CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Chapter 21, The Eye of the Snake

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 104133

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "potioncat" <willsonkmom at m...>
wrote:
> Dicey Elfwrote:> 
> > 4. JKR very deliberately prevents Hagrid from naming the 'stringy
> > Slytherin boy.' Who could he be and why keep his name secret? (And
> > don't say it's that kid from
> > That-Which-Should-Be-Discussed-On-HPFGU-Movie, because we don't 
> know
> > who *he* is, either.)
> 
> Potioncat:
> Ok, to be honest, for a short time I thought the name might be Snape 
> (sounds like young Snape) or some very surprising name like that 
> which would have everyone asking "How dim is Harry?"  But given that 
> Zabini has been confirmed as a boy, I'm guessing this one is Nott. I 
> came across a similar episode in GoF where something was interrupted 
> and and then revealed later in the same book. Here I'm assuming 
> weedy and stringy are the same.  (Nott is weedy looking in the 
> library.)  We also know now that Nott's mother is dead.  I wonder if 
> he saw her die?

Carol:
I've thought that the "stringy" Slytherin boy was the "weedy" Theodore
Nott since I first read the two passages and put them together iwth
the GoF scene in which Theo's father is introduced. And since we see
from JKR's Web site that she's given quite a bit of thought to who
Theodore Nott is and why he isn't a close friend of Draco's, it just
makes sense that the "stringy" boy and the "weedy" boy are the same
person. And as you say, Theo's mother is dead, so it's quite likely
that he, like Harry and Neville, would be able to see a Thestral. I'm
quite certain that Theo Nott will play some significant role in Book
6--a Slytherin we can identify with and have compassion for? A foil to
Draco? A Snape in the making? All of these?

Anyway, there's no question in my mind that Potioncat is right and the
"stringy" Slytherin boy who sees the Thestrals is Theodore Nott.

Carol