In defense of Hermione and Neville (Ron as Sirius and Neville as Peter)

[ssk7882]

No: HPFGUIDX 34856

Speculation on whether Hermione or Neville might ever betray Harry 
and the Cause...

In response to Barb's defense of Hermione, Meglet wrote:

> She doesn't have as much insight into herself as she does into
> others.  (A real blind spot with Gilderoy Lockhart, don't you
> think?)  

I also feel the need to jump to Hermione's defense here.  Porphyria's 
already pointed out that the girl was only twelve years old at the 
time, and also that even many mature and experienced witches were 
captivated by Lockhart.

To this, I'd also add that Hermione's crush on Lockhart did *not*
affect her behavior in any way that had the slightest bit of bearing 
on her devotion to Harry and his cause.  So she sent him a valentine.
She blushed when he praised her in class.  She wanted to keep his 
autograph.  Who cares?

When the Trio realize that they need a teacher's signature to get the 
potions book out of the Restricted Section of the library and come to 
the conclusion that Lockhart's the only professor dumb enough to sign 
such a thing for them, Hermione doesn't object at all.  She doesn't 
try to defend Lockhart's intellect -- she knows full well, I think, 
that the man is a moron -- or worry that the ploy might get her poor 
dear Gilderoy in trouble.  She doesn't balk at using him.  

No, she's the one who actually carries *out* the plan -- and she does 
so by shamelessly flattering Lockhart, playing up to his ego to 
distract him from thinking too much about what he's being asked to 
sign.

Hermione had a little crush on him, sure.  But it was hardly a 
*blind* crush, and it didn't prevent her from acting against him.

> She also has shown a tendency to keep important information
> to herself (the Time Turner, Lupin being a werewolf). 

And that's a bad thing?

Geez, if only Peter had shared that terrible character flaw...

Porphyria wrote:

> As to Hermione's keeping secrets, I've always seen this as one of 
> the more extraordinary signs of her strength of character. 

Agreed.  Why on earth should she have told Ron and Harry about the 
Time-Turner?  There was no reason they needed to know about it, and 
she had promised McGonagall that she would keep it a secret.  And I 
thought that her keeping Lupin's secret was very noble, myself.  She 
was certainly proud of herself for sussing it out, and I'm sure that 
some part of her wanted very badly to tell Harry and Ron what she'd 
discovered -- there's more than a touch of frustration in her 
exasperated noise when she realizes that Harry and Ron *still* 
haven't figured it out -- but she resists the temptation.  Good for 
her!  Why should she have outed poor Lupin?

Me, I think that with just a bit more training, Hermione could kick 
Imperius' butt.  She has extraordinary strength of character.

But as for Neville...

Barb wrote:

> It seems that Neville is the best doppelganger for Pettigrew.  He's 
> not considered very competant and he's at the fringes of the group. 

The text itself encourages us to draw this comparison.  In PoA, when 
Harry is trying to visualize that scene between Peter and Sirius on 
the crowded street, it is specified that he imagines Pettigrew as 
looking like Neville.

Of course, Harry doesn't know the true story at the time, and given 
what he _has_ heard, the connection makes perfect sense.  Poor brave-
but-badly-overpowered little Peter Pettigrew confronting Sirius Black 
on the street, only to get blasted to smithereens for his pains, 
neatly parallels Neville's equally-futile confrontation with the Trio 
at the end of PS.

But in the end, Harry's analogy is proved flawed: the situation 
between Pettigrew and Black was not really at all what he had been 
led to believe, and so the parallel that he was originally drawing 
between the two situations doesn't hold up.

I, for one, am certainly hoping that the analogy's darker and more 
sinister alternative implications will prove equally flawed.  It 
would break my heart if Neville went bad.  And I don't really think 
that it's going to happen.

But if I may be permitted to play Devil's Advocate for just a moment 
here...

Porphyria wrote:

> Plus, so far he doesn't seem to be particularly jealous of either 
> Harry or Ron...

