Neville in Book 7 (Was: Re: Hobbsian worlds; Crime & Punishment/Re: CHAPDISC: HBP7, The Slug Club)

[j. lutz]

No: HPFGUIDX 145839

>AHK wrote:
>"6. What is the composition of Neville's wand, and will it be
>important?"
>
>Magpie:
>Unicorn and cherry.  Pure as the driven snow.:-)
>

The unicorn hair does recall Voldemort drinking unicorn blood in 
/Philosopher's Stone/, and Cedric's wand in /Goblet of Fire/ -- virtuous 
and doomed.

However, Bard Woodcrafts (http://bardwood.com/) describes cherry wood as 
"[e]specially suited to invocations and blessings of sacred fires, 
spells of finding, hunting, conflict, war, competition, sex, passion, 
communion with animals, unification of groups or tribes, and the 
amplification of magical will." I wouldn't mind seeing Book 7-Neville 
live up to these associations, but it would be a suspiciously big change 
from his role in the previous books. Especially because JKR in 
/Half-Blood Prince/ did *not* show Neville dramatically improving now 
that he has his own wand. Should we be looking at this as a dog that 
conspiciously did not bark?

Another detail from /HBP/ that I'd like to see play out in Book 7: Does 
Ron's joke about "the hag, the Healer, and the /Mimbulus mimbletonia/" 
(p. 468, U.S. hardback edition) foreshadow a recovery by the 
Longbottoms? Ron has a history of making jokes that tend to come to pass 
in some form.

j.lunatic