Neville and the boggart

[moongirlk]

No: HPFGUIDX 36344

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., <porphyria at m...> wrote:
> Elkins said:
> 
> "I'll even let you in on a little secret here.  I thought that 
Lupin's oh-so-blatant "let's bolster Neville's confidence" was kind 
of condescending too, to tell you the truth."  
> 
<snip>
> "But it does strain my suspension of disbelief somewhat to think 
that Neville does *not* notice the pity and the condescension, or 
that these things do not, on some level, bother him."
> 

> Porphyria, who thinks teaching is very hard, made my day by 
replying (in part):

> Lupin forces Neville to act braver than he feels. He assumes that 
>Neville is competent and obliges him to act up to that high 
>estimation. He's almost cruel to him in that he unhesitatingly makes 
>the kid sweat, but despite his hardly surpressed smile, he seems to 
>know that Neville will rise to the occasion. To me this is the 
>opposite of condescension; condescension and pity involve *assuming* 
>that a person isn't capable of much; that they are inferior to you. 
>This is what Snape does, not Lupin. 
> 
> Maybe it depends on how you see things personally, but I think this 
>is a brilliant way to handle Neville at this point. The kid *really* 
>is afraid and Lupin teaches him a way to confront his fears -- both 
>through the technique of imagining a specific fear, in this case, in 
>drag, but also by forcing him to realize that he's capable of taking 
>an active stand against his fear of failure and humiliation in 
>general; now Neville knows he can cast a useful charm in front of a 
>whole class and make it look easy. 

Somebody get this girl a badge of some sort!  Elkins, do you realize 
what she's done?  She's not only cleared up the apparent 
condescention of Lupin, which somehow I knew couldn't be right, even 
if I didn't have the right answer.  She's also managed to place the 
incident neatly in the realm of his Edge!  Go Porphyria (who's name I 
just had to copy and paste so as not to spell it wrong)!

Seriously, though, now that I see it explained this way, I definitely 
think you're right.  There is a distinct difference between Lupin's 
actions and Hermione's.  Hermione's intentions are good, as always, 
but she sees Neville as incapable of doing things on his own, and her 
help seems often of the "give a man a fish" variety.  What Lupin did 
was what some people think Snape is trying to do with some students - 
he toughened him up by putting him on the spot, but in a far less 
cruel way than Snape would, and with an expectation of success that 
Snape might at one point have had with some of his students, but no 
longer does if his "dunderhead" comment means anything.  

kimberly