Subject: re: 6.6 Lord Harry Potter and the Failure to Converse Like Adults
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Posted on: 2025-01-06 14:52:06 UTC
Yeah, Molly’s attitude towards Fleur in canon always itched at me a bit when I first read through. It’s not even a Rowling Red Flag necessarily, because even though Rowling unquestionably has some restrictive views on what the “correct” kind of woman is like, she did ultimately have Molly and Fleur reconcile at the end of Deathly Hallows. I’m not sure I ever entirely understood the antipathy the Weasleys had towards Fleur. I get that she’s annoying (although how much of that impression in canon was due to ze phonetic accent Rowling insisted on writing her dialogue in?), but being annoying isn’t a crime, and Bill should be free to fall in love with whom he pleases, regardless of universe. Plus, Fleur is pretty awesome? For the Goblet of Fire to pick her as the Beauxbatons champion, she must be one of its better students, and a bit of an “action hero,” potentially? It was nice of Sirius to give Fleur and Bill somewhere else to stay, at least.
Oh dear. Year six, and Severina just gave Harry a potion textbook? I immediately have to wonder if it’s her old textbook, like he found by chance in canon, and whether it still has the unpleasant stuff, like the Sectumsempra spell, written in the margins . . .
It’s funny to see Ron suspiciously dogging Nott’s activities, the way canon!Harry tended to view anything canon!Draco did in a given year. And of course, this is year six, where Draco really was up to something, which makes me suspect Ron is probably on to something! Hopefully Harry doesn’t get too focused on rescuing Draco to realize Ron is right, and ignore whatever Nott is working on until it’s too late!
I see Romilda Vane is taking her NEWTs in the fine art of Putting Her Middle Finger Up At Them this year!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah nooooooooooo, Harry was so close to just telling Draco that their mail was getting intercepted. Why didn’t he just speak? He was like, one sentence away from saying it! Now we have that thing where there’s a misunderstanding between characters built purely on them not speaking words at each other! It’s so sad! I wonder why Narcissa didn’t tell Draco what she knew. Maybe she was afraid he would confront Bellatrix and explode in her face, which might have affected Narcissa’s ability to maneuver behind the scenes without Bella suspecting her plans . . . Also, it was nice to see Harry do some real soul-searching at the end of the chapter. I think, up until now, he’s mainly been blaming the circumstances of this ridiculous culture for getting in the way of his relationship with Draco—and he’s not entirely wrong, and it is ridiculous, but he’s also made mistakes along the way, thanks to his knee-jerk anger and pride. Hopefully, recognizing that part of the problem is his own poor decisions will help him move forward with a better plan and cooler temper for these final two years.
—doctorlit, Fleur Delacour respecter