Chapter Discussion Chamber of Secrets Ch. 7 Mudbloods and Murmurs

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 188953

Chapter Discussion: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Chapter 7: Mudbloods and Murmurs
<Snip excellent summary>

> 1: What was your impression of Colin Creevey when he first appeared? Why do you think that JKR decided to introduce his character?

Carol responds:

One of the reasons that so many HP fans regard CoS as their least favorite book (or second least) is that it introduces so many annoying characters. While he can't compete with Dobby in that department, he certainly comes close to Lockhart (without the comic elements). IOW, I found him just as annoying as Harry did. I think that Colin satirizes fanatical fans (if that's not redundant) in much the same way that Lockhart satirizes celebrities who are in love with themselves. They're a variation on a theme, as I think I said before (someone could write a book on fandom and celebrity in the Potterverse). But, of course, Colin also serves to show Harry's aversion to his celebrity status, in marked contrast to Lockhart (and, as we'll later learn, to James).
> 
> 2: Can you explain Oliver Wood's apparent obsession with Quidditch, way even beyond keen players like Ron?

Carol:
He's part of the satire on fandom, as obsessed with Quidditch as Colin is with Harry and Lockhart is with himself. I think that JKR may be poking fun through Oliver at the British obsession with soccer (and other sports?), just as she does later with Ludo Bagman, who can do no wrong in the eyes of the jury even though he's been providing information to a DE spy. (Even Mad-eye Moody cuts Ludo some slack because he's been hit in the head too many times by a Bludger.)
> 
> 3: Did you find it unfair that the Slytherin team were given permission to practise when Gryffindor have already booked the pitch?

Carol responds:
Hard to say. It was certainly unfair that Harry was given a superior broom in SS/PS (and put on the team rather than being punished for disobeying a teacher), so maybe all's fair in love and Quidditch, with even teachers giving every advantage to their own side. Slytherin *did* need to train its new Seeker, but not necessarily at that time. However, they didn't kick Gryffindor off the pitch. They shared it, IIRC. Plenty of room for both teams to practice, I would think, if each uses its own balls and stays to one end of the pitch without interfering with the other. So, yes, it's somewhat unfair, but it pales in comparison with what McGonagall did for *her* team in the previous book.
> 
> 4: Does it surprise you that Fred wasn't sure whether Draco was a Malfoy bearing in mind that he and Harry already had track records of dislike from the previous year? 

Carol:
Not really. Fred and George would have little or nothing to do with Slytherins two classes behind them. Once Draco becomes the Slytherin Seeker, they have reason to be aware of him and to dislike him on principle as a rival and a Slytherin. And he might merit special dislike as the son of their father's enemy.
> 
> 5: Do you think that Hermione was perhaps biased and unfair in suggesting that money rather than talent got Draco onto the Slytherin team. Surely he must have had some aptitude?

Carol:
Yes, I do. After all, we see Draco's talent in SS/PS. But her dislike of Draco and the undeniable fact of the Slytherin team's new brooms blinds her to the possibility that the Slytherins would want a Seeker who could actually play the game.
> 
> 6: Do you think that the spell Ron tried to use would actually have had Malfoy spitting slugs or did the backfire also alter the result? Is there anything significant in the fact that the backfire produced a green light, a colour  which seems to be associated with more serious spells? Hermione certainly thought it was a difficult curse.

Carol:
Well, if it resulted in Ron spitting slugs when it backfired, I see no reason not to think that it would have had the same effect on Draco if the wand hadn't been broken. (JKR is foreshadowing the Memory Charm, which certainly would have been effective had Lockhart used another wand, backfiring on its caster.) I don't know whether the color is significant or not, but it does suggest that not every spell that casts a green light is an AK. Tonks, for example, is seriously injured by a green-lit spell in OoP, but had it been AK, she would have died. Also, the DEs cast a green light around themselves in GoF as they use a Hover Charm and other spells (including Levicorpus) on the Robinson family. Possibly, Levicorpus or Wingardium Leviosa also produces a green light?
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> 7: What do you believe prompted Gilderoy Lockhart to press for Harry's detention to be served with him?

Carol:
Lockhart likes Harry as a fellow celebrity "almost" as famous as he is. He thinks he's doing Harry a favor, getting him off easy, just as he thinks he's entertaining the students with the dwarfs on Valentine's Day. He's a deluded moron; Harry would have had a more enjoyable time cleaning trophies with Ron--better company, at any rate.
> 
> 8: Why do you think that only Harry could hear the disembodied voice?

Carol:
Because he's the only true Parselmouth in the school thanks to the soul bit. If DD can understand Parseltongue, as he seems to in HBP (he never actually speaks it), it would be an acquired skill like his ability to speak Mermish, not an inherited gift as it is with Slytherin and at least some of his descendants (Voldemort and the Gaunts). Harry, of course, speaks and understands it instinctively only because of the soul bit, which is part of Voldemort. If the Basilisk wandered through the pipes in Tom Riddle's day, Tom would have heard him (but DD would not).

Carol, who hasn't yet read anyone else's answers and may change her mind on some points