Kids v DEs(wasPurging the DE ranks and deadly!Sirius(wasRe: The boys holding...)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 128261

>>AyanEva:   
>And there's still the question of how a bunch of kids can best a   
bunch of fully grown evil wizards.<
<snip>

Betsy:
But the kids *didn't* best the wizards.  Every single one of them 
was down, Harry was surrounded, Neville was in the middle of being 
tortured by Bellatrix, and Harry was just about to hand over the 
prophecy in order to stop Neville being tortured (though I doubt 
Bellatrix would have stopped) when Order wizards came streaming to 
the rescue.  (OotP Scholastic hardback p.801)

Actually, I was rather pleased with JKR that she didn't take the 
Disney route. (You know, where a group of spunky kids take on the 
Mob with their mad skateboard skills and succeed where the goofy, 
but somewhat cute and sweetly interested in most-spunky-kid's single 
mom, FBI agent failed.)  The only thing Harry's group did, and did 
well, was create enough chaos by splitting into groups and making 
use of the labyrinth-like DoM rooms to lessen the skill advantage 
the adult wizards had.  They *delayed* the inevitable, but the 
inevitable occured, and Harry and crew had been well and truly 
beaten before the calvary arrived.

>>Pippin:
<snip>
>But even so, I suppose they might have been killed if the DE's had 
wanted to kill them. But did they?<

Betsy:
I think, in the end, the DE's would have been happy to kill any and 
all of the kids.  

Here's Lucius giving instructions after the kids have all taken to 
ground: "...don't forget, be gentle with Potter until we've got the 
prophecy, you can kill the others if necessary." (ibid p.788)

Shortly after that a DE throws an aborted killing curse at Hermione 
(ibid p.789), later a silenced DE throws a purple curse at Hermione 
and knocks her completely out - which gave me the impression that if 
he'd been able to vocalize, Hermione would have been killed (ibid 
p.792).  And on the same page the same DE kicks Neville hard enough 
in the face to break his wand and his nose.

Ginny is grabbed with enough violence that her ankle gets broken 
(ibid p.795), and Luna is hit with a spell that is stong enough to 
propel her through the air and knock her completely out (ibid 
p.797)  No one handles the children gently.  (I wonder how they'll 
handle this scene in the medium that should not be named?  Seems 
awfully violent for a kids' film.) And I didn't see any evidence of 
the DE's holding back.  Which is why they almost won.

Betsy