[HPforGrownups] Re: Was Percy's sickle /Ginny's best friend/Slytherin redemption/Neville

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 150822


>>Angie Again:
>
> (Laughing at the DOPE thing, which is new to her!)
>
> Oh, I've no doubt Percy is a zealous junior bureaucrat; and please
> note, I didn't say he was of no use to the Ministry -- just that his
> position as a Weasley was of no immediate use to the Ministry. In any
> event, I firmly believe that not just any zealous bureaucrat with
> Percy's identical qualities/skills would have been promoted following
> such a major bungle.  Retained, perhaps, or shunted sideways, ala
> Crouch or Bertha, but not promoted.

Magpie:
I have a problem with calling it a bungle at all, whatever Harry thinks it 
was.  There's no reason a minor young assistant at the Ministry should 
notice anything amiss with Crouch.  It's not Percy's business to know 
whether his boss' attendence record is poor or whether or not he should be 
communicating through notes. It's the higher-up people who should have 
noticed something wrong.  Granted Percy probably enjoyed Crouch's absence 
far too much to even allow himself to think about speaking up about it; he 
was running the department.  Imperius is hard to detect, we know--and Arthur 
and Bagman barely reacted to Bertha disappearing.  That's a bigger flub, 
imo.

I always find it ironic that Harry thinks about Percy's "not noticing his 
boss was under Voldemort's thumb" for a year as if this is a big screw-up 
when Dumbledore didn't even notice his old friend and new teacher was not 
only under Voldemort's thumb but not even the same guy.  Maybe we're 
supposed to think Percy's promotion is suspicious but unfortunately it makes 
sense to me--he proved himself during a bad time by keeping the Ministry 
running.

Amiable Dorsai:
So... Hermione chose, as the only person she trusted with the
identity of her Yule Ball date, a casual friend, not someone she,
you know, felt any special connection to?

Magpie:
Oh, I think they're more than casual friends--I've been noting Hermione and 
Ginny's relationship throughout the discussion. Hermione is one of the 
important people in Ginny's life and we know it.  I always think of them as 
sisters-in-law.

katssirius:
 As others have mentioned I think Malfoy just
made his final exit from the books.  JKR finishes people off.  Lupin
and Sirius and all the DADA teachers are excellent examples.  Moody
just barely hangs on.  Too many people need to see the light to begin
to save minor characters and I do not think it is JKR's intention to
create an evil free world.  Umbridge is her example.  Saving them all
could only happy on Cindy lou who's watch.

Magpie:
Malfoy has been a supporting character in every single book from PS through 
HBP and he's a peer of Harry's.  Even in the book when he had the smallest 
role he got tied closer into the central Voldemort story.  It's very 
different dropping out him than it is dropping out the guest star DADA 
teacher whom we all know lasts for one year and then leaves.

Betsyhp:
I agree with your reservations, Lupinlore (which I snipped), that
it's awfully late in the day for unknown, or barely known,
Slytherins to come forth and help rejoin their house to the Hogwarts
whole.  (I've discounted Theo Nott since the deleted scenes bit on
JKR's website.  I think Nott's story has gone the way of Dean's.)

Magpie:
I don't think Nott ever had a story. JKR said she hated to lose that scene 
because it showed *Draco* speaking to an equal and contrasted *Draco's* 
upbringing to Harry's--we got to see the Malfoy Manor.  I think she just 
gave his basic description on the site to give us a sense of who he was, but 
she's got that kind of bio on all the kids in Harry's class.  Theo's still 
in the books with the same father.

katssirius:
I think he is the exception that JKR mentions of magical ability coming 
later life.  Remember his family worried he might be a squib.  He has made 
progress in courage with the help of his plant now the skills and power to 
use his courage.

Magpie:
But we already know Neville isn't a Squib and he's already got power.  He's 
not that bad of a student and always had courage.  He didn't have a lot of 
confidence, but that grew in the DA.  He's fought in two major battles 
against Death Eaters.

-m