Neville's role/Canary-in-the-mine

[grey_wolf_c]

No: HPFGUIDX 32738

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "ftah3" <ftah3 at y...> wrote:
> Th. 2: Neville's role in the books

> Grey_wolf_c, I apologize for snipping your wonderful parallel with 
> oriental mythology, but your pointing out of Neville's turn as a 
> canary reminded me of something closer to home (for myself, as an 
> American, as well as, theoretically, JKR as a Briton).  Especially as 
> I've always had Neville in my list of "if someone is going to die, 
> might be one of these."

Don't worry, I'm here to discuss HP and develop theories (a pet hobby 
of mine), so I always welcome other points of view. However, what I do 
ask (please) is to be called Grey Wolf. "grey_wolf_c" is the closest 
thing I could get from yahoo, since closer screenames were already 
taken.
 
> In the days when coal miners dug deep in the earth with nothing but 
> pitchforks, rags over their mouths and scraggly little ponies to drag 
> carts full of rock up the long winding tunnels to the surface, one 
> way that they protected themselves from the very real danger of air 
> poisoning/suffocation was by bringing a canary in a cage down with 
> them.  The canary, being smaller, would die more quickly if the air 
> went bad, and with it's death alert the miners to their own peril.
> 
> Is Neville the canary in the mine?  Will his death alert the Heroes 
> to an unseen danger in the future?  Hmmmm.

> Mahoney

A good and interesting idea, with no obvious flaws. I'll remeber it 
(although, I still prefer my own, since it includes not only Neville's 
future but Draco's). Going a bit off-topic, though, I always had doubts 
about the whole canary-in-the-mine theory. It was suposed to die 
because of soffocation? The smaller a creature is, the less air it 
needs, and the calmer you are, the less air you need. Why would, then, 
the canary (small, virtually inmobile inside is cage) die sooner than 
the miners (big men, sweating away while mining)? But I digress...

Hope that helped,

Grey Wolf