CHAPDISC: HBP7, The Slug Club

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 145909

> >>AnitaKH:
> CHAPTER DISCUSSIONS: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,       
> Chapter 7, The Slug Club
> <snip>
> 1. This is the beginning of what will be a year-long obsession    
> with Draco for Harry.  In hindsight, what does this reveal about  
> Harry's powers of discernment?

Betsy Hp:
I think Harry has good instinct, but lousy follow-through.  He 
cottons on the fact that Draco is up to something (which is fairly 
obvious considering what he's seen) but he fails to see the activity 
going on *around* Draco.  Draco drops tons of clues, as does 
Dumbledore, that what Draco is up to has quite a bit of depth to 
it.  Draco is not just a happy little Death Eater in training.  I 
think this insight coupled with his blindspot regarding Draco's 
humanity is what leads to Harry being petrified on the compartment 
floor, completely at Draco's mercy.  (Of course, Hermione and Ron 
are even more blind than Harry, so relatively speaking, Harry's 
doing well. <g>)
 
> 2. The Aurors in the scene are men we have never seen before.  Is 
> this done to highlight the changes at the Ministry of Magic, or is 
> there some more sinister reason?

Betsy Hp:
Scrimgeour has his own resources, and I'm not sure he's as easy to 
play as Fudge was.  Didn't he start asking Kingsley some rather 
uncomfortable questions in OotP?  I have a feeling Scrimgeour has a 
good idea of who on his team is in Dumbledore's pocket.  (Thank 
goodness for super-spy!Percy. <g>)                  

> 3. Compare this train scene with the early train scene in OOP.     
> How do his feelings toward Neville and Luna compare in the two    
> scenes?  What does this scene do for our understanding of the     
> Harry in HBP?    
> 4. In this chapter, Harry spends time with people of two very     
> different rungs on the social ladder: the Slug Club -v- Neville   
> and Luna (whose lack of popularity is touched upon several times   
> in this chapter: Romilda's comments, DA being a source of Luna's   
> only friends, Neville's own grandmother's wish for Harry as a     
> grandson etc.).  Discuss Harry's very different opinions of the   
> two social circles.

Betsy Hp:
Harry has not made, and does not make, friends easily.  He's 
remarkably unaware of even the names of students outside of his 
social circle (even those in his own House, even those in his own 
class).  It's not that he's a snob (though to an outsider it 
probably comes across that way) but he doesn't trust easily.  Both 
Luna and Neville have shown themselves trustworthy -- to a point.  
And they're both humble enough to not challenge Harry's view of 
himself.  They are both still missing something, though.  Because 
while Harry likes them, I don't think he sees them as his mates.

Interestingly enough, I didn't really see the Slugclub consisting 
of "popular" children.  Not within the school hierarchy anyway.  
Slughorn was looking for children with *adult* connections, or the 
possibility of future adult connections.  So he was judging the 
students from a different standard than the children judged 
themselves.  Actually, the most "popular" students at the luncheon, 
per Hogwarts standards, were Harry and Ginny (per Pansy and Blaise), 
I think.

> >>(question 4 continued):
> What about Draco's perception of where he is on the social ladder? 
> (the attempt to impress that seemingly was trigger by being       
> snubbed by Slughorn, his relationship with Pansy who seems        
> determined to form some kind of attachment to him, etc.)

Betsy Hp:
Oh, I'd say the attachment with Pansy is formed.  A sixteen year old 
doesn't lounge in the lap of a girl he's not made some sort of claim 
on in front of his male friends.  Actually, I'd say Pansy and Draco 
have probably been a couple for a year or two now, starting with the 
Yule Ball in GoF.

What struck me as interesting in this scene is that Draco may not 
have the Malfoy connections anymore (his connections in the adult WW 
that Slughorn would be interested in).  But his "Draco" connections 
are doing just fine.  He's still the prince of Slytherin as it were, 
despite the family scandal.  There had been a question as to Draco's 
status within Slytherin House with his father in Azkaban after 
OotP.  But it seems his status is unaffected.  So I think, rather 
than trying to regain status with his Death Eater assignment hints, 
Draco was mainly regaining his role as center of attention.

> 5. Neville mentions that his wand may have been the last          
> Ollivander sold before he vanished.  Do you think this is one of   
> those throwaway lines that will be significant later?  How?    
> 6. What is the composition of Neville's wand, and will it be      
> important?

Betsy Hp:
I'd love to visit with Ollivander again, so here's hoping for some 
significance!  And Neville's cherry wood wand with its unicorn hair 
core tells me that he's most likely to survive in a slasher flick, 
but may need to step wearily if a human sacrifice rite is brought 
up. <eg>
   
> 7. Luna comes up with yet another – er – quirky creature.  What    
> are the chances that Luna's wacky creatures will be proven real?  
> And if so, which ones?

Betsy Hp:
My only interest in this is if somehow Luna proves Hermione wrong 
about something.  It'd be a funny scene and would probably do 
Hermione some good.
    
> 8. As we learn about each student's connections during Slughorn's 
> luncheon party, whose story, if any, do you suppose will prove to 
> be important in book 7?

Betsy Hp:
Belby maybe.  I was a bit surprised his uncle invented the Wolfsbane 
potion.  I've been totally corrupted by fanfic, I know, but really, 
with Snape and now Lily do we really *need* another potions genius? 
(Idle speculation: maybe Lily invented it and Uncle Damocles stole 
it?)  
     
> 10. We see that Pansy and Draco seem to be a couple, based on this 
> scene.  Will this have any significance in the future?  (oh, like, 
> say, Pansy's is Draco's hideout or something
)

Betsy Hp:
I doubt it.  I'll be surprised if Pansy is fleshed out any further, 
especially since JKR is not a romance writer.  At all.  I think the 
significance of their relationship is the fact that Draco is 
unselfish enough, human enough, to have a steady girlfriend.  
Apparently, he's got more emotional maturity than Ron -- per 
Hermione, anyway <g>.  Personally, after reading about the hell 
Draco goes through in HBP, I'm glad he's got Pansy there to give him 
a bit of comfort now and again.
   
> 11. I find the end of this chapter difficult to read, wishing at   
> an emotional level that Harry would use more caution. Harry's     
> impulsiveness has gotten him into scrapes before, and he once     
> again takes a chance and loses.  How do you think this tendency    
> will play out?  (Curiosity killed the cat or caution makes cowards 
> of us all?)

Betsy Hp:
I never really worried that Harry was in a huge amount of danger 
from Draco.  I did think Harry was foolish to underestimate Draco, 
but I was so thrilled to see Draco prove Harry a fool that I wasn't 
really bemoaning Harry's mistake.  What is interesting, to me 
anyway, is that we later learn that the person in the most danger in 
this scene is Draco.  From what Dumbledore said on the Tower, any 
untoward attention paid to Draco would end in his and his family's 
death.  An immediate detention for assulting "the Chosen One" would 
have probably been labled as such. 

Good questions!

Betsy Hp