and nonsensical, and if he was warning them he 
handled it so badly he deserved to get cursed (and thanks Pippin for 
at least mentioning that possibility) and if he was threatening them 
he handled it so badly, not having his wand out and all, that he 
deserved to get cursed. If he'd at least had his wand out, it 
would've felt ominous (and it would've been fun for Harry, etc. to 
hide it so they'd have a time of finding it after they woke up). But 
as it is, upon rereads of it, all it makes me think about is (a) What 
would Draco be like without his spies (Crabbe & Goyle) around him 
(and by spies, I mean, they spy on HIM and report back to lucius; and 
(b) does Draco have any idea what an insult "Mudbloods" is - I have a 
little backstory on this which basically takes place after Ron's Slug 
curse backfires, which involves Draco asking other Slytherins, "What 
did I say?" and  a Gryffindor Quidditch player interjecting, "You 
called her a Mudblood!" and him replying, "Yeah, so? Her parents are 
Muggles, she's a witch, so she's a Mudblood. What of it?" and one of 
the Gryffs saying "It's a horrible insult! (etc)", then Draco writing 
home and asking Lucius, who says, "No it's not, it's the same as 
saying somebody is tall or short. It's just a fact about them." And 
of course, Draco believes Lucius...I see Draco as being very clueless 
about the world, and having grown up like a hothouse plant - very 
insulated, everything he reads & everyone he meets, until he gets to 
Hogwarts, pretty closely screened - and even at Hogwarts, within 
Slytherin, none of them are likely to contradict his use of a term 
like that. He doesn't use the word at all in PoA (I checked!) and in 
GoF, only uses it twice - once against Hermi, and then here on the 
train. And even I can't quite figure out why... Maybe Cassie will 
have some food for thought on this.

Eb also wrote
> 1)  What happened to Ron Week?  I'm really disappointed that 
> we didn't have a chance to discuss that character more.  (And 
> surprised that his devoted fans didn't moan about his lack of 
> coverage compared to Hermione's.)  Could we push back Harry 
> Week a bit so that Ron can get the attention he ::cough!:: 
> deserves?  

Um, ditto. Especially since I've heard there was an interesting Ron 
discussion yesterday in chat which I *really* am sorry to have 
missed...Come on, Ron-people! Start talking him up!

Ebony also wrote: (Stop! Come back! Don't hide from little me!)
> However, we see this particular world through Harry's glasses, like 
> it or not.
> 
> If we can't trust his take on things, who can we trust?
> 
> *hides from Heidi*
I do trust Harry's take on things, in general. However, I do believe 
that as far as Draco goes, Harry's perspective is not 100% accurate 
because (a) Draco so badly blundered the Friends Making moments on 
the train and in the robe shop, and (b) Harry looks at Draco and sees 
Dudley - a blond with a superiority complex - and I think the two in 
combination make it impossible for Harry to see Draco with an 
unbiased eye - just as it makes it impossible for Harry to see Snape 
with an unbiased eye. In PS/SS, for example, everything Snape is 
described as doing is colored by Harry's belief that he's the Bad 
Guy. It doesn't really *end* completely, although it is lessened in 
the later books. And likewise, everything Draco does in all 4 books 
is colored by Harry's belief that he is just a bad little kid. Plus, 
we don't see what is going on in the World of Draco when Harry isn't 
there - other than the 1 scene in CoS, where Draco makes two things 
clear: (a) He doesn't like Weasleys (yeah? so?); and (b) he has *no 
idea* what's going on with the Chamber of Secrets although he 
suspects that his father might. Might have an idea, I mean - 
not "might have something to do with it" - we *know* the latter is 
true in the end of Book 2, but we don't know if Draco knows exactly 
what Lucius was up to. We can conjecture that he did, but we can't 
prove that it was made public - I actually get the impression from 
the Quidditch World Cup that even Fudge doesn't know - WHY else would 
he introduce Malfoys and Weasleys that way? (introduce Ginny Weasley 
to Lucius Malfoy, more or less? UGH!) If he knows and is still really 
*that* insensitive, then he's worse than I thought.