[HPforGrownups] Re: Neville and Harry (was A Harry Failure)

[yellows at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 59040

In a message dated 5/30/2003 9:38:29 PM Eastern Standard Time, Linda writes:

<<Doesn't sound like Neville even knows what possitive reinforcement is- at least until he started school. HHR are now supplying that. It makes me wonder how much the quality of magic a wizard/witch can do is related to the amount of confidence backing up the spell. Remember Neville at the end of the boggart lesson in PoA? He finished with a level of confidence that we rarely see in him, thanks this time to Lupin's confidence in him. I wonder if we will really see the true power of Neville only once he believes in himself.>>

I absolutely agree with you.  (bet you didn't see that one coming, did you?)  :)  

I think Neville needs to find himself, after spending many distressing years as a child when his parents didn't know him, and his extended family openly expressed a fear that he may lack magical skill.

I think, too, that it is possible the trauma from having parents who don't recognize him may be part of the reason Neville has such a hard time building any self-confidence.

But I see Harry, Ron, and Hermione trying to encourage him to stand on his own two feet as a parent would to a child. They don't seem to view him as an equal. He's like a younger kid who needs guidance. And they, being good people who generally like Neville, provide him guidance and support when he needs it most. 

Even Harry admits to himself in GoF that he didn't think of Neville enough in the last four years to wonder why his grandparents brought him up. 

For these reasons, I believe that Harry, Ron, and Hermione overlook Neville a lot in the series. And I believe that Neville will shock them all when he proves to be a better wizard than any anyone would have guessed by Book 7.  :)  

Go, Neville!

Brief Chronicles