Good Voldemort, cautious Hermione, ordinary Ron

[Tabouli]

No: HPFGUIDX 38308

theresa:
> Forget Evil! Ron, how about Good! Voldemort?
I'm sure someone can come up with an acronym for this.<

Simple and sweet?  V.I.M. (Voldemort Is Misunderstood).

Alternatively, you could argue that Voldemort's actions are the product of his traumatic youth in the orphanage, and one he has come to terms with this (perhaps after a little counselling from Hermione), he will let go of his resentment and turn into a kindly herpetologist who makes generous donations to orphan welfare and prosthetic limb research, moving on from his days as an:

O.V.E.R.C.H.A.R.G.I.N.G. P.O.W.E.R.M.O.N.G.E.R.

(Once Voldemort's Exorcised Reprehensible Childhood, He'll Alter Radically, Growing Into Nagini's Guardian, Protector Of Women, Evil Renouncing Orphan Nurturer, Gently Entering Retirement.

David:
> She does have a slight tendency to Poirot-like concealment of her 
thoughts (why didn't she say 'Basilisk' or 'Beetle Animagus' before 
rushing off to the library?  In the former case it would have spoilt 
the plot but saved Harry, Ron and Lockhart no little difficulty). < 

I actually put it down to Hermione's need to be Right all the time.  She's a perfectionist, she's into precision, she's the sort who won't expose her hypotheses until she's done all the research and can be reasonably sure of her conclusions.  Though I agree that it's all a bit convenient for JKR that way...

Rohit (columbiatexan) (quoting me):
>> Poor old Ron, eh? It's just not fair. Overshadowed by his brother,
>>overshadowed by his best friends...
>
>Am I the only one who DOESN'T feel sorry for Ron or that he 
doesn't need a talent to make him "special"? <

Actually, that comment o' mine was just a little lead-up for the WANDS CRISS-CROSS acronym... I in fact have no problem with Ron being an ordinary kid.  Let ordinary people have a representative in the series, I say.  After all, by definition *most* people are ordinary, aren't they?  In the ol' competitive individualistic societies "ordinary" has become a  bit of an epithet (in fact, in Australia "ordinary" is regularly used to mean "bad", though that's also got to do with the Australian habit of understatement)... being ordinary is being undistinguished, worthless, of no consequence... there's this message that you *have* to be special in some way, be uniquely talented at something, and so on to be of any value, define yourself, stand out from the crowd.  I say let Ron represent the intrinsic value instead of comparative value message, show that you don't have to be better than other people to be worthwhile.  Besides which, having all three of the Trio miraculously turn out to have supernatural ability at something would be a bit excessive, in my literary balance book...

Tabouli

P.S. Am booking my June to July whirlwind 5 week world tour this week, encompassing the UK, US, Thailand and a dash of Europe!  (probably Geneva and Paris, so I'd better try and resuscitate that French I used to speak).  For further details, see OT...


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]