Chapter Five: An Excess of Phlegm
In chapter five of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Harry tells Ron and Hermione the truth about the prophecy, O.W.L. results are in, and the women are frankly kind of gross to Fleur.
(Please be advised that this is a reread and I will be discussing book and movie spoilers.)
Harry walks into the Burrow and spots a depressed Tonks, and this was a subplot I thought was going somewhere interesting on first read and was realllly disappointed when I found out what really happened but we’ll get there later.
Arthur shows up and we find out that his code question and answer to check for Barty McFake Moody imposters with Molly is that he calls her “Mollywobbles” when no one else is around and Harry and I die on the inside, secure in the knowledge that we never wanted to know this. Ever.
Harry’s busy filling in GrangeWeaz about Slughorn when–oh my.
Ugh. Anyway, Ginny 2.0 shows up and says that “she” is worse then Umbridge and HOLD THE DAMN PHONE. I would like to reiterate that Ginny is claiming that FLEUR is worse then UMBRIDGE.
Along with Harry being a zen master, another issue I have with this book is the treatment of Fleur by Ginny, Hermione, and Mrs. Weasley. Yeah Fleur is kind of rude and annoying, and I would’ve totally understood mild jokes about her because of this, but Ginny says she’s worse then UMBRIDGE. Hermione says she’s not smart and gets mad when Harry rightfully corrects her. Ginny calls her Phlegm, which is a play on her French name and kind of…not a good look, Gin. Mrs. Weasley at least tries to be nice to Fleur’s face at this point but eeeesh. I don’t like my heroines, particularly Hermione, jealous because someone’s beautiful, and that’s kind of how their treatment of Fleur is written.
We find out that Percy is still being an ass weasel for no reason but being stubborn I guess, and even I can’t defend this. Oh, Percy. Why do you hurt me like this?
Harry tells Ron and Hermione, the best friends EVER about the prophecy and honestly? Gold stars to Ron and Hermione for how well they react to this. That’s friendship. In any case, Hermione’s gotten something more stressful on her mind: exam results!
Ron and Harry have bombed Divination and History of Magic for understandable reasons, but Hermione’s gotten O’s in everything but Defense Against the Dark Arts and is trying to hide the fact that she’s disappointed. My personal theory is that Hermione is disappointed because of which subject she got the “E” in. She now has proof that she is worst at magic in the one subject most important to her, and most important to their current situation with Voldemort. And I think that stings, and no one understands why she’s upset.
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Do you think Ginny, Hermione, and Mrs. Weasley are right in how they act about Fleur?
What did you think was going on with Tonks on first read?
Why do you think Hermione is upset at her exam results?
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