Woo, got this posted just before the thread fell off the main page!

HUUUUURRAAAAGH THE CLUES ARE ALL THERE! Millicent had Skeeter in her hands! Why can’t Hogwarts students be normal kids who pay attention to cool bugs??? Also, Skeeter is way more active this year than she was in canon; it’s starting to feel like she’s living on Hogwarts grounds . . . I’m still positive Crouch Jr. is in Crouch Sr.’s shape, but this does make me wonder whether Skeeter is the one sabotaging the tasks for Harry?

I’m really feeling for Harry’s dejection over the state of his culture. The rate of change does feel so slow and frustrating when you’re living inside it. It’s easy to look back over history and see centuries of big, sweeping changes condensed into a single paragraph, but when experiencing a culture day to day, it’s easier to focus on the one step back than on the two steps forward. Harry’s observation that wizardkind “have been separate from the real world” really gets right at the origins of a lot of bigotry, because there has to be a separation to fuel that kind of fear and apathy towards others. And it doesn’t have to be a separation caused by a culture-wide Statute of Secrecy; it can be as mundane as a privileged middle-class family drawing the walls of their suburban cubicle around themselves and proclaiming that everything outside that cubicle isn’t their business, they’re not responsible for anything Outside. How many Roses will there be? Doesn’t matter to them, they’re not looking for Roses, they have their cubicle to maintain.

I had pretty much the same reaction as Hermione when Nilly went from “We’re unionizing” to “because our authority figure told us to.” That is not how we fight the power, Nilly! But two steps forward, one back, right? Also, Hannah’s point about needing the house-elves during parties . . . I hadn’t realized before, but these pureblood families don’t actually throw parties, do they? They attend parties that are thrown in their own home, but it’s the elves who make and serve the food, who decorate the house . . . that doesn’t even feel like hosting a party to me? I’m not sure I’m explaining myself well, just . . . it’s a weirdly passive way to “do party” I guess?

. . . Okay. I’ve never been the biggest fan of Draco Malfoy, but wow was it hard getting through that scene, where he accidentally confessed his sexuality to Harry. I don’t think he really started that conversation intending to, either, it just . . . grew out of the dialogue? And Harry did NOT handle that well at all, man, you’d think he didn’t have gay kids in his very school year, he shouldn’t be THAT surprised! I never thought I would say these words in this order, but, “Harry Potter deserved getting hexed by Draco Malfoy.” I hope Draco makes it through all right, poor kid . . .

“A good family does not need magic to hold itself together.” Lily? You have just sucker-punched me in the gut so hard. I won’t go into the family drama of why, but uh, Yeah. Congratulations, you have just turned a key in my brain, and I think I will hold onto this quote forever!

—there is a beetle on the floor as doctorlit types this, but it is surely a guud beetel frend, right?

Ah, yes, only a healthy and well-grounded society sees grown adults sending hate mail to 14-year-olds! Especially hate mail filled with acidic booby traps! Charming, mature bunch, these purebloods and pureblood sympathizers, every scalded child finger is well justified. (I do love the detail that some of the hate mail writers are so old-fashioned, they’re literally still using Olde English-esque spelling! Caught in the past, much?)

Oh my gosh, the end portion of this chapter is absolute peak Gryffindor Harry! “My friend might be in danger? Time to escape school and cross the country completely alone without telling anyone!” I absolutely love the interaction between Harry, Rose and Lily. Rose is right to be upset at them, but Lily is so supportive and protecting, and Harry feels so bad about what’s happening . . . it’s just a sweet, caring scene!

I see Skeeter has joined Alex Jones in shilling questionable products! There is so much to hate about the phrase, “Inheritance-Detecting Blood Test.” (Grug Goldensnout is a great wizarding world name, though!)

A missing word or so here:
Harry snuck past the towards the front door . . .

—doctorlit sees Professor Grubbly-Plank is also a Tolkien enthusiast, since she’s clearly LARPing as Gandalf at the Three Broomsticks

Yes, good chapter! I could barely look away from the screen! And I love that all four champions wound up helping each other out. Competitions are fine, but I prefer seeing teamwork more than competitiveness. I hope that attitude carries forward through the final task!

Oh, and just as Harry and Draco were letting things get back to normal, and trying to pretend the Yule Ball didn’t happen . . . “Since when was I the one you’d sorely miss?” Tee hee hee hee!

