OotP 5

[jlh]

Pressing on, to catch up to la grande dame marysiak.

Only, Sirius, not so much with the capable of being all there for Harry, is he? Doesn't give him much of a welcome, even though his letters had some sense of how frustrated Harry was—likely because he is so frustrated himself. And Molly, damn, she is just shaking with tension and frustration as she tries to exert her control over her family. She is bent on the children knowing as little as possible, as though they will be safer that way, and yes, she's already sort of lost one of them, but she really needs to ease up or she is going to shake herself apart.

At least this time when F&G do something ridiculous it leads to the first bit of laughter that Harry's had. Even if Molly's yelling at them leads to being reminded of Percy—who, as I recall, DID Apparate downstairs from his bedroom every morning just to show he could do it.

OT: Mmm, rhubarb crumble. And for you Americans: Doesn't Harry remind you of Almanzo in Farmer Boy here? When Almanzo began to eat pie, he wished he'd never eaten anything else.

I love Sirius' claiming of Harry here. As Holly said at the time: "MY kid. Mine." Molly simply isn't going to win. Thanks for filling in for me while I was in jail and on the run, but I'm here now and I'm taking over. And the whole James thing—all four of them had taken on a great deal of adult responsibility when they were quite young. I think that Sirius is more talking about where Harry is, and while Molly may have a point, it isn't quite spot on.

[Insert vast amounts of ridiculous squeeing over Sirius/Remus shippiness in this scene. It fairly DRIPS with it.]

I love Ginny stomping up the stairs, I love Molly actually being absent when they fill him in, and I think "hell" when they stop short of telling him what Tommy wants and where it is. This book is chock full of missed opportunities. As I reread, I see that it isn't just Harry who made bad decisions—wrong ones, absolutely, but based on incomplete information.

Oh, poor tired Mr Weasley, he's trying to help Molly but he really just can't. Oh, that lovely moment between Ron and Harry, when Harry decides that when all is said and done he just can't be nasty to Ron. And then, lovely lovely information, a wonderful expository scene, with Harry asking tons of questions, just, well done. Though I think the most important bit of information came out before this, during dinner:

'I think it depends on what they're [the goblins] offered,' said Lupin. 'And I'm not talking about gold. If they're offered the freedoms we've been denying them for centuries, they're going to be tempted.'

Remember History of Magic? Those wars are called the Goblin Rebellions. Only oppressed peoples rebel. Methinks the wizarding way of life is about to bite them in the arse.

Comments

[ladylisse.livejournal.com]

Those wars are called the Goblin Rebellions. Only oppressed peoples rebel.

Oh, my. I missed that nuance completely. The big theme in this book seems to be so many illusions being torn down, not the least of which is the magical world as this idyllic haven. It's not. It's biased and bloody and cruel, remarkably like the Muggle world and often worse, because it's so unwilling to admit that anything is wrong with it at all.

*rambles*

[malsperanza.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is one of the scenes where Sirius frustrates me--and I suppose that is intentional, as he frustrates Harry too, only Harry is too young to quite see why. Sirius can't quite decide if Harry is his son or his kid brother. He didn't get much chance to really grow up during those 12 years in prison, did he? Hence the recklessness. And both Sirius and Lupin need Harry's love almost more than Harry needs theirs, which throws their parental role out of whack. Molly is the only person who really does treat Harry as her child.

Harry has a plethora of fathers, doesn't he? Sirius, Lupin, Dead!James, EvilFather!Voldemort, Uncle Weasley, Rotten Mr. Dursley. But for mothers he has only the utterly mysterious, utterly unknown Lily, and Mrs. Weasley. I tend to think she may be the smartest of the lot, in the end.

I take it that Dumbledore didn't want Harry to know too much because it might mean that Voldemort would learn too much about what the OotP knew. But someone might have mentioned that to Harry.

[marysiak.livejournal.com]

I don't think anyone but Dumbledore knew much of Dumbledore's thoughts and reasoning. He gives orders and wise advice and twinkles and lo he is followed. Power freak.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Yes, but when all is said and done, Molly doesn't treat Harry like her child. She never yells at him, and we know (and the Weasley kids know) that half her love comes from shouting at her kids. And when Ron makes prefect Harry is entirely forgotten. I think that if Harry had actually been her son, there would have been even the briefest moment of consolation for him, or even an upbrading, "Well, and why didn't you make prefect, hrm?"

Also, if you're going to include Vernon in the father list you have to include Petunia in the mother list. Interesting that the women he knows are these sort of very intense about their children types.

As for the James-Harry confusion, people have told Harry over and over how much he is like his father—it's a trope by now. Anyway, Sirius was reckless even before he went to prison, that's why he was there. I think it's true that he never got to mourn properly for James, but I think his acting as a kid with Harry has less to do with some sort of primal confusion and more to do with his own immaturity.

[marysiak.livejournal.com]

Much love for rhubarb crumble.