oconel @ May 3 2004, 09:46:50 UTC

Draco Malfoy looks like he got suckerpunched which I suppose he really was

Hermione + Friday = suckerpunched Draco

vassilissa @ May 3 2004, 09:50:06 UTC

Yep. It must have felt odd, being hit by one of The Three for personal reasons, while everyone around him was attacking each other in perfectly normal Gryffindor/Slytherin rage. It's one thing for Harry to punch him in the nose - that's almost ritual for the two of them. Hermione would have come out of left field (well, unless he'd been reading the journals, and knew Dean and Hermione had been talking about it. But he had other things on his mind.)

sistermagpie @ May 3 2004, 15:17:39 UTC

I imagine if felt odd to be walking along and have someone leap out and break your nose, period. Harry didn't break Draco's nose out of a ritual, he broke it in the heat of anger when Draco was being provoking. He didn't ambush him.

slinkhard @ May 3 2004, 16:16:52 UTC

Doesn't mitigate it, though.

sistermagpie @ May 3 2004, 20:49:41 UTC

No-he still broke his nose in a fit in anger. But I'd say it's getting worse if Hermione is breaking his nose after Quidditch games and Dean is giving her money for it. As Lucius said, now they're accepting money for what they once gave away for free--what Harry did in a moment of lost control (which he doesn't regret but didn't plan either) Hermione did through premeditated planning and weighing of consequences. Draco broke Lavender's arm, but that was by accident--the shove, presumably, was not intended to cause physical dammage. He was still wrong to shove her and to say something cruel to her, but he didn't intentionally break anything.

Ironically, of all those things, the action that seems to have been judged the worst according to the staff and Gryffindor was the breaking of Lavender's arm.

-m

frozen_jelly @ May 3 2004, 21:24:54 UTC

In psychology I rmemeber I once studied how we view certain actions, and the general consensus is that it is the consequences of a specific action that makes us condemn it or praise it.

For example, a car's handbrake is left off while parked on a hill and one of three scerario's ensues
a) the car rolls down the hill, but stops at the bottom
b) the car rolls forward and hits the car in front causing a dent
c)the car rolls forward and hits a child, injring them.

Which action do we judge to be the worst? The third of course. But the action was the same, it is only the consequence which is differenet, and in our eyes more severe.

To apply this to the Draco situation, while Draco only pushed Lavendar, an action which would probably not even result in a telling off, the consequence was severe - she broke her arm. that the response to Draco is as if he meant all along to break her arm, when in fact he only pushed her, and did not expect any real harm to come to her at all.

sistermagpie @ May 4 2004, 00:34:57 UTC

Interesting! I've noticed this before and often it's just frustrating. People will yell at someone for doing something they've probably done a dozen times themselves and just been lucky enough not to have it end badly.

In this case, a nose was broken, but it was Draco's and therefore not much of a problem except for Seamus who has to set the thing again.

vassilissa @ May 4 2004, 04:43:48 UTC

what Harry did in a moment of lost control (which he doesn't regret but didn't plan either) Hermione did through premeditated planning and weighing of consequences.

Yeah. Not to mention, when fighting with Harry, Draco had a better chance to duck. He still couldn't duck in time, but at least he had a *chance*. I wonder how Hermione sees it - fiercely angry with Draco though she is, when she planned it with Dean she used her laughing icon, the one I associate with her and Ernie. She seemed to be doing it as part of the newer, less uptight Hermione. Except that it's all wrong, social drinking and slang and swearing are *not* the same thing as breaking bones, and I don't remember Ernie ever hitting people.

Ironically, of all those things, the action that seems to have been judged the worst according to the staff and Gryffindor was the breaking of Lavender's arm.

They all feel guilty about not having done something about Lavender earlier, so they're piling on Draco to stop the guilt.

slinkhard @ May 4 2004, 11:21:20 UTC

Especially since Hermione took the money to use for her charitable cause. Way to taint the issue, there!

"Ironically, of all those things, the action that seems to have been judged the worst according to the staff and Gryffindor was the breaking of Lavender's arm."

Staff and Gryffindor being mutually exclusive!

mamadeb @ May 3 2004, 11:06:21 UTC

A lot of team sports and other games are metaphors for war, but what Ginny describes is bonding in the heat of battle - and given that they were armed and exchanging fire, harming bystanders and causing each other and themselves rather severe injuries, I think they just had the first *open* fight in the war.

It just looked like an exceptionally nasty quidditch game.

vassilissa @ May 3 2004, 11:46:34 UTC

Eep. And you're right. :-(

conversant @ May 3 2004, 17:23:22 UTC

Exactly so. Let's hope that these two teams are not automatically drafted onto opposite sides of the current war. You've put your finger on what is at stake.

mamadeb @ May 3 2004, 19:38:32 UTC

It was Ginny's enjoyment that did it for me. She's been playing Quidditch for at least a year NA time, right? So she should be used to the feeling of a team working together. This is something else. This is the comaraderie one feels after fighting together.

She's a warrior, our blushcrush (and Rowling's Ginny, too.) And that was exactly how a battle on broomstick would be fought.

And, yeah. I really hope that both teams are on the same side in the actual conflict. Even if some of them are fighting their own parents. :(

slinkhard @ May 3 2004, 12:39:15 UTC

Respect for Ginny blooming. Almost...forgetting...canon.

Anonymous @ May 3 2004, 12:43:54 UTC

What does canon mean?

jenicomprispas @ May 3 2004, 13:21:09 UTC

Canon is the five (so far) books written by JKR. If I have it correctly, this RPG follows the canon, or is accurate to the books, up until OotP, because the game had started before it came out. Oh, and there are two supplemental books, "Quidditch Through the Ages" and "Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them" that are considered canon too, since JKR wrote them for charity and they give background information about the Potterverse.

bookofjude @ May 3 2004, 13:53:09 UTC

Canon is originally a term denoting what the Catholic Church considered "true" in the Bible, and various other things. Such as being declared a Saint is called being canonized, I believe. It's now used as a term denoting anything that written or said by the author of books, director of a movie, etc. In this case, PS/SS, COS, POA, OOTP, the two supplementary books, the interviews, and anything she's ever said in chats. :))

slinkhard @ May 3 2004, 14:58:16 UTC

That I think of nocturne_alley character's as more 3-d than Teh Actual And Official Canon, due to the multi POVs. Hence I don't like Strictly!Canon!Books1-4!Ginny, but I do nocturne's.
I didn't mean any insult to her performance!