Beady Eyes

[omorka]

Just put in my big summer order for semi-precious and glass beads. I also picked up a bit of silver wire to try my hand at wire-wrapping a couple of pendants. Gosh, this stuff is expensive. Then again, I could have an even more expensive hobby, like cars or audio equipment. Next to that, beads and yarn don't look so bad . . .

One thing I picked up is a set of crystal points - yup, I'm making myself one of those necklaces. That's probably not one I'm going to be wearing to work, obviously. (Then again, depending on how perceptive this group of kids is, that might be the "I'm at the end of my rope" warning necklace.)

I'm going to try and be on iChat more often between now and when the kids come back to school. It'll be at odd hours, still (especially until this headache goes away), but I will be on more frequently than I have been. I'll be bouncing between the address listed on my profile and the one I gave the kids, so there will be a certain amount of catch-as-catch-can involved - sorry about that, but it's unavoidable.

Been re-reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. My initial impression, the first time through, was that Draco really wasn't present much in the book. It turns out that's wrong - he appears with his usual frequency up until the Slytherin/Gryffindor Quidditch game, and then drops mostly out of the main line of the story. Hmm . . .

Also re-reading The New Hacker's Dictionary, which is quite enjoyable. Hackerly linguistics is sort of the best of both worlds, for me. However, it's also a form of procrastinating instead of reading what I need to read for work - I have two books I'd really like to have finished by the time I go back that I haven't even picked up yet.

Comments

[wren-chan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he -was- there, wasn't he...? But my brain was so busy with bigger things (cue chibi-Draco throwing a fit in my head) that until the fight it was just sort of 'Oh, it's Draco again, doesn't he ever get bored?'...

[omorka.livejournal.com]

It's just vaguely interesting, from a slasher's POV - all the usual stuff is occurring, then the Quidditch match with "Weasley Is Our King," and the last things that happen are:

1) Harry catches the snitch, and Draco's hand closes on his (okay, I think JKR says "scrabbling," but the point is - it was that close, and involved contact between the two of them.

2) Harry takes a bludger from Crabbe and everybody lands; Draco insults Mrs. Weasley and the twins have to be restrained.

3) Draco insults Lily, and Harry and George take him down.

The story resumes from there with Umbridge banning the twins and Harry from the Quidditch field, confiscating their brooms, etc. But Draco sort of falls out of the story after that, at least until the scene in Umbridge's office much later, right after he'd had more physical contact with Harry than he has in the last two books. Odd, ne?

Also , the adversarial positions of the Weasley and Malfoy families are played up a lot more in the book, including positioning Draco and Ron as vaguely parallel figures in Harry's life, than I'd remembered from my first reading.

[theoldone.livejournal.com]

In the vast scheme of things, Draco is becoming a minor irritant.
Harry has faced down Death eaters, Dementors, and stood toe to toe with Lord Valdemort.
Draco? Harry can smash him like a bug.

[omorka.livejournal.com]

Which is, of course, why the proper parallel as far as the rivalry is concerned is not between Draco and Harry, but between Draco and Ron, or perhaps Draco and Snape if you're playing the intergenerational game. (I'm sure Lord Voldemort would think of Ron as a "minor irritant," too.)

I'm not quite sure what that has to do with my observation, however - the point was about when Draco falls out of the story, and why, not about his effectiveness as a rival for Harry. Indeed, I think I pointed out that the Draco/Ron parallel was more clearly drawn in this one than it has in previous books.

[theoldone.livejournal.com]

Well, my observation has more to do with why. Draco does love to torment any Waesley he can, but with his Father in trouble over his associations with Voldemort, his sarcasm will ring a little hollow. It would be interesting to watch Draco back down from Harry and slink over to bait Ron, or perhaps pin on a junior Death Eater badge . . .