delayed reactions

[potioncat]

H
o
w
m
u
c
h
l
o
n
g
e
r
?

I had a few "Wait a minunte!" moments while reading the book, and a 
few, "But this isn't what we expected!" moments as well.

The first was on the Hogwarts Express. Zabini mentions Nott to Draco, 
and it's very clear that Nott is neither with the Slytherins or 
invited to Slugfest's party. I was feeling quite smug that I'd 
correctly identified the Good Slytherin long ago and we'd be seeing 
more of the noble young man.....Where the heck was he? Was he the 
fourth Slytherin in Potions? And does it even matter? 

Of course the Hat's talk of uniting the Houses all came to nothing 
with Ron's comment "Oh, the usual stuff about house unity." We were 
all worked up about it for nothing, it seems.

Then Snape was the DADA teacher, which I correctly deduced as soon as 
DD hired Sluggy....I knew that by the set up that he wasn't being 
hired for DADA. But didn't we all want Snape as DADA because it would 
create all sorts of fun scenes with the members of the DA club in the 
same class? Wasn't that going to be fun to watch? Well, wasn't it?

Oh, and if Sluggo could be a chair, I guess Sirius Black could be a 
potted plant.

Half way through I suddenly realised, without ever having wondered 
about it: Ginny isn't a Prefect!! Even with the comment that Draco 
wasn't performing Prefect Duties, Ginny never came to mind. And, btw, 
did that mean Draco wasn't a Prefect this year, or he wasn't 
bothering to do the work?

I was a little surprised to see that Crabbe and Goyle were getting 
detention. My take was that it was to hamper Draco in his attempts to 
murder DD. Also that he successfully got around it by polyjuicing the 
two. And I think that's why we didn't see snarky Snape so much...he 
was distracted trying to keep Draco out of trouble.

You know all those times that Snape just shows up (in all the books) 
just in time to break up a Draco-Harry duel? In the early days I 
thought he was really protecting Harry from Draco. Then I decided he 
was protecting Draco from Harry. Now I'm wondering if he was looking 
out for both boys? I cannot quite figure out why DD is offering 
protection to the entire Malfoy family....not a nice bunch, you know?

Remember in Hagrids's hut when DD announces that help is always 
available at Hogwarts to those who ask for it? It seemed he was 
talking to Harry, but I wonder if he was talking to Lucius as well.
(CoS)

And one last thought. We know to perform the Unforgivables you have 
to *want* to do it, and the wanting makes the curse stronger. Does 
that apply to all Dark Magic? Because I wonder if Harry's curse on 
Draco caused such a horrible result because of how badly he wanted to 
hurt him? 

Kathy W
Potioncat