Colin Creevy is so annoying. Jesus Christ in a bath tub.

But I rather enjoyed the scene at the Quidditch pitch where Malfoy calls Hermione a mudblood. I enjoyed both Hermione's retort that no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way onto the team (reinforced later when Malfoy misses the snitch) and the reactions when he said the bad word. Everybody's really, but Ron's especially, as I see it as the first indication of future events -- he is very protective of Hermione.

I think I mentioned Filch's bravery as a squib amongst hostile magic people before, but this set of chapters holds the appropriate place for commenting it, really. It must be a hellish job. Why don't they just employ a witch? There must be some reason; I suspect Dumbledore has decided to help him out by offering him a job at some point.

Also, the Moaning Myrtle plotline leading into the main plot strikes me as quite clever -- it certainly took me by surprise the first time. You would have thought I had learnt to look for clues in Rowling from the first book, but alas!

And Lockhart's stories about his exploits are lovely. Especially when he keeps talking about all the horrific deaths (of Mrs Norris -- how did that cat get that name, anyway? We really need the encyclopedia Rowling promised) he might have prevented.

Again, of course, there is Harry describing Dumbledore's look as X-raying him. I think it is obvious that Rowling had the idea of the occlumens and legilimens from day 1 (and a clear idea of who had mastered it).

And I sympathise with Ron regarding the *shudder* spiders. Ick.