Harsh Morality - Combined answers

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 121266


Hickengruendler wrote:
"That's true, but JKR has given us reasons in the books to feel some 
sympathy for the characters. She has shown us how Snape was teased by
the Marauders and gave us informations how he risked his life in the 
fight against Voldemort. She has told us (via Dumbledore) that Aunt 
Petunia helped saving Harry's life, she has shown us Percy's reaction
 during the second task and Sybill Trelawney's breakdown after
Umbridge sacked her. And for example the Snape-Pensieve, the Percy and
the Trelawney scene are not essential for the plot. In these scenes,
said characters are for a moment the center of the plot, instead of
Harry. If we are not meant, to feel some sympathy with those
characters or to understand them a bit better, why would JKR have
written it at all?"

Del replies:
Don't get me wrong, I truly *hope* you're right! I really *really*
want those scenes to mean something along the lines of what you say,
but...

Take Percy for example. He used to have much more people believing in
him before OoP came out. Because of scenes such as the Second Task,
many more people were willing to cut him some slack, and to disregard
Ron's comments about his ambition possibly driving him to send even a
member of his own family to Azkaban. But now... So could it be that
the Second Task scene was put there in order for us to be even more
shocked when Percy took a wrong turn in OoP? Could it be a way to tell
us that even people who love their families can be corrupted by
ambition (a continuation of the Crouch theme)?

The thing is, we're still missing 2 books, so we can't know which way
things will go. I really hope they go the way you described, but I
can't get rid of the nagging feeling that they could go another way
entirely (which would square with JKR's comment that she doesn't care
if she has only a handful of fans left by the time Book 7 is
published, if I didn't invent or mis-remembered that quote)

Del