HBP 5: An Excess of Phlegm

[seicat]

Harry and Dumbledore end their broom shed tryst with that flighty temptress, adventure (Yeah, let's see how long we can keep this gag going...) and knock on the back door of the Burrow. They are greeted by Mrs. Weasley and, oddly enough, Nymphadora Tonks (sans Atomic Pink Hair and feeling a bit on the melancholic side. Poor dear.) But Tonks

Comments

[chocotaku]

And there was much scurrying around to make a Hot Lips 'licour icon...

[_almagitana]

I really wonder why Harry's not affected by FleurHot Lips anymore.

He's so gay.

[cadesama]

The whole Tonks red herring business irritates me, because I don't think being love-lorn over Remus adequately explains Tonks avoiding Dumbledore's eyes. Since OotP, that has been a clear marker that a character was trying to avoid Legilimency, and now we're supposed to think that she's doing that because . . . what, she doesn't want him to see how pathetic and lonely she is? You don't need to read Tonks's mind to see that. (I also have time line issues with it

[_almagitana]

I've always wondered about Hermione's parents. Especially coming from a family that would NEVER let me spend a summer at a male friend's house at that age.

[cadesama]

Well, the type of people who would send their daughter off to learn magic for most of the year, instead of investigating whether this was a cult coming to call aren't what most of us would consider regular parents, I'd expect. Really, I think how "assimilated" the Muggleborn characters become is pretty depressing at this point, as well as silly. They help disprove pureblood supremacy by doing everything in their power to emulate pureblood culture. Way to go!

[chocotaku]

Maybe they got tired of the ten years of her being a know-it-all when she was living at home and rejoiced that some other people would get to put up with her correcting everyone and being a smarty pants.

[house_elf_44]

Sheesh, so Dumbledore was going to persuade Slughorn all night

[cadesama]

Why would there be a Puking Pastille in Harry’s pillowcase? Doesn’t everybody put fresh linens on the bed for company?

You'd think, but going into the twins' room may simply be too hazardous for that sort of thing. I honestly think that Puking Pastille is left over from when the twins had to hide their stock.

Hermione’s reaction to Ron’s reaction to Fleur would be an addition to the collection of those anvils we read about. I think they’re all designed to be optical illusions. You can see jealousy, or you can see something else, which in this case is disgust.

I can see jealousy, although I largely see it as general jealousy of Fleur's beauty and ability to make boys into drooling morons. I think Hermione's make over in GoF proves that she's not immune to the desire to have that sort of influence. Which doesn't rule out romantic jealousy, but I think points to why Hermione has such nasty reactions to Fleur and Lavender in this book. Also, JKR is hanging a lamp shade on how susceptible Ron is to mind control. Mwahaha.

Fleur is

[house_elf_44]

but going into the twins' room may simply be too hazardous for that sort of thing. I honestly think that Puking Pastille is left over from when the twins had to hide their stock.

They've had the shop for a year, so those would be some nasty sheets! I was wondering if they just magic the sheets clean, but Molly had a basket of laundered sheets. Maybe the twins put it there for emergency use, but everyone in their family knows about Puking Pastilles, so they wouldn't get away with it. It's just weird - why include it? I could see if his foot felt it just under the edge of the bed as he was getting in.

I can see jealousy, although I largely see it as general jealousy of Fleur's beauty and ability to make boys into drooling morons.

Okay, within seeing Hermione's reaction as disgust, I can see jealousy for the power pretty girls have over boys. It's a start.

[cadesama]

They've had the shop for a year, so those would be some nasty sheets!

Not actually. Remember, they only left school after the Easter Holidays and probably hadn't been in their room since the first couple of weeks of summer in OotP then. We don't know if they actually returned to their room often after they left, either. So while those sheets could be incredibly dusty, they wouldn't necessarily be dirty. After hiding their products, they would have hastily packed them up to take to Grimmauld Place, so I see how things would end up in very strange places. I do think it's likely, though, that Molly cleans their room from beyond the threshold, except when raiding for Wheezes.

[schtroumph_c]

* vanishing at precisely the same spot

I suppose there’re special places where Apparition is allowed, and why they couldn’t apparate near Slughorn’s house.

* I tell him it's just silly to miss dealing with spark plugs and toasters and all the rest of that Muggle rubbish.

Ouch Molly, that was simply mean. You know what’s the Muggle rubbish tell you?

Someone once said that Molly is a rich Pureblood rose with their ideas, and she changed a little with the reality, a lot with the money, when she married Arthur, I begin to believe it.

* It's been like that for a while now," said Mrs. Weasley, in an un-convincingly casual voice, "ever since You-Know-Who came back into the open. I suppose everybody's in mortal danger now. ... I don't think it can be just our family . . . but I don't know anyone else who's got a clock like this, so I can't check.

Can it be a hint for an attack of Voldy on the Burrow?

* "It sounds like the sort of thing Fred and George would find funny," said Mrs. Weasley hesitantly. "Are you sure

[house_elf_44]

Ouch Molly, that was simply mean. You know what’s the Muggle rubbish tell you?

Yeah, it was mean, because Harry gave that kind of stuff to Arthur for Christmas last year.

* Phlegm ? Or it’s an English thing, or it’s really stupid for a nickname.

I took it that it's from the throatiness and rolling r's of the French language. When I saw a spoiler of the chapter titles, "An Excess of Phlegm" was one that made me sure they were fake.

[cadesama]

Someone even said she was too mature to act like that and she should be nice with her. Apparently, they forget that Hermione always disliked Fleur, since GOF, and always had a snippy comment for her.

I don't know where the idea that Hermione is particularly emotionally mature comes from. She's deeply insecure, and (despite her proclivity towards armchair psychology) not terribly adept at socializing. The fact that she never broached Ron's crush on her in two years alone showed that she's not very emotionally mature, to me. Intelligence and maturity really aren't correlates, ever.

[annearchy]

* Phlegm ? Or it’s an English thing, or it’s really stupid for a nickname.

Or it could just be Ginny's warm, compassionate nature here. /sarcasm