CHAPTER DISCUSSIONS: Chapter 10, "Luna Lovegood".

[Kirstini]

No: HPFGUIDX 89155

I've finally finished my chapter summary – apologies for handing it 
in slightly late in the day. I'm very much aware that my questions at 
the end have a rather school-marmish ring to them – I've been doing 
some work as a private tutor, and I'm busy preparing two of my tutees 
for their preliminary exams just now, so I just seem to be thinking 
in that sort of mindset. Sorry `bout that. Please feel free to 
ignore, or come up with your own
Kirstini
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Chapter 10 opens with a description of Harry's dreams the night 
before he leaves for Hogwarts again. He has obviously been very 
affected by both Ron and Hermione becoming prefects and by seeing Mrs 
Weasley with the Boggart, as these feature briefly before his dreams 
shift again to the corridor and the locked door. Harry is woken by 
Ron and rushed out of the house by Mrs Weasley. Everyone is flustered 
and worried that they'll miss the train. We learn that the reason for 
the delay is that Sturgis Podmore hasn't shown up to help guard Harry 
on the way to the station. 
Sirius disobeys Dumbledore's orders and adopts his Animagus form in 
order to accompany Harry. Harry is amused by Sirius' reaction to this 
comparative freedom, and Sirius plays up to this, chasing cats in 
order to make Harry laugh.
When they arrive at Platform 9 ¾, Harry feels re-energised by the 
familiar smell of the steam train, and it hits him that he's really 
being allowed to go back to Hogwarts. However, JKR uses the rest of 
this chapter to confuse both Harry and the reader by disrupting the 
familiar conventions of the journey and turning them against him. 
The Order see the children onto the train. There are the usual 
rumblings of foreboding from Mad-Eye, and Sirius horrifies Mrs 
Weasley by drawing attention to himself on the platform, both when he 
says goodbye to Harry and when he chases the train out of the station.

Once on the train, the first surprise in store for Harry is that Ron 
and Hermione are not going to be sitting with him for most of the 
journey, as they have responsibilities in the Prefects' carriage. 
Harry is left alone with Ginny, who does her best to cheer him along. 
However, Harry's sense of isolation multiplies when he encounters the 
whispers and stares of the other pupils, who have been reading the 
Daily Prophet and believe him to be a liar.

Neville joins them, Ginny persuades the boys to sit in a compartment 
with "Looney Lovegood", and we are introduced to Luna for the first 
time. Although Harry has encountered new adults in all of the other 
books, this is the first time since PS that the readers have been 
formally introduced to a new student character (I'm including Fleur 
and Krum with the adults, and both Cedric and Cho were introduced as 
opponents at Quidditch rather than being studied at length like 
this.). The passage is rather similar to the introduction of 
Professor Lupin in PoA and this, combined with the choice of chapter 
heading, immediately assigns Luna a certain prominence. As is her 
wont, JKR begins with a physical description, honing in on exactly 
what makes Luna stand out – her prominent eyes and odd choice of 
accessories. Harry decides that Luna is "distinctly dotty", and 
understands why Neville was unwilling to sit with her. 
What is particularly interesting about this part of the chapter is 
the impression of *Ginny's* character that we receive. This is the 
first time the reader has been exposed to Ginny without either her 
family or Hermione around, and although the narration is primarily 
focussed on Luna, we discover a lot about Ginny from her reactions to 
Luna as compared to Neville's or Harry's. Although she calls 
Luna "Looney", Ginny is not afraid to be seen with her. She comes 
across as remarkably self-possessed and secure in her own image, 
particularly when contrasted with Harry later in the chapter. I found 
this exchange particularly significant:
" `I'm nobody,' said Neville hurriedly.
   `No you're not,' said Ginny sharply. `Neville Longbottom  - Luna 
Lovegood.'" 
Whether Ginny speaks "sharply" in order to reprimand Neville for 
rudeness or to tell him off for calling himself a "nobody" here, it 
functions to put across a very different image of Ginny from that 
built up in the previous books.
The narration then focuses in on Neville for a time. We are reminded –
 yet again – that Neville is very forgetful, that he has an interest 
in Herbology, and of his unusual family circumstances. He shows off 
his new pet cactus – the Mimbulus Mimbletonia – to Harry, and there 
is a comic moment where he accidentally manages to cover the whole of 
the carriage in Stinksap. This chapter only focuses on the comic 
aspects of Neville's personality, and no mention is made – even in 
passing – of his parents or their tragedy. While the carriage is 
recovering from the Stinksap attack, Cho Chang drops by to see Harry, 
much to his embarrassment. Although the Stinksap is bad enough, Harry 
is also embarrassed to be seen sitting with Neville and Luna rather 
than "a group of very cool people". 

