Return to Quidditch!

I'm so excited about "The Rogue Bludger" because it returns us to Quidditch, which I'm super happy about! As a mad 'hobbies' person, I really love hearing about the extra-curricular stuff that goes on at Hogwarts, and Quidditch is absolutely no exception.

Not to mention that this is one of my favourite chapters because to be quite honest, bad things happen and that's just real life.

The Rogue Bludger

We start the chapter with Lockhart forcing Harry to re-enact his books in front of the class. I really amused myself while reading this, imagining being a drama teacher and forcing my students to act out this scene! (I know it's a bit meta, making people act out a scene in a book that is a scene in a book, but hey...) I think it's the below line that I find so funny.

"...he let out a piteous moan - go on, Harry - higher than that..."

If anybody in my drama classes as a 12 year old had had to do this, I would have found it hilarious!

Lockhart was a top Quidditch player donchaknow...

The chapter continues with Lockhart being a big-headed idiot, and the threesome head to the library to get out Moste Potente Potions. I feel like it should have been harder for them to get it out of the library, particularly from under Madame Pince's nose as she is so eagle-eyed, and Lockhart has such a terrible reputation amongst the teachers...but no, they head off with it and go to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

There's something strange about sex allocation with bathrooms. I really embarrassed myself once when I strode purposefully into a bathroom at a cinema, straight into a cubicle, and suddenly realised the voices I was hearing around me were...male. Gasp! My friends have never let me forget it, and there was just something so alien about being in that room. Even though it's pretty much the same room as any other bathroom, with perhaps more urinals! Ron is definitely feeling this, and I feel for him!

In terms of the complexity of the potion, I am a bit baffled. We know that it is something that NEWT level students should be able to brew (we will get to that in a few books time...) but I don't really understand what is so complex about it. I feel like it's not that hard for students to get hold of contraband ingredients, and they basically just have to wait a really long time for the lacewings to stew. Who knows!

Anyway, on to the Quidditch match. I know it only lasts a few pages, but this little bit genuinely gets my blood pumping a little. It's quite exciting! I have no idea why - apart from perhaps the idea of getting hit by a lump of heavy metal sounds like one of the more terrifying things I've ever heard of, particularly if one has a vendetta against you!

I can't review it much more than that, really. Read the chapter, it's worth it. It has got me invested in the book again!

Harry gets hit by the Bludger, and catches the Snitch

Colin takes a load of photos of Harry in the mud, which Harry loudly objects to. I would say that this is not normal male behaviour...and I only judge that based on the pride with which my male friends on Facebook like to stick gory photos of their injuries and accidents up! Harry's clearly a hero...

Lockhart shows his idiocy one again by removing all of the bones in Harry's arm. Hermione tries to stick up for him by saying that anyone can make a mistake. It's a pretty big mistake to make! I really love the description of the arm:

"It took a while to stuff the rubbery, boneless arm into a sleeve." 

"...sad, limp remainder of what, half an hour before, had been a working arm."

Apart from the fact that bones give your body strength, they also give it structure and stop all your innards from mushing together. The thought of them being gone is just...sickening!

Harry's boneless arm.

Madam Pomfrey obviously comes from the school of thought that ill people should act and behave ill, and nothing should distract them from being ill. I firmly believe that this is not true! Having a party would be much better than feeling the pain of the bones regrowing. I am laid out with excruciating pain on a regular basis, and use audiobooks to keep me distracted from it, but I remember being ill once and stopping school to go to bed. I was told off for reading and that I couldn't be that ill if I was able to read. I still feel quite vindicated that I was violently sick less than an hour later, over 20 years later. Small things!

Poor old Harry. At least he has Dobby to keep him distracted! Apart from finding out that Dobby is the one who stopped the barrier at King's Cross, and who turned the bludger into a Killing Machine, we also learn an incredibly important piece of information: that Dobby must be presented with clothes to be free. Dobby also goes on about how when He Who Must Not Be Named was defeated, life became much better for house-elves.

Dobby and Harry by James Dunn 

I find this extremely dubious. You behave how you behave in your home, regardless of which Dark Lord you are following, whose political party you are in, and what the general population does. The fact that Voldemort was gone wouldn't prevent people who were cruel to their slaves from carrying on just like that. Something just doesn't sit right with me with this, and I can't figure out quite why it bothers me so much. Maybe because it's such a flimsy explanation for Dobby behaving the way that he does.

Dobby disappears quickly when they hear people coming up the stairs, and we find out the attacker has struck again, and Colin Creevey has been Petrified. His camera has been fried and all the film is ruined (so he won't get those photos of him in the mud anyway), and the mystery deepens. I have to agree with Lucia on how adorable Colin is. To be honest, I used to find him really annoying, but my mind has been changed by Lucia's post. How's that for a reversal!

One thing I find strange here as well is that Colin was looking through his camera when the Basilisk struck. Do you think he was walking around with his eye to the viewfinder, or that he thought he heard something and started looking through the viewfinder 'just in case'? Bizarre.

Fan art of Colin (source unknown)

The description of Dumbledore's sleeping garments is one of my favourite things of all time! 

"...wearing a long woolly dressing gown and a nightcap."

It sounds so cosy! I want a big woolly dressing gown to snuggle up in, and a nightcap?! That just sounds like the best. 

It is pretty obvious that Dumbledore knows it was Tom Riddle who opened the Chamber of Secrets last time it was open, which is why he says that it doesn't matter who opened it, but rather how it was opened this time. I don't think any of us could have predicted the answer...

Okey dokey, that's it for now. I've had a bit of a painful few days, not feeling so good and blogging has been beyond me. Hopefully I'm on the mend and will be back to normal soon! In the meantime, check out our Twitter and Facebook to keep up to us outside of blogging.

Much love,

Corrie xx