OOP:Potions master, Lucius, characterisat, Harry/Snape, Wormtail, sayings, Percy

[Debbie]

No: HPFGUIDX 62649

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Rane wrote:
> It says, also, that Lucius Malfoy is 41. Which does definitely mean 
> he was in school with Snape - but were they in the same year? As I 
> recall, JKR said at some point that Snape was 35 or 36, but I have 
no 
> idea when she said that. The only way they could have been in the 
> same year is if Snape was 36 in book 1. Though I suppose I can very 
> well see a younger Severus running after the elder Malfoy.
> 
> Taryn wrote:
> I looked it up, and that was in a chat in 2001, which is after GoF. 
So I guess the assumption would be Snape was 35 or 36 in GoF and 36 
or 37 in OotP. So Lucius should have about four or five years on 
Snape.

Me:
This is definitely the reason JK put Lucius' age in. I don't recall 
anyone else's age being defined (adult-wise), but just Lucius. And we 
knew Snape's age from before. So now we have the connection between 
Snape & Lucius attending school together. Hmmm... there has to be a 
reason why Snape is so good to Draco. Is it because he feels guilty 
about spying on his father? Or were Snape & Lucius friends? Well, I 
kinda doubt that. Snape being poor and Lucius being mega-rich. And 
now we know that Lucius does NOT work at the Ministry. I always 
thought he was more Warren Buffett-ish.

Perhaps Snape did tag after Lucius? Although, if Snape did know all 
those hexes and spells before starting Hogwarts, I can see why Lucius 
would be attracted to being friends with him/DE.


> 
> Was anyone else cheering when Malfoy finally got landed in Azkaban? 
I 
> mean, all right, he probably won't be staying there long, but can 
you 
> just imagine fancy Mr. Malfoy in a dank, dark cell in Azkaban? The 
> mere thought sends me into a fit of laughter. What a pity the 
> Dementors couldn't stay just a while longer. :-p
> And I suppose he can't exactly walk right back into Malfoy Manor 
now, 
> everybody will no doubt be watching. (Though I don't doubt that 
> Malfoy has his ways to get in without attracting attention, either.)
> 

Me:
OOOhhh... this is going to be interesting. Someone wrote earlier that 
Lucius is now considered a thief and is no longer a pillar of 
society. Even when he breaks out (and he better), how is life going 
to treat him? And how is Draco going to react to the way society will 
treat him? As I said before, the next book, Draco will be the angry 
young man. Although, really, what's his role now? Harry's not scared 
of him and could easily beat him in a showdown. I guess that's why 
his role has diminished. Seems he'll stay evil. Again, it's all about 
choices and not where you're born.

And, no, I wasn't cheering when he went to jail. I still think he'd 
make an awesome MOM. :-) Especially for Voldy.


>I never liked Sirius much, but in OoP, 
> for the first time, he really had my sympathy. Even when he was 
being 
> an utter git. His behaviour fitted much better with someone who has 
> been locked in Azkaban for over ten years than it did in the two 
> previous books. Every time he said something unkind, well, I felt 
> sorry for him. Especially when he told Harry that he wasn't as much 
> like his father as he'd thought. The moment I read it, I hated him 
> for saying something so horrible, but the next, I felt really sorry 
> for him, because it just seemed to show how much he missed James. 
He 
> wanted James back through Harry, and that was just really sad. And 
> though I resented the fact that he wanted Harry to be like James, 
at 
> the same time, I'm rather happy that he died at the moment Harry 
did 
> something James surely would have done - breaking into the MoM to 
> save Sirius. I'm sure that at that moment, Sirius must have been 
> very, very proud of Harry, even if he probably was also very angry 
> with him for getting lured in. It felt like a small comfort to me, 
> that Sirius did find his best friend back in his Godson at the time 
> that he died. I can't help but think he might have got very 
> disappointed in Harry later on, if he got to see more of him, and 
> noticed just how different he was from James. So in a way, this was 
> kind of like a good ending for me, even if I did feel very sorry to 
> see Sirius die.


Me:
Thank you!!!! 
"It felt like a small comfort to me, 
> that Sirius did find his best friend back in his Godson at the time 
> that he died...So in a way, this was 
> kind of like a good ending for me, even if I did feel very sorry to 
> see Sirius die."

Your above lines really help me with his death. I really appreciate 
it. I just couldn't see any reason, but now I see goodness where I 
saw a jerk. :-)


> And James. evil!James Potter. Woohoo! I loved that. Well, not quite 
> evil, but close enough. Like someone else (again, I forgot who), I 
> was really getting fed up with the way James always got portrayed 
as 
> the perfect little boy - both in canon and in fanfiction. 

