TBAY: Oh, What a Tangled Web - Generational Parallels

[abigailnus]

No: HPFGUIDX 78271

Abigail and Dicentra, having gotten the minor matter of creating 
the artwork out of the way, are now debating the much more 
important question of what to wear at the grand unveiling.  
Suddenly, they notice a shadow being cast on one of the high 
windows.

"It's an owl."  Dicentra says.  She uses a long, hooked pole to open 
a skylight and let the bird in.  It carries on its leg a rolled up piece 
of parchment, which Dicentra unrolls and begins to read.

"It's from Laura."  She says.  "Oh, look, Abigail, it's your first review.  
Quite good, overall, but she has a few observations."

"Everybody's a critic."  Says Abigail, who is surveying herself in front 
of a full-length mirror.  "I don't think this beret is quite me, is it?"

"Shut up and listen to this."  Dicnetra says.   "Laura objects to your 
claim that Draco is a parallel for James.  She doesn't think James or 
Sirius were bullies.  We have no evidence that they gave a hard time 
to anyone but Snape.  And Snape seemed to give as much as he got, 
even though we haven't seen details of any one incident (nor are we 
likely to hear a first person account with both James and Sirius gone).  
So it might have been a campaign of mutual provocation but it 
wasn't bullying.  Draco, on the other hand, pushes around everyone 
he can get away with pushing around, for any reason and at every 
opportunity."

"Since when is it a requirement that a bully victimize more then one 
person before we can call him a bully?"  Abigail asks.  "We called 
Dudley a bully back in PS, when we didn't know that he was bullying 
anyone but Harry.  Besides, we have it from Lily that James walks 
down the corridors hexing *people*, not just Snape.  I do agree that 
it's unlikely that the acrimony between James and Snape was unilateral 
- I'm sure Snape got his in from time to time, but that doesn't make 
the Pensieve scene any less an instance of bullying.  James and Sirius 
pick on Snape, who was minding his own business, because they are 
bored.  They gang up on him, two against one.  That sounds to me 
*exactly* like pushing around everyone they can get away with 
pushing around for any reason and at any time.  I'm sure that Snape 
was no angel, but in the particular instance that we see, James and 
Sirius engage in bullying behavior, and Lily's reaction makes me 
believe that it isn't out of the ordinary for them to do so."

"Well."  Dicentra says.  "She also takes issue with your assertion that 
Harry and Ron would never stoop to Sirius and James' level.  She says 
that she has no doubt whatsoever that if either Harry or Ron had 
thought of it, Draco would have been hanging upside down faster than 
you can say "mudblood".  They've both been enraged at him enough 
times-perhaps they just lack the necessary imagination."

"Isn't that telling?"  Abigail asks.  "They have both been enraged at him 
enough times, and yet neither of them ever stoops to that level.  They 
never consider ganging up on him - that's Draco's game.  Harry's 
attacks on Draco are always to his face - when he plans to duel with 
him in PS or when he attacks him in GoF.  True, Draco, Crabbe and Goyle 
are ganged up on during the Train Incident at the end of GoF, but every 
person who attacks them acts on his or her own volition, not knowing 
that the others would do the same thing - the Trio, in fact, don't even 
know that Fred and George are there.  Harry and Ron do take vicarious 
pleasure in seeing Draco humiliated - although Ron is more guilty of 
that then Harry - but they never even consider perpetrating those acts 
themselves, which I think draws a very clear distinction between them 
and Sirius and James."

"Laura also objects to your equating Snape and Harry."  Dicentra 
continues reading.  "She says that she thinks you're off-base with the 
LV-DD parallel.  Snape was ostracized by the Marauders because he was 
a creepy, misanthropic kid who even at age 11 was heavy into the dark 
arts and couldn't seem to keep his nose out of their affairs.  His 
connection to LV came afterward.  As for Harry, he was never ostracized 
for supporting DD by the other non- Slytherin students.  The only people 
who gave him a hard time about that were Lucius, Fudge and Umbridge."

"Well, the LV-DD comparison was a shorthand for Muggle-hating, Dark 
Arts vs. Muggle-loving, anti-Dark Arts."  Abigail says.  "But I can see how 
that would be confusing.  However, I'm not the one who says that Harry 
knows what it's like to be bullied and ostracized - he says so himself.  
Harry's immediate reaction to the Pensieve scene is to commiserate with 
Snape, because he himself has undergone the same sort of treatment - 
be it from Dudlely, where he had no one to support him, or from Draco, 
where he had his friends but could still find himself emotionally damaged."
 
"You realize this is never going to end, right?"  Dicentra says, rolling up 
Laura's missive.  "You'll just start a new round of Who's the Worst Bully in 
the Playground.  Lots of people trying to prove that James was the devil 
incarnate, and that he probably forced Lily to marry him by using Dark 
Magic, vs. those who think that Snape deserved to have his underwear 
displayed to the entire student body, and that James was performing a 
public service."  

"In that case, I'd better get myself a drink."  Abigail says wearily.  "C'mon, 
help me crate this thing up and let's go down to the Royal George."

"Not so fast,"  Dicentra smirks.  "Take one last look at that sculpture.  
Don't you think you're missing something?"

Abigail walks around the statue several times, examining it from every 
direction.  She's about to plead ignorance when her mouth drops open 
and she gasps in horror.

"Oh, Dicey!  I can't believe I forgot!  Thank God you stopped me in time!"

"Oh, it's only to be expected."  Dicentra says soothingly.  "After all, you 
were so excited about all the new canon, it's only to be expected that 
you'd forget an old one, even one so important."  She smiles benevolently 
and waves her wand.  A short piece of piping flies into it, and with a 
flourish of her wand she labels it 'Tom Marvolo Riddle'.  "May I do the 
honors?"  Without waiting for an answer, she welds the new pipe to the 
one labeled 'Harry Potter'.

"Both half-bloods, albeit by a rather loose definition in Harry's case."  
Abigail says.  "Both parseltongues, and of similar appearance.  And, of 
course, inextricably linked by a prophecy.  I can't believe I almost forgot 
this parallel.  Still, you do realize that this might be a red herring?  Harry's 
destiny may be to prove himself just the opposite of Voldemort."

"I thought that was the point."  Dicentra replies.  "These aren't strict 
parallels, merely echoes of the past."

"Come on."  Abigail says.  "Let's pack this baby up and go drinking."

Abigail

who was tucked into bed last night, on the very cusp of sleep, when the 
Harry-Tom Riddle parallel occurred to her and she very nearly swore out 
loud.  Also, Dicentra's last line about parallels vs. echoes originally 
belongs to Debbie, who wrote it in a private e-mail.