CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Chapter 30 (Grawp)

[demetra1225]

No: HPFGUIDX 117307


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "elfundeb" <elfundeb at c...> 
wrote:
>2.    How do you react to Montague's failure to recover?  Is it 
disconcerting, or just a bit of scatological/cartoon humor (it does 
involve a toilet, after all)?  What about the contrasting attitudes 
of Ron and Hermione?  Which view, if any, does JKR endorse?  Why?


Demetra:
The whole Montague vs twins episode reminds me of James/Sirius vs. 
Snape.  The reason the twins give for shoving Montague into the 
vanishing drawer is that Montague tried to take points from them.  
The punishment seems a bit harsh as retaliation for taking points, 
doesn't it?  Especially since at this point Montague is showing no 
signs of recovering.  The trio see Montague's parents coming to the 
school, looking upset.  He must be in pretty bad shape, no?  I don't 
recall Ron's parents coming to the school when he was recovering from 
the dragon bit in the hospital wing for a number of days.  Or 
Hermione's parents when she was stuck in polyjuice cat form.  

It kind of bugged me when Hermione asked if Ron and Harry if they 
should tell someone what they know, and Ron's response was basically 
who cares, he's a Slytherin.  In character for Ron, but it seems a 
bit out of character for Hermione to just let it drop.  This is the 
one and only time I can say that she reminded me of Lupin in the 
pensieve scene.  Perhaps she just didn't want to set Harry and his 
temper off again, but it seems that Hermione chose what was easy over 
what she knew to be right. 

As to Debbie's question - which view if any does JKR endorse?
I really don't know whether she is endorsing any view.  I tend to 
think that she is trying to promote some introspection on the part of 
the reader.  Why is it when she presents certain episodes, they 
provoke a particular emotional reaction when it involves one of our 
beloved characters - yet when she takes the same situation and flips 
it around, we have a very different emotional reaction when it 
involves a character we don't necessarily like.