OotP Chapter 2

[jlh]

What struck me most in this chapter is, WHY does Harry keep trying to explain himself to his aunt and uncle? He doesn't imagine they will understand, and when they do catch on to things, he is shocked. Does he think that if he stuns them with jargon they will leave him alone?

Oh, Dumbledore, WHY did you leave Harry in the care of two such incompetent people as Figg and Fletcher? Their exchange would be comical under some other circumstance but here it's disheartening. Does A.D. not pay attention? He seemed oddly all-knowing at one point and now it seems he knows nothing at all.

For a moment I actually feel sorry for Dudley and Petunia (though never Vernon). How frightening, and for Petunia, of course, the magical world means death. Her sister went into it, and now she is gone; of course she's scared of magic. (And, knowing what we know now, of course she didn't like James very much.)

When I read this the first time, the first owl came as a horrible shock. I wonder why I didn't think, "If they can sense he had done magic, why can't they sense the Dementors had been there" but of course the Ministry knew all along. Arthur's letter and the subsequent revision from the Ministry are a relief, but I agree with Harry that Sirius' note does not help. At least his earlier owls this summer were understanding of Harry's plight, but this one is a real disappointment. We also see the beginning of Harry's resentment at the lack of praise; glimmers of his father's arrogance, perhaps? However, that lack of praise makes his later shock when Hermione lists his achievements that much more believable.

(I suppose I keep looking at how Harry is like his father because of the thought that the Marauder flashback showed how much he is like his mother, temperamentally. I actually think he really is like both of them, alternately.)

What I do love is how able Harry is to focus, block out all the chaos of the Dursleys screaming and the owls flying around and think. That's really his strength, that he is so rarely distracted when the pressure is on. And then his complete shock and sudden realization of his connection to them when Petunia knows what a dementor is, when they both recognize the name Voldemort. Ironic that these Muggles, who believe almost nothing that comes out of his mouth, believe that Voldemort is back when the rest of the wizarding world thinks he's mad.

(Oh, and on the first chapter—Harry, so not a careful reader, so sure that Voldemort's return would make the front pages. Then again, if he had read through the rest of the Prophet he likely would have been that much angrier.)

And then the howler, and we get our first confirmation that there is a very important reason that Harry must always return to Privet Drive, though we don't get the reason itself for quite a while. Like many spacey wives, though, when Petunia is very firm that something must happen, Vernon listens.

I continue to shake in my fury at Dumbledore. No, Marysia, no one was paying attention. And yes, Harry's mental health was sacrificed for some sort of greater good. It's truly ugly, if you ask me.

Comments

[phoenixsong]

I wonder why I didn't think, "If they can sense he had done magic, why can't they sense the Dementors had been there" but of course the Ministry knew all along.

See, I'm not so sure -- I got the sense that the Dementors were entirely Umbridge's idea, not sanctioned by Fudge or the Ministry. So I honestly believe they didn't know, at least until after the fact, that Umbridge had pulled this. They just knew Harry had done some pretty powerful magic, and wanted to continue the smear campaign against him. What's the quickest way of discrediting him as a rogue? Kick him out of school, destroy his wand, and make sure everyone who reads the Prophet knows about it.

I'm also not too put out by Harry's resentment of not getting any praise -- it's not like he's exaggerating his accomplishments. Especially in the environment of Privett Drive, where everything he does is bad or wrong, even just a bit of acknowledgement might have gone a long way with him.

But, unlike Harry, I can appreciate the adults having his physical safety higher on the priority list than his mental well-being; especially since he does have a history (PoA) of running away from the Dursleys when things get crazy.

Everyone's in a difficult position for the first three chapters. But I won't argue that things would have gone very, very differently if Dumbledore had even, say, told Harry "We're concerned for your safety, so I'm going to have people keeping an eye on you over the summer." It may not have helped much, but it would have at least maybe felt like less of a betrayal when Harry finds out that even Ron and Hermione knew he was being followed, and he did not.

[cadesama.livejournal.com]

Hi. I'm just a lurking who has been trawling around various livejournals, soaking up as many OotP commentaries as I can. I have to say, I'm am particularly enjoying your and Marysia's chapter by chapter analyses.

Personally, I've always thought Harry to be much much more like his mother than his father. Admittedly, this is a theory primarily founded on the fact that Petunia likes to spy on her neighbors and Harry seems to spend most of his time at Hogwarts eavesdropping, but I'd say it was happily borne out by OotP. Which is probably what leads me to think Harry's list of achievements ins't arrogance Not really. It was just the boy who had grown up under a cupboard and who in the wizarding world had come to believe maybe he was special having the rug ripped out from under him. Because he's never been normal. To the Dursleys he is less than nothing and to the wizarding world he is their darling (sometimes) princeling. And even if he never wanted to be a prince, he can't stand A.D. treating him like nothing.

Anyway. That was a tangent, because my real point was on the Ministry. Since it was revealed later than Umbridge sicced the Dementors on Harry without Fudge's consent, I'll just go straight to the fact that they monitor magical use by underage wizards. We know that, most explicitly from book 2, when Harry receives his first warning. But the thing is, while they knew the spell cast (just as in book 5), they didn't realize that Dobby had cast it, not Harry. Which means to me that they monitor locations rather than people. There is some evidence (possibly turning Ron's bear to a spider) that bears up the idea that F&G have cast spells during the break. I don't think this is because the Ministry just monitors Harry specifically. It could be, but then why would they know Dobby had cast the spell?

Instead, if they only monitor locations and they don't catch the Weasley twins, that means that they ignore locations where there are a profusion of spells - wizarding families. Which pretty much means to me that the restriction on underage magic is actually a means of holding back muggleborn children and keeping track of them.

Whew. I certainly get longwinded in the jounrals of strangers. Sorry 'bout that.