CoS Is important/Ron's wand

[blpurdom at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 27390

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Deeblite <deeblite at h...> wrote:
> At 03:57 PM 10/9/01 +0000, you wrote:
 What exactly is it that causes so many people
> >not to like CoS?  Is it the characterization, the ending, the plot,
> >something else?  Can anyone put their finger on it?   
> 
> Out of the 4 books, CoS seems to have the least impact on the 
> ongoing story.    Its almost as if you could leave it out entirely 
> without disrupting the flow of the overall story- just say nothing 
> major happened in Harry's second year.

Au contraire big time!  Someone else already mentioned the revelation 
of Harry being a Parselmouth; he also discovers why he was in 
Gryffindor and not Slytherin; there is the hint that he may have 
received other abilities from Voldemort's attempted murder besides 
the Parselmouth thing; he copes with being unpopular; he receives the 
sword of Godric Gryffindor and phoenix tears from Fawkes by 
demonstrating his loyalty to Dumbledore (I believe this will be 
important again in OotP); we found out about Tom Riddle's school days 
and the reason for Hagrid's expulsion; the list goes on.  Dobby was 
also important and will be more so, probably, as the series goes on 
and the status of non-human magical creatures will likely be 
addressed again (some of them will probably take sides in the 
oncoming battle between good and evil). 

This book is more full of dei ex machini than the others, but one 
that is somewhat neglected is Ron's broken wand.  His wand is broken 
during the crash of the Anglia into the Whomping Willow, and provides 
comic relief when Ron tries to hex Malfoy and winds up coughing up 
slugs for an afternoon.  The wand then saves them when Lockhart tries 
to use it to put a memory charm on Ron and Harry, with the hilarious 
result being that he instead loses HIS memory.  

How did Ron make it through his second year with a malfunctioning 
wand?  It seems unlikely that he wouldn't flunk with sub-par 
equipment like this; clearly the whole purpose of the wand being 
broken to begin with was to have Lockhart's spell backfire at the 
end, but in the meantime, it paints a rather implausible picture of 
Ron's second year.

--Barb