[HPforGrownups] Re: PS/SS vs. CoS: It's A Tie!

[Ladi lyndi]

No: HPFGUIDX 57565


--- GulPlum wrote:
> <snip of reasons for rankings on book 1, 3 and
4>
 
> On to CoS, with which I have huge, major, plot
> issues. 
> 
>  <snip Duelling Club>
>  <snip Harry in Dumbledore's office>
>  <snip Binns> 
>  <snip Moaning Myrtle>
>  <snip of apparent lack of any 
> investigation > 

Lynn:

I am soooo glad to finally hear that someone else
has problems with CoS.  I thought I was the only
one.  I'm very glad it was actually the last of
the HP books I read as I think if I had been able
to read them in order I never would have read PoA
or GoF, which tells you what I thought of it.  I
still have not been able to read it through
completely a second time.  I can only get through
it a section at a time.

How did Dobby know where Harry lived?  Is Harry
in the book?  Did the Weasley's use a route
planner to figure out the flight path to Harry's?
 How could a car revving close to the upstairs
windows and bars being pulled out of the window
not wake the Dursleys but Hedwig's screech would?
 How in the world could Harry forget Hedwig? 
While dashing around the room getting his things
he didn't happen to notice the cage?  I'm only at
Chapter 3 and things are implausible to me.

Enough of all that, to the things mentioned...

The duelling scene between Malfoy and Harry
seemed so contrived to me, just to bring out that
Harry spoke Parseltongue.  I mean really, why
would Snape tell Malfoy to send a snake?  Harry
was supposed to block a spell, not a snake.  Yea,
I know people have said Snape did it to show
Harry was a coward but that's pretty lame to me
as well.  In addition, why were people mad at
Harry?  Draco was the one who summoned the snake,
Lockhart was the one who set the snake off and
the snake was about to strike before Harry said
something, it went docile after.  

We of course know the reason Dumbledore went on
about Fawkes is so Harry and the reader would
know the powers of the phoenix.  Okay. 
Presumably the time it took Dumbledore to get to
the office is because he was dealing with the
Justin situation or perhaps he was going to the
pictures to see if they had noticed anything. (I
wonder if the people in the pictures could be
killed or petrified by the basilisk.  Also, if
Colin's film could be fried, why weren't any
pictures fried?  Did the basilisk purposely not
look at the walls?)  Besides, Harry needed that
time for his interaction with the Sorting Hat so
he could continue to have his doubts.  Why
Dumbledore didn't bring up Harry speaking
Parseltongue is beyond me as well.  It seemed the
perfect time to do it and I agree that if he had,
Harry may have felt more comfortable telling him
about hearing the voice.  Of course, what also
bugs me is knowing that this huge snake is
slithering through the walls talking to itself. 

Yep, Binn's explanation bothered me as well. 
Then again, for someone who can't even be
bothered to learn his students names properly, it
may not be surprising that he doesn't want to be
bothered by anything he doesn't feel is
important.  We don't know how long he had been at
the school.  It is conceivable that he wasn't
there when the Chamber had been opened but then
how would he know it had been searched for over
and over?  Nope, just doesn't make sense to me. 
He was too quick to dismiss the whole thing.

I think it's pretty obvious that Dumbledore does
know more than he's letting on just through this
exchange.

"'It means,' said Dumbledore, 'that the Chamber
of Secrets is indeed open again.'
 
Madam Pomfrey clapped a hand to her mouth. 
Professor McGonagall stared at Dumbledore.

'But Albus...surely...who?'

'The question is not who,' said Dumbledore, his
eyes on Colin.  'The question is, how...'

And from what Harry could see of Professor
McGonagall's shadowy face, she didn't understand
this any better than he did. (CoS, pp. 135-6; UK)

We know from Riddle that Dumbledore had watched
him very closely after Myrtle's death.  It stands
to reason that at some point in all those years
that Dumbledore would have asked Myrtle how she
died and yet, it appears he never bothered. 
Unless he knew how she had died, knew about the
basilisk and for some reason was unable to stop
it.  Why would he think Harry could do better? 
Because Harry could speak Parseltongue and would
supposedly be able to get into the Chamber? 
Isn't that taking a huge risk with Harry's life?

Why didn't he just say, hey Harry, since you can
speak Parseltongue I need you to do me a favor,
let's go to the toilet, find the chamber entrance
and you can open it for me.  Then I'll go down
and take out the basilisk.  Why wait for another
potential death?

It always bothered me that the polyjuice potion
hadn't been discovered.  First, even though none
of the girl's apparently used the toilet, didn't
it ever get cleaned?  Didn't anyone notice a
strange smell coming from the toilet?  If no one
used the toilet how come Myrtle gets flushed out
to sea sometimes?  Why wasn't there a search of
the castle after each attack?  Well, of course
there couldn't be a search, the toilet couldn't
get cleaned, no one used the toilet during this
time and no one noticed a strange smell because
then the polyjuice potion would have been
discovered and we couldn't have that, could we? 

Was the opening in Myrtle's toilet the only way
the basilisk could get out?  Were there other
pipe openings big enough for it?  If there
weren't, why was the basilisk traveling through
the pipes?  Going on it's own holiday?  It makes
no sense to me whatsoever.  

Don't even get me started on the Deathday party.

Lynn
(wondering if this was enough comment for
GulPlum) 


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