CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Prisoner of Azkaban Chapter 9: Grim Defeat

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 189689

> CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
> Chapter 9: Grim Defeat
<snip admirably concise and accurate summary>

> 1. A school-wide sleep-over, mixed gender (Hermione sleeps close to Ron and Harry), and with 11 to 17 year olds ? Can you imagine this happening at your school – both when you were young and/or for your kids nowadays - whichever applies ? Especially with little to no adult supervision – only Percy seems to be on patrol.

Carol responds:
When I was young, maybe--though I never attended a boarding school and I'm sure that adults would have supervised. Now, no. Either JKR is keeping things G-rated or we're supposed to imagine that the kids are too afraid of the escaped "murderer" to think about anything else. But, also, I'm pretty sure that the teachers look in once in awhile and Percy can't be the only prefect present. (Prefects can assign punishments, including detentions.) Also, probably, they suspect that Dumbledore has means of magically watching them. At any rate, it never occurred to me that the kids would take advantage of the absence of adult supervision on this particular occasion. Hogwarts isn't the real world, after all.
> 
> 2. And speaking of Percy – where's the Head Girl and the Prefects ? Can you imagine that Harry (through whom we `see' this magical world) would pay no attention to them at all?

Carol:
Harry's attention is strictly on his own concerns (Black is supposedly out to murder him after all), and he has never been observant. He probably doesn't know the name of the female prefect for Gryffindor, much less the identity of the others. Surely, Percy's Ravenclaw girlfriend, Penelope Clearwater, is there but she's probably concerned with the behavior and safety of the kids in her own class. (By the way, we seldom see the other prefects, primarily because Harry isn't aware of them, but I think we can safely imagine that they're quietly doing their jobs in the background. If they weren't taking their jobs seriously, the Great Hall would be a scene of pandemonium.
> 
> 3. Teacher Talk: When the Headmaster approaches, Harry quickly pretends to be asleep. Do you think Professor Dumbledore knew he was listening in on the conversation? Was that the reason he cuts off Snape's insinuation that Lupin helped Black get inside the castle or was it solely because he truly believes Lupin didn't help?

Carol:
I think he suspects that Harry is awake and takes no chances. He probably doesn't want Harry to know that there's any connection between Black and Lupin, any more than he wants Harry to suspect that Lupin is a werewolf. I don't think, however, that Dumbledore can read the mind of someone who isn't looking at him or even perform Legilimency undetected (or that he does so every time he converses with someone). I think he reserves it for important occasions (a mere glimpse, occasionally, but a thorough investigation of someone's mind only when, for example, he's interrogating Kreacher in OoP. I can't imagine DD intruding in people's minds the way LV does with the old wandmaker whose name escapes me. Harry would know it if he did so.) Anyway, DD knows Harry well enough to suspect that he's awake and listening, which is why, IMO, he cuts Snape off.
> 
> 4. Snape taking over Lupin's class: What did you make of this and did it give you a clue as to what was to come out?

Carol:
I had no problem with Snape taking over Lupin's class. After all, he's the most logical substitute. I didn't know why he was skipping ahead to werewolves, however. On a first reading, I probably thought it was just contempt for Lupin's teaching methods (as it appears to be). I didn't connect it with Lupin's potion at all.
> 
> 5. It wasn't till I was writing a version of book 6 myself that "teachers taking over classes for others" became a problem to me – what do you make of the class schedule for Hogwarts' students?

Carol responds:
Teachers always have free periods in real life, and, coincidentally, Snape's free period coincides with Lupin's Gryffindor DADA class for Harry's year in both CoS and PoA. I think that the teachers' schedules fit JKR's convenience and she hasn't really thought them out. For example, Gryffindor in Harry's year has some classes alone (e.g., DADA), some with Hufflepuff (Herbology), two with Slytherin (Potions and COMC), and none with Ravenclaw, but Ginny has at least one class with Luna Lovegood, a Ravenclaw, and it would make sense to mix them up. Harry, however, never has classes with Ravenclaws until NEWT level in HBP and consequently, the only Ravenclaws he knows are Quidditch players. Even more oddly, Umbridge in OoP seems to have free periods that oddly coincide with Harry's schedule since most of her class observations involve fifth-year Gryffindors (Snape, Hagrid, McGonagall, and Trelawney). Okay, she can't have that many free periods, so she must be asking someone to substitute for her but we don't know it since Harry never has one of the substitutes. Possibly, Umbridge is deliberately selecting classes with Harry in them, but probably it's just that JKR wants him to witness those particular evaluations. Call it poetic license, I suppose. It certainly doesn't make sense from a realistic standpoint. Maybe she uses a Time Turner since they haven't yet been destroyed.(?)
> 
> 6. Quidditch: what did you make of the fact that several of the experienced and older quidditch players didn't think of protecting Harry's glasses in the storm and that Hermione comes up with the solution ? Or is this a detail that I notice as a bespectacled citizen?

Carol:
If they didn't wear glasses themselves, they probably wouldn't have thought of it. But, of course, know-it-all Hermione has a spell for every occasion. She doesn't invent her own spells, but she does seem to think of unusual applications for the standard spells. I think it's perfectly in character that she, with her concern for Harry, would be the one to come up with this spell.
> 
> 7. Quidditch: we also have the first introduction of Cedric Diggory. What – if any – was your impression of him?

Carol:
I liked him from the start and was glad to see a gentlemanly Quidditch player (good sportsmanship and Quidditch don't normally go together). I also liked having a handsome, popular Hufflepuff (though I don't think we see those traits until GoF). I thought it was a shame, though, that he won the game by accident. Funny how JKR can't let Harry lose a Quidditch match through superior game play. It always has to be through circumstances beyond his control. If the Yankees can lose the playoffs (grumble, grumble), Gryffindor can lose a Quidditch match even when their star Seeker is playing. Let's have a little realism here.
> 
> 8. Did you have an idea by this time what, exactly, Harry might be hearing when dementors are near?
>
Carol:
I don't remember. Hasn't he figured out by this point that it's his mother screaming?

Carol, apologizing for not having reread the chapter before responding