Helping Muggle children ...Waking Albus Dumbledore

[Joe Bento]

I'm a single adult male, 41yrs.  I've never been married, and I have 
no children.  On this message board, we share opinions about whether 
Snape acted out DD's wishes, or if he is serving LV.  JKR has stated 
in an interview that dead characters do not come back to life, and 
it is my assumption that DD is definitely dead since his portrait is 
now hanging in the headmaster's office.

I am curious at how you explain Snape to a child troubled by DD's 
apparent death?  People on this board have already expressed the 
thought that you don't simply dismiss a child's questions because 
Harry Potter is just an imaginary story.  Do you tell the child that 
DD was murdered, and explain that Snape is likely a very bad man?  
How could you explain that Snape may have been following DD's 
wishes, justifying an apparent murder?

While I certainly don't want to doubt the intelligence of a child, 
can they discern the difference between:  
1) The thought that Snape may have been fulfilling DD's wishes.
2) Snape may in fact have committed an unforgivable crime.
3) A violent gang murder on the evening news.

It seems to me that explaining DD's death might be a bit more 
complicated than explaining the passing of someone from natural 
causes.  A child is most certainly going to pick up on the AK 
incantation as well as the detailed hatred in Snape's expression.

Don't misunderstand me - I'm a Potter fanatic with the US and UK 
editions, audio CD's, standees, posters, etc.  I absolutely love the 
whole story, and think that JKR is a brilliant author.  The puzzles 
are complex enough to keep all of us guessing, agreeing, and 
disagreeing.  Then JKR drops a totally unexpected bomb, blowing away 
all previous theories. 

Joe


--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" 
<justcarol67 at y...> wrote:
> Kemper wrote:
> >  
> 
> Does anyone think that JKR is doing her readers a service? WE don't
> deal much with death in our society--only objectively reported 
stories
> about strangers on the news or meaningless fictional deaths of
> characters in TV programs (this week's murder victim whose case the
> detectives will solve without any feelings for the dead person). 
When
> someone we love dies, we're afraid to talk about it because others
> don't know how to react to us. Now, at least, these children will 
have
> many others who share their grief. And maybe, when someone they 
love
> dies in real life, they'll be better able to handle it--and less
> hesitant to talk about it.
> 
> Carol, with apologies for not reading all the posts in the thread
> before composing this one