Friday 15 March 2013

"'You have shown bravery beyond anything I could have expected of you.'"

Oh, Goblet of Fire. You just tootle along all happily, don't you, everything's all challengey and, let's face it, it's all fun and games until someone replaces the Triwizard Tournament Trophy with a portkey and a lovely teenager dies. And then the COPIOUS WEEPING begins.
So heightened were my tear glands in anticipation for the sadness, that I started crying before there was even a hint of danger- when Harry was told that the families had arrived to watch the final task, and was all grumpy about going into a room where he'd be the one without family, but then realising that Mrs Weasley and Bill were there for him? SO WONDERFUL I CAN'T EVEN! And, if I'm honest, the crying could have started before that, even, when we found out what happened to poor Neville's parents, and Harry's lovely lovely empathy for him.
"He often got sympathy from strangers for being an orphan, but as he listened to Neville's snores, he thought that Neville deserved it more than he did."
DON'T WORRY HARRY, there's MORE than enough sadness to go around. *Glares at JK*

Now. I've read this before, obviously, so I knew what was coming, but as it turns out, I only really vaguely knew what was coming. This meant that I was completely on the edge of my seat at the new rising of Lord V, but before that, I was a little pissed off. And what I was pissed off at was how little attention was paid to Cedric's death- he was just standing there, and then he was on the ground and then we were straight back to Harry. I think for the first time, I was like, fuck your fucking Harry filter.

BUT. I get it. I totalllly get it now. It's like... Of course we're following Harry, like we always follow Harry, and the thing is, he's in a crisis situation where things just keep happening one after the other and there's no time to process anything. It's all tense, and frightening, and so so so effective that it's unreal.
But then when everything's over (and I mean everything, Mad Eye Moody revelations and all) there's time, and there's reflection, and there's mourning for Cedric- mourning by an entire school, mourning by Harry, because really, he's an excellent person, and mourning from us too. Just because our mourning happens via Harry, that doesn't make it any less effective- in fact, it really makes it more effective because Harry's our guy, and we really really care about what happens to him. If he cries, we cry. And boy, did I cry!
I don't even think I could pick a saddest part of this last section, but I think it's a toss up between

  1. When Harry's parents come out of Voldemort's wand and his mother goes "'your father's coming... He wants to see you... it will be all right... hold on...'" Because Lilyyyyy!
  2. When Cedric's ghost/wand form goes "'Take my body back, will you? Take my body back to my parents...'"
  3. When Harry gets back to Hogwarts and lets go of the cup easily but won't let go of Cedric's body (SOB!)
  4. When McGonagall sees Harry and has to try really hard not to cry because she's so sad about his trauma
  5. Dumbledore's speech at the end of year feast "Remember if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right, and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed along the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory."
All of those are bad enough, but the ACTUAL saddest part?
"He had no memory of ever being hugged like this, as though by a mother. The full weight of everything he had seen that night seemed to fall in upon him as Mrs Weasley held him to her. His mother's face, his father's voice, the sight of Cedric dead on the ground all started spinning in his head until he could hardly bear it, until he was screwing up his face against the howl of misery fighting to get out of him."

I had some other political Fudgy thoughts (Mmmmm, Fudge, being the main one) but basically, the last quarter of The Goblet of Fire UNDID me and I haven't quite been the same for a week. And I've just relived it again. I have to go and lay down now.

21 comments:

  1. ALL THE SADS!

    I think Dumbledore's Cedric speech was pretty sad... And Krum saying good-bye, because for some reason this time around I'm a huge Krum fan.

    Isn't Fudge the worst? UGH. I can't believe how easily he manages to screw everything up, and how he refuses to listen to Dumbledore. *shakes head*

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    1. I do like Krum, bless him! HE JUST WANTS TO BE A NORMAL BOY!

      FUDGE IS TERRIBLE! I mean, there's the out and out evil of Voldemort, and then there's the kind of evil that just ignores the bad things that are happening, and Fudge is really that dude (and hello massive theme for book 5!) Everyone should always listen to D-Dore.

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  2. Pretty sure I'm going to cry when I read everyone's post this week because this section is SO SAD.

    Mrs Weasley's hug probably kills me most of all, but that might be because it follows all the tragedy and it just caps off a whole bunch of sads super sadly.

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    1. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP.

      It really does do that thing you said when you said sad a number of times! I love it, but then I also feel so sad that Harry's never had it before, and he only gets it when he's seen someone murdered in front of him and has nearly died and has seen Voldy rise again. SNIFFFFFFFFF!

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  3. Oh good grief, even this POST is making me well up and I'M NOT EVEN READING THE ACTUAL BOOK RIGHT NOW. Duuuuude, way to spread the feels. Ohhh, the bit when Lily appears from the wand is SO EMOTIONAL, it gets me big time. In the movie, the part that makes me cry most is when Harry and Cedric hit the ground back at Hogwarts and everyone erupts into cheers, and Harry's just clutching Cedric and sobbing like his heart will break. *wells up again* OOOOOOKAY I'm going to go think happy thoughts now. *hic*

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    1. Awwww, don't cry Ellieeee! I haven't seen the movie cause, yeah, I can't, but I can imagine that's very traumatic to watch! It's totally traumatic in my head, anyway. Sniiiiiiiiiiff

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  4. Yup, going to have to avoid a re-read of this one until I'm basically an emotional warrior. Like some sort of Zena of the crying realm. Seriously, I feel raw just from reading this. The hugging bit?! It's just too much.

