CHAPDISC: HBP16, A Very Frosty Christmas

[meriaugust]

No: HPFGUIDX 152690

Snipping of the excellent summation -  
> QUESTIONS
> 1.  Why the heck does Harry never look anything up?  Clearly, he's 
> curious about the Unbreakable Vow.  Why not grab a book?  Why not 
ask 
> the librarian?  

Meri - Because that's what Hermione's for ;-) 
 
> 4. Fred waits to call Percy a prat until after Molly has left the 
> kitchen.  Does this show there is a side to him which cares about 
> others' feelings?  Or does he simply fear the Wrath of Molly?

Meri - All the Weasleys know that the topic of Percy is a tender one 
for Molly and Arthur and with all that is going on, all the stress 
everyone's under, and compounded with the fact that Percy still 
hasn't come around and made nice, Fred is probably keeping his 
feelings to himself to avoind the Wrath of Molly. 
 
> 7.  Who do you think, in the past, has issued invitations to 
Hermione 
> for Christmas at the Burrow?  Do you imagine Hermione invited 
> herself? Ron invited her? Mrs. Weasley? Ginny?  Or that it was 
simply 
> assumed she'd go?  What do you think happened this year?  Was an 
> invitation given and declined? Was it all so awkward between Ron & 
> Hermione that she was not invited at all?

Meri - Hermione has, IIRC, never spent Christmastime at the Burrow 
before (neither had Harry before this, come to that). I had always 
assumed that either Ron or Ginny had extended the invite (or perhaps 
Mrs. Weasley, who might look at her as a surrogate child to some 
extent, though not nearly as much as she does for Harry). This year 
I would imagine that it would be a little awkward at the Burrow with 
all the Hr/R tension, and besides Hermione spent almost all of last 
summer there; she hasn't spent any significant time with her mother 
and father in a long time, so she probably could use a little 
decompression time with her family before jumping back in to all the 
WW stuff she's got to deal with. 
 
> 9.  Many people fault Molly (or Molly & Ginny) for not being warm 
and 
> welcoming with Fleur.  Is there anyone who, to the contrary, finds 
> Fleur's behavior in the Christmas Eve scene to be rude ["Eez eet 
> over?  Thank goodness, what an `orrible--"]?  Or should Molly not 
> have subjected everyone to Celestina Warbeck in the first place?

Meri - Well, this sort of thing happens, doesn't it? It takes some 
time to get used to potential new family members. RW example: my 
sister recently met my cousin's new girlfriend and after only a 
brief meeting had already decided that she "didn't like her". And it 
can be especially difficult from Molly's perspective (seeing her 
oldest son marry) and from Ginny's perspective (the youngest sister 
seeing her oldest and most respected brother marry). They have, 
admittedly, not been the friendliest, but then again Fleur hasn't 
been either. She is extremely critical of the Burrow, the food, the 
weather. This is Fleur's personality but she should at least be 
making an effort to ingratiate herself to her new family, especially 
by accepting and putting up with some of the family's more annoying 
Christmas traditions (in my family it was wearing the Santa hat when 
opening presents). What I really want to know, however, is where 
Bill is on all this? How does he feel about his fiancee and his 
mother and sister being at odds? We don't see much of Bill at all in 
this book (except for his brave fighting at the end). 
> 
> 11.  It is clear, to Lupin anyway, that Harry is *hoping* that the 
> HBP is his father.  This is reinforced by the fact that Harry is 
> disappointed when he checks the book's date and sees it's too old 
to 
> have been his dad's era.  Harry has also previously stated that 
the 
> HBP is a better potions teacher than Snape.  Why does Harry like 
the 
> HBP so much, and why does he *want* him to be his father?  And 
what 
> does all this say about Harry and Snape?  Has something changed in 
> Snape, to have made him truly a lesser teacher now than then?  Or 
is 
> it simply the removal, for Harry, of Snape the person and their 
> unpleasant history from the mix, so that he's seeing "pure 
teaching" 
> in the book and not the personality of the teacher?

