Still-Life With Memory Charm

[dicentra_spectabilis_alba]

No: HPFGUIDX 36784

Elkins concludes a wonderful essay with...

More to the point, though, what do people imagine the *thematic* 
function of a Memory Charmed Neville plotline to be? I have my own 
reasons for considering it a fascinating possibility, but although 
I've already hinted quite strongly at them, I'm now finding myself 
feeling reluctant to go into any greater detail along those lines,as 
I do recognize that my own favored reading of Neville is not only 
highly idiosyncratic, and not only unusual, and not onlysubversive, 
but also actively *hostile* to what I believe to be the author's true 
intent. 

I therefore would like to open up this field of inquiry to others who 
do not share my hostility to the authorial perspective when it comes 
to Neville and his thematic relevance to the story as a whole. Tell 
me, memory charm fans: what do *you* see as the narrative function of 
this plotline? What do you imagine its thematic purpose to be? Whatdo 
you perceive as the thematic relevance of issues of memory, 
remembrance, and the past to the story as a whole?

Dicentra raises her hand, Neville-like:

Well, after that masterful treatment of the Memory Charm theme, I 
almost hesitate to add anything lest I damage the balance and harmony 
of the Still Life.  Almost, that is. I had to think a bit about this, 
and now I have an answer of sorts.

I was just watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, whose primary theme 
in the first few seasons was What People Did During The Cardassian 
Occupation. The revelations end up being pretty ugly at times. People 
who in ordinary circumstances were decent and upright are found to 
have been collaborators with the enemy, mercenaries, theives, 
murders, traitors. I have to believe that during Voldemort's reign 
people did things they weren't proud of, things they wouldn't have 
done if there hadn't been a war on, things they are desperate to keep 
hidden. They have done what they could to cover their sins, hoping 
that by so doing their sins would be forgotten -- that they would 
cease to exist, in other words. But the filth they swept under the 
rug has festered during that time, and it's taking on a life of its 
own. Soon it will erupt in their faces.

Some of it already has. Barty Crouch Sr.'s secret came out and it 
cost him his life. Siri's wrongful imprisonment is an awfully dirty 
secret that points at others -- surely he was not the only innocent 
person who was left to rot in Azkaban for the sake of restoring the 
peace. And the guilty Death Eaters who walked free all these years -- 
Peter Pettigrew especially -- have restored the original problem.

It occurs to me that Neville is emblematic of the whole of the 
Wizarding World. If the Memory Charm theory is correct, the charm is 
an attempt to erase the horror he experienced while watching his 
parents be tortured (symbolizing the whole war), and possibly it's to 
erase one or more dirty little secrets. 

Someone might have hoped that if these things are forgotten, maybe 
they didn't happen. Maybe they'll go away.  Maybe then everything 
will be OK. But Neville isn't OK. He isn't functioning well. The 
filth swept under his rug keeps surfacing. It keeps interfering with 
his attempts to be a good wizard. It erupts in his face 
uncontrollably. And there's every reason to believe his Memory Charm 
will fracture and all hell will break loose.

The thematic importance of Neville's Memory Charm, therefore, is to 
be a microcosm of the larger theme of memory and secrets in the post-
Voldemort years. That "forgetting" or hiding  the evil done during 
that time doesn't make it go away. That the world ISN'T functioning 
normally. That it will eventually come back to bite you hard in the 
anatomy. I can picture Neville going postal when he regains his 
memory. I can see him as an angel of wrath wreaking vengeance on all 
those who messed with him (or with anyone). And I can see that 
running parallel to what happens in the Wizarding World when the 
Truth comes out.

Elkins had said earlier:

So tell me something here. Am I the only person so deeply and 
profoundly mistrustful of the Ministry that my immediate thought upon 
reading Finwitch's above suggestion was that if a memory charm had 
indeed been placed on Neville to suppress this particular piece of 
knowledge, then the culprit probably wasn't a _Death Eater_ at all?

::Dicentra displays her FIDEDIGNO badge, which when pressed flashes 
FISHFINGERS in green, and when pressed again shows FIE in orange, and 
when pressed again shows FIEONGOODNESS in blue.::

I'm not ready to claim that Fudge tortured the Longbottoms, but I'll 
always vote for him covering up something evil.

--Dicentra, whose dicentras are still asleep under a blanket of snow