The Weekend Looms

[lydamorehouse]

Check out my friend Doug Hulick's Big Idea on Scalzi's Whatever! It's becoming a Wyrdsmiths tradition.

I'm sorry I've been away. I hear the ol' LJ has been acting up in my absence. Well, I'm back now, so y'all need to behave!

Today was my busy day. I didn't entirely finish Tate's #3 as I'd hoped. I ended up doing a lot of running around. I still haven't made it to the grocery store, but I did get Shawn's birthday present so she'll have something to open tomorrow morning. I thought today was the last day that the Milton Avenue location of Amore Coffee would be open, so I planned to stopped by there for a final cafe Vienna. Alas, I seem to have arrived a day (or more) late. They were moving furnature and other equipment out as I pulled in. Since I'd hauled myself there, I stopped in for lunch at Bread & Chocolate. I wrote a bit, and continue to be amazed by the relaxed way in which this book seems to be coming to a close. Usually, there is much rushing and writing and such in the final days, but I wrote a very lesuirely and detailed scene today. Weird. I hope this isn't some kind of bad omen. At any rate, I have a couple more scenes to write and then I will have reached another "the end" milestone.

Mason and I are re-reading HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE. We just got to the part where the fourth year Gryffindors have had their first Defense Against the Dark Arts class with Professor Moody. I'm going to assume that I don't need to put the next bit under an lj-cut for spoilers, because the book has been out forever, as has the movie, but if you haven't read GOBLET OF FIRE and don't like spoilers, for God's sake stop reading. Okay, onward -- so we all know that Professor Moody isn't, shall we say, _himself_ at this particular moment. Upon second reading, this struck me as VERY interesting. "Moody" shows a surprising amount of what appears to be sympathy toward both Harry and Neville. He comes off like a good guy, a brilliant instructor, even if he is a bit VIGILANT (and a bit odd, of course. But who at Hogwarts isn't a BIT odd.) If I'm reading this right, it means that Barty Crouch, Jr., is actually, on some profound level actually a decent human being.

Or a _really_ good actor. Because, as we learn in Old Trek's "Mirror, Mirror," it is much easier for the civilized man to pass as a barbarian than it is for a barbarian to pass as civilized.

Regardless, I would posit that Barty Crouch, Jr. is one of the best Defense Against Dark Arts teacher that Hogwarts ever had. Considering how otherwise completely unredeeming a character Barty Jr. is, this is a rather noteworthy observation, IMHO.

I suppose that, once again, I'm arriving rather late to this party with this thought, but as it just ocurred to me, I wanted to share it.

And, since I have to rush off to go pick up Mason from school, I'll leave you with it.

Comments

[lydamorehouse]

I'd love to get into the Slytherin thing if only because I have always maintained that I would be sorted into the Slytherin House, despite the fact that every on-line quiz ALWAYS sorts me into Gryffindor. (Damn ironic fact I refuse to lie in order to get into Slytherin!!)

The reason I think so is because I don't buy the Slytherin=Evil thing at all. I'm more of a Professor Slughorn sort of Slytherin. I'm all about ambition.

Anyway, back to your points, I just wanted to say that I LOVE the idea that Barty, Jr. always wanted to be a professor and that maybe he has some kind of secret talent for it. Frankly, I also enjoy the correlary option that perhaps, had the REAL Moody taught DatDA that year, he might have completely SUCKED.

[voxmyriad.livejournal.com]

I forgot about wicked_visions! I love her stuff. Do you know, she has about 25 pages of those House quote icons? There are way too many. I needed to compromise on one that encapsulates my feelings toward the Houses (namely, that I'd do best in Slytherclaw).

Slytherins aren't evil! Slytherins are all about ambition, ambition and success, and I don't feel that teaching people that ambition=evil is a very good idea. When people start in with the whole "There wasn't a witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin" thing, I just come back with, "Apart from Peter Pettigrew, you mean?"

I don't think the real Moody would have had the patience to teach! Look at how impatient he is with everyone in the later books. He's always cutting people off and dismissing them. I actually kind of like Barty!Moody better, and I like the idea that if he hadn't "gone dark-side," as my Supernatural boys say, he might have gone on to teach.

[naomikritzer]

I maintain that Umbridge was clearly a Hufflepuff. And I really like the theory from fandom that all three Unforgiveable curses were developed by Ravenclaws. (I think that's a fandom theory, not something from JKR.)

[voxmyriad.livejournal.com]

Ooh, those are both excellent theories! Umbridge has the marks of a Hufflepuff: loyalty, hard work, and really believing in what she was doing. I've always found it fascinating that JKR included characters like Umbridge, Minister Fudge, and Barty Crouch, Sr., who were Just Doing The Right Thing.

I bet a lot of dark magic came from Ravenclaws who were just experimenting. You know, For Science Magic.

[lydamorehouse]

And I was still thinking about after I went off-line last night. I hadn't thought about Wormtail. Peter Pettigrew is an excellent example of Gryffindor gone bad, but, frankly, I'm not all that impressed with James Potter, either. Gryffidor might make more "heros" than a lot of other houses, but it also makes the most rule-breaking bullies.

I love Fred and George, for instance, but I would not want to be on the butt end of one of their jokes.

Again with GOBLET because it's the one I'm re-reading, there's some poor sod who gets sorted into Slytherin and Fred (or perhaps George) boos them as they're joining Slytherin's table and I thought, "And you call Slytherin snobs!" Seriously, this kid could be awesome, for all they know. I do wish I had time to write fanfic, because I'd love to write a Slytherin hero.

Also, I'd write "Professor Longbottom and the Malicious Mandrake" and other continuing stories featuring an adult Neville at Hogwarts.

[marlowe1.livejournal.com]

I liked that the fourth book finally told us that the defining characteristic of Slytherin was pure-bloodedness and snobbery. It actually makes sense then as opposed to the first three where you kind of assume that the heroes go to Gryffindor, the villains go to Slytherin and the other two houses get sorted by who is dumb or smart.

Reminds me of Chasidic Jews who won't let converts marry into their families or they will make sure to set up their daughters with the "good" families. Apparently Satmir actually take family trees from ten generations back to make sure that there are no converts in that tree (but this is only for the rebbe's family and the other Satmir just inbreed but if they let someone from a non-Satmir or even non-Jewish lineage in, then they guess it will work that way).

I also base this on the fact that among non-wizards, all wizards are considered stupid and scary and unimportant so the prejudice is mutual.

[lydamorehouse]

Yeah the pure-bloodedness is probably the one thing that would keep me out of Slytherin House. Does sorting hat EVER put a non-pure-blood into Slytherin?

Of course, that explains why the on-line quizes shuffle my highly ambitious, devious self into Gryffindor.

[lydamorehouse]

Oh, my goodness, of COURSE the Sorting Hat puts non-pure bloods into Slytherin! Tom Riddle is half-blood as is Snape!!!!

Right?