Chapter Seventeen: A Sluggish Memory
In chapter seventeen of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Harry and Dumbles tiff over Snape again, Hermione’s stubbornness knows no bounds, and Teenage Riddle is a dastardly little shit.
(Please be advised that this is a reread and I will be discussing book and movie spoilers.)
Mrs. Weasley is spending a lot of time crying because the twins and Ginny attacked Percy with parsnips and are bragging about it although we never find out why they did this.
Our kids travel back to Hogwarts via floo which makes me ponder why they don’t always travel to Hogwarts this way, instead of an all day train ride? The delight of the trolley witch? (NO DON’T MENTION CURSED CHILD TO ME.)
Ron’s on board (FINALLY) that Malfoy is up to no good but Hermione is still questioning it and GODDAMMT HERMIONE STOP GIVING ME A RAGE STROKE.
Even more annoying, Harry tells Dumbledore about the Malfoy/Snape weirdness AS HE SHOULD because he LEARNED HIS LESSON LAST BOOK about ignoring things and not telling adults and Dumbledore joins the la la la I’m not listening chorus while I bang my head against the wall. For fuck’s sake Dumbles, how many times must Harry prove to you that you shouldn’t hide shit from him? All you have to do is say Snape is acting on your orders and move on! Gah.
But hold on to your floo powder and tuck in your elbows, because I’m about to enjoy a Riddle flashback for once!
Baby Voldz shows up to Morfin’s shack and wisely makes the decision to speak Parseltongue from the get go to get his crazy ass Uncle’s attention. It’s very interesting to me that Riddle wants to find Marvolo, but when he finds out his magic wielding Uncle is right in front of him, he cares not a whit in developing any sort of relationship or finding out more about his family history. All he does with Morfin is frame him for the murder of his father, grandparents, and steals his family heirloom ring.
But would that have been the case if Morfin hadn’t mentioned that TRidz looked like that “Muggle” that ran off with his sister years ago? Perhaps he was infected with a rage about the man who abandoned him before he was even born and changed tactics. I would’ve loved a flashback of the Riddle confrontation with his Muggle family. We know he scared them based on their facial expressions, but what else happened? Was there a way for the Riddles to stop their own demise?
In any case, we all feel a twinge of sympathy for Morfin, who’s framed for a crime he didn’t commit even if he was an ass and died in Azkaban alone and unmourned a while later.
Harry and Dumbledore discuss the bullshittery of the Trace on underaged kids some more, and might I suggest reading this conversation to the soundtrack of this delightful song from Harry and the Potters?
It’s time for another Riddle flashback, this time starring kind of creepy adult Slughorn who likes to hang out with groups of teen boys in his office late at night, his favorite being the talented super handsome one, not at all weird Slugs, not at all weird!
Adding to the oddness, Slughorn’s tampered badly with his memories to obscure something shady he did or said, and Dumbles gives Harry the homework to extract it. Just don’t go to his office alone, Harry!
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What do you think prompted the parsnip assault on Percy?
Why doesn’t everyone travel by floo to Hogwarts?
How come Riddle shows no interest in Morfin?
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