Nagini pronunciation; SuperMolly

[caliburncy at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 25840

First off, apologies to all on my previous post (Re: Ron) in that I 
meant to change the subject line so that it reflected the actual 
content (canon evidence for Cedric Diggory not joining the team until 
his fifth year), but forgot to until, well, it was too late.

Now then,

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Steve Vander Ark" <vderark at b...> wrote:
> I find the character of Molly to be a bit 
> confusing. I really, really liked her until GF, but then her 
> ridiculous snubbing of Hermione threw me. She is so easily twisted 
by 
> the words of Rita Skeeter, who her husband and other family members 
> all know to be untrustworthy (to say the least). How can Dumbledore 
> trust her not to be swayed by someone as sinisterly dangerous as 
> Voldemort? I suppose it's yet another example of a Flint in GF, 
> right? Please, someone figure out some logical way to explain such 
an 
> absurd story element.

A flint?  No.  I think what you mean is it seems to you to violate the 
creative writing concept sometimes called the "Would he really?" test. 
 I'm sure there are other names for this concept (i.e. character 
violation), not to mention the fact that in this case it's "Would SHE 
really?"--but, anyway, what that means is when a character does 
something that doesn't seem to fit your perception of how they would 
act.  When this happens you must either 1) re-evaluate the character 
given the new evidence and draw a different conclusion about that 
character or 2) conclude that the new evidence is simply poor writing 
and the author doesn't seem to have a firm grasp on his or her 
character.

But is this actually a character violation or not?  Is it credible for 
Molly to blindly accept what Rita Skeeter says about Hermione, when 
she knows Rita is generally full of it?  Actually, I kind of think it 
is.  Unfortunately, I can't offer you proof.  The "Would he/she 
really?" test is just an abstract notion of a writer's tool, there's 
nothing scientific about, of course--the only way to really "test" if 
it was successful would be rule of majority, I guess.  But anyway, 
this is why I think it could pass the test.

This particular article (Harry Potter's Secret Heartache or whatever 
it was called) could seem different from the others Rita Skeeter 
writes slandering the Ministry or Dumbledore or Hagrid's 
half-giantness.  It's not as obviously political news with a hidden 
agenda.  Just like the first Harry article about the tournament seemed 
to lack a hidden agenda.  Rita Skeeter could seem to be on Harry's 
side (not just manipulating tabloid-style gossip-news to her own 
benefit, which is what she is really doing) and we know Molly is on 
Harry's side too.  She is very maternal toward Harry and while we know 
she must have previously thought well of Hermione because she was Ron 
and Harry's friend, we really don't have any proof that she is AS 
maternal toward Hermione.  In other words, I believe if she had to 
take sides, she would take Harry's.  And the article seems plausible 
enough for someone as removed from the context as Molly is:

1) Harry and Hermione are friends, which could easily evolve into them 
dating.
2) If you believe in an 'Hermione likes Harry' subtext in the books (I 
don't see much of one, but whatever) then Molly surely might pick up 
on that, lending further inclination to believe 1)
3) Molly may not know Hermione well enough to feel she can 
fully predict her actions.  Sure Hermione has been to the Weasley 
house, but that doesn't automatically mean Molly would feel she knew 
Hermione's personality as backwards-and-forwards as her own kids or 
Harry.  So when she reads that article about Hermione's portrayal, her 
thoughts are undoubtedly something like:  "(spots Harry's name in 
the magazine, perhaps doesn't even catch the writer's name) Oh my God! 
 Poor Harry!  How could Hermione do that to him?  I thought she was 
such a nice girl.  Would she really do that?  No I'm sure she 
wouldn't.  Well, maybe, I guess I don't know.  Poor Harry!"
4) Even if she initially questions the veracity of the article (which 
she may or may not have done), the more she would think about it, the 
more she would come to believe that it is possible, even if she didn't 
previously think Hermione might do that.  There's a lot of power to 
suggestion.

Lastly, notice she can't bring herself to change her opinion of 
Hermione completely.  She still sends her a present, just a smaller 
one.

Okay, incredibly lame explanation and I give up.  At some point 
recently I seem to have lost my ability to form a nice, coherent post.

-Luke