So yes, an excellent chapter, good feels all around, no shenanigans from the Knights trying to sabotage the event*, everything is positive and friendly and—say, what are these final six paragraphs doing here? Guess I’d better read them and—

THE BEETLE

the beetle

And, oh no, this is so cursed, but it popped into my head and now it’s the whole Board’s problem:
♪They got the cold, frigid lake
skin with the scale
They stalk through the kelp without fail
Hit that lake floor
next thing you know
It’s Grindylow-low-low-low-low-low-lows♪

—doctorlit, something something the beetle

*Except now that I type this, there was, wasn’t there? The figure Harry saw diving into the far side of the lake did something to make the Grindylows more aggressive, didn’t they? Did they give the monsters Harry’s scent through the missing socks?

This has been a gooood chapter, and I looooove that opening scene! I love that Gaunt’s flagrant murders of his neighbors have finally caught up to him, and in a way that can’t just be obliviated away, now that the protests have been broadcast to at least local news stations. And, more generally, the man just deserves to be protested, and his own culture is too cowed and afraid of change to do it. Is that “young man” Ali from ch. 1?

I see Madam Skeeter couldn’t be bothered to identify proper song titles from the Yule Ball! I’m a little shocked the Prophet allowed her to print that “Hermit” title, though at least she’s getting a head start on the homophobic fear-mongering she’ll no doubt engage with in the following decades. I’m afraid I’ve developed a conspiracy theory of my own regarding her, though! During her showdown with Hermione in the Broomsticks, she says she has dirt on a bunch of Ministry officials, which . . . doesn’t really threaten or affect Hermione in any way? Unless Skeeter didn’t mean it as “I have leverage,” but rather as, “these people are more dangerous than you know, so don’t risk rocking the boat.” So: does Skeeter actually want to be elevating Gaunt and tearing down Dumbledore, or is she being blackmailed or otherwise forced to, for fear of what Gaunt might do to her otherwise? I also can’t help but notice that, even though she was present at both the ball and for Harry’s conversation with Dumbledore, she’s only covered the ball itself in this article, despite the fact that bringing Rose to Hogwarts would be much more scandalous. Did she prioritize the ball because it's a current, publicly known event, and is saving the “Harry tried to bring a Muggle to a society ball” for later? Or did she actually choose to protect Harry there? Hm . . .

Perfect immigration metaphor for Muggleborns becoming New Bloods! Immigrants don’t have to give up their language, their skin or hair, or indeed, their family members to move to a new country, so why should Muggleborn kids have to give up their family and hair to be accepted?

On a much more puerile level, perfect portraits fighting metaphor for Harry to explain Mortal Kombat to Ron. ♪Portrait Kombat! Dun dun, dun dun, dun dun dun dun dun dun♪

I never noticed it reading the original series, or watching the film adaptations, but uh. Wow, the prefect bathrooms are basically designed to encourage wasting water, aren’t they? Like, not even a normally sized bathtub, but a whole jacuzzi? Unless Hogwarts is just freakishly dusty, there’s no reason for anyone to use an entire jacuzzi’s worth of water to get clean! Wasteful

Oh, Flutterby pollen smells to Ron like parchment and ink, tee hee? Like, the sorts of things one would find in a library, tee hee, or being used by a person who often frequents libraries, tee hee? I wonder why that would be, tee hee?

Oho, the twins aren’t just suing Bagman, but blackmailing him? I love it! I also love that the Sneakoscopes didn’t activate until after Bagman’s conversation with Crouch, which I take to mean that even though Junior is masquerading as Senior all the time, his responses to Bagman’s wheedling during that conversation were so reasonable and in-character for Senior that the Sneakoscopes couldn’t detect anything wrong there!

Other miscellaneous things I enjoyed:
-Ginny looking at the Scandinavian girls’ Scandinavian arms and thinking, “Yeah, I’ma rassle those, I feel no fear of failure.”
-Skeeter being so prejudiced that she mistook the Goblins Bagman was talking to for students, because Goblins couldn’t possibly be involved with anything of importance, right?
-But most of all, the reconciliation at the end, and the five students all returning to Hogwarts together, including Krum! Everyone can be friends!

