[HPforGrownups] Re: Neville and stuff (Was: In Defense of Snape)

[Charme]

No: HPFGUIDX 123442

> Gerry replied:
>> > Well, maybe because he has a different character? Had different
> parents, so a different genetic make-up, in which fear genes do not
> play such a big part?
>>

> Carol responds:
> I agree with Magda about the difference between Harry and Neville, but
> I don't see how this difference leads to a fear of Snape. If I were
> Neville, my boggart would be the DEs who Crucio'd my parents. Maybe as
> of PoA, he hasn't allowed that fear to take shape in his conscious
> mind yet. And, Gerry, I'm not sure that Neville inherited any "fear
> genes" (innate timidity?). Both his parents were aurors. I think that
> maybe he transferred his fear of his formidable (but nevertheless
> DD-supporting) grandmother onto Snape, making a minor fear into a
> major one because the major one (Bellatrix and friends) is
> incomprehensibly terrifying?
>
> Let's say that you were a child born in the 1930s whose parents had
> been seized by the Nazis when you were too young to understand or
> remember, but you now know at age eleven who the Nazis are and what
> they do to their victims. Your timidity would be understandable, and
> you might fear stern authority figures as a mask for the much more
> terrible people who had stolen and tortured your parents and might at
> any time take you?
>
<snip>

Charme:

I think that as we mature, our worst "fears" change over time. Some fears 
get conquered by the individual just as a part fo growing up. I also think 
Carol's point about "displacement" (the fear of stern authority figures) is 
a good one - if Neville has never seen a DE or a Crucio curse performed by 
one, how would that translate into a boggart? Remember, Neville's experience 
with the boggart takes place in PoA - he doesn't see any of these things 
until later books.

Charme