The Evil Trio deserved hexes/Who Dissed Draco?

[pippin_999 <foxmoth@qnet.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 51532

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Pen Robinson 
<pen at p...> wrote:
> 
> On Sunday, Feb 2, 2003, at 20:39 Europe/London, dicentra63 
> <dicentra at x...> wrote:
> 
> > However, the reaction of the Trio and twins *after* the hexing 
can be disconcerting--or at least telling--and I'm not talking about 
the two-step.  They shove the unconscious bodies out into the 
corridor and cooly sit down to play Exploding Snap as if nothing 
had happened.
> >
> A question occurs to me - what were they supposed to do?
> 
> The only known adult on the train is the witch who brings the 
trolley  round.   We assume a driver, but whether the driver is a 
witch/wizard  or something else, we do not know - and in any 
case, presumably the  driver is busy driving the train.   The trolley 
witch might be capable  of detangling the effects of five 
intermixed hexes, or she might not.  
> At any rate, there is no medi-wizard aboard.  Nor is there, in any 
> practical sense, an authority figure.<<

There are prefects. There is a way to send messages ahead, 
because Lupin uses it to notify Hogwarts that Harry has been 
taken ill. And there are owls. They *do* have an owl--two actually.
The train can stop between Hogsmeade and London, because 
the Dementor gets on in between. Also, the name Express 
implies that there are local stations. 

I find Eileen's observation that the other Slytherins on the train 
did nothing highly intriguing. That, taken with the Slytherins who 
drank to Harry, suggests that perhaps we have once again been 
snookered. Perhpas Draco is by no means emblematic of 
Slytherin, and maybe the other Slytherins don't think much of him 
at all. 

Now if that is the case, we should be able to look back, and find 
other indications that this is so. I can think of two. In CoS, Draco 
has to buy his way onto the Quidditch team, even though he is a 
competent flyer and, as it turns out, an effective Seeker. (Slytherin 
must win some of its games or it wouldn't be in the final with 
Gryffindor in PoA. ) 

The other goes back to the infamous Dissin' scene. Only Draco's 
reaction to the House Cup award is described.  We are led to 
think the other Slytherins are just as shocked, but really there is 
no canon for this. Suppose that, as Eileen insists should have 
happened, there was indeed some kind of announcement that 
additional points would be awarded at the Feast. If this was 
done after Ron and Hermione's visit, a day and a half before 
Harry left the Hospital Wing, there is no way Harry would have 
heard about it. He enters the feast, everyone is talking at once, 
and moments later Dumbledore sweeps in and makes his 
announcement.

When Dumbledore says that he is going to take recent events 
into account, there is not  a murmur of surprise, only an 
anticipatory silence. In GoF, where there are surprise 
announcements, such as the Tri-Wizard Tournament, the 
cancellation of Quidditch and the murder of Diggory by 
Voldemort, there is some kind of outcry. So I think everybody 
*was* expecting something to happen. 

The fact that the Slytherin banners were up proves nothing at 
all--if it is the right of the leading team to hang their banners, I 
am sure nothing in the world would convince Slytherin to take 
them down. Cheering for themselves was a bit tacky--but the 
Gryffindors cheer themselves too.

The only person who is described as stunned and horrified is 
Draco. Could it be that he was told, the same as everyone else, 
that there were extra points to be awarded, but managed to 
convince himself that Gryffindor would not get enough to take the 
Cup? He could have had the same sort of overconfidence as 
Hermione, who is convinced, after getting 112% on her charms 
exam, that they could never throw her out. (I have a feeling they 
could, and maybe they will, temporarily.)

I can just see Draco, before the feast, bragging about what his 
father will do for him when Slytherin wins the Cup.  It could be 
that many of  the other Slytherins, though willing enough to laugh 
at his jokes and eat the sweets he gets from home, find Draco to 
be a tiresome little git. It could be they didn't see any percentage 
in being the bearer of bad news to a Malfoy, and decided to  let 
him find out for himself that his castle of hopes was decidely 
draughty in the cellar regions.

Pippin