—doctorlit would probably get a similar smell to Ron’s from Flutterby pollen, but for a rather different reason

I kind of love the scene where the Slytherin boys are all helping each other preen up for the Yule Ball? Because even though they only care about their looks because they’ve had classist standards of appearance trained into them, it’s still kind of charming to see them helping each other out like that. Degenerate Muggle boys would be too scared of “looking gay” to do that! I also love that, in trying to restore his drained magic, Draco has settled on the counter-cultural solution of “I’ll just grow my hair out long like a woman!” Ah, the options that open up when we aren’t bound to arbitrary social rules about gender and appearance! Speaking of terrible social rules, uuuuuuuh, “he would still be in the clear with his parents to do his duty in two years’ time.” I knew the marriage was arranged, but like. Age 16?! The Malfoys and Greengrasses are seriously planning to marry the kids the second they turn 16!!?!?? Still students and everything!?!??!?!?!? picks up entire culture and dumps it into trash bin

Man, say what awful things you will about Pansy, she really knows how to make herself the imposing centerpiece of the Slytherin common room. Is she actually interested in Ginny, though? Never saw that coming! Pansy also taught me a new word there, “swotty.” I was REAL scared to look it up though, because a Pureblood Slytherin calling Hermione an unfamiliar word is usually pretty bad vibes, but I guess Hermione would agree with that one!

Congratulations, Neville’s dress robes actually sound like something I would want to wear as long as I can wear it with flip-flops, of course. And I love that he’s Fleur’s date to Yule; she’s made quite a catch! (I had to look up who she had gone with in canon; I definitely don’t remember “Roger Davies” existing at all.) And, and, and . . . The Weird Sisters wanted to play an ABBA song, while Beauxbatons was visiting from France, but they didn’t pick “Voulez-Vouz?” D : Shameful!

THAT FRIGGING BEETLE MAN DANG IT DANG THE BEETLE

Loving all those orchestral song covers you linked! I also love, “Draco could practically hear the cauldron stirring in his head,” as a wizard equivalent of the “gears turning in their head” idiom. Fantastic!

Also:
“. . . which also happened to be a question also on Draco’s mind at the moment . . .”
Also, an extra “also,” also!

—also, doctorlit also

Aw, it would have been nice reading Rose (and Gary!) attending the ball! But Dumbledore does have a point . . . then again, without the parents around, I do feel like the Muggles would be safe with the other students? As long as they weren’t alone too long? >_> Oh, also, perfect Dumbledore line here: “We could . . . and then we would have to live with the consequences.” Extreme 10/10 Dumbledore, good job!

You almost got me to overlook that beetle! I’m so used to finding spiders and moths stuck inside at work (and I just pulled a shiny figeater beetle out of the black-and-white ruffed lemur’s room last week!), I’m like, “Ah yes, a beetle has wandered into Dumbledore’s office. It’s probably not the point of this scene, but if I were there, I would be catching that beetle and releasing it outside . . .” But that’s not a beetle, THAT’S NOT A BEETLE! And I suspect the resulting article will be more accurate and truthful than usual, because “Dumbledore and Potter were discussing breaking the Statute of Secrecy” is already pretty bad on paper!

And I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I still love how normalized homosexual relationships are in this universe, and how everyone in Gryffindor is excited by Seamus and Dean going to the ball together.

—doctorlit will totally get around to reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin any decade here

It's called primarily the Room of Hidden Things because that's what people need from it most of the time. Only a few students know that it can change its shape, I think. But I'm still developing who knows what about the room in 5th year. The Marauders didn't know about it (since it's not on the Map in the books), so I imagine that the room was "discovered" in between theirs and Harry's eras. Fred and George are probably likely to figure out that it can change shape depending on your needs, though.

Luna frequently makes good points, it's just that she covers it in a thin veneer of bullshit, haha. If you pay attention to some of her lines, you might notice that she predicts the big bad each year! (Astoria's wrackspurts=grief, Ministry Atrium bombing being an inside job, the Umgubular Slashkilter stalking Harry...)

Yes! The dragon has a reason to escape this time! And French house-elves take no shit! There is magic in a union, Dobby~

Durmstrang is located in the far north, while Bulgaria... isn't. I didn't want to put Durmstrang in Russia, given that there's already a Russian magic school, so I decided to put it in Svalbard, Norway instead. Hence the Task being spellcast to Norway (and Bulgaria because Krum is Bulgarian). There were hints of it earlier with some of Viktor's coterie having Scandinavian names and Camilla Storstrand (Miss Cam, you might even say) taking a Norwegian dish from the Gryffindor table.

~Lily is excited for hot labour... fall!