CHAPDISC: HBP24, Sectumsempra

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 161245

This was where the book really started to pick up for me.:-)

Carol:
> 2. Lavender and Dean are both jilted in this chapter. What is your
> reaction, if any, to their jealousy and/or suffering? Which one do 
you
> feel is more deserving of sympathy, and why?

Magpie:
They both deserve about equal sympathy, but both of them will get 
over it. 

Carol: 
> 3.  Why does Harry feel that going out with Ginny would be 
disloyal to
> Ron and that he must choose between the two? What do you think 
Ron's
> reaction would have been if Harry had leveled with him?

Magpie:
In OotP I thought Ron's obvious desire for Harry and Ginny to be 
together was frankly strange.  I think he'd have been fine if Harry 
asked him if he could ask Ginny out.  Ron's got parts of his 
personality that are throwbacks to some earlier time. His interest 
in his sister's love life is kind of old-fashioned--not just that he 
cares, but in the way he reacts to it. But then, I think this is a 
Weasley thing and Ginny enjoys her safe rebelling against it. (And 
JKR loves giving her a chance to be all teen-feminist to Ron's 
straight man.) Of course, Harry's not too different from Ron in the 
way he thinks about him when wanting to ask Ginny out.  He considers 
it a betrayal because he wants to "defile" Ginny.  

Carol:> 
> 4. Harry undergoes a number of temptations in this chapter, among 
them
> to try out Sectumsempra on McLaggen and to use Felix Felicis 
either to
> strengthen his chances with Ginny or to help him get into the Room 
of
> Requirement so he can find out what Draco is up to. What do these
> temptations reveal about Harry and about his ability to deal with
> temptation in general? Might they foreshadow a more serious 
temptation
> in Book 7?

Magpie:
I don't think Harry has much trouble with temptation when he knows 
it's wrong.  If he feels something is wrong he usually overcomes 
temptation.  If he's going to have an issue, imo, it's going to be 
with his ability to justify things.  The Prince's spells aren't a 
temptation to Harry, exactly. It's not like he knows they're wrong 
but does them anyway. Nor does he think of himself as giving into 
temptation when he tries out his spells on other people.  He resists 
trying Sectumsempra on MacLaggen not because it's wrong, but because 
he doesn't want Hermione to see him and scold him.  He feels 
perfectly justified in irritating McLaggen.

Carol:
> 
> 5. What was your initial reaction to Draco crying in the "bathroom"
> (restroom) and to Moaning Myrtle comforting him? Did that reaction
> change on a second reading after you understood what Draco was 
trying
> to do? Why or why not? 

Magpie:
I knew what he was being made to do and had been expecting it since 
the hint about some boy crying in the bathroom earlier.  My main 
reaction was one of recognition-Harry discovers Draco crying in the 
bathroom all the time in H/D fics. It just usually leads 
to...different results.

Carol:
> 
> 6.  Were you shocked that Harry would try out Sectumsempra under 
these
> circumstances, especially given the label "For Enemies"? Why or why
> not? What other options, if any, did he have in response to Draco's
> attempted Crucio?

Magpie:
Not at all shocked--once Harry read the spell I was waiting for him 
to use what I thought of as "the razor blade spell" on somebody.  (I 
had mistakenly thought Snape's spell he'd used on James in the 
Pensieve had been named and this was it, I guess because when we saw 
Levicorpus I figured this had to be the other one.)  

Harry of course had other options--plenty of other spells could do 
and would have if he didn't have the Prince's in his mind, but 
dramatically this was the best one to use. The Prince came through 
as usual--he offered a spell to take care of enemies and Harry, I 
think, instinctively reached for it.  That is, I think Harry does 
have a sort of instinctive connection to the Prince and for all his 
faffing around with hexing in the hallways when in a desperate 
circumstance he felt the same way about "enemies" that the Prince 
did. I think that's what makes the scene more disturbing.

Carol:
> 
> 7. Why did Snape and only Snape show up when Myrtle cried bloody
> murder? Could anyone else have saved Draco, or does Snape alone 
know
> the countercurse? What does the songlike or chantlike nature of the
> countercurse suggest to you about it or about Snape? 

