Mudbloods and Murmurs
chapter seven of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry’s crack-of-dawn Quidditch practice is interrupted by the Slytherins, and when Ron tries to curse Malfoy, he ends up at Hagrid’s belching slugs instead. Harry then serves detention with Lockhart, but in the middle of it hears a mysterious voice.
Fred and George were sitting, puffy-eyed and tousle-haired….
(by glockgal)
“There you are, Harry, what kept you?” said Wood briskly.
(by Becky Roberts)
Wood was holding up a large diagram of a Quidditch field….
(by Gnatkip)
Hagrid didn’t seem perturbed by Ron’s slug problem…. “Better out than in,” he said cheerfully, plunking a large copper basin in front of him. “Get ‘em all up, Ron.”
(by Laura Freeman)
“You can address the envelopes!” Lockhart told Harry, as though this was a huge treat.
(by Helene Sirois)
And then he heard something – something quite apart from the spitting of the dying candles and Lockhart’s prattle about his fans.
(by Tealin Raintree)
“Great Scott – look at the time! We’ve been here nearly four hours! I’d never have believed it – the time’s flown, hasn’t it?”
(by Laura Freeman)
about the chapter
Something You May Not Have Noticed
I love that when Harry is addressing Lockhart’s fan mail and jumps at hearing the voice, the envelope he’s addressing is blotted lilac – meaning even the ink Harry’s using to address envelopes is purple! It almost makes me wonder how Lockhart could be content with Harry’s handwriting; surely it’s not very neat (much less pretty). Perhaps because it’s Harry Potter, he doesn’t mind… or perhaps he gives Harry a special flourishing quill. Can’t you see Lockhart owning a four-foot peacock quill that’s enchanted to only write in calligraphy?
The Power of Magic
One week into school, and it’s already very clear that Ron’s wand is a walking disaster. Given the wand’s flaws, it amazes me that Ron doesn’t make up some story to get a new one, or for that matter that McGonagall hasn’t pulled him aside and ordered him to write home for one. It’s hard to imagine that he’ll be able to pass his practical exams when he can’t even prevent his wand from spontaneously rocketing across the room.
Life at Hogwarts
With a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher taking the post every year, Hagrid has reason to think that wizards might be scared off from agreeing to teach the subject. But I’m inclined to think that Dumbledore’s primary challenge filling the post isn’t so much people’s unwillingness to take it. More likely, he’s simply used up all the reasonable candidates. If you think about it, with the size of Hogwarts, there can’t be more than five or ten thousand wizards in all of Britain, and of those, how many would there really be with both the qualifications and the desire to teach the subject? Going through one per year would make the pool pretty thin in a hurry.
Something to Remember
It’s not hard to guess that the voice Harry hears will come up again later in the book. But once we learn of its source, it will be very interesting that the first time Harry hears it is in his first week back at Hogwarts. The voice didn’t waste any time getting started once the school year began.
One of my favorite things about Ron’s wand is that at some point it actually WISTLES!! For some reason that makes me laugh out loud every time I read it lol!
Lola said this on April 3, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Every time there’s a new chapter, it’s just like Christmas!
Loader Lady said this on April 10, 2009 at 5:34 pm
I think Ron’s character is really hilarious, and when his wand starts doing ludicrous things it really gets me laughing. I like how J K Rowling just slips in little comments of what Ron’s wand is doing during the lesson, it’s quite cunning the way she can slide in anything.
Eliza said this on July 16, 2009 at 1:06 am
I always thought it was a mark of how poor the Weasley’s were that they might not be able to afford to get Ron a new wand.
grrreg said this on September 10, 2009 at 3:40 pm
I always thought it was weird that Ron got a *hand me down* wand? When wands seem to be an object to last the rest of your life, why would his brother go out and buy a new wand?