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    1. It's ALL to much, Ellie. I was not at all prepared, honestly.

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  5. Allllmost went with that title quote. Of course. Whatever, don't care if they're the obvious ones cos they're good.

    I knew the Cedric death stuff but was so afraid of the sads for the end of this book cos of your tweets. And I realized when I was listening to it on the train I was COMPLETELY alcohol-less. Which, it was like 7 in the morning so to have liquor would have been bad but that didn't make it less wanted.

    On the Fudge thing, I wonder if Dumbles had pointed out how popular war time leaders are (even if after war times everyone dislikes them cos they screwed stuff up) if Fudge would have been more likely to admit Voldie was back.

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    1. Hahahaha, of COURSE you did! I had some others which is why this post is a leeeetle quote heavy, but awwww, D-Dore saying the nice stuff.

      Hey, we both had to deal with this alcohol-less. I think it's made us stronger people. I KNOW it made me cry. And nothing could have dulled the pain anyway. *cries a bit*

      I was totally thinking 'why doesn't D-Dore just point out that he can lead people against Voldy and everyone will think he's a hero?' Because that definitely seems like a thing Fudge would be into. I really love how there's a shift in how Harry sees Fudge at the end, and it is SO GOOD for setting up OotP. SERIOUSLY.

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    2. I was ALSO sans alcohol when I read the ending. BUT I was at the Laundromat, and there was a water beetle that kept popping out from under the washing machine next to where I was sitting, and I kept yelling RITA, GET BACK UNDER THERE. And then I cracked myself up. So that helped diffuse the sads just a little.

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  6. RE point 1: Ooooh. My book has the editing weirdness that Emily mentioned in her post, where James comes out of the wand before Lily. He says the exact same thing Lily says, so I guess their dialogue is just reversed in the revised scene. But YES oh man this whole thing is just so sad. I love that all of us were affected most by Mrs Weasley's hug. Poor Harry.

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    1. I didn't know that was a thing, like, AT ALL, and it freaks me out! Obviously it's, you know, accurate that Lily comes out first, but I also think it's nicer because he has more of a connection to her and then it's like the big reveal of his dad. Even though he has obviously seen pictures of him and stuff... Hmmm. I don't know where I was going with this.

      OMG Mrs Weasley's hug! I think I was saddest that he'd NEVER had a maternal hug (that he could remember) before... DAMMIT PETUNIA!

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    2. YES. WHAT THE HELL PETUNIA. I HATE YOUR FACE.

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  7. I didn't read, I only remembered, for this week's posting, but yes, that hug from Mrs Weasley tears me up in distant retrospect. So sad!

    Fudge is small minded and wanting power, and that's a dangerous combination in a nation's leader. Exhibit A: George W. Bush. He's not evil, per se, but his lack of actions result in a lot of evil being done, and it's hard to separate that from being evil to begin with.

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    1. I didn't really remember the Mrs Weasley hug! So it was a BIG SAD.

      Oh maaaan, Bush is tooootally evil. I mean, I guess not *really* but kind of, yeah? It's not just his lack of actions that made bad things happen, but also his actual ACTIONS. Oooooh, this was the wrong example for me!!

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  8. Your crying GIFs are so excellent this week. Although I can't help but sneer at Gretchen Weiner sobbing over her sad unused hoop earrings when there are children in the wizarding world being tortured and murdered and forced to watch creepy cultish rebirth ceremonies.

    I read the part about Lily coming out of the wand and went, THAT'S NOT HOW IT HAPPENED but then I remembered that I have the mistake version where James comes out first and says that line. Remember when all the HP fans thought JKR's mistake was a huge clue to some big reveal about his parents' death? We clearly didn't understand that JKR just can't count backwards.

    PS I got your valentine and I love it! I'm going to use the bracelet as a bookmark while reading Order of the Phoenix! :D

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    1. Yeaaaaaah, Gretchen's woes really don't cut it. But she does a good crying face! And aw, thanks for the gif compliments! I think most of these were left over/recycled from The Grapes of Wrath readalong :)/:(

      What is this mistake version?! Genuinely didn't know that was a thing. I did read this about a year after it came out though, I think, because that's when I read the first four books (I'm really young. Order of the Phoenix was the first one I had to wait for) so they'd probably fixed it by then.

      PS YAYAYAYAYAY! Alley totally used/uses hers as a bookmark too! I should have just SAID they were bookmarks and been done with it!

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    2. Oh! Friendship bookmarks! Brilliant. Yes, me too.

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  9. The whole skating over Cedric's death thing is kind of like Rowling's trying to give him PTSD. Which he doesn't really show symptoms of at any points and I call shenanigans on that because man is his life messed up!

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