Me:
Yes! Evil!James! He's only human too, although more Slytherin-ish. 
Wonder if the Sorting Hat had a hard time with him too?


>Not to mention Sirius' remark - 
> what was it? Stop it before Wormtail wets him pants? Well, that was 
> really cruel. But I suppose we already suspected Sirius was less 
than perfect, too.

Me:
I couldn't believe this line! It seemed more like fanfic to me than 
JK. She's showing us how cruel the teen years really are.


> On the one hand, I too was sorry we didn't get more of a reaction 
> from Lupin when Sirius died, but actually, the fact that it said 
> that "Lupin spoke as if every word caused him pain" (paraphrasing), 
> and nothing more, made me even more sad. It was his quiet grief 
that 
> really touched me, more than any dramatic scene would have. At the 
> moment when Sirius died, it really wasn't Harry I felt sorry for, 
but 
> Lupin. Standing there, trying to hold Harry back, trying to stay 
calm 
> and collected. That hurt. More than Harry's frantic behaviour. 

Me:
Again, thanks. Guess I read too fast to catch this. Was wondering 
about Lupin. He seems more real now than Sirius did.


> Well, and then there's Snape, of course. I was really happy to find 
> out he isn't some rich boy, and that he has, indeed, suffered in 
the 
> past. I really liked the way JKR managed to make him be such an 
> utterly horrible git and at the same time so - well, pitiable, 
> especially in the past. Though I'm sure he has probably done less 
> than kind things to MWPP, too. His horrible behaviour towards Harry 
> stopped me from feeling *too* sorry for him, but at the same time, 
he 
> gained a lot of sympathy from a lot of readers, I'm sure... 
> Like others, I'm wondering why, precisely, this would be his worst 
> memory. Of course, we only saw a part of it, and I would be very 
> curious to know what happened next. And then, there's the two other 
> memories he placed in it, of course. Still. Some people seem to 
think 
> it's his worst memory because of Lily's role in it. Quite possible. 
> Personally, the thing that really hit me was the greying underwear. 
> As someone else pointed out, this is probably a sign that he isn't 
> very rich - I certainly took it that way. So then, after a while, I 
> started thinking that perhaps *this* is what makes the event so 
> humiliating. Maybe nobody is quite aware what Snape's finances are, 
> and, well, the greying underwear made that a little obvious. For as 
> far as we know, there don't seem to be many poor Slytherins. 
> Slytherins, on the contrary, seem to be looking down on people's 
> poverty - I'm taking Draco/Ron as an example here, though I suppose 
> the Malfoy family could just be particularly annoying like that. I 
> wonder how Malfoy Sr. treated Snape. 

Me:
Yes, the gray underwear made me think he was poor too. I thought that 
might be the reason for the embarrassment. Again, I too wonder if it 
was because of Lily being there. I'm not a Lily/Snape shipper, but I 
do wonder about it.


>Snape actually 
> threw a jar at Harry's head. I couldn't believe that. As horrible 
as 
> that action might seem, it was that perhaps most of all, which 
showed 
> Snape's vulnerability. He attacked a student. I've never seen him 
lose it 
> like that. Even with Sirius in the Shrieking Shack, he merely 
> threatened the guy with his wand, and managed to restrain himself 
> from doing actual damage. 

Me:
Yes - Snape attacked a student! Unbelievable!


> The only thing I can find that might 
> indicate him mellowing out a little, is the scene in which he 
catches 
> Harry with his wand pointed at Draco, with Harry saying he's trying 
> to decide which curse to throw at the other boy. It says in the 
book 
> that Snape stares at him. Not glares, not sneers, but for one 
moment 
> apparently simply *stares*. And his reaction really isn't all that 
> malicious; not by Snape's standards anyway. He only takes ten 
points. 
> Which is really little considering Harry was actually planning on 
> *attacking* a student. And admitted as much rather defiantly. 

Me:
Yes, another surprise. I must have been dozing during some of these 
scenes not to catch all this (I did read it in 12 hours straight).

Snape just staring.... my thought is that maybe he finally realized 
Harry is not like James at all. Here was Harry finally acting like 
James, and it make Snape realize that all this time, he was never 
really like his father.

I did like it that Harry admitted planning on hexing Draco defiantly.

 
> On the whole, I really adored the book, though. I've heard several 
> people say (not necessarily on this list) that it looked too much 
> like fanfiction. Well I suppose there just are so many fanfictions 
> there isn't much JKR could find that hasn't already been tried out 
in 
> some way. 

Me:
I'm one of them. :-) My surprise at it seeming a little like fanfic 
is that I have only read a few. And they got pretty close in some 
instances.

Thanks for all your thoughts, Rane/Taryn
-Debbie