Mugglenet.com's Harry Potter Should Have Died - Emerson Spartz [71]
Fed up with detentions and Umbridge’s evil black quill that writes in blood, Fred and George decide to use some magical fireworks to have a blast and get revenge. And it’s real magic as they zoom around the hallways on broomsticks, tossing firebombs and even a huge flaming dragon that chases Umbridge right out of her classroom. At the end, all the kids in the school rush outside cheering to watch the Weasley brothers zoom away, leading to delivery of possibly the greatest quote in the entire book—“Give her hell from us, Peeves.”
Verdict
These are all crowd-pleasing scenes, filled with perfect dramatic timing and incredible visuals. Moody helps Draco discover his inner ferret, and the Weasley twins completely own Umbridge and then fly away into the sunset. Which is funnier? Considering that one of us may (or may not) have actually jumped out of our chair and fist-pumped in the air after the Weasley twins’ sendoff and Peeves’ salute, the verdict has to be: We love Gred and Forge.
What is the best plotline in the books?
Snape: Good or Evil?
Severus Snape is a polarizing character—either you nearly love him or you want to murder him. This plotline of Snape being either good or evil runs throughout the series. It is cleverly set up so that at first he seems villainous because he’s dressed in all black and we never know exactly what he is thinking or doing. What we do always know is that Harry has seething anger toward him. It’s a persuasive viewpoint from our hero, which works as a very effective filter to make many readers see Snape as a heartless baddie beyond redemption (when really he was redeemed long before Harry came to Hogwarts according to his memories in DH).
J.K.R. also sets Snape up as the teacher from hell, hoping that readers won’t notice when he tries to save Harry’s (or someone’s) life in nearly every book. In the first two books, Snape just seems to be a strict disciplinarian, and actually not that different from Professor McGonagall, who also keeps a tidy classroom and thinks Neville Longbottom is rather dense. But in PoA, Snape evolves into someone who seems to be picking on Harry all the time. It couldn’t be that Snape would actually fear for Harry’s life or want to protect him, could it? To the young teenage Harry, Snape is just trying to ruin his fun with the Marauder’s Map, pouncing on Harry in the hallway every few minutes asking where he’s going and what he’s doing. By the time Snape charges into the Shrieking Shack at the end nearly frothing at the mouth with anger, readers don’t know what to think or why he really has it in for Remus Lupin and Sirius Black. Harry sees it all as payback for some childhood grudge, and that’s what J.K.R. wants us to think, but that’s another diversion from the real truth.
As each book was released, J.K.R. was careful to leave out certain facts about Snape, even making sure that Dumbledore couldn’t reveal his secrets to Harry. So readers would just roll their eyes along with Harry when Dumbledore would say he trusted Snape but he couldn’t explain why. How convenient. GoF added another layer to Snape’s character, showing his encounters with an ex-Death Eater named Karkaroff and a suspicious Mad-Eye Moody. Dumbledore also sends Snape on a mysterious mission at the end. GoF finally opens the door to a possible Good Snape scenario, with Harry seeing Dumbledore testifying in the Pensieve that Snape had really come back to the good side when Harry was a baby, and had risked his life as a spy. At the end of the book, Snape rushes in to rescue Harry once again alongside Dumbledore and McGonagall, and all three of them appear in Death Eater Barty Crouch, Jr.’s Foe Glass, a sign that they were all three on Harry’s side.
So J.K.R. was almost spelling out the truth, but many readers were fed up with Snape by then. In GoF, he is unkind to Hermione about her teeth when they grow to beaver size after a jinx hits her; Snape also gives Neville a detention disemboweling toads, which seems over-the-top even for Snape. But fans should try to