TBAY: ELKINS AVENGED (4 of 4)

[nkafkafi]

No: HPFGUIDX 130843

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(continued from post #130840) 



Faith went gingerly back to her chair on the deck of the ELKINS
AVENGED, gripping the life-belt she was wearing. 

"OK, so you do have some canon," she said when she settled. "But I
still see a BIG problem with this vessel. You claim that Fudge has
been slipping the Longbottoms Forgetfulness Potion in the bubblegum,
to prevent them from telling about the Ministry's failed plan to
vanquish Voldemort, and Neville memory problems are an accidental
byproduct, only because he's been touching the wrappers all these years."

"Exactly," said Captain Neri.

"It might work in the plot level," said Faith, "but in the thematic
level it sounds *awful*. This scene of Neville with his mother and the
bubblegum wrapper is one of the most moving scenes in OotP, or even in
the whole series. Oh, I cry every time I reread it! Alice timidly
offers the wrapper in her
 her tiny shriveled hand and brave Neville
saying quietly "thank mom" right there in front of his staring
classmates, and then Gran tells him to throw it in the bin but he
 he
hides it in his
 his pocket, Oh
" at this point Faith had to conjure a
tissue to wipe her eyes and blow her nose. Noisily. "This scene packs
emotional power equal to that of Harry in front of the Mirror of
Erised! And now you're suggesting that Alice Longbottom, by somehow
recognizing the memory of her son deep in her tortured mind, and
giving him the only thing she got left in this world as a Christmas
present, was actually causing the damage that was hindering him at
Hogwarts all these years??? Fie!!! Shame on you!!!"

"OK, OK, keep your hairnet on," said Neri. "This is what I thought
too, in the beginning. I only adopted this explanation as the easy
default, because it was the most economical plotwise. It would enable
Frank and Alice to know the big secret and reveal it quickly, there
would be no need for further explanations of Neville's memory
problems, and no need to explain how the wrappers are some secret
message and how Frank and Alice who can't even talk are somehow able
to devise a secret code. But lately I came to think that this theory
*would* make some thematic sense too. It was actually Elkins who
convinced me, in that part of the symposium where she talks about the
possibility that baby Neville had caused the Memory Charm to himself
with spontaneous magic. I think this also fits with the new theory."

Captain Neri invoked the Elkins-image from the Pensieve one last time:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/38812

> Indeed.  Really, it's just the sort of thing that *would* happen to 
> Neville, isn't it?  I love the boy dearly, but there's just no 
> getting around the fact that he's a terrible bungler.  He's unlucky.  
> And he's accident-prone.


"Indeed," said Neri. "And it's not only Neville, is it? It's the whole
damn family. They are so dysfunctional in their old-fashioned
well-meaning pure-bloody pride. Gran and Uncle Algie and the whole
clan, the way they discourage Neville, telling his schoolmates in his
presence that he's such a disappointment to them, throwing him from
windows and piers, making him use his father's wand that is probably
not suitable for him, failing to teach him how to fly a broomstick,
preventing him from going to the QWC with all his friends, giving him
only toads and weird plants and worthless rememberalls as presents. I
can definitely see why there are ESE!Gran and ESE!Algie theories
around, although I find them too simplistic. And Neville's parents
too, the great aurors with this powerful literary parallelism on their
side, somehow they just didn't manage to leave him a magical love
protection or a great Patronus. Or Quidditch reflexes. Or an
invisibility cloak, or their smiling images in a magical mirror, or
their echoes coming out of his wand to save his life, or anything like
that. No, all poor Neville had inherited were two drooling empty
shells that he has to visit every holiday, and a wand that doesn't fit
him and breaks at the moment of truth."

"Well, I think I can see what you mean," admitted Faith. "there *is* a
kind of recurring theme here. And perhaps mirroring of Harry's and
Neville's wands."

"I think the thematic role of the Longbottoms family might be to
represent the pureblood families that are good, yet weak," said Neri.
"The purebloods are weakening, this is definitely a theme, but JKR
can't let them all be bad like the Malfoys or corrupted like the
Crouches. This would break the proper balance. Of course, we do have
the Weasleys to represent the good purebloods, but the Weasleys are
also strong. They have the right instincts. They have many children,
most of which are the some of the best young wizards around. This
still leaves the position of the good-yet-weak pureblood family open.
And that's the Longbottoms, IMO. The Longbottoms which were members of
the Order of the Phoenix, but unlike the Potters were also aurors.
They served the corrupted Ministry. They had followed Crouch's orders.
They had been authorized to use the Unforgivables, and perhaps they did."