Some time later, Ron and Hermione return from the Prefects' carriage. 
We learn the names of all the new fifth-year prefects, and that Draco 
Malfoy is the male prefect for Slytherin. Ron makes a joke about 
Goyle and Luna reacts with rather disproportionate laughter, which 
confuses Ron. Harry takes this opportunity to flick through Luna's 
magazine, The Quibbler, and reads a story about Sirius moonlighting 
as "singing sensation" Stubby Boardman, and one about Cornelius 
Fudge's nefarious plans for Gringotts and his love of goblin pie. 
Hermione makes a scathing remark about the Quibbler, and Luna, who 
reveals that her father is the editor, takes offence. 

Draco, Crabbe and Goyle pay their bi-annual visit to Harry's 
compartment and the usual stand-off occurs when Draco teases Harry 
about the fact that he isn't a prefect and is second-best to Ron. He 
informs Harry that he'll be "dogging" his footsteps. Only Harry and 
Hermione notice anything significant about his word-choice, and Harry 
panics that Malfoy's father has recognised Sirius. 

We are then given a description of the weather during the train 
journey. In PoA, the sky was dark and cloudy for a time before 
beginning to rain; in GoF, there was heavy rain and a storm. Both of 
these descriptions could be seen as forecasting the events of the 
book to come, and many HPfGU members were anxious to know what the 
weather on the OoP journey would have to say about the events of the 
book. It remains "undecided" – alternating between "half-hearted" 
rain and "feeble" sun before clouding over.

Night falls, the train draws into Hogsmeade, and our intrepid heroes 
disembark. There is some confusion in animal-holding, and the Harry 
encounters a further disruption of his routine, as Hagrid is not 
there to greet them at the station – his familiar shout for "firs' 
years" being undertaken by Professor Grubbly –Plank, the substitute 
teacher from GoF. Harry worries about what might have happened to 
him, but reassure himself that Hagrid must just have a cold. Almost 
immediately after this, Harry is startled to discover that the 
carriages which take the pupils up to Hogwarts are no longer 
horseless.   The Thestrals are described as very eerie, unappealing 
beasts, adding a further note of discord to both Harry and the 
reader's experience. Harry is further isolated from Ron when he 
discovers that Ron can't see them, and ends the chapter in discomfort 
after Luna informs him that she can see them, that they've always 
pulled the carriages, and that he's just as sane as she is. 

With the obvious exception of CoS, where the journey is made in the 
flying Ford Anglia, the chapter detailing the journey on the Hogwarts 
Express is the most consistently similar throughout the books. What 
effects do the disruptions of the familiar have on the reader's 
expectations for the book?
Is there a sense that, by introducing a new character, subverting 
Harry's expectations for the journey, deliberately taking time out to 
describe the weather and spending a lot of time over aspects of the 
story – like Neville's cactus – which might be seen to be deliberate 
red herrings, this chapter seems to be slightly more self-aware than 
the others? Does an awareness of reader expectation pervade the 
chapter?
Have Ron and Hermione been deliberately marginalized in this chapter 
in order to allow the secondary trio of Neville, Ginny and Luna more 
page space in which to develop?
How does this chapter prepare the reader for the major themes of the 
book?
Discuss!