[HPforGrownups] Re: Still-Life With Memory Charm

[Porphyria]

No: HPFGUIDX 36787

> Much Ado About Memory Charms.

First off, I'd like to thank Elkins for another fine post, one which 
both does a lovely job of summarizing the received wisdom on the topic 
and then goes much further by fishing out the most tantalizing 
possibilities for plot development in that direction.

Having read <and snipped> all the evidence you collect regarding memory 
charms and Neville, I'd say it is very compelling evidence that he does 
in fact have one.

How a memory charm might interact with his 'magical abilities,' however, 
is well worth straightening out, and I appreciate the work you've done 
here because I myself am guilty of having been fuzzy in my posts on 
this. I agree that Neville is by no means lacking in magical power, and 
you are correct to point out that if anything his power is excessive and 
often goes uncontrolled. So if a memory charm was suddenly broken, it's 
not like he'd get even more powerful. He might get more focused and then 
be able to control it better. But is that what he wants?

You've made a convincing point that Neville is the one responsible for 
leading everyone to think of him as Squib-like. And I'm wondering what 
exactly you think is going on with him. Because I figure there are a 
couple of possibilities. One is that Neville knows perfectly well he's 
got lots of magical power and is trying to downplay it for some 
suspicious reason. Were you thinking the Hat was tempted to sort him 
into Slytherin? It's an intriguing idea. So the question then is why? 
Even if he does consciously realize that he's very powerful, it would 
certainly seem that he can't control it even when it's in his best 
interest to do so. So I'm not completely convinced that he's trying to 
hide his light under a bushel basket for the sake of some 'sneaky' plan.

I think the other possibility is that he can't consciously acknowledge 
his power because he so desperately doesn't want to. It terrifies him. 
And all his effort at convincing everyone of his weakness is also an 
attempt at convincing himself, at reassuring himself that he really 
is -- what? Not a threat? Not a threat to whom?

Now, if we agree that his problem is not being weak and powerless 
*because of* the memory charm then we almost have two separate issues 
here, right? One is who put the memory charm on him and why; the other 
is why can't he come to grips with his very palpable magical power? 
Still, it's probably safe to assume these are related, seeing as we've 
come this far already.

I like the suggestion that the charm might have been placed on him for 
reasons other than protecting his tender psyche.

> Finwitch suggested:
>
> > Something... Like that Bartolomeus Crouch Junior did NOT take part
> > in torturing his parents, but that Lucius Malfoy did! (or other
> > liberated DEs Harry named...

And Elkins continued:

> Mmmmmm.
>
> 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?

See, this is fun. But I'm not quite sure what would have gone on. In the 
Pensieve scene, Mrs. Lestrange admits to the guilt of her party, doesn't 
she? I guess what I'm asking here is, if there were a cover up, if 
either someone of the four was innocent or someone else was also guilty, 
what do you think her reaction would be? Would she be too proud to 
quibble with the court? Or would she try to expose the real culprit? She 
has very little to lose. I think if someone like Lucius Malfoy were 
involved, or weirder still someone not even a DE, then we'd have to opt 
for the full-blown conspiracy theory that Mrs. Lestrange was somehow 
bought off or otherwise manipulated to cover for the silent partner. Or 
am I missing a possibility here?

As to the real torturer not being not even a DE at all...well lets get 
to that in a bit.

OK, we've theorized that someone might have zapped him with a memory 
charm for their own evil purposes. So lets consider the 
sort-of-but-not-quite separate issue of what Neville is so afraid of.

Elkins wrote, in part:

> It does make you wonder, though: what is it about Snape in particular
> that frightens Neville so badly?  I mean, here we have Neville
> Longbottom, the only son of what seems to be a very old and proud and
> pure-blooded family.  <...> He seems to have
> little in the way of Proper Wizarding Pride.
<...>
> So just what is it about Professor Snape -- ex-DE Snape, Snape who is
> proud and vengeful and combatative, and who is obsessed with duty and
> honor, Snape who looks like the very archetype of a Powerful
> Sorceror, Snape who is the Head of House Slytherin, Snape who appears
> in boggart form looking as if he may well be reaching for his wand
> (even though he teaches a wandless subject), Snape in whose class
> Neville keeps melting down his cauldrons, Snape who is *onto* Neville
> and obviously doesn't believe this "I'm just nearly a Squib"
> act for a second...
>
> What does this man represent to Neville Longbottom?  Just what *is*
> it about Snape that scares Neville so very much?

I hate snipping so much, because I honestly feel like I'm missing the 
implication of these suggestions. I feel Very Stupid. But I'm going to 
plod on.

