CHAPDISC: HBP11, Hermione's Helping Hand

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 148975

<snip great summary>
> Questions: 
<snip> 
> Nonverbal spells are now expected, although Harry notes that others
are having as much trouble as he is.  Could this be a part of the
reason Snape is later annoyed by Harry's inability to cast them by the
end of the book?

Carol:
Absolutely. Harry is supposed to excel at DADA, yet he's no better at
nonverbal spells at the end of the year than he is at the beginning?
Of course Snape is annoyed with him, just as he was annoyed with him
for not trying in Occlumency. After all, if Harry is the Chosen One
(and Snape surely knows that he is), he needs to learn nonverbal
spells, and fast.

  
> Did Hermione do her Confundus on Cormac nonverbally?  Do we 
> ever see Ron do one?  What do you think of Hermione's casting the 
> Confundus?

Carol:
Hmm. She could have whispered it and it would have gone unheard in all
the noise. If she's mastered nonverbal spells already, she's learned
them awfully fast, and the chapter implies that the rest of the class
is having as much trouble as Harry at this point. Also, of course,
DADA is (supposed to be) Harry's forte, not Hermione's. So I'd give a
tentative "no" to that one. And I don't remember Ron's successfully
casting a nonverbal spell at any point (his problems casting the spell
in this chapter provoke Snape into pointing his own wand at Harry,
resulting in the Protego that Snape criticizes for being verbal). And
Ron later has trouble learning Apparition (also nonverbal). But since,
unlike Harry, he's not hung up on whatever Draco is up to with Snape's
"help" in HBP, it's possible that he's mastered nonverbal defensive
spells by the end of HBP. (I'm sure that Hermione has!) 

As for Hermione's casting the Confundus Charm, it certainly wasn't
ethical, but she likes Ron and Cormac is a jerk, so her doing so is at
least understandable if not justifiable (and better for the team in
the long run, not that she cares about that). I suppose the Confundus
is Hermione showing her Slytherin side again (as she did with the
Polyjuice Potion back in CoS), a parallel to Harry showing his
Slytherin side in using the HBP's Potions hints and (later) getting
the memory from Slughorn. I don't approve, exactly, since it amounts
to the end justifying the means, but I like her caring enough about
Ron to help him get where he needs and wants to be. (I'm actually more
concerned about Harry's claiming credit for someone else's work. At
least in this instance, Hermione is helping someone other than
herself. I know, I know. Double standard here, and she's been helping
Ron and Harry with their homework all along, so she's a bit of a
hypocrite for criticizing Harry for using the HBP's improvements. I
guess all of them need to get their priorities straight--or would if
developing their Slytherin side weren't necessary in the war against LV.)
> 
> Stan Shunpike is arrested.  Other than the trio's say-so, do we have
any evidence that he is actually innocent?  <snip>

Carol responds:
What we've seen of Stan Shunpike seems to indicate that he's not very
bright, that he's star-struck (by Harry's celebrity status), and that
he's susceptible to manipulation (his reaction to the Veelas, which
seems to be shared by other young men, including, disturbingly, Ron),
but we certainly have no evidence of evil intentions on his part. Nor
have we ever seen him use a wand (speculation has it that he was never
educated at Hogwarts or flunked out early). I doubt that he has the
power or the will to cast an Unforgiveable Curse (unless being
Imperioed could give it to him, which I doubt but can't prove).
However, as CMC has pointed out, he *is* prone to exaggerated boasting
(under the influence of the Veelas' spell), so the Aurors probably did
overhear him making some highly suspicious remark. I'd say that JKR
chose to have Scrimgeour's men arrest the least likely "Death Eater"
she could think of to show how desperate they are to redeem themselves
after Fudge's blunder of maintaining that "Voldy-thing" had not
returned. So while I don't always trust the narrator, or Harry's
perspective, I don't see any reason to doubt them here.
> 
> Cormac <snip> says that he didn't try out last year due to eating a
pound of doxy eggs on a bet and being hospitalized.  One of our
brighter listees (and I wish I could remember who so I could give
credit) wondered once if F&G hadn't made that bet to help Ron.  We did
see them with doxy eggs, and it seems in their nature.  Do you think
they did this?  Would Cormac have made the team last year instead of Ron?
> 
Carol:
I do think that F and G tricked Mclaggen into eating the doxie eggs:
it's perfectly in character and they did have the doxie eggs in their
possession. (It's one of those little details that we're supposed to
remember, like young Severus Snape's handwriting or the unopenable
locket, planted into the narrative, only not as important.) But I
don't think that he would have made the team if he'd tried out because
either the Twins or Hermione or his own arrogance would have
undermined him. (Besides, JKR didn't want him messing up the plot.)

> There is lots of SHIPping foreshadowing in this chapter: 
Ron/Lavender, Ron/Hermione, Cormac/Hermione.  I don't have any real
questions, but feel free to comment, remembering to use the SHIP
prefix if it is a SHIPping post as per our rules ;o)

No SHIPing prefix here because it's just a hasty comment: I wouldn't
call Cormac/Hermione a SHIP. She's just using him to make Ron jealous
and he's just interested in, well, let's be nice and call it making
out. (Showing my age, sorry. "Snogging," to use the Briticism.) And
Ron/Lavender comes out of nowhere with the Fanged Frisbee incident.
(Wasn't it Parvati, not Lavender, who was supposed to "beware a
red-headed 'man'"?) As for Ron/Hermione, it's been foreshadowed since
GoF at least. I found it all very annoying, really.

Carol