[HPforGrownups] Re: NATURE OF PATRONSUSES

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 156537


> Potioncat:

> I wonder, for example if it's clear to anyone in the WW what Cho's
> Patronus symbolises? I'd bet if someone had Ginny as their
> inner "guardian" the Patronus would be a cat---even though Ginny is
> not a cat animagus.

Magpie:
I don't know if this is what JKR had in mind, but Swans have often been 
associated with love and soul.  I connected the swan to her time with 
Cedric, myself. Not that it necessarily was Cedric but that it was that 
love.  There's a lot of stories about loved ones being turned into swans 
(the swans of Lir are Lir's children whose stepmother Aoifa turned them into 
swans.  They could sing as humans to their father but not come home.  900 
years later when they finally shed their swan skins they were turned into 
aged humans and crumbled away.  It's also associated a lot with beauty and 
the feminine.  The theme of a maiden turning into a swan is often seen as an 
allegory of death.  In my Animal oracle cards, drawing the swan reversed 
means you need to come to terms with separation and learn there is no 
separation from the ones we love.

So in general I thought the swan was a nice Patronus for Cho that suggested 
a lot more depth than a lot of people give her.  It wasn't just "ooh, 
pretty!"

-m