Whose side are we on??

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 156129

> Alla:
> 
> Absolutely, