Chapter Seven: The Slug Club
In chapter seven of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Harry makes me feel emotional, Malfoy gets violent, and Slughorn is increasingly shallow.
(Please be advised that this is a reread and I will be discussing book and movie spoilers.)
Joy. We start our chapter with one of my top five least favorite things about this book: Ron and Hermione Refuse to Care About Malfoy’s Obviously Suspicious Behavior For No Reason: an Endless Dumb Refrain.
Hermione’s like whatev Harry, so Malfoy is clutching (and showing off) his left arm and buying evil magic stuff, who cares? And THEN Ron is all “hey remember that Hand of Glory Malfoy has?” when NO I don’t remember Ron because Malfoy has never owned that hand in the books. He spots it in book two in Borgin and Burkes, Lucius mocks him for his interest in it, and that’s that.
FURTHER frustrating me, Harry finally does the right thing and tries to tell a responsible adult that something is going on with Malfoy, and Mr. Weasley sort of listens but mostly says Harry’s got nothing to worry about.
Finally something great happens this chapter though, and Harry meets up with Luna and Neville on the train, sharing a series of heartwarming moments where Harry is a boss bitch to some snotty younger Gryffindors who try to act like he doesn’t belong in a compartment with NevLun and Harry’s like “hey ho these are my friends back off” and wow my allergies have really been acting up since I moved to California!
Before we get to Slughorn’s super inappropriate lunch party with teenagers, let’s talk briefly about the fact that Marietta Edgecomb is still covered in the SNEAK spots, because I’m conflicted. One part of me thinks she had this coming. She literally was trying to get 24 other people, including her good friend, expelled, or worse. On the other hand…disfigurement? For life?
So Sluggy’s invited Zabini, which triggers another fun episode of “Harry can’t remember his classmate’s names” although at least he recognizes his face. Improvement! McLaggen is introduced, a brash jackass who nevertheless kind of entertains me in an awful way. Ginny 2.0 is there too, and Slughorn act like a thirsty weirdo and is really not even hiding the fact that he’s trying to find well connected people. I mean, at least try to hide it, Slugs!
Because no one is listening to Harry about Malfoy being a suspicious douche (maybe try Luna, Harry, she loves a good conspiracy theory) he decides to spy on the Slytherins in his cloak. Really, the main thing we discover is that the Slytherins are terrible friends to each other and their lives must suck. Oh, and Malfoy basically says he’s a Death Eater. Which we ALREADY HAVE KNOWN SINCE CHAPTER TWO AUUUUGHHHH.
Also, we’ve got another one of my least favorite character turns: Ginny Weasley 2.0 is the most specialist girl eva when Blaise, Malfoy, and Pansy have a weird discussion on how hot Ginny is. Write this one down, because the “tell not show how awesome Ginny 2.0 is” is going to get a serious work out this book.
Malfoy of course finds Harry and breaks his nose. And in the movies, he does this in a suit for no discernable reason. Oh, what? Don’t most sixteen year old boys wear full suits to school? Again I ask, how is Malfoy not constantly bullied?
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WHY does no one listen to Harry about Malfoy?
Does Marietta deserve to still have the SNEAK spots?
What are your thoughts on the “Slug Club?”
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