Poor unloved CoS!

[jkoney65]

No: HPFGUIDX 182995

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Carol" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:
>
> I notice that several posters to SSS's new thread have listed CoS as
> their least favorite book and I don't think anyone has listed it as
> their favorite. Why? Is it all Dobby's fault? A little bit 
Lockhart's,
> maybe?
> 
> CoS is, after all, a crucial book, the one in which we discover that
> Harry acquired at least one power, Parseltongue, from Voldemort, and
> in which we're introduced, though we don't know it, to the first
> Horcrux. (Is that another reason? A lot of people hate the whole
> Horcrux idea.)
> 

Jack-A-Roe:
I liked CoS. It is probably my second favorite in the series. I 
actually liked Doby from the start. I thought of Doby and Lockhart as 
comic relief in the story.

Carol:
> Even Ginny has a fine moment standing up to Draco before she's
> possessed and falls into her victim-requiring-rescue role. 

Jack-A-Roe:
By the time this story was over, I knew that JKR was going to bring 
these two together.  Not only did we have the knight rescue the 
damsel but we had Harry's own words in describing her.

"On the third landing, a door stood ajar. Harry just caught sight of 
a pair of bright brown eyes staring at him before it closed with a 
snap.
"Ginny," said Ron. "You don't know how weird it is for her to be this 
shy. She never shuts up normally." - CoS, The Burrow 
and... 

The moment she saw Harry, Ginny accidentally knocked her porridge 
bowl to the floor with a loud clatter. Ginny seemed very prone to 
knocking things over whenever Harry entered a room. She dived under 
the table to retrieve the bowl and emerged with her face glowing like 
the setting sun. Pretending he hadn't noticed this, Harry sat down 
and took the toast Mrs. Weasley offered him. 
"Oh, are you starting at Hogwarts this year?" Harry asked Ginny. 
She nodded, blushing to the roots of her flaming hair, and put her 
elbow in the butter dish. Fortunately no one saw this except Harry, 
because just then Ron's elder brother Percy walked in." -- CoS, At 
Flourish and Blotts 

These scenes are simply adorable. Little Ginny has a crush. An 11-
year-old, school girl crush. And Harry is sweet enough toward her -- 
he doesn't tease or draw attention to her putting her elbow in 
butter, and he graciously `pretends not to notice' her embarrassment 
as she emerges from under the table. 

Something else that is important is the wording that Rowling chooses 
for Harry to describe Ginny in those scenes. Harry imparts to us that 
her hair is `flaming', her face is `glowing', and she has 'bright 
brown eyes'. Subtle words, and words that could easily have been left 
out -- but they are there for a reason, so they must be important and 
necessary.

**The above was taken from an article by Kelli Kearney on Mugglenet**

We also have the forshadowing of Draco calling Ginny Harry's 
girlfriend.

Jack-A-Roe