It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities

Happy Friday/Harry Potter Day! Your favorite day, right? I mean, also because it means it's almost the weekend but mostly the HP thing. But before we get to that, I have a picture I must share

CHECK THIS OUT

Kayleigh (aka Nylon Admiral) made some kick ass Harry Potter wands AND offered them up to those who wanted them. So of course I jumped on that cos LOOK AT THAT THING? And the glitter? And the notes. Yeah, I ran around the house giggling and pointing that at things while yelling nonsense. I pointed it at Boyfriend+ who looked at me, paused and then yelled "I point at thee*" before turning back to whatever he was doing before I interrupted him. Be prepared for more wand photos.

Onto the readalong, hosted by Alice (aka Reading Rambo aka Muggle Wrangler?).

And now we can discuss the second half of the Chamber of Secrets and then move on to the more interesting books in the series. You know, any that aren't this one.

Fine, that's mean. This is my least favorite of the series, but it's still pretty good. Something has to be the worst and this is it. Besides the first time I read it I felt no need to continue on with the rest of the books. Luckily I got over that.

And I did like parts of this book. I like Gilderoy Lockhart, even though he tries to erase Harry's and Ron's memories. That was a dick move. But really, I liked everything from the moment they find out Ginny had been taken to the end. Then we had some action and mythical creatures and things were fun. Well fun in a dark-and-perilous kind of way.

Is the basilisk Harry fights supposed to be the same one that Voldie let loose when he was a student? Cos they say the creature can live hundreds of years, but they don't say anything about if it needs to eat or anything during that time. Was someone feeding it all these years?

"Ron read the message [to follow the spiders], swallowed hard, and looked sideways at the empty seat usually filled by Hermione. The sight seemed to stiffen his resolve, and he nodded." AWWWWWWWW Ron.
What was Hagrid hoping Harry and Ron would learn by following the spiders and meeting Aragog? I know if they hadn't, they wouldn't have found out that Hagrid didn't open the Chamber and that the girl died in the bathroom. Except did anyone really believe Hagrid opened the Chamber? No, so they learned the girl died in the bathroom. But was that what Hagrid was hoping would happen? Aragog would make an off handed remark about not going there? Actually I hope Hagrid's plan was for Harry and Ron to ride spiders into the school to take down the monster. That would have made no sense, but I think I would have enjoyed it.

I'm torn about the ending. Did Lucius know what the diary was? Because Dumbledore seems to suggest that he did and this was all a plan to get Arthur Weasley fired, by having his daughter murder a bunch of students with a mythical beast. Which, if THAT'S what Lucius was planning to do with a piece of Voldemort's soul, that is overkill. But if Lucius didn't know what the diary actually was, what was he hoping would happen by sneaking it into Ginny's book? Maybe just have her be caught with a dark object? WHAT IS YOUR END GAME?
Can house elves not do laundry? Would that count as presenting them with clothes? And really, does the way Dobby was "presented" with clothes count, because he actually caught something Lucius was throwing away? This is a case where I think the movie did it better by having Lucius present Dobby with the sock hidden inside the book. So he didn't realize that he was presenting him with his freedom.

OK, so I apparently have lots of questions after this one. But really, I'm just excited that we're up to Prisoner of Azkaban now.

*I really tried to find a clip of this from Conan since he says it pretty much any time he's referencing a nerd, but my cursory Googling failed to turn anything up. Instead, you can watch this clip of him teasing a person dressed up as HP at his show.

Title quote from page 422

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Scholastic, 1999.

Harry Potter must not go back to Hogwarts

It's Friday again so it's time for another Harry Potter readalong post! HUZZAH. As with all of these posts, there will be spoilers so reader beware.

So this week we finished up the first half of Chamber of Secrets which, full disclosure, is probably my least favorite of the series. It's certainly the one I forget about the most AND the one that didn't interest me enough to keep reading the series. I'm glad my friend convinced me to read the third book because I would have been happy stopping the series after this one.

I was very plot-hole-pokey with my Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone posts, so I'm going to try and not do that so much this time.
Even though, I would like to stress, that the plot holes did not diminish my love for the series. I really only noticed them because I love the series and therefore have spent waaaay too much time thinking these things over. It's probably not healthy.

This does not mean I'm going to be able to put together a coherent post. This is still going to be a bunch of random thoughts. But they'll just be more positive.

Any book in a series that isn't the first is going to have a bit of "Last time on..." and Chamber of Secrets is no exception. I hate these parts. I mean, I get they're necessary and I don't think it's bad that we get a little recap of what happened before, but I just finished SS and don't need a recap on the rules of Quidditch. Therefore, there was a bit of skimming through the first half.

Gilderoy Lockhart is such a wonderful character. I mean no one I'd actually like to deal with but man is it fun to watch him turn every conversation over to himself. Even though I read the book before I saw the movie, I still can't help but picture Kenneth Branagh in the role. Way to be an egotistical oblivious ass. And I mean that with love.
Cos come on, Harry's detention with Lockhart answering fan mail? Genius. Also nice to see that Hogwarts figured out that sending children into the Forbidden Forest is a bad idea. Especially when you consider flying a car to Hogwarts is a WAY worse offense than being out after dark.

I'm a little confused about Ron's wand breaking. Not how it broke or why it's malfunctioning, but how do you get a new one? I mean, he needs to get a new one, right? But getting a wand seems like such a big deal and "the wand chooses you" and all that jazz. So isn't it a big deal when you get a wand? And doesn't that mean you can't just replace it with any other wand?

Given Filch's reaction to seeing Harry read his Kwikspell letter, I get the feeling that being a non-magical person in the magical world is almost worse than Harry being a wizard while living with the Dursleys. Alright, no the Dursleys are worse, but still pretty awful. And very condescending.

On top of the squib thing, I feel so bad for Filch. His poor cat, Mrs. Norris. Side question, why Mrs. Norris? Did Filch have a kitty wedding at some point? Where's Mr. Norris? Is Mrs. Norris a widow? And now I feel bad for Filch for another reason. Poor guy.
UPDATE: From Alice, Mrs. Norris is named after a character in Mansfield Park. Though I have an easier time believing she's a widow cat than I do Filch is an Austen fan.

Can't wait for part two. And more than that, I can't wait until we're finished with this book and can move onto the next. Cos out of all of them, this is my least favorite HP. Whomp.

I'm not sure how to end this post so, Alley out!*
*Please be prepared to see this gif again. There is a good chance I am going to use this as the ending to all of these HP posts. Because I love Adam Scott so.

Title quote from page 19

Rowling, JK. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Scholastic, 1999.