CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Chapter 29, Career Advice

[meriaugust]

No: HPFGUIDX 115857


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "potioncat" <willsonkmom at m...> 
CHAPTER QUESTIONS:
> 
> 1. Fred and George wouldn't act like that unless they loathed 
> someone
. Lily looked like she loathed James.  JKR tells us
> Sirius 
> loathed Severus and the feeling was mutual.  What is it with all 
> this loathing?

Meri: To me it is just a great English word that we Americans don't 
use often enough. Loathe...it sounds so much more dignified 
than "hate" doesn't it? ;) 

> 2. Harry lets everyone think his bad mood is due to the upcoming 
> O.W.L.s.  But Ginny sees that it is something else.  She advises 
> immediately that he talk to Cho.  But when he tells her the real 
> problem she quickly comes up with a solution for that. What does 
> this say about Ginny? 

Meri: That she's got brains and moxie. Ginny really gets developed in 
this book, and though some people find it out of character I couldn't 
disagree more. She's grown up a bit, gotten over the self-confidence 
problem that she had around Harry, still perhaps harbors an 
unrequetted crush on him, but is ready to live her own life, too. She 
fought so well in the DoM, she really proved herself as better than 
just "Ron's little sister". Ginny is an untapped resource and, 
besides Ron, the only Weasley left at Hogwarts. Now if Harry's ever 
seperated from Ron and Hermione, he's still got allies he can trust. 
 
snip 
> 4. McGonagall schedules Harry's Career Advice during Divination.  
> What does that say about her opinion of Divination?

Meri: That she thinks it's BS. Or maybe she assumed that DU would be 
auditing Divination so that DU couldn't interfere with Harry's 
interview. But then again, maybe the appointments were in 
alpahbetical order or something. For example, I just got my senior 
portrait taken and my sitting was scehduled in the middle on one of 
my classes, so sometimes these things are just random. I know there 
is a prevailing theory that anytime JKR interupts something it turns 
out to be important, but I don't see what that could be here. 

snip 
> 6. Ron wasn't interested in Healer, but notice, the courses 
> McGonagall offers for Auror are almost identical to Healer.  What 
do 
> you think Ron will take?

Meri: Assuming that he lives? Auror. After the spattergroit comment 
from the portrait at St. Mungo's I can't really see him wanting to 
work there.;) 

snip
> 8. McGonagall ignores Umbridge, and pretends to think Umbridge has 
a 
> sore throat.  Then she is scornful of Umbridge's note and quotes 
> Lupin as a better judge of DADA knowledge. What do you think of 
> McGonagall in this situation?

Meri: Other people have said this, and far better than me, but I 
think she's rebelling the only way she can. She's still the Deputy 
Head and can't go outright against Umbridge, but she got her barbs 
in, too, which is something we all wanted to see. How funny was she 
in that scene? I happen to love this part of the book and was glad to 
see someone other than Ron, Hermione or the Weasleys back up Harry 
unquestionably. Plus how is it possible not to be scornful of DU's 
DADA knowledge. We readers know more about the subject than she does! 
(On a side note, MM's competent teacher line must have really stung 
since MM was refering to Lupin the Filthy Half-Breed!)

> 9. Do you think Black and Lupin really listened to Harry?  Did they 
> just dismiss his worries?

Meri: I don't think so. After all, there really wasn't all that much 
time for Harry to talk to them, and a conversation about the good and 
bad qualities of one's late father isn't the kind of conversation 
that you have in that kind of situation (On your knees with your head 
in your evil teacher's fireplace). But they were right: you can't 
judge a person, or shouldn't anyway, by just one little snippet from 
their lives. 
 
snip 
> 11. The twins leave Hogwarts as heroes.  Do you think we'll see 
> these two playing a big role again?

Meri: Please, please, please can we? I hope so. As Harry says at the 
end of GoF, we're gonna need some laughs soon! 

> 12. Your own question here. 

Meri: Just two. 1) If Umbridge's fire is the only one at Hogwarts 
that isn't being monitored by the Floo Regulation Panel that means no 
one else knows who she's talking to. So, who is she talking to that 
she doesn't want anyone to know about? Anyone on the Floo Panel will 
also be loyal to the Ministry or Fudge, so what's she hiding? And 2) 
How freaking awesome was Fred and George's escape? Was that not the 
single coolest scene ever? Was anyone else cheering and jumping up 
and down when that happened? [Awkward silence...] Okay, just me then! 

Meri