Fifth book notes, chapters twenty-five to twenty-eight

[lavivi]

I'm always amused my Harry's date with Cho - particularly when he was angsting about whether or not to hold her hand in Madam Puddifoot's.  I also like how the offhanded way he threw a Galleon on the table when he left. 

When Harry first entered The Three Broomsticks, he met Hagrid there for a few moments - Hagrid's looking as though he was severely mugged, as usual in the fifth book, and also very morose - he rambles about the importance of blood relations to Harry.  I have a suspicion that that was the day the centaurs first warned him to give up the attempt to civilize Grawp.

'Family,' said Hagrid gloomily. 'Whatever yeh say, blood's important…'
And he wiped a trickle of it out of his eye.

I wonder if Harry really told everything when he had that interview with Rita Skeeter.  Did it include the priori incantenum, and how he was tortured twice with Cruciatus?  I'm also really impressed with how smoothly Hermione handled her.

And it might have been a good idea to mention how ugly you think I am, too,' Hermione added as an afterthought.
'But I don't think you're ugly,' said Harry, bemused.
Hermione laughed.
'Harry you're worse than Ron… well, no, you're not,' she sighed, as Ron himself came stumping into the Hall splattered with mud and looking grumpy.

"Why have you got all these letters, Mr Potter?' she asked slowly.
'Is that a crime now?' said Fred loudly. 'Getting mail?'

One of my favorite passages in the fifth book is this paragraph:

The teachers were of course forbidden from mentioning the interview by Educational Decree Number Twenty-six, but they found ways to express their feelings about it all the same. Professor Sprout awarded Gryffindor twenty points when Harry passed her a watering can; a beaming Professor Flitwick pressed a box of squeaking sugar mice on him at the end of Charms, said, 'Shh!' and hurried away; and Professor Trelawney broke into hysterical sobs during Divination and announced to the startled class, and a very disapproving Umbridge, that Harry was not going to suffer an early death after all, but would live to a ripe old age, become Minister for Magic and have twelve children.

...was the reaction he got from Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. He saw them with their heads together later that afternoon in the library; they were with a weedy-looking boy Hermione whispered was called Theodore Nott. They looked round at Harry as he browsed the shelves for the book he needed on Partial Vanishment: Goyle cracked his knuckles threateningly and Malfoy whispered something undoubtedly malevolent to Crabbe. Harry knew perfectly well why they were acting like this: he had named all of their fathers as Death Eaters.

We know now quite a bit more about Theodore Nott - including he doesn't take after his father.  We're given Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle's reactions to Harry - but not Theodore.  I wonder how he feels about his father being named as a Death Eater.

Snape staggered - his wand flew upwards, away from Harry -and suddenly Harry's mind was teeming with memories that were not his: a hook-nosed man was shouting at a cowering woman, while a small dark-haired boy cried in a corner… a greasy-haired teenager sat alone in a dark bedroom, pointing his wand at the ceiling, shooting down flies… a girl was laughing as a scrawny boy tried to mount a bucking broomstick -

Oh, those few scenes.  Those few, bitter scenes.  I had a picture once, I printed it off - it was a drawing of all three of those images...where?

Harry felt as though he had been pushed hard in the chest; he staggered several steps backwards, hit some of the shelves covering Snape's walls and heard something crack. Snape was shaking slightly, and was very white in the face.

Severus is quite powerful.  Look up there, it states his wand flew out of his hand.

'No - no, I'll g - go, Dumbledore! I sh - shall - leave Hogwarts and's - seek my fortune elsewhere -'
'No,' said Dumbledore sharply. 'It is my wish that you remain, Sybill.'

No, Dumbledore doesn't want her to go out and be vulnerable to the world - particularly Death Eaters.  After that prophecy she made - they may torture her like they did Bertha Jorkins.

Also, I noted that in that entire scene, they didn't call her Professor Trelawney anymore.  Only in the narrative. 

'Might I ask you to escort Sybill back upstairs, Professor McGonagall?'

[Firenze] swished his long palomino tail, raised his hand towards the leafy canopy overhead, then lowered it slowly, and as he did so, the light in the room dimmed, so that they now seemed to be sitting in a forest clearing by twilight, and stars appeared on the ceiling.

Can centaurs do magic besides Divination?

The next important scene is Marrieta's snitching, and Dumbledore's fleeing of Hogwarts.

They were at the stone gargoyle within minutes. Harry wondered how many of the others had been caught. He thought of Ron - Mrs Weasley would kill him - and of how Hermione would feel if she was expelled before she could take her OWLs. And it had been Seamus's very first meeting… and Neville had been getting so good…

Oh, noble Harry.  He thinks of everyone else first.

'Well,' [Fudge] said. 'Well, well, well…"
Harry replied with the dirtiest look he could muster.

Loved that part ever since the first time I read it.

Professor Umbridge seized Marietta, pulled her round to face her and began shaking her very hard. A split second later Dumbledore was on his feet, his wand raised; Kingsley started forwards and Umbridge leapt back from Marietta, waving her hands in the air as though they had been burned.
'I cannot allow you to manhandle my students, Dolores,' said Dumbledore and, for the first time, he looked angry.

That too.  Beautiful hex from Dumbledore.

'You?' he whispered, stamping again on his smouldering cloak.
That's right,' said Dumbledore pleasantly.
'You organised this?'
'I did,' said Dumbledore.
'You recruited these students for - for your army?'
"Tonight was supposed to be the first meeting,' said Dumbledore, nodding. 'Merely to see whether they would be interested in joining me. I see now that it was a mistake to invite Miss Edgecombe, of course.'
Marietta nodded. Fudge looked from her to Dumbledore, his chest swelling.
"Then you have been plotting against me!' he yelled.
"That's right,' said Dumbledore cheerfully.

Excellent passage.  And this:

'Don't be silly, Dawlish,' said Dumbledore kindly. 'I'm sure you are an excellent Auror - I seem to remember that you achieved "Outstanding" in all your NEWTs — but if you attempt to — er — bring me in by force, I will have to hurt you.'

A streak of silver light flashed around the room; there was a bang like a gunshot and the floor trembled; a hand grabbed the scruff of Harry's neck and forced him down on the floor as a second silver flash went off; several of the portraits yelled, Fawkes screeched and a cloud of dust filled the air. Coughing in the dust, Harry saw a dark figure fall to the ground with a crash in front of him; there was a shriek and a thud and somebody cried, 'No!'; then there was the sound of breaking glass, frantically scuffling footsteps, a groan… and silence.

No matter how many times I read that paragraph, I've never been able to attribute all the noises and actions to everyone.  Only a few of them.

'Where is he?' yelled Fudge, pushing himself up from the floor. 'Where is he?'
'I don't know!' shouted Kingsley, also leaping to his feet.

Haha, that always makes me laugh.

>'Yeah, Montague tried to do us during break,' said George.
'What do you mean, "tried"?' said Ron quickly.
'He never managed to get all the words out,' said Fred, 'due to the fact that we forced him head-first into that Vanishing Cabinet on the first floor.'
Hermione looked very shocked.
'But you'll get into terrible trouble!'
'Not until Montague reappears, and that could take weeks, I dunno where we sent him,' said Fred coolly.

You know, I don't care what people say about what delinquets Fred and George are.  I love them and don't think that was such a worthy-of-Crucio action.  Not everyone on the good side is going to be angelic.  There are going to be grey areas, they're not going to play nice, their pranks aren't going to be perfectly harmless.

Of course, none of that can be applied when it comes to hexing Severus.

Stopped there, as the fireworks were whizzing all over the school.