[HPforGrownups] Alice Longbottom

[Alina]

No: HPFGUIDX 102224

<snip>
> The first time I read this scene, I took the whole thing at face value.
On the outside, it looks like a poor, pitiful woman trying to give away
pieces of paper.  We see this and things similar in the mentally ill and
feeble all the time.
>
> But is it?  Could this be signs of Alice trying to come out of her stupor?
Could she be trying to communicate with her son?  Is there anything on the
papers?  Could she have recovered that far?  Does she know of a danger to
her son that is helping her to fight to regain her right mind in order to
warn him?  We had to have seen that scene for a reason.  We could have just
seen the two of them leaving, maybe even with his mother looking out, but to
add in the giving of the wrapper.  It just feels..... I don't know.... like
there is more to it than meets the eye.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Moonmyyst (who has finally gotten most of the white paint out of her black
show dog's coat without loosing too much fur or temper!!)


To me, this is the saddest scene in all five books to date. I feel
heartbreakingly sad for Neville, even sadder than I do for Harry. It seems
to me a horrible thing that Neville's parents should be so dangled in front
of his nose, there but not really there. I don't think there's anything
written on that piece of wrapper, I think it's that woman's poor tortured
mind retaining some instinctual knowledge that Neville is important to her.
I think it says a lot about Neville's need to feel a parental love that he
keeps it.

Alina.