Charly said this on November 2, 2009 at 11:16 pm
Charly, judging by the condition of the wand, Charlie wasn’t the first owner. So it is likely it wasn’t a good match for him, so I imagine that this was Charlie’s reaction once he got his first paycheck: “now I’ve been paid, I can FINALLY get a wand that is a match” then Ron got the old, beaten-up wand. (Remember that in theory, Ron could have got his wand at any time before the start of term, not nessecarily when Harry got his.)
sam said this on November 5, 2009 at 12:19 pm
I’ve always thought it was silly to hand down wands at all, not only because of Charly’s point, but because a wand is supposed to choose the wizard. How on earth can anyone be expected to perform decent magic with a wand meant for someone else? Look at the description in PS when Harry finally gets his hands on the pheonix wand. I know the Weasleys aren’t well off, but I would have thought they’d start a ‘wand fund’ when each child is born, to ensure they’d have enough money for all their children to have a new wand.
Caitlin said this on November 18, 2009 at 4:50 pm
At 7G (£36) each, wands are a strain on a large family’s budget. I think it quite likely that Bill and Charlie inherited the wands that had formerly belonged to Gideon and Fabian Prewett. Sam is right – as soon as they had their own money, they bought wands that chose them properly. Perhaps Bill passed his first wand down to one of the twins, although it’s difficult to imagine how he’d decide which one.
Grace has Victory said this on November 25, 2009 at 8:30 pm
I agree that £36 could put a strain on the finances if it was an unexpected expense, but I’m surprised they wouldn’t have saved for it. After all, it would only take nine months to save £36 if you put aside £1 each week. Even if they waited until Bill was 10 to start saving (and by that time they would be well aware of how many children they would have to provide for) they could still save enough each year to ensure they were able to buy each of their children a new wand, for just £1 a week.
Grace, I agree with you that they probably all had hand-me-downs – the evidence from the books certainly points to that, and I understand why JKR would make a choice like that. It’s just always bothered me because it doesn’t make much sense within the rules of the world JKR set up.
Caitlin said this on November 26, 2009 at 1:54 pm
So from PS we know that the wand chooses the wizard. So who was the very first owner of Ron’s wand, why would he “hand it down” to begin with, and what did he do for a wand after that? If he needed to buy a new wand to replace it, why didn’t he buy a new wand for whoever he was going to hand down the wand to instead?
Betty Ems said this on January 14, 2010 at 3:30 pm
I like the idea that Charlie had inherited one of the Prewetts’ wands. As far as Charlie deciding to get a new one, I imagine that when he started working with dragons, he wanted a wand that was more suited to the work he was going to be doing. Remember that Ollivander described Lily’s wand as being good for charm work and James’s for transfiguration, so it seems that different wands have different areas of strength.
Billie said this on January 15, 2010 at 9:03 pm
Re: Something to Remember
Another important detail that Rowling reminds us of in this chapter is that Hagrid was expelled during his time at Hogwarts and Harry has never known why.
Andrea said this on February 11, 2010 at 4:22 pm
How does Ron manage to curse himself with the slugs? All he says is “You’ll pay for that one, Malfoy!” Having had two useless DA teachers in his only two school years so far, he doesn’t really know any curses, much less nonverbal spells.
Any thoughts? Is he still young enough to have lost his temper and performed magic to without knowing what would happen?
Ragmar Dorkins said this on May 3, 2010 at 8:49 pm
Remember, Harry loses his temper in the next book, and maybe it was a combination of that and the wand doing something Ron didn’t tell it to do
Soraya said this on May 9, 2010 at 8:38 am
@ Andrea He could have learned it from his brothers. Or just seen it in the halls sometime. As he’s seen 5 others pass through some of Hogwarts it not a stretch to see that Ron knows a few curses, even if it doesn’t work right.
Phoebe said this on June 2, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Regarding wands – maybe there is a “family affinity” which makes it easier to use a wand from a family member.
Also, don’t forget this year the Weasley family has 5 kids at Hogwarts and since Ginny is starting Hogwarts this year she needs a wand, robes, and books. Not to mention that Lockhart’s books are very expensive. We are told there was hardly any money in the bank vault, so it doesn’t surprise me that Ron knows they can’t afford to buy him a new wand. If a family has a lot of kids (I have 4) it is very hard to save anything at all if only one parent works. It is hard just paying for the basics.
Pam said this on July 28, 2010 at 3:41 pm