"So Alice Longbottom recognizing Neville and showing her love to him,
but also hurting him unintentionally while doing so, might actually be
a part of the Longbottoms theme," continued Neri. "And Neville taking
and keeping the gum wrappers that are bad for him may be thematic too.
Neville is brave, in his timid way, but he's a terrible bungler. He's
making the right choices, only he's going very badly about it. JKR had
been working very hard in the DoM battle scene to render each and
every heroic deed of Neville bungled and comical. We now know that she
wanted to make it clear that Neville, while being very brave and
noble, could have never survived the dangers that Harry survived. So
by taking and keeping the "presents" his mother gave him, Neville was
making a noble choice, and of course, being Neville, he did it badly.
But in the end it would be the *right* choice, because if he hadn't
took the wrappers, nobody in Book 6 would have the evidence to deduce
what's going on with the Longbottoms. Neville's choice will save both
his parents and himself in the end." 
     
"Hmmm," said Faith doubtfully. "I'm still not sure I like it, but it
might be made to work."

"It can work, and it's also waterproof," said Neri, and shot a quick
superstitious glance down the ship's engine bay. It was reasonably
dry. "The ELKINS AVENGED is waterproof and sea worthy. Admit it."

"It's generally waterproof, as far as I can see," agreed Faith, "but
then, most of the really far–fetched theories are waterproof, you
know. It's because they are built of so few planks, there's almost no
place for any cracks to occur. But in the hurricane this hardly
matters. A single big wave can sink you whole. This *is* a Memory
Charm theory, after all. Or rather a Forgetfulness Potion theory,
which isn't any better. As even Elkins had to admit, the HP saga can
go on just fine without blaming Neville forgetfulness on some magical
device." 

"Yes, but Neville's memory problems aren't absolutely necessary for my
theory," said Neri. "I might be proved wrong on this, but the secret
that the Longbottoms are hiding might still be the plan to vanquish
Voldy. So I may be able to keep floating even if I lose the
Forgetfulness Potion part in the hurricane." 

"Except that the Ministry plan part is based on almost no canon at
all," said Faith.

"I realize that," signed Neri. "And yet it sounds reasonable, IMO, and
the theory as a whole solves a surprising number of mysteries and
questions: 

1.  What will be the role of the veil in the story?
2.  Why are there spectator seats in the DoM death room?
3.  Why were the Longbottoms attacked?
4.  How did the Longbottoms come to be attacked by their boss' son?
5.  Who sent the Lestranges after the Longbottoms?
6.  Why was Crouch Sr. so sure that his son was guilty?
7.  Why did Bellatrix say that she had tried to find Voldemort?
8.  Why was Fudge eager to get rid of Crouch Jr. in the end of GoF?
9.  Why will Fudge be kicked out of office in HBP? 
10. How can the Longbottoms be cured quickly?
11. What is the big secret the Longbottoms will reveal?
12. What is the role of the bubblegum wrappers in the plot?
13. Why are we shown that Healer Strout has memory problems?
14. Why was Neville having memory problems all these years?
15. How can the Longbottoms' subplot be reconnected to the main
heart-of-it-all mystery?

"Well, yes," agreed Faith. "And besides, I think I like the idea of
Frank and Alice recovering completely. Neville deserves it, and it
would inject some feeling of new hope and healing into a series that
had started to become a bit morbid for my taste."

"Does this mean I've passed the inspection?" Asked the Captain eagerly.

"I guess it does."  

"Good! I thought this would be just the time to set sail!" 

Faith was on the dock in two and a half seconds.

"Well, goodbye then," sighed Neri. "Take George his cart back, will
you?" He started the motor and untied the tether. The ship began to
open the distance from the dock, slowly gathering speed as its bow was
directed towards the open bay. Captain Neri waved from the helm. "See
you after the hurricane!"

Faith waved back from the dock. "Or not", she muttered under her
breath, and started pushing the empty cart back to George's, stomping
her high-heel Mary-Janes as she walked just to fill the nice calming
solidity of the earth under her feet, and taking several deep breathes
of salty sea air. The wind was starting to build power. 

"I really love hurricanes!" Faith said to herself. "The Bay is always
so refreshingly clean after them. So empty and ready for new
possibilities". She looked once over her shoulder at the small sailing
ship making her way towards the black storm clouds gathering on the
horizon. "But I guess even mad theorists have their place. And after
all, we always have a fresh supply of them."

The sun sent its last ray of light before disappearing behind the
clouds, and the name on the little ship's bow shone suddenly:

E.L.K.I.N.S. A.V.E.N.G.E.D.

Enthralled Longbottoms Know the INside Secret: the Ability to Vanquish
the ENemy is Guarded in the Elusive Department.




Neri






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Elkins' Memory Charm Symposium is in posts:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/38812
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/38813
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/38848

The madwoman's warning is from a later Elkins post:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/45290
which was written shortly before OotP and coined the "hurricane watch"
metaphor.

SILK GOWNS, which suggested many scenarios for the Longbottoms'
condition including some very similar to my own, was described in:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/80592

The notions of Bang and Dud in Theory Bay are explained in:
http://www.hpfgu.org.uk/faq/hypotheticalley.html#bigbang

and Faith is described in:
http://www.hpfgu.org.uk/faq/hypotheticalley.html#faith


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