[HPforGrownups] Ron's wand, Turning Evil/dying, Neville, etc

[Lorelei Laird]

No: HPFGUIDX 30846

<delurk>

On Tue, 4 Dec 2001, Elizabeth Dalton wrote:

> But we've only seen three classic wand cores in Olivander's collection:
> dragon heartstring, unicorn hair, or phoenix feather. I'm not sure we can
> read too much into the meanings when there are so few choices.

Those are good points. I dunno if we can rely too much on symbolism in
wands to tell the future of the books -- it's a bit like Divination, eh?
:}

> I don't buy the idea of Ron turning evil, in the sense of going to
> Voldemort's camp. He's jealous, but I can't see him being dumb enough to
> side with Voldemort. What could Voldemort give him that he doesn't have?

Money. And, as someone pointed out, the ability to outshine all his
brothers at something. I don't buy jealousy of Harry as a motivation --
he'd have to be superhuman not to feel jealousy in that situation. But those
aren't good enough motivations to go bad by themselves. Especially when you
consider the enormous pressure Ron would feel from pretty much
everyone in his life to be on the "good" side. His whole family plus
Harry & Hermione plus the influence of the school are all working to keep
him against Voldemort. Something big would have to happen to Ron's
character in a later book to make him permanently evil.
If I were writing it (and thank heavens I'm not -- big responsibility!),
I think I might make Ron ultimately choose to stay
good after being tempted, but not before letting Harry down through
indecision at an important (non-climax) moment.

On the subject of Neville, I think the revelation about his parents
means we're gonna see more of him in OoP. He was largely backgrounded
before, more an object in the plot than its subject, and IMO sort of a
joke character, though the bit about "standing up to your friends" in PS/SS
may have been meant to show that he has more depth than was shown. Harry
has just discovered that he has something in common with Neville and will
probably be looking at him with new eyes. I'd personally like N to become
part of the plot rather than a subplot.
I like the idea of Neville as victim of one too many forgetfulness charms,
though that doesn't explain his clumsiness. Not that he couldn't be
inherently clumsy. :}

blah de blah de blah,
Lorelei