The Train Stomp vs. Dissin' The Slyths

[pippin_999 <foxmoth@qnet.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 51426

Elkins:
>>>>I asked if people had a different quality of reader response
to two separate, yet remarkably similar, "symbolic trouncing
of the designated enemy" scenes: the Point Award at the end
of PS/SS, and the conflict on the train at the end of GoF.
<snip Eileen's response>>
So do you think that the difference in your emotional reaction 
comesdown to context alone? Or is there something in how the 
two scenesare actually *written* that makes them qualitatively 
different?<<<


  I did react differently to the "symbolic trouncing" scenes in 
PS/SS and GoF. I didn't see anything wrong with the first one. I 
still don't, really, though I understand that others do. The other 
disturbed me at once. 

For the first one, it worked for me on the symbolic level, and it 
never occured to me to read it in the more realistic context of the 
later books until the issue was raised on this list. But it still 
doesn't disturb me.

 If the Slytherins are not to be read as ever so evil, then 
Dumbledore and the Hogwarts administration need be neither 
omnipotent nor omniscient. Realistic!Dumbledore has   no 
special duty to represent benevolence. As McGonagall says, the 
Cup goes to the House with the most points At. The. End. Of. 
The. Term.  and it did. I'd find it easier to feel sorry for Draco
not knowing the rules if he hadn't sounded off in Madame 
Malkin's about the other sort not being brought up to know our 
ways.

Dumbledore, who sent Harry to live with the Dursleys, is not 
likely to think that the way to reach the Slytherins is gentle 
treatment. And as far as Draco goes, he seems to be 
right--Draco hasn't been punished much, but he hasn't repeated 
any of the offenses he's been punished for, has he? So I don't 
see anything inconsistent about Dumbledore's character here.

On the other hand, I was immediately sure that Harry and co had  
gone too far in the train scene. I was more bothered by the  
pushing  of the bodies out into the corridor than anything else. 
Only Snape has treated a  hexed student so callously. In 
contrast, Hagrid was much more solicitous of wounded Draco. I 
am also expecting trouble for the Weasleys, both because Molly 
foretold the Twins would find themselves in front of the Improper 
Use of Magic Office, and because Hagrid predicted in CoS that 
Lucius would come storming up to the school if Ron cursed his 
son.

I think this foreshadowing is part of what is different about the 
scene, along with the attack from behind, which we have been 
told is improper. There also seems to be something strange 
about the way all five of them are able to attack at once. The Trio 
did something similar in the Shack, but this time they couldn't 
even see the Twins out in the hall. That seems eerie, and makes 
me wonder if JKR plans to introduce some wizard equivalent of 
collective madness. 

Pippin