Now let me start with preemptive rant, which I might be aiming less at 
Elkins and more at my imagined enemies, but here goes. I do keenly 
dislike the theory that Snape had something to do with torturing the 
Longbottoms. I concede to what Finwitch for one has stated that Snape's 
probably guilty of doing worse things, perhaps innumerable times, and 
over the course of many years. True. However I can't imagine what he'd 
be doing here, long after he turned spy, after Voldemort disappeared and 
the DEs formally disbanded. I am certainly not in the 'Snape is still 
Evil' camp. :-) However, I'm not sure that's even what Elkins was 
implying at all, so it might just be my own paranoia.

Anyway, what do we have here? Elkins points out all the ways in which 
Neville seems to lack wizarding pride and refuses to take part in the 
obligation to grow up big and strong and avenge his wronged parents. He 
goes out of his way to make it look (and perhaps make himself believe) 
that he's incapable of doing so. Snape OTOH is the very epitome of 
exactly what Neville is trying to avoid being himself. Is that what 
scares him? That Snape could be an image his fully actualized self? And 
Snape has the gall to realize this?

> <innocent look>
>
> Oh, I've no idea.

Maybe I don't either.

> > Maybe the image of Snape in Gran's clothing symbolizes more that we
> > first suspected...
>
> Oooooooh, yes.  I'm firmly of the belief that it does.

Now again, unless you're suggesting that Snape really is a closet (or is 
that wardrobe?) transvestite, then I think you're going somewhere 
terribly interesting with this. Is this the partner to the hint you 
dropped above, that maybe the real culprit was not even a DE?

	"'...Neville, I believe you live with your grandmother?'
	'Er -- yes,' said Neville nervously, 'But I don't want the Boggart 
to turn into her, either.'"

Hmmm. Maybe I'm way misinterpreting you here, but are you suggesting 
that one might not have to go so far from the Longbottom home to find an 
accessory to his parents torture?

Because if you are, well, you did ask:

> 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?  What
> do you perceive as the thematic relevance of issues of memory,
> remembrance, and the past to the story as a whole?

And I'd have to answer that the deadly problem within the immediate 
family is a theme that keeps coming up over and over, isn't it?

Maybe my problem is that I'm too steeped in Freudian thought, but it 
seems to me that the overall trajectory of the HP series is of finding 
out scandalous crap about your parents, your family and by extension, 
yourself. Maybe it's just that I'm over-identified with Snape, but when 
he hastens to assure Harry that his "saintly father" wasn't really all 
that, I kind of got a premonition of 'oh, that's they way it's going to 
go, isn't it?' Harry's whole quest is to put together the pieces of what 
really happened to his parents, the circumstances of their violent 
death. And JKR herself has threatened to drop a bombshell or two about 
Lily.

I'm not saying that Harry's parents are bad, by any means, but I am 
saying that the theme of the books seems to be ugly secrets that revolve 
somewhere around the general vicinity of where your parents are.

I mean, look at the Crouch family. That's an ugly secret. And a 
spectacular parricide, which in turn was a loving homage to LV's own 
parri-, granparri-, and gran-matricide. And nestled in amongst all the 
examples of children who are carbon copies of their parents are the 
characters who are desperately trying, like Hagrid, and even Crouch Jr. 
himself, to live out from under the shadow of their families.

I'm just trying to draw all the threads together. Harry's own problem 
remembering what happened on the night his parents died figures like a 
traumatic repetition. He keeps having the same dream over and over and 
it slowly gets clearer. He's tempted by the Mirror of Erised because 
it's the repository of memories he doesn't otherwise have, an he's 
perversely attracted to the Dementors because within them he can hear 
the voice of his mother, however horrible that may be. Both these 
temptations are figured as a form of repression and depression; 
Dumbledore has to warn him away from the mirror and it's clear that the 
Dementors represent the worst mental state possible. So Harry's memories 
are dangerous to his psyche, and seductive, but it's hard to imagine the 
series will end without finally clearing up a lot of the mystery about 
the Potters. And this might not be so easy on Harry.

So Neville's problem is either an echo or a counter-example to Harry's. 
I'm not sure yet, but there do seem to be some parallels. Neville's 
memories would be traumatic, if he could access them. There's the chance 
that if he can then we'll discover some unspeakable scandal, far worse 
than corruption in the MOM which we already know about. And then we were 
talking about Neville's problem owning up to his magical power. I think 
his cultivated ineptness is related to the memory charm, but perhaps 
only thematically. Perhaps his susceptibility to forgetting parallels 
his refusal to acknowledge his power. Maybe he's trying to forget, or 
quash, some part of himself because it reminds him too much of what he 
can't bear to acknowledge. Something about his own family? Something he 
thinks he's inherited that's too dangerous to admit to? If the series in 
general revolves around Harry accepting his legacy as a Potter, then 
maybe Neville is there to demonstrate the refusal to accept a legacy, 
and just exactly why legacies are such a dangerous and threatening 
things to have.

But Neville will manage to deal with it acceptably in the end. The Hat 
did put him in Gryffindor, after all. :-)

~~Porphyria


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