About Neville's parents, also Obliviate

[moorequests]

No: HPFGUIDX 84276

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" 
<justcarol67 at y...> wrote:

<after I ran wild with sissors, only this was left:>
> 
> (The scene is also important, of course, because it introduces Ron 
and
> Hermione to the fate of Neville's parents and makes Harry more aware
> of Neville as a person with his own burdens and sorrows. If he's 
part
> of Harry's mental world, he's part of the reader's as well, though 
of
> course we're not obligated to interpret what Harry sees and hears as
> Harry does. Neville ceases at that point to be a comic character and
> becomes a wholly empathetic one, at least for me.)
> 
> Carol


  See, Neville never struck me as being comic... just tragic. And I 
have always thought there has got to be something going on there, 
something is just not right about how he's constantly... well, 
screwing *everything* up. There are people who are extremely 
forgetful, and there are those who are extremely clumsy, but I've 
never met anyone who's THAT clumsy and THAT forgetful. It almost 
seems like when I read the books, like it's almost 
highlighted, "Neville is VERY CLUMSY." Notice how he is also VERY 
FORGETFUL. 

  I just thought, from book 1, even Neville's introduction to us is 
kind of like a warning. It says something like, "Neville was the most 
clumsy and forgetful boy Harry had ever met." Then the Rememberall is 
set off immediately after it's sent to him... I wonder if that's a 
sign of Neville's memory? 

  my own theory about this all is that Neville's parents are eating 
the gum, it's causing major problems, and it's connected to the 
Obliviate charm. I think Rowling's trying to send us some major 
messages about the ethics of Obliviate and why it's wrong (Roberts 
and his family, and the many Muggles who appear to suffer some slight 
brain damage after having their minds wiped). Also, Gilderoy Lockhart 
and his spell damage. I think that either Obiliviate is being used, 
or a similar charm we aren't familiar with. I think it's all tied 
into the Muggle relations problem, and frankly, the Wizarding World's 
habit of simply wiping people's memories and thinking that Obliviate 
is a useful charm may have backfired on them. 

   I just thought of something else, earlier this evening. Weren't 
Bode, Arthur Weasley, Malfoy Sr., and Harry all together in the 
Ministry of Magic that day in August? They didn't all interact and 
happen upon each other at the same time, but Harry was able to see 
that Arthur knew Bode, and that Malfoy knew both of them... (I'm 
trying to draw a connection here between Malfoy and Bode and a 
possible threat to Arthur.) 

 -M.M.

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