Chapters 5-8

[Samantha]

Our discussion of chapters 5-8 begins on Monday!

Chapter 5: The Dementor
Chapter 6: Talons and Tea Leaves
Chapter 7: The Boggart in the Wardrobe
Chapter 8: Flight of the Fat Lady

[Samantha]

Chapter 5:
Why do you think Harry is less afraid than the others about Sirius?

Chapter 6:
Do you think it was a good idea for Hagrid to start with hippogriffs?
I liked that a hippogriff's consent was necessary for someone to touch it. I liked that that narrative was included, and that Draco, who originally earned it's consent, had it revoked when he was rude.
I thought it was really sweet that the kids offered to advocate for Hagrid to Dumbledore if Draco tried to get him fired. Their relationship with Hagrid is different from any of the other teachers (maybe because up until now Hagrid hasn't been a teacher?). He seems more like an uncle to them.

Chapter 7:
Snape is The. Worst.
I would have liked to see what Draco's boggart would take the form of.
How does Lupin already know all the student's names?

Chapter 8:
At this point, I don't think any of the students know what Voldemort looks like. Not even Harry, really. I can understand why Lupin wouldn't want a form of Voldemort appearing in his class, and even if he did appear, I guess the students could have inferred, coming from Harry, who it was supposed to be, but...
Also, is it unrealistic that Ron wouldn't know the story of Sirius Black? Draco does, but Ron doesn't. Is Sirius' connection to Harry not common knowledge in the wizarding world? You'd think that would have been a big part of the story. And not that his classmates would have been old enough at the time to hear it first hand, obviously, but they grew up hearing about Harry, so...I guess, how much of the story has really been passed down over 12 years?

[BaronCognito]

Chapter 5:
I'd assume it's lack of context. He doesn't know the stories going around about Sirius, he hasn't been told why Sirius would even be thinking about him. As far as he can tell, it's a bit like one of those "A guy with a hook hand has escaped from a local place where they keep guys like him." stories. As far as he knows, Sirius should just be going into hiding to avoid being recaptured.

I'm beginning to wonder about the narrator. Paraphrasing "Crabby and Goyle seemed to exist only to follow Draco's orders." I feel as though the narrator might not be entirely reliable, and if it is a third person narration tinted by Harry's perspective, that would mean the explanation of the first chapter of why Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia were cruel to him is Harry making excuses for them.

Chapter 6:
I though Hagrid really wants to be the cool teacher, he wants them to be as excited about magical creatures as he is. Was it a good idea? I don't know. Basically "You're fine as long as you're not a jerk to these animals" might not be a problem, but it some people would argue that being a jerk is part and parcel of being thirteen.

Chapter 7:
Yeah, it makes you wonder why Snape decided to be a teacher. He could use that same superior attitude if he ran a shop, and as long as he was really good at making potions, he'd still get customers. They'd just consider having to talk to him part of costs. Is this another thing to blame Dumbledore for? Or does he just like the petty power it gives him?

I imagine he just made an effort to learn the names. All the other teachers seem to do the same.

Chapter 8:
I don't even know that Voldemort knows what Voldemort looks like. I mean, he's kind of living, at this point, but he doesn't really have a body. If the Irrwichte use telepathy to create the image, as it seems they do, I can only assume that Voldemort would look like whatever Harry imagines Voldemort to look like. So, I"d imagine it'd be a chalky white face on the back of a head with slits for nostrils.

I imagine they don't like to talk about the incidents around Voldemort and the death eaters much. I can see how Draco would know because his father doesn't exactly see those times as the bad days. He'll talk about them with a tinge of nostalgia and a hint of regret. But most people won't even speak his name. I wouldn't be surprised if the story didn't go further than "There were some bad days and 'You-already-know-who" was killing people and growing power and then a boy survived and the dark times ended and we don't really need to talk about this anymore let's get some vomit flavoured jelly beans."

[Samantha]

Harry's definitely an unreliable narrator, especially about people he doesn't like.

I think Dumbledore likes being able to keep an eye on Snape, but he's making a big sacrifice of the students who have an interest in actually learning about potions, and the students who would be interested, and may even be really good at it, if only they were given a more encouraging learning environment.

We see with how Snape treats Neville that it's clearly not just Harry that Snape is a horrible teacher to, so there are probably lots of other students who are missing out on a good education because of him. Like he did with Lockhart in CoS, Dumbledore doesn't seem to mind much that he's throwing away learning opportunities.

[BaronCognito]

I think that, perhaps, we're supposed to feel that "Sure, Snape is an awful teacher, but he did save Harry's life." but given what Hagrid does, it's clear that there are jobs at Hogwarts that aren't teaching. I'm sure that Dumbledore could have made up some position to keep Severus around.

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