Chapter 9 and 10 - The Midnight Duel, and Halloween

[Serenoli]

Chapter Nine - The Midnight Duel

The main events in this highly eventful chapter are:

a) Neville gets a Remembrall from his grandmother, and almost immediately Malfoy sets his sights on it. A conflict at the breakfast tabel is averted by Professor McGonagall.

b) Flying lessons. We meet Madam Hooch, and learn that both Neville and Hermione are probably bad at flying. Neville then proves that he's bad at it, by flying too high, with his broom beyond his control, ending in a broken wrist. While Madam Hooch is out of the scene, Malfoy grabs hold of Neville's forgotten Remembrall, and flies up with it. Harry stands up for Neville, and discovers that he is an excellent flier... A little twirling with Malfoy in the air, a fifty-foot dive and he's got the Remembrall. Only problem is, Professor McGonagall has caught him flying.

c) Turnaround. Instead of being expelled, Harry gets introduced to burly fifth-year Oliver Wood, and becomes the youngest Seeker of the century. Hurrah! :cool:

d) Malfoy, still seething over how Harry showed him up, challenges him to a duel at midnight in the trophy room. Hermione, (whom the boys are starting to regard as a pain) tells Harry off for agreeing to prowl the corridors at night.. and that night, when they're about to leave, she even joins them, trying to stop them. She gets locked out when the fat Lasy leaves her potrait, and also locked out is Neville, who doesnt remember the password anyway. They both follow the two boys into the Trophy room, where they find Filch instead of Malfoy. Hermione points out that malfoy probably tricked them and told on them to Filch. They race away from him, and are almost safe, when they come across Peeves, who alerts Filch. In desperation, they rush into a locked corridor, using Hermione's clever spell-casting.

e) Fluffy, mad eyes, three heads informs them exactly why the corridor is locked and forbidden. This time they make it back to the common room fine, without encountering Filch or Peeves. Hermione, slightly more observant, realizes that Fluffy was guarding something in a trapdoor under its feet, and harry deduces that it must be the package that Hagrid took from Gringotts.

Chapter Eleven - Halloween

My favourite chapter, because Hermione ceases to be the annoying know-it-all and graduates to friend.

a) Harry gets himself a cool new Nimbus Two Thousand, which allows a slight revenge on the bewildered Malfoy. Hermione is still not talking to them, but on the other hand, Harry learns how to play Quidditch from Oliver Wood that evening.

b) Two months, more or less pass, and its Halloween. Flitwick starts teaching them Wingardium Leviosa, the spell to make objects fly. Ron does it all wrong, and Hermione corrects him, which of course, just annoys him, so he bites back at her while talking to Harry. SHe overhears him, and upset, takes off to the nearest bathroom to have a good cy.

c) Halloween feast interrupted by Quirrel rushing in to announce a troll in the dungeons. (Excellent acting!) Pandemonium ensues, and Harry and Ron go off to find Hermione and tell her of the troll.

d) Severus Snape passes them by and then, preceded by a disgusting smell, the troll emerges. The boys cleverly lock him up in a bathroom, only to realize moments later, that Hermione is locked up with the troll too. After trying to distract the troll by various means, Harry jumps on top of the troll, and accidentally pushes his wand up its nose. He's about to get crushed by the troll, but Ron uses Wingardium Leviosa on the troll's club, which floats up and falls right back onto the troll's head, knocking it out.

e) Professors Snape, McGonagall and Quirrel turn up at the scene. Amazingly, Hermione lies to make it seem like the whole incident was her fault, so the two boys wouldn't get in trouble. Gryffindor ends up with five points, and Harry and Ron end up with a new friend.

[Serenoli]

Discussion points:

- How does your impression of Hermione change in these two chapters? How about Neville, who also figures a lot?

- What do you think of Quidditch? Does anyone else feel Beaters are more a fancy embellishment than any real use in the team? Though I do love Fred and George.. :rolleyes:

- I read somewhere, that perhaps the reason Fluffy didnt attack at once was because Peeve's annoying sing-song voice just outside the door made him feel sleepy. Or is that too subtle even for Rowling?

- Which monster is scarier, Fluffy or the troll?

- How did the troll come upstairs anyway? It says that the potrait of the Fat Lady is on the seventh floor and that they had to climb two floors to get to it from the bathroom where Hermione was attacked. That means the troll had to get up from the dungeons to the fifth floor, without anyone noticing.

- Five points! Thats all they get for defeating the troll? I bet Snape would've given more if they were Slytherins. ;)

More later.

[jammi567]

Very well done, serenoli. Just one small thing: i think you mean chapter ten, instead of chapter eleven. :)

1) "How does your impression of Hermione change in these two chapters? How about Neville, who also figures a lot?"

My impression of Hermione changes, not when she lies to the teachers, but when she cries after Ron says nasy things about her. It shows that she does have emotions, and also, we get the early indications that she likes him. In contrast, my impression of Neville doesn't change much until a certain book called "Order of the Phionix"......

2) "What do you think of Quidditch? Does anyone else feel Beaters are more a fancy embellishment than any real use in the team? Though I do love Fred and George.."

It seems okay. And the beaters are there to control the bludgers, which help to liven up a pretty boring game.

3) "I read somewhere, that perhaps the reason Fluffy didnt attack at once was because Peeve's annoying sing-song voice just outside the door made him feel sleepy. Or is that too subtle even for Rowling?"

