Chapter 21: The Eye of the Snake

[abigail89]

...or THE KISS

Part the First: Professor Hagrid
Hagrid is back and ready to teach Care of Magical Creatures again. Well, you know, Hagrid-style. Hermione tries to assist him in preparing for classes, but to little avail. He introduces the thestrals to the gang, and until Umbridge shows up, he doesn't do a half-bad job. But then that sodding

Comments

[abigail89]

Well, I'll start.

When I re-read the kiss scene, the next line is Harry returned a half-hour later. A whole 30 minutes!? That wasn't a kiss--they made out!!! And then I read that she spent all that time crying on his shoulder (and Hermione gott disgusted when he told her he patted her back). Shoot. One lousy kiss and then she cries.

Poor Harry.

[cadesama]

Hmm, I don't think we can write off the possibility of a snogging session. I mean, Harry says he patte her back, but not that she cried for the rest of the time. There might have been kisses interspersed. After all, she started out crying, and then kissed him before the fade to black.

[house_elf_44]

That's they way I take it, too - more crying and patting than kissing. If there were a lot of kissing, I think they might have gotten past the Cedric thing more than they did. And Harry would have acted differently when he came back. I wonder if he walked her to her tower. She'd be past curfew, and he had the map.

[annearchy]

Remember that the Room of Requirement is on the seventh floor, which doesn't seem to get a lot of regular use for school work (though I'd have to check the Lexicon diagrams of Hogwarts to be sure). Harry might or might not have walked Cho back to Ravenclaw Tower, but even if they snogged a bit more than the one kiss, it does seem to be a bit of a hike from the 7th floor to Gryffindor Tower (excluding the trouble those moving staircases can cause). Now I'll have to look this up in the Lexicon.

[cadesama]

Why thestrals in fifth year? I know that Hagrid has no concept of what's age appropriate, but I'd think that advanced students -- who have a greater chance of even seeing thestrals and would probably be more inclined to trust Hagrid's assessment of whether they actually are unlucky -- would be a better choice.

Oh, and I find it interesting that Malfoy is so afraid of the forest. Is it particularly him, or does Harry just ignore that fact that everyone except him is scared witless to go in there?

So, er, only human death qualifies? I mean, everyone has seen bugs die, and a fair number by fifteen have seen a pet die. What if they see a house elf die, or a centaur? Possibly it would mean creatures with souls, but then wouldn't there be definitive proof for equality between humans, house elves, centaurs, goblins etc

[annearchy]

The post-kiss scene is one of my absolute favorite scenes in OotP, and possibly the entire series. Hermione goes through such a wide range of emotions; you can almost see the struggle going on inside her, how should she react? How much should she ask Harry? OMFG Cho actually kissed him? Well, now that it's happened, Hermione doesn't seem very happy about it. JKR uses a lot of interesting adverbs in this section, especially describing Hermione's reactions. Ron doesn't seem jealous at all of Harry getting kissed. My favorite lines:
Harry: "Am I really such a bad kisser?"
Hermione (absently): "Of course you're not"
Ron: "How would you know?"

So much going on beneath the surface there. *retreats to safety of own shipping lanes*

[annearchy]

I got the quotes wrong. It should be:

Ron: "Are you really such a bad kisser?"
Harry: "Dunno. Maybe I am."
Hermione (absently): "Of course you're not"
Ron (sharply): "How would you know?"

Still, there's an undercurrent of something there...

[house_elf_44]

Draco is afraid of the forest. I can only see him backing out of being a Death Eater

[cadesama]

Hermione can hold her tongue when she's enraged

No, she can't. She's whispering insults. She's lucky that the Slytherins aren't near enough to rat her out.

She sought him out twice early on, but he hasn't made any effort to write her a note, to talk to her in the great hall, and he waits for her to initiate the conversation after the meeting. I think he still wasn't ready for more than admiring at a distance.

I think that's highly likely. As well, she's already spurned him once, I don't think he'd want to be seen as pursuing Cedric's girlfriend, and Harry just doesn't initiate relationships in general.

Did Voldemort put some of his soul into the snake, too, or is Voldemort possessing the snake to see through it's eyes, and Harry is tapping into that connection like a party line. (Remember those?) I think that has to be it, because Harry saw through Frank Bryce's eyes, and the owl he rode on, and you only have so much soul to spread around.I think it's just that Voldemort was possessing the snake. If it's Nagini, she seems to

[woman_ironing]

Harry's interaction, or lack of interaction, with Cho puzzles me ... She sought him out twice early on, but he hasn't made any effort to write her a note, to talk to her in the great hall, and he waits for her to initiate the conversation after the meeting

Harry is a romantic and so is waiting for it to happen naturally. whatever 'it' might be - he's obviously not all that clear. And he's terrified. It's very brave of him to hang back pissing about with the cushions, giving Cho a chance to get him alone. That Harry Potter, he is so easy!

[potter_phile]

Hermione can hold her tongue when she's enraged...

Well, she can stop herself from getting in people's faces, at any rate. ;)

Whatever your ship, the post-kiss scene is very interesting. Hermione could be jealous, she could just be feeling very protective of Harry, or she could be a little shocked at the idea of one of them getting a "significant other." I remember how akward it was when my friends and I first started getting boyfriends and girlfriends. But any way you chose to see it, I think it's quite clear that Hermione was uncomfortable with the turn of events involving Cho.

As for Harry not engaging Cho; he never has any idea what to say to her. He kept hoping for chance encounters and looking for excuses to talk to her, then he'd get flustered. Crush!Harry is soooo darn cute! :P

He can see in the dark, which I take to be a normal snake ability(?).

Snakes have very poor vision... they use their tongues to "see" the same way bats use radar to "hear."

Did Voldemort put some of his soul into the snake, too, or is Voldemort

[schtroumph_c]

* Draco is scared of the Forest, in the same time, the last time he went there, he saw something drinking the blood of a animal reputated very, very difficult to catch and kill.

* Dear Umbridge, do you know what happen to the last person who make Hermione so angry?

* I think Ron thought it was evident that Harry comes home with him.

* Hermione, do you really expect teenagers boys understand feelings so complicated?