CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Chapter 33 - Fight and Flight

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 119457


> > Chapter 33 – Fight and Flight

> > 5. Harry and Ron try to discourage Ginny, Luna and Neville from
> joining them to help Sirius in London.  Harry thinks, "...if he
could have chosen any member of the DA
 to join him in the attempt to
rescue Sirius, he would not have picked Ginny, Neville or Luna." (p. 671) 
> Why are they so opposed to these specific people?
> 
Carol responds belatedly:
As pretty much everyone has pointed out, both Harry and Ron perceive
Neville as incompetent, Luna as "Loony," and Ginny as Ron's little
sister. I think their participation in the battle at the MoM is the
first step toward Harry's recognition that he has underestimated all
three, that his perception of them is distorted by preconceptions,
oversights, and misinterpretation. We, the readers, are starting to
see Neville and Ginny a bit more clearly and I'm sure most readers
hope, as I do, that Harry will also start to recognize that both of
them truly belong in Gryffindor. Luna is a bit different, as she still
seems odd and spacey even to us as readers (partly our limited
omniscient narrator again, presenting her to us from Harry's point of
view). But clearly there's more to her than meets the eye. She deals
patiently with other people's mistreatment of her, she trusts that
death is not the end of all things, she calmly tells the group that
they're going to fly to the MoM (on Thestrals) and turns out to be
right, she, like Harry, hears the voices beyond the veil.

It may be Hermione, rather than Harry, whose preconceptions about
Loony Luna are changed in HBP when some "fact" that she has read in a
book is disproved and Luna's intuition is proven correct
(cruple-horned snorkacks, anyone)?

At any rate, that's what I think this scene is about. Harry's group of
trusted associates will slowly expand as he comes to realize that even
though he's "the one with the power," he will need allies to fight
this war. And the first step in gaining new allies is to come as close
as possible to seeing people as they really are and understanding and
appreciating what each one has to offer (which of course applies to
Snape as well as his three unwanted companions on the MoM expedition).

Carol