pro-Hermione rant link, and more fifth book thoughts

[lavivi]

First, here's a good pro-Hermione argument.  It was brought into being apparently by some discussion against her "horrible behavior" in the fifth book - namely humiliating Marietta, and possibly trying to lead Umbridge to her death.  Best lines are these:

I think it was more along the lines of 'No wand. Captured by seemingly psychotic student body. Interrogation by Frog-Face. She's going to torture Harry, this is all kinds of wrong. This is bad, this is very very bad...' "I know where Dumbledore's weapon is!"

What the fuck was she supposed to do? Use her l33t ninja powers to escape from Millicent's grasp, shatter Umbridge's wand with her SUPERIOR WANDLESS MAGICK, strip down to a leather bikini and heal everyone's souls with her magical tears?
And then make the sweet lurve with Draco because they're secretly soul-mates, right there in Umbridge's office in front of everybody (including the kitten plates)? And yea, their couplings seemed to last an infinity and a day, and the Goddesses and lesser Gods wept tears of pure joy at the sight of their purest of pure love. Thankfully, Pansy thought ahead and cast a "sperm-be-gone" spell on Draco, so that there would be no ickle Dramiones or Hermcos coming forth in nine moon cycle's time, and it was good because children are not sexy.

 

Secondly, have done some more fifth-book reading, and have more thoughts.

For a moment Harry was tempted to go with Dobby. He was halfway out of his seat, intending to hurry upstairs for his Invisibility Cloak when, not for the first time, a voice very much like Hermione's whispered in his ear: reckless. It was, after all, very late, he was exhausted, and had Snape's essay to finish.

"Not tonight, Dobby," said Harry reluctantly, sinking back into his chair. "This is really important… I don't want to blow it, it'll need proper planning. Listen, can you just tell me exactly where this Room of Requirement is, and how to get in there?"

I am very much impressed at Harry here for Using His Head

'Oh please,' said Zacharias Smith, rolling his eyes and folding his arms.

Well.  We have a character who is canonly gay. 

It felt very odd to be issuing instructions, but not nearly as odd as seeing them followed. Everybody got to their feet at once and divided up.

This is one of the things I love about Ms. Rowling's writing.  She writes things with such real insight - the very first time I read that, I thought, Yes, that's exactly what would feel weird - seeing people do what you tell them to.  I'm also reminded of her description of how Harry didn't know what to do with his arms on his first date with Cho, and how his legs felt like marshmellows as he walked to the first task in the fourth book - all extremely exact, realistic insights.