[the_old_crowd] Re: Dragons, Produced and Tickled, and Other Pleasantries

[silmariel]

Nora:
> You'll also note that many of
> her 'karmic' examples are quite specific--Umbridge damaged by beings
> which she overtly disdains, Lockheart taken down by his own weapon,
> Lucius Malfoy smacked around by the very same house elf which he had
> abused for years, etc.

Back to the incident of the train with the broken nose, it's a little 
difficult to be taken down by your own cloak, but this may be a case for 
'live by the cloak, die by the cloak'. It is specific.

Cloak is tied to: overconfidence, relying too much in a magic gimmick, 
sometimes taking risks just for fun, as during PoA, or because it seems the 
easy way, to take a bath in GoF. The way he has been using his cloak, 
basically, amounts to something, in the sense that if you take risks, 
sometimes, obviously, you'll lose.

Harry has had his way with armed-with-cloack, bending rules, taking risks, and 
scaping with it (of course, we as readers love it, but it isn't a excuse for 
our hero). It was time that reality caught with him, and if he was snooping 
Malfoy, his issues with Malfoy are the reality to be paid. It is a blink of 
anti "sheer dumb luck".

I don't think a broken nose is too harsh for being a risk taker, kids broke 
bones falling from trees and I don't think they 'deserve' it, but that's what 
happens, and they don't have instant cures, not to use nastier RL examples. 

A broken nose instantly curable is more of a reminding, really, and imo a way 
to show that with the situation in his control, Draco doesn't try to crucio 
Harry, as he does when he is surprised by him crying in a heart to heart talk 
with a girl, no less. He gives in to short term anger, but in any way I can 
consider he makes it last having a good time, or he uses out of bound spells. 
The part of abandoning him in the train is the standard treatment for every 
side, isn't it? You hex/transform/bind your enemy and abandon him on the 
train.

If you want to tie the result of the scene to the rest of the book, Harry 
spents all his year snooping on Malfoy whenever he is able to, and the 
results are not exactly bright, either. He learns it in time to forget it 
because of Snape.

Silmariel