Tuesday, November 15, 2016

The Yule Ball

Here's how much JK Rowling gets done in one chapter, the chapter which happens to be the midpoint of the middle book of the series:
-She changes Hermione from a girl to a young woman in one event, and does a brilliant job astonishing Ron and Harry along the way.
-She somehow exactly captures what an actual evening of dancing his like--how there's a lot of fun and people look forward to it, but for Harry it ends up being awkward and socially tedious, and how painful it is to not be particularly good and the dancing and small talk.
-She introduces the Ron-Hermione-Viktor triangle storyline
-She brings in Percy and uses him to carry on the Barry Crouch storyline while also keeping him present as an important secondary character
-She reveals Hagrid's parentage and sets up the wizard-giant storyline that's important in books 5, 6, and 7.
-She introduces the Room of Requirement very subtly, which is enormously important to books 5, 6, and 7.
-She continues to play up the Karkaroff plot line as a foil to Moody/Barta Crouch Jr.
-She uses Snape to introduce the Dark Mark
-She uses Viktor to teach her reading audience how to pronounce Hermione's name


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