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Harry Potter Readalong, Week 5: The Chamber of Secrets Is in a Bathroom, Which Is Kinda Funny

I think I've neglected to mention here that I'm in a zombie musical and when I'm not at work, I'm in rehearsal. Or trying to finish The Mystery of Edwin Drood (IT IS DONE AND I CRIED). So, have I read CoS? No. But it's 12:30, I'm falling asleep sitting up in bed, and this post needs to go up. So here's what I remember my thoughts being from previous times I've read it!

So the Hufflepuffs were kind of assholes in this one. Ernie Macmillan is like a Fox News-watching dick about the whole "Heir of Slytherin" thing, and I remember being like "Well, what do you expect of idiot Hufflepuffs," so thanks for that, JK. The Slytherins are all evil, the Hufflepuffs are all dumb, and Ravenclaws...I don't know, maybe they smell bad. Too much learnin' and not enough time for showerin'. Not like Awesome Gryffindor! YAY Gryffindor, right, guys? Obviously it's the only good House.


No, for reals, fuck Gryffindor. I wish there had been at least one redeeming thing about Slytherin in ANY of the books, but the other two are definitely cut some slack as time goes on. I kind of wish HP were more like The Casual Vacancy in that it wasn't so tied to Harry's POV. We get like two scenes in all the books that don't involve him in some way. JKR's one of those authors where I don't especially care whose POV it is, because I know she'll make it interesting. And her detail is SO good that it would've been awesome to see other parts of Hogwarts that, y'know, Harry didn't really check out. But whatever, we know that the other Houses all had their super-amazing-and-swell parts.


I definitely became a Harry/Ginny fan when I first read this (again, at age 14), mostly because the suggestion was there and I am easily persuaded into things. The only effect this had on anything in the future was me instantly hating Cho Chang when she showed up. Something to keep in mind, by the way, (there're spoilers, I guess) is this magnificent post on Ginny. If you decide to be lame and not read it all, one of the quotes I like the most is
“give her some goddamn respect; she suffered more than just about ANYONE in that damn series and then everyone who claimed to care about her JUST FORGOT.” 
When you see her in future books, going about school life and being a pretty much normal-seeming teen (esp. compared to Ron/Harry/Hermione), remember what happens to her in Chamber of Secrets and what a formative age she is when it happens. Ginny is amazing.

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