Chapters 13-16

[Samantha]

Our discussion of chapters 13-16 will begin on Tuesday!

Chapter 13: Gryffindor Versus Ravenclaw
Chapter 14: Snape's Grudge
Chapter 15: The Quidditch Final
Chapter 16: Professor Trelawney's Prediction

[BaronCognito]

Chapter 13:
I don't get why Ron and Hermine are fighting. I mean, sure Ron thinks that Krummbein ate Krätze, and Hermine thinks Krummbein didn't, but it's not like Ron wants vengence or anything.

Chapter 14:
Harry ignores an important rule: don't get involved in a melee while invisible. I really feel that Harry shouldn't be doing this. Yes, Draco is being a jerk, but he hasn't threatened Ron, and Harry is just escalating the situation.

Snape, in the mean time, deciding to talk badly about a student's dead father right in front of that student when that student has already inflated one person for doing just that... I don't know. Do the teachers know about the incident? If they do, why does no one bring it up? Is this not something that concerns them? Just a little "Harry, it's really bad to inflate people, I understand you didn't exactly have control over what happened, but we need to change that. Here are some lessons to help you control your magic when you get angry." or something like that.

Chapter 15:
How did Hermine forget Magic arts if she was running into the class with Harry and Ron? She was right there when Ron said "Magic Arts has already started." Was she still just so angry at Draco that she didn't hear it, then just followed them to Magic Arts mindlessly, then thought "Oh, I've got a paper to write." Even with the later reveal, I don't see how this makes sense.

What magic do you think she was prepared to cast on Draco?

Actually, Hermine seems to have a short fuse this entire chapter.

Chapter 16:
Ron also noticed her short fuse and Hermine is flattered.

Am I missing a comparison between Krummbein and Seidenschnabel and Krätze and Draco? Is Hermoine identifying strongly with Hagrid here because she feels her cat has been wrongly accused?

[Samantha]

Chapter 13:
It's a little thing, but I like that Harry fully trusted Ron with his Firebolt. He didn't even tell him to be careful with it, or watch how for how fast it is. He just handed it over to his best friend. I thought that was really nice.

Chapter 14:
Knowing that Hermione went to see Hagrid a few times while the boys (Ron, in particular) weren't talking with her makes me wonder about Hermione's support system. It's good that she felt comfortable enough to talk to Hagrid, but she doesn't seem to really have any other friends at this point in the series. It makes me wonder why she never sought out any Ravenclaws to make friends with (aside from Luna, I mean), especially considering how much she probably has in common with them. If any student has taken on extra classes before, it was probably a Ravenclaw.

Harry ignores an important rule: don't get involved in a melee while invisible. I really feel that Harry shouldn't be doing this. Yes, Draco is being a jerk, but he hasn't threatened Ron, and Harry is just escalating the situation.

I think he couldn't help himself. He saw an opportunity and took it.

Snape, in the mean time, deciding to talk badly about a student's dead father right in front of that student when that student has already inflated one person for doing just that... I don't know. Do the teachers know about the incident? If they do, why does no one bring it up? Is this not something that concerns them? Just a little "Harry, it's really bad to inflate people, I understand you didn't exactly have control over what happened, but we need to change that. Here are some lessons to help you control your magic when you get angry." or something like that.

That's a really good point. I think they should have been told, but I somehow doubt that they were. And it would be a really good idea to have some kind of resource set up at Hogwarts, whether the Heads of House or a separate teacher all together, to help students who have trouble controlling their magic, whether due to stress, other mental health issues, or anything else.

Chapter 15:
I'm a little surprised that Hermione never even really tried to be good at divination. She sort of assumes right from the beginning that it's not worth her time (which, given, is very limited), but she seems like someone who is interested in all aspects of magic, and I would have thought she'd have at least given it a good try.
That said, her workload is obviously too much for her. I think a teacher should have stepped in a while ago and made her drop a class or two.
I'm really impressed with Ron taking a lead on research for Buckbeak's appeal, especially considering that they'e had "more homework than ever."
The quidditch final was so exciting!

Actually, Hermione seems to have a short fuse this entire chapter.

I think it's the stress finally boiling over.

Chapter 16:
Poor, poor Hagrid.

Am I missing a comparison between Krummbein and Seidenschnabel and Krätze and Draco? Is Hermione identifying strongly with Hagrid here because she feels her cat has been wrongly accused?

Hmm, I hadn't thought of that. She does seem really upset, but I think that may mostly be that the stress she's been under has all of her emotions sitting right under the surface, so it wouldn't take much to set her off.

[BaronCognito]

In my defense, the German version spells it Hermine.

Hermione strikes me as the type of person who is smart enough to realize she probably made a mistake in taking as many classes as she did, but just proud and stubborn enough to keep at it because, damn it, she's already made the commitment.

I wonder if her disdain of divination might be an influence of her mundane upbringing. Divination seems to have more highly publicized false practitioners than any other magic. And people doing the other kind of magic are usually upfront about "I'm not actually doing magic, these are just tricks."

But, given the state of divination magic, it could just be that it's also not respected in magical literature either. I mean, Hermione does a lot of reading and if there's a bias against divination in those books, she'll pick it up too. How can Hermione be expected to respect divination magic when other teachers will undermine her and say things like "And who did she say will die this year?"

It doesn't seem like the wizarding world takes divination seriously.

[Samantha]

I wonder if her disdain of divination might be an influence of her mundane upbringing. Divination seems to have more highly publicized false practitioners than any other magic. And people doing the other kind of magic are usually upfront about "I'm not actually doing magic, these are just tricks."

But, given the state of divination magic, it could just be that it's also not respected in magical literature either. I mean, Hermione does a lot of reading and if there's a bias against divination in those books, she'll pick it up too. How can Hermione be expected to respect divination magic when other teachers will undermine her and say things like "And who did she say will die this year?"

It doesn't seem like the wizarding world takes divination seriously.

That's a good point, and it makes a lot of sense. You're probably right.

[Sponsored content]