[HPforGrownups] Longbottom for HB

[Maria Kirilenko]

No: HPFGUIDX 49599


 Christopher Nuttall <christopher_g_nuttall at hotmail.com> wrote:
Has anyone figured that Neville Longbottom might be the head boy in seventh year?  That may seem odd, but here are his qualifications.

1) He may be scared of snape, but he does not let him (or Malfloy) get him down,

2) He's real, he's not some hero that people look up to.  (can you imagine Colin asking Harry for advice?)

3) He does keep the rules, rather than Harry who breaks them all the time.

4) He's stable and undistracted by any direct involvement in the war.  His parents stand as a lession of the costs of opposing the dark side and he'll be able to sypersize with the new round of orphans.  

Me:

First of all, you only become Head Boy in the seventh year, so it's a bit yearly to make predictions for this. But prefects are chosen in the fifth year, so in OoP we'll find out about whether Neville will be made one.

Personally, I'm of the opinion that the two most important factors are following the rules and academic excellence as opposed to being socially active and/or popular with everyone (judging by Percy Weasley, whom I can't see as being popular). While Neville follows the rules, he lacks good grades, as Harry says in GoA (the only subject Neville was good at was Herbology, or words to that effect).

I'd even say that academic excellence is the more important factor, as James Potter in his day was made Head Boy - and he was the brightest student in his year (or one of them). 

This is actually why I think that Hermione will be made a prefect, not Harry or Ron. But as there are only 8 Gryffindors that we know of, and at least 2 prefects in a year (because James and Lily were both Head Boy and Girl, chosen from the prefects, and they were in the same House(is that canon?) and year), the school doesn't have many people to choose from.

As for your 4th point, I'd be disappointed if the chosing of prefects were a political decision. 

But, all my points aside, I think that giving Neville recognition as a prefect would give him that much-needed boost of self-esteem, which could influence his grades, personality, and maybe make him Minister of Magic in the end (how many fanfics I've read with Neville as head of MoM)!

Maria



---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]