Magpie:
I figure Snape spent a lot of time near Draco (heh--poor guy must 
have had one of his worst years ever sneaking around corridors) and 
that's why he showed up. No one else was around because Draco 
intentionally chose an out-of-the-way boy's room where people rarely 
went. The countercurse, which I can believe Snape alone knows (or at 
least is not known by many people) is really interesting.  I wonder 
if it requires any sort of emotion--I mean, one can't miss that 
Snape is usually sarcastic and harsh and hear he's literally 
crooning to a boy in his arms.  Interesting that someone so focused 
on emotions being weak would create or use such an intimate antidote 
for his spell--but it fits with Slytherin in my mind. It suddenly 
makes me wonder if it can only be healed by an ally and not an enemy.

Carol:
> 
> 8. Why do you think JKR included the reference to dittany in the 
scene
> rather than merely having Snape take Draco up to the hospital wing 
to
> be examined by Madam Pomfrey? What does it tell us about Snape 
and/or
> Draco? 

Magpie:
It does add an extra bit of gentleness to Snape--usually his 
response to injuries is to order the person to the hospital wing as 
if they've annoyed him by being injured (and I don't think that kind 
of gruffness is always a bad thing). I wonder if he feels the need 
to offer more healing for the spell because he invented it. And then 
it also may just be there to indicate that the danger is passed and 
Snape's speaking normally again, talking about ingredients etc.

Carol:
> 
> 9. Why does Harry wait for Snape to return, as if he thinks that he
> deserves to be punished, and yet lie when Snape asks him where he
> learned such a Dark spell? What do you think would have happened if
> Harry had told the truth? 

Magpie:
Harry's feeling deserved to be punished is surprisingly shortlived. 
But in general I think he correctly realized there was no point in 
hiding from Snape. He's done something serious and better just stay 
there to see what's next.

Carol: 
> 10. Harry uses, or tries to use, three of the HBP's spells in this
> chapter (Muffliato, Levicorpus, and Sectumsempra), and he hides his
> book rather than risk having it confiscated. Afterwards, he defends
> the Prince against Hermione's accusations. What does this behavior
> tell us about Harry and about his relationship with the boy he 
knows
> only as the Half-Blood Prince?

Magpie:
There's been a lot of responses about Harry being a loyal friend to 
the Prince here, but I have a hard time seeing this as Harry 
sticking by a friend.  I think it's more about projection and 
justifying himself. Yes, Harry does tend to view people as allies or 
foes and he's quick to defend the former and always accuse the 
latter so I think there's a little of that.  He has kind of 
fantasized about the Prince being someone who has some reason to 
care about him or would like him personally instead of what he 
really is--a kid taking notes for himself that Harry happened to 
read.  

But I can't get away from the fact that in defending the Prince 
Harry is also defending his own interest in the Prince, which has 
always been part of Harry's relationship with him, because from the 
beginning Harry's use of the book has been connected with 
wrongdoing. He's taken credit for brilliance that wasn't his own, 
given himself an unfair advantage over the rest of the class and 
also jealously guarded that advantage. For instance, when Harry 
tells Ron that the bezoar trick wouldn't have worked for both of 
them he's probably correct, but he's also assuming an every man for 
himself attitude, and he's usually got some reason why he needs to 
be the best in the class any way possible.  He doesn't want to 
believe that he himself is tempted by any thing too bad, especially 
Dark Magic, so the Prince must also be a good guy who didn't mean to 
give Harry the violent spell he got.  (I think Harry imagines a sort 
of recipricol relationship there--he defends the Prince and 
naturally assumes the Prince would defend him.) I think defending 
the Prince is bound up with avoiding any troubling soul-searching on 
his own part. 

Carol:> 
> 11. Professor McGonagall tells Harry that he could have been 
expelled.
> Why does Snape tell the staff "precisely what happened" yet punish
> Harry only for being "a liar and a cheat"? Why didn't he so much as
> threaten to expel Harry when he could have done so? Are the 
Saturday
> detentions primarily intended to punish Harry by tormenting him 
with
> his father's indiscretions or does this tactic disguise Snape's 
real
> purpose for keeping Harry in his custody every Saturday until the 
end
> of term?

