DD and the rat (was:Re: Minerva McGonagall-/Dumbledore)

[Nora Renka]

No: HPFGUIDX 115942


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> 
wrote:
> 
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Nora Renka" 
> <nrenka at y...> wrote: She wears 5-
> > inch spike heels and yet survives Hurricane Jo far better than 
> anyone  else in the Bay--has anyone been recovered from the 
> wreckage of the  Fourth Man Hovercraft yet?<
> 
> Pippin:
> Tee Hee! Who'd have guessed the Fourth Man was *another* 
> Lestrange? If you want to theorize that there will be no more 
> duplicate-name characters, go right ahead. Put your toe caps on 
> though...those spike heels can really stomp.

That *was* sneaky of her, wasn't it?  Yet also...not deeply 
meaningful.  A cautionary tale, perhaps?

Me, I just wish I could *walk* in spike heels.  I've been told it 
takes practice, but I tried on shoes this past weekend and nearly 
fell over.  My feminine pride is currently deeply wounded...

> Nora:
> > Want to answer the JKR-supported claim that the books are 
> really all  about Harry, and thus the kids and what they do are 
> more important  than the adults?  <
> 
> Pippin:
> Hold on...what Harry does is more important than anything else 
> does not translate into  the kids are more important than the 
> adults. I'll buy that Harry is learning to understand people, and 
> that's more important than the adults' or the other childrens' 
> destinies. So, it's more important that Harry understand the flaws 
> in Sirius's character than that Sirius be cleared. It's more 
> important that Harry learn how to deal with Snape than that 
> Snape be reformed.  It's more important that Harry discover that 
> the Uncle Remus stereotype is just as false and demeaning as 
> the Big, Bad, um, Wolf, than anything that happens to Remus 
> himself. Yes?

You seemed a little more in agreement with me back in 115872, so I'll 
clarify :).  It's clear that Harry is the hero and things revolve 
around him--but I also think that JKR cares more about the kids and 
their actions than the adults.  They get a disproportionate amount of 
the page space, they really do the most things that we see all the 
time.  The Trio themselves are on the top of the current list of 
favorite characters.  I do like your examples, but I think they also 
illustrate that the adults are there more as exempla, in some ways, 
than as the real driving actors of the story.  Hence, what they 
represent is perhaps more important than what they do...and we're 
going to find the most important things in the future books to be 
Harry's actions, not the twists and turns of backstory--they will be 
illuminating, perhaps, but not determinative.  Thankfully, we've been 
promised answers in book 6, and perhaps a book where more things 
actually happen.  (Ooh, I see the FEATHERBOAS over there looking 
happy.)

(I also admit to addressing that last comment to Kneasy, with his 
known antipathy towards the kids--can't stand those obnoxious 
teenagers, right?)

And, out of curiosity--what form in the Bay does ESE!Lupin take?  
Torpedo speedboat?  Raft tied together with twine and sticks?  (I but 
jest, of course...)

-Nora notes that she also lacks Faith's distinctive plaid skirt