Meri - I don't think Harry necessarily wants the HBP to be his 
father; I just think that Harry is still so desperate for some 
connection to his father that he'll see it anywhere he can, and 
getting mysterious lessons from his disembodied father is a little 
more attractive than getting them from a random stranger. And I 
think this really does show that Snape can be a good teacher if he 
approaches it the right way. Harry is in fact learning from Snape 
(oh, irony of ironies), something that has proved nearly impossible 
for the previous five years. And this is, along with the Pensieve 
memories, probably the beginning of Harry's path to understanding of 
Snape. 
 
> 12. Why would werewolves have a better life under Voldemort?

Meri - They might not, but then again it can't get much worse for 
them than it is under Ministry rule. They are unemployable and are 
shunned from civilized communites because of fear and prejudice. As 
long as careful precautions (wolfsbane potion and isolation during 
the full moon) are taken there is no reason why a werewolf might not 
live a relatively normal life, but that is not possible as long as 
anti-werewolf legislation exists. With LV, however, they could be as 
they are and for the more violent werewolves (Greyback for instance) 
who have no desire to acclimate themselves into regular society this 
is a tempting offer. Why should LV care how many werewolves there 
are? And should they ever get out of hand (after they've served and 
done his bidding) he can just kill them off. Maybe this will be part 
of LV's plan in book 7 and we'll get to figure out how this is done 
in the HP-verse. (Just a random question: how well does Remus Lupin 
fit in to the werewolf underground? He's spent his adult life trying 
to fit in to regular society, how can they possibly trust him?) 
 
> 13.  Are you surprised Molly falls for the story that Percy 
couldn't 
> stand to not see his family since they were in the neighborhood?  
Why 
> or why not?

Meri - Not at all surprised. She's desperate to see him, to have her 
family whole again. If Scrimgeour had said that Percy was coming to 
the Burrow to hunt down a herd of Crumple Horned Snorkacks she 
probably would have bought it. 
 
> 14.  Percy could be so many things.  What do you think?  Is he 
good 
> but misguided?  Is he ESE?  Is he just a prat?  What explains his 
> behavior?  Is he embarrassed? proud? ambitious? hurt?

Meri - I can sympathize with Percy a little. He, like Ron, was 
overshadowed by his older brothers (Prefects and Head Boy and 
Quidditch Captain) but was never cool like them and so he never 
really earned the respect of his younger siblings or the 
companionship of the older two. He probably felt trapped by his 
overwhelming family and was looking for a way out, saw one, took it 
and now that he's been proven wrong is finding it hard to take it 
back. I think he's on the side of good, and I think he'll wise up 
before biting the dust in book 7. 
 
> 15.  In the final scene of the chapter, Harry first senses and 
then 
> knows that Scrimgeour is after something, and he is determined not 
to 
> give it to him.  We see a Harry who I would argue is self-
possessed, 
> confident, forceful, and quite "adult" in sticking up for what he 
> believes is right.  Were you surprised at the growth he displayed, 
or 
> was this just exactly what you would have expected from him?  What 
> did you think of Harry in this scene?

Meri - Loved him! He's got a little of Professor McGonagall in him, 
doesn't he? This scene really reminded me of the Minerva/Delores 
scenes from book 5. 
 
> 16.  What do you think of Scrimgeour now? Compare him to Fudge, if 
> you like.

Meri - Compared to Fudge Srimgeour is the "Decider" and he's making 
decisions, alright. But his desire to be seen doing something has 
nothing to do with doing the right thing, and he's again ignoring 
DD's words of wisdome from Cedric's eulogy: there is a difference 
between doing what is right and what is easy and Scrimgeour is still 
doing what is easy. It is easy to arrest people without evidence and 
try and get the Boy Who Lived/the Chosen One to be the MoM 
spokeswizard, but it would be much harder to actually attempt to 
track down real death eaters and to tell the WW that things aren't 
going so well. 

Well done, SSSusan! 

Meri