Am I the only one (Molly and Sirius in OoP)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 96190

Nicole wrote:
<snipped> "JKR did the same thing with Cedric in book four - he was
dating Cho so we  had reasons to dislike him - and then he died.  "
 
Sherry responded:
I guess I don't see it that way.  I didn't dislike Cedric at all.  I
thought he was an interesting character, not a "duffer" as some think
Hufflepuffs to be.  After all, he didn't buy into his dad's attitude
about Harry.  As I could absolutely not understand why Harry liked
cho, or why anyone liked her, come to think of it, the fact that
Cedric was dating her didn't bother me.  of course, Cho wasn't
developed too much as a character till OOTP, and then, wow, was she
ever annoying!!!

Carol adds:
I liked Cedric and was very sad when he died (much sadder than I was
for Sirius). It didn't even occur to me to dislike him because he
liked Cho. He certainly wasn't doing it to spite Harry, and probably
had no idea of Harry's feelings for Cho, which he certainly had
trouble expressing. And when the narrator says that Harry had rather
liked Cedric, but now he "*knew* that Cedric was just a useless pretty
boy," we have a perfect example of how inaccurate Harry's "knowledge"
of other people is, especially if they happen to be male. Sorry I
don't have the page number, but I'm pretty sure the quote is
essentially accurate.

Anyway, I never let what Harry thinks influence my judgment of the
characters. As for what Harry "knows," that's my signal to assume
exactly the opposite. (If he "knows" he's going to die, I know he
isn't.) Judged solely from his words and behavior and not by Harry's
or any other boy's reaction to him, Cedric is an all-around good guy,
brave and kind and honorable, who is not at all arrogant about his
good looks or Quidditch talent. It really got to me when Voldemort
dismissed him as "the spare," as if he were just a dispensable object,
killed for no reason except that he wasn't Harry.

I completely disagree about being prepared for him to die by being
made to dislike him. I liked him a lot and I wasn't prepared for the
sudden and irreversible snuffing out of his young life. "Always the
innocent are the first to die." Poor Cedric.

Carol, raising an imaginary glass to Cedric, who should have lived to
have the grandchildren his father so inaccurately predicted