[HPforGrownups] Re: Understanding Marietta (long) (Was: Evil Hermione)

[Magda Grantwich]

No: HPFGUIDX 155075

--- justcarol67 <justcarol67 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> What I'm saying is that they did have a right to know the details
> and Harry was behaving exactly like the person the Daily Prophet 
> said he was, an unbalanced liar. As Zacharias says, "Dumbledore 
> believes *him*" (Harry)--he isn't speaking from his own knowledge. 
> And they've had several months worth of Daily Prophet articles to 
> reinforce that impression.
> 
> Zacharias wants to know what happened. If he's given credible
> details, he'll believe it. 

>Magpie:
>I didn't get the impression she thought they were a literal threat 
>like she was scared of some impending doom or anything. 
>Marietta seemed to dislike the DA more and more as it went on. I 
>remembering also getting the impression that she was getting 
>personally more angry--spite might have played a part. 


Exactly!  I think we would do well to remember the context in which
the first DA meeting took place, and the assumptions of the
Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws in attendence.

A few months earlier Harry had emerged from a maze clutching Cedric's
dead body and looking awful.  Dumbledore announced - not explained,
announced - at the year end feast that Cedric had been murdered by
Voldemort.  Then everyone broke for the summer.

Cedric Diggory was the golden boy of Hufflepuff, head boy, local
star.  Ernie and Zacharias would have known him - not as friends but
certainly as fellow House-mates.  Considering that his own best mate
thought Harry had someone bucked the rules to get his name into the
goblet, it wouldn't be far fetched to assume that there'd been some
intense discussions in Hufflepuff about whether Cedric had been
inadvertantly offed by Harry during the competition and that
Dumbledore wasn't covering up for him in some way or repeating a wild
story that Harry had told him.  I can see Ernie announcing that the
fair thing to do would be to go to the meeting and see for
themselves, give Harry a chance to explain, etc.

As for Marietta, she's a close friend of Cho's.  Cho's connection to
Cedric needs no explanation here; she might have just the same take
on things as the Huffs do.  Cho starts to get interested in Harry;
it's not unreasonable to think that Marietta went along to protect
Cho from herself and that she really never cared about DADA much
either way except that she wanted to pass her OWLS.  

And then they get to the meeting and Harry acts defensive and snooty
as if it's just vulgar curiousity that's motivating them to show up. 
It was very likely to reinforce previous impressions rather than
negate them.  This was one of the two places in the book that I
really got annoyed at Harry - he really needed someone to get him a
clue in a bag fast.

Magda (the other place in the book where I got annoyed was when he
was in the hospital wing at the end, and there were all his old and
new friends who'd got hurt for his sake and he never reflects on this
fact, being instead caught up in grief and guilt for a godfather he
barely knew.  An acknowledgement of what he's got in front of him
might have helped him deal with the end of an
escape-from-the-Dursleys dream.)

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