OotP review, sort of

[gmonkey42]

Because belette told me to, I'm posting my rambling OotP review here, so people can comment on it. I was planning on getting my ass in gear and learning PHP sufficiently to put a comments box on my webpage but that's not going to happen any time soon. So here it is (it's a review so obviously, there'll be spoilers. yada yada yada):

Stuff that made me squeal with glee:


• When I saw Snape's name in a chapter title in the table of contents
  
• When Lucius first appeared
  
• When it was revealed that Dobby was the one taking the hats and scarves (I don't know why but I liked that)
  
• When Lockhart appeared
  
• When I saw the illustration for chapter 24 (why doesn't Snape have a beard in the movie??)
  

Stuff that made me go "huh?"


• How can Prof. Umbridge go around observing all those classes and still teach her own? The other teachers don't seem to have that many free periods.
  
• If Snape's not on the Black family tree (if he were then Harry would've spotted it), and all the pureblood families are, then is Snape not a pureblood? It's possible, because Harry's not a pureblood and the hat was going to put him in Slytherin. But if Snape's not a pureblood then how was he a Death Eater?
  
• Sirius is taller than Snape? That was a surprise. He looks taller in the chapter illustration but I thought maybe he was just meant to be in the foreground and Snape was further back. So how tall is he? I pictured Snape being about 6'4". It did say in earlier books that Snape was tall. Alan Rickman is a fair bit taller than Gary Oldman.
  
• Uhh, does it bother anyone else that they've got a NUDE centaur running around the castle? I mean, having him talking to students in the forest is one thing, but standing in front of a class? And they're seated on the ground?!
  
• Dudley beat up Mark Evans? EVANS?! But Dumbledore said that Petunia is Lily's only living relative. So is J.K. Rowling just messing with us? Or maybe Lily and Petunia are related to Mark by marriage and not by blood?
  
• How was James Head Boy if he wasn't a prefect? I thought they chose the Head Girl and Boy from among the prefects. And while we're on the subject of prefects, how does it work, anyway? I sounded like there were no 6th or 7th year prefects but Percy was still a prefect in his 6th year, wasn't he? But then if people get to keep being prefects for two or three years, and there are
  only two prefects per House, then two out of every three classes would get left out, and never have a chance to be prefects. If only one class at a time has prefects (I could be wrong about Percy still being one in his 6th year) then why have the 5th-years do it? Wouldn't 6th-years make more sense, since they're not only older but don't have huge exams at the end of the year?
  Was Snape a prefect for Slytherin? I always thought he probably was but if he were then presumably he could've gotten James and Sirius in trouble and they'd have been reluctant to attack him.
  
• When Mrs. Weasley saw the Boggart, the only people whose bodies she didn't see were Charlie and Ginny. For a while, I thought that was a clue that Ginny was going to be the one to snuff it. Did the Boggart simply not have a chance to show her these people, before Lupin killed it, or is this a clue about something?
  
• How come James was showing off with a Snitch if he was a Chaser? I know the movie said he was a Seeker but in the books, he was definitely a Chaser. I guess you can't carry a Quaffle around in your pocket, but it's still weird.
  
• Apparently, Lupin has long hair. Dang. I've been drawing him with short hair. It appears that it's typical for adult male wizards to have long hair; the older they are, the longer it is. But what about the Weasleys? Mr. Weasley has short hair and Mrs. Weasley keeps telling Bill to cut his hair. Maybe that's just because at Bill's age it's not normal to have such long hair.
  
• Why did the bartender in the Hog's Head look familiar to Harry? I KNOW this is going to come up again in book 6 or 7.
  

Other stuff:


• In a way, it's a pitty they're getting Dawn French to be the Fat Lady in PoA because I think she'd make an excellent Dolores Umbridge. I picture her with Dawn's voice, like when she does the chat show parodies and it's all high and squeakey. Not that I'm suggesting that Dawn French looks like a toad.
  
• Maybe I just read too much slash, but did anyone else notice that Sirius and Lupin gave Harry one Christmas present between them? hmm...
  
      Evidently, I'm not the only one who reads too much slash - this book is chock full of innuendo. Check it out.
  
• It was pretty funny when Sirius called Snape "Snivellus." In the headquarters, that is. It wasn't so funny later, in the Penseive. Speaking of the Penseive, how is it that Harry was able to see things that Snape hadn't been aware of? Like what the other students were doing when he was taking the O.W.L., and clearly concentrating hard on it.
  And how did he overhear what the Marauders were saying? I don't think he could hear them, or else he would've been forewarned of their attack, and would've gotten the hell out of there. The Penseive as it is is clearly a useful plot device but it would make more sense if one looking into it could only see through the eyes of the person whose memory it was. Oh well.
  
• If I'd been reading a fanfic and come across the whole Metamorphmagus thing, I would've dismissed it as a Mary Sue and probably stopped reading. That aside, I think Tonks is a reasonably cool character. It's nice to see more female characters being introduced.
  
• Did you notice how Umbridge had to acknowledge that Snape's students were advanced? She had nothing to criticize about his teaching methods (though I didn't see him taunting the Gryffindors as he usually does). He really is an effective, if not exactly ideal, teacher.
  

Sirius' Death
It looks like this bit is pretty long but half of it is about Snape. What did you expect?
That honestly took me completely by surprise. When they were down in the Ministry, I was sure it would be Neville or Ginny. It was so abrupt, how he just fell through the arch,
at first I thought he wasn't really dead. And then, like Harry, I kept thinking he'd come back somehow.

It struck me that Lupin didn't seem to have much a reaction to the death of his best friend. Initially, I'd put it down to the shock and the suddenness of it but then
on the train platform, you'd think there'd have been some line about him looking sad, or something. I guess he was just trying to be
brave for Harry's sake.

What I found a lot sadder than Sirius' death, though, was poor Snape's memories. I never imagined it would be like that in the books, though that sort of thing
happens a lot in fanfic. "Like a plant kept in the dark," - that by itself is sad. It's a wonderful metaphor for Snape. (Ok, it's used as a simile there - I do know the difference - but I'm saying a plant kept in the dark is a good metaphor).
There's been a subtle turning point in Snape and Harry's relationship. It's not so black-and-white for Harry any more; he
can no longer see Snape as the bad guy and his father as the good guy. He did try to blame Snape for Sirius' death, but that was just because Harry was desperate to believe that it wasn't his own fault, for not practicing Occlumency as he
was supposed to. I was quite interested to see what would happen when Snape ran across Harry right before Harry left (when McGonagall returned and gave Gryffindor a load of points). I wasn't disappointed: it looks very much like Snape's going to remain his caustic, snarky
old self throughout the rest of the series, though I doubt that his memory was the last revelation we're going to get that'll make us have more sympathy for him. And he remains mean but not really all that bad. He wasn't anywhere near as horrible to Harry as he could've been in the Occlumency lessons. And he
could've retaliated for Harry prying into his memories but he didn't. That is to say, he didn't treat Harry any worse than he had before, which was admittedly pretty bad.