Ron / Dumbledore / untraditional family unit /Snape

[catlady_de_los_angeles]

No: HPFGUIDX 37546

Grey Wolf wrote:

> I am one of the devout followers of SACRIFICE (although I prefer my
> own acronym, RICK'S THE BOSS), because it's the only way Ron can 
> actually fulfil his wish (see mirror of Erised): Even if he's made 
> quidditch captain, one of his brothers (Charlie, wasn't it?) has 
> already been it, and he wouldn't get as much glory.

As long as they're trying to go on with normal life as much as 
possible, Ron *should* seek a glory different from all his brothers 
by DOING something different than all his brothers. I keep saying he 
should learn to play a musical instrument, ideally guitar -- people 
like people who play guitar and sing at parties, and he might become 
a superstar like the Weird Sisters. Or he could combine his longing 
for glory with his longing for money and the strategic instinct he 
shows in chess, by learning to play poker and becoming a 
semi-professional gambler.

Hugo wrote:

> There has been something that keeps bothering me: when Crouch Sr. 
> meets Harry at the grounds, he says something along the lines: 
> "Are you his...? Dumbledore's...?"  

I always had the feeling that he meant 'special project' or 'secret 
weapon' rather than 'great-grandson' or 'protege'.


Rosie Flowerfairy wrote:

> Erm...Do you think Dumbledore ever had a wife or partner? I really
> don't think he would have one now (She would be dead...probably). 

I think that when Dumbledore said that what he saw in the Mirror of 
Erised was himself being given a pair of socks for Christmas, he was 
telling only the truth but not the whole truth: it was the pair of 
hand-knitted socks that his late wife or late mother always gave him 
for Christmas, and it is really being with the deceased PERSON which 
is his heart's desire.

> I think he is having an affair with McGonagall. <eg> :)

I think not, as I am convinced that McGonagall and Hooch are a 
couple, have been for a long time. I think he might be having an 
affair with Madam Pomfrey. However, it must be officially secret 
(everyone pretends not to know) because he speaks of her as 'Madam 
Pomfrey admired my new earmuffs" not as "Poppy".

Pippin wrote:

> Wynnde writes:
> > Certainly all the children who attend Hogwarts seem to come from
> > complete family units (we don't know of any one-parent families
> or illegitimate children, do we?
> We have at least two failed marriages: Tom Riddle's parents, and 
> Hagrid's parents.

If my theory is correct, Tom Riddle is an example of illegitimacy 
rather than of failed marriage.

> Snape's message to her may be the same as Draco's: "Keep that big 
> bushy head down, Granger." As in Draco's case, we don't know
> whether this is a manifestation of prejudice or a disguised effort
> to protect her from it. 

That is even more difficult to perceive in canon Snape's behavior 
than in canon Draco's.

> Of course Hermione only wants approval but perhaps her approval-
> seeking bothers him...was Snape trying for approval when he joined
> Voldemort?

Hmmm... Whose approval? Lucius, Karkaroff, his parents, the future 
Mrs Lestrange? Which would affect him to feel that Student seeking 
approval from Teacher is a prelude to Death Eating? (which would go 
along with the people who think his perceived kindness to Slytherin 
kids is really a cruel (they seem to think that being cruel to 
Slytherins is OK) plot to make them weaklings who can be destroyed.

Naama wrote:

> Maybe I'm being terribly unsubtle here, but my understanding of 
> Snape is: (snip) c. That he naturally loathes Harry even more 
> particularly, which makes Harry and, by association, any of
> Harry's friends, irresistibly annoying for him.

I can't deny your a) and b), but Hermione WASN'T Harry's friend that 
first day, or any day until Halloween.

Porphyria wrote a number of great things including:

> Every time he snaps at her for being a know-it-all it's always in a
> charged situation in which he experiences it as a rejection of his
> authority. She doesn't respond to him in the way he expects to be 
> treated.
(snip)
> I think the last thing Snape wants is a protegee or apprentice or 
> anything like that, least of a all a Gryffindor. (snip) I think 
> having a real admiree who looks up to him and wants to learn 
> everything about potions from him, I think this would oblige him to
> be sort of nurturing and emotionally involved with them, and I
> think he's quite averse to being that way.

You write such interesting and thought-provoking things....