Yeah, i've heard of this before. I really do think she would put that in, it's the type of clue she likes to use

4) "Which monster is scarier, Fluffy or the troll?"

Definatly Fluffy.

5) "How did the troll come upstairs anyway? It says that the potrait of the Fat Lady is on the seventh floor and that they had to climb two floors to get to it from the bathroom where Hermione was attacked. That means the troll had to get up from the dungeons to the fifth floor, without anyone noticing."

Possibly, Quirrill lied (like he usially did) about it being in the dungons, to keep the teachers away.

6) "Five points! Thats all they get for defeating the troll? I bet Snape would've given more if they were Slytherins."

I bet MacGonagall knew Hermione was lying, and that's why she gave them so few points. But the weird thing is, is the neither Harry or Ron complain about this.

[Midge]

Discussion points:

- How does your impression of Hermione change in these two chapters? How about Neville, who also figures a lot?

I've always seen a little bit of myself in Hermione (not to the extent of MEMORIZING texts, but still...) in that she is a know-it-all. I am a know-it-all. I've gotten better since I've gotten older of course, but I digress...

With the talking fast on the train and the whole, "No, Ron, you do it THIS way," I really liked her to begin with. I think it's funny how Ron and Harry feel guilty about making her cry when Lavender and Parvati(?) come to dinner talking about how she is still crying.

I LOVE NEVILLE. I get so happy in the later books, when he's at the head of the DA and leading all the kids who they don't even know are still at school in the Hallows. If you think about it, this is just the beginning of that Neville. In fact, I would say that this Neville is more like the fifth-year Neville than in the in-between books. Incidentally, I wonder if part of the reason the Sorting Hat put him into Gryffindor (he definitely seems more Hufflepuff material) is because what it could see of bravery was how he reacted to his parents' plight (which was very very brave!)?

- What do you think of Quidditch? Does anyone else feel Beaters are more a fancy embellishment than any real use in the team? Though I do love Fred and George.. :rolleyes:

I'm not a big fan of sports, but I do like hearing about Quidditch. A problem with the Quidditch scenes is that it's so exciting, it takes about fifty readings to get all the details because you just can't help but skim really fast through the whole thing.

Beaters are important to the game.. you need a left-fielder for baseball, don't you? It wouldn't be Quidditch without the Bludgers, and the Beaters keep them away from the team and hit them at the other team. It would be a lot more nerve-wracking to play a game like that if you had to keep looking over your shoulder to make sure a big black ball didn't smack you into smithereens! Since Fred and George are so good (and their purpose is solely with the Bludgers), the rest of Gryffindor probably plays better because they're secure that they're safe from Bludgers.

- I read somewhere, that perhaps the reason Fluffy didnt attack at once was because Peeve's annoying sing-song voice just outside the door made him feel sleepy. Or is that too subtle even for Rowling?

That sounds like her. It sounds a lot like the tiara thing and the locket thing she does later in the books

- Which monster is scarier, Fluffy or the troll?

I would say Fluffy... the troll was too stupid to notice you if you didn't move, probably. I wouldn't have moved. But here's a question: What did Hagrid do with Fluffy after the Sorceror's/Philosopher's Stone was destroyed? We never hear about Fluffy again. We do Norbert(a), but not Fluffy... Hmmm

- How did the troll come upstairs anyway? It says that the potrait of the Fat Lady is on the seventh floor and that they had to climb two floors to get to it from the bathroom where Hermione was attacked. That means the troll had to get up from the dungeons to the fifth floor, without anyone noticing.

I never even noticed this. It might even be possible that Quirrell let it in and pointed it at the dungeons, figuring that it would go whichever way it pointed, and when he turned and ran up to the Great Hall, it sort of followed him (maybe he was going too fast or too busy getting into his P-P-Professor Qu-Quirrell character to notice it) and when it reached the Entrance Hall it just sort of wandered off on its own. A troll that size could have covered ground more quickly than a normal human could have. It's a big castle. It just wasn't in the way when all the prefects were taking the students to their dorms.

- Five points! Thats all they get for defeating the troll? I bet Snape would've given more if they were Slytherins. ;)

I always thought that they deserved more than that, too.. I suppose McGonagall was deducting points in her head for them not obeying and going with the prefects (whether Hermione was lying or not, they definitely weren't friends before the troll and McGonagall would have been able to see that, so no matter what, Harry and Ron were out-of-bounds). Hermione may have been out-of-bounds too, but I think McGonagall is shrewd enough to figure out what really happened. It's never said, but I wouldn't be surprised if the professors used Legilimency on students often (Snape certainly did- Harry says he feels as though Snape can read minds), or at least in odd situations like this one. Snape, Dumbledore, Bellatrix and Voldemort can't be the only "accomplished Legilimenses" in the entire Wizarding World.

[Robertot]

great chapter title

just a quick question regarding the set up of the harry discussion projetc ..would it not be best to have a sub forum area within harry potter to put each chapter of the discussion in, similiar to the lotr disc project?

makes it easier to see the whole project as one thing then?

best, BB

[Valandil]

great chapter title

just a quick question regarding the set up of the harry discussion projetc ..would it not be best to have a sub forum area within harry potter to put each chapter of the discussion in, similiar to the lotr disc project?

makes it easier to see the whole project as one thing then?

best, BB

Hello Robertot. Don't know if you noticed, but you're jumping into a very old discussion.

But welcome to Entmoot! :)