Magpie:
Good question.  He may be trying to keep an eye on Harry to avoid 
any other mishaps like this one.  I wonder if it's just significant 
that both Harry and Snape are happy to avoid what is presumably the 
real bad part of this whole thing--the use of incredibly Dark and 
violent magic for whatever reason. Both of them are distracted by 
their usual issues with each other--Harry is a cheat stealing 
Snape's work and coasting, Snape is unfair etc. So from the first 
when Snape asks Harry if he deserves punishment he emphatically says 
no, because he doesn't think of himself as a cheat. People seem to 
often remember Harry as being all too willing to be in detention 
this time because he knows he did wrong, but I don't think his 
reaction to this detention is much different than other ones.

Carol: 
> 12. Harry apparently feels only anger and resentment as he 
undergoes
> his detention, with no thought of the reasons why Snape assigned 
it.
> What has happened to Harry's horror and remorse? Has he forgotten 
his
> own wrongdoing? What, if anything, might Snape have done to make 
this
> detention (and its sequels) more effective?

Magpie:
This is one of the more fascinating things in the book for me, one I 
hope is a set-up for book 7.  Harry still has twinges of remorse 
when the incident is brought up directly, but for the most part the 
whole thing goes away by the end of the chapter and Harry's back to 
his more usual complaints.  Pansy Parkinson's annoying him by 
villifying him with no specific focus on what she's saying and how 
accurate it is or isn't. The Slytherins are throwing generic taunts 
with no description of their content. The Gryffindors are angry that 
he can't play.  Most significantly Malfoy himself practically ceases 
to exist. I don't think he's mentioned again before he bursts 
through the Tower door, except by Ron, once, causing a twinge of 
guilt. There's nothing apparently notable about the next time they 
see each other in class. Malfoy himself isn't connected to any of 
Harry's irritations. We're told Pansy visited him in the hospital 
wing, but rather than being told that Malfoy gave her a biased story 
that she spread, he's a passive participant: she visited him, she 
villified Harry afterwards.  

Personally, I felt like Harry was frantically disconnecting from the 
incident. I know sometimes there's this kind of disconnect perhaps 
because JKR sticks to an outline (like when Harry spends all night 
thinking about Draco and all morning trying to get into the RoR 
where Draco is, then runs to a class he shares with Draco without 
any mention of Draco being there or not as Harry moves on to other 
plot concerns), but it's hard to believe she wrote a scene as 
gruesome as Sectumsempra as only a plot device and then thought she 
could hustle the person we last saw ex-sanguinating back to the prop 
closet that quickly.

Carol:
> 
> 13. Why do you think Snape continues to use his old office in the
> dungeon, complete with dead creatures floating in colorful potions,
> now that he's the DADA teacher and his classroom is on another 
floor?

Magpie:
It just wouldn't be detention with Snape if they weren't in a 
dungeon!

Carol: 
> 14. The chapter begins with Lavender breaking up with Ron, closely
> followed by Ginny breaking up with Dean, and ends with Harry
> celebrating Gryffindor's victory (achieved without him) by finally
> kissing Ginny. What do you think JKR is trying to convey by framing
> the chapter in this way? Does the ending feel appropriate or
> inappropriate in a chapter about Sectumsempra? (And what's up with
> that "hard, blazing look"?)

Magpie:
Well, Harry's on to everything working out really well after that 
unfortunate incident earlier. Is the author just wrapping up the 
plot threads?  Hard to say--Harry does tend to avoid ever really 
thinking about his own actions. Whenever he does something that 
leads to serious consequences he tends to either push the blame to 
someone else, justify himself completely or just move on as the 
universe rights itself again. Despite earlier complications 
Harry "wins" again--Gryffindor gets the Quidditch cup, and even 
though he didn't play as captain its his victory, his getting banned 
wasn't a problem because Ginny backs him completely (she also 
defends his use of Sectumsempra). Plus he wins the girl. After a 
description of their sunny day kiss he looks over her head ans 
surveys the defeated: Ron looks shock but accepts, Romilda is 
disappointed and Dean's so upset he breaks a glass iirc.  

And I think the hard blazing look is what JKR thinks is attractive 
about Ginny, but as usual it makes me want to run the other way. 

-m