GoF, Chapter Eleven ("Aboard the Hogwarts Express"):

"Neville listened jealously to the others' conversation as they 
relived the Cup match."

and then, only two lines later:

"'Oh *wow,*' said Neville enviously as Ron tipped Krum into his pudgy 
hand."

Heh.  No, but I'm just kidding.  I don't think that Neville's really  
at all an envious or a jealous person.  On first reading, though, I 
certainly did notice the use of those adverbs -- and so close 
together, too!  They really jumped off the page at me.  I remember 
thinking: "Oh, no.  JKR isn't trying to encourage us to think of 
Neville as a future Pettigrew *again,* is she?"

Barb:

> A lot of folks have been rooting for Neville to tap into the power 
> he "must" have inherited from his parents, but somehow I'm not 
> completely convinced that would be a good thing...

I agree, although for different reasons.  What I think that I dread 
most about this series is the spectre of Neville "coming into his 
own" and then immediately becoming some Joe Gryffindor warrior type: 
going out and kicking DE butt like his Auror father, upholding his 
family's wretched *pride.*

Ugh.  Gives me the willies, that does.  Neville's plenty brave, just 
the way he is.  He's a fourteen-year-old boy who wears fuzzy slippers 
without shame.  You think *that* doesn't take courage?  

He's never once tried to use his parents' plight to leverage the 
slightest bit of pity or slack out of anyone; he accepts the Trio's 
social brush-offs without complaint; he doesn't go squealing to the 
authorities when Draco Malfoy practices curses on him in the hallway; 
he accepts his punishment for "losing" his list of passwords (a crime 
he didn't even really commit, as it turns out) unflinchingly; he is 
always willing to own up to his own flaws, mistakes and weaknesses; 
and he's capable not only of asking a girl to a ball, but also of 
accepting rejection with good grace -- and then braving rejection a 
second time by asking someone else the very same *day!*

I mean, let's face it.  Neville's ability to find himself a date for 
the Yule Ball, his willingness to brave romantic rejection, makes 
both Ron and Harry look like a couple of utter wusses.  ;-)

The kid's a trooper.  He's got loads of courage.  It's just not the 
sort of courage that his culture values, sadly.

(And I also desperately want to believe that the real reason that 
Neville took one of Hermione's S.P.E.W badges was *not*, as Harry 
thought, because he was browbeaten into it, but because she convinced 
him that she was right about the House Elves -- and because he really 
is *brave.*)


Porphyria wrote:

> Of course I think Neville will kick butt when he _finds himself_, 
> but I'm sure it will be bad-guy butt.

<shudder>

Oh.  I do so hope not.  I just don't want Neville to be a butt-kicker.
Don't we have enough of those already?

I mean, warrior courage is of course very admirable -- and it is also 
exceptionally valuable, especially in a time of war -- but there are 
other types of bravery.  What about the courage of compassion?  Or of 
non-conformism?  Or even of principled pacifism?

What I would really like to see Neville do, once he "finds himself," 
is to serve as an exemplar of some *other* type of courage.  I want 
him to lead sit-down protests in front of the Ministry of Magic.  I 
want him to be disowned by his grandmother for spearheading the 
Wizarding World's very first prison-reform movement.  I want him to 
write a treatise lambasting Hogwarts' hoary old House System.  I want 
him to deliberately lose 200 points for Gryffindor as an act of 
protest against the institution of the House Cup.  I want him to 
adopt an unusual dress style and not care what McGonagall has to say 
about it.  I want him to marry a Muggle.  

I mean, I want to see him do something *really* brave.

But somehow I doubt that any of that will happen.  

<sigh>

-- Elkins

(who favors a highly subversive reading of PS as the tragedy of 
Neville's eventual *failure* to uphold the courageous standards of 
House Gryffindor by caving in to the idiotic social pressures of his 
surroundings and his peers...)

(...and who would like very much to believe that the next time some 
little voice in the back of Neville's head suggests that he launch 
himself into physical combat with both Crabbe and Goyle for no good 
reason whatsoever, he will manage to whip up the internal fortitude 
to answer: "Why, though?...Stupid thing to do, really...No, I don't 
think I will, thanks...no, I don't really want to...")