CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Chapter 23: Christmas On The Closed Ward

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 106938

  
> 1) When Harry thinks that he is a danger to others, why is his first  
> instinct to go back to Privet Drive?

Del replies :
Actually, his first instinct is to go to Hogwarts.
I think Harry just wants to go *home*. He is highly distressed and
convinced that he's putting his friends in danger. So his natural
reaction is "Harry go home". But when thinking about Hogwarts, he
realises that there are other students he could hurt there. That's
when he settles on Privet Drive. I guess he figures LV wouldn't be
interested in killing the Dursleys, or else he doesn't care, because
what he wants is a *place* to go to, not people.

> 2) Why does Harry ask advice of no one, especially Sirius, whom he 
> trusts and has gone to before?

Del replies :
Because he's gone completely paranoid. He's not thinking straight
anymore. He completely misinterprets everything people are doing
around him (Ron goes down without him ? That's because he's afraid of
being alone in a room with him), and he's completely convinced nobody
wants to talk to him and everybody is mortally afraid of him. And he
can't even blame them because he too thinks that he's a danger for
everyone. Paranoia and delusion, born of too much pressure and too
little information.

> 3) Why is neither the trio nor the healer suspicious of Bode's plant?

The healer : it must have been a while since she last saw a devil's snare.
The Trio : even when confronted to the full-grown version of it, it
took Hermione a while to identify it, in PS/SS.
Sadly ironically though, there *was* in the room someone very good at
Herbology who might have identified the plant for what it was. But
poor Neville was thinking of something else entirely.

By the way, that scene always makes me want to cry : the way Gran
doesn't understand *anything* about Neville, the way Neville keeps
looking at the ceiling (I usually do that to avoid crying...), the way
he dares replying to her accusations, and of course the way Alice
comes and gives him the gum wrapper and he takes it. I find Neville
amazingly mature on that matter : I think he really isn't ashamed of
his parents, but he doesn't want to talk about them to his friends
because it is something so incredibly *personal*, so personal that he
won't even *try* to explain it to his Gran. I hope he talks with
someone though, maybe Uncle Algie ?

> 4) Why does Alice give Neville the gum wrapper?  Is she starting to  
> recognize him?  Is there something strange about the gum, or is it 
> all she  has to give?

Your guess is as good as any :-)
One possibility I like is that she gives them to Neville because it's
Neville who gives the gums to her in the first place. Maybe Neville
learned from Uncle Algie that his mom was a Drooble Gum addict, so he
started early on to give them her favourite treats as a way to tell
her he loved her. And now she's giving them back to him as a way to
tell him she loves him too. The gums wrappers would be a *symbol* of
the love they have for each other but that they can't share any other way.
I have of course not a single shred of canon to support my theory. I
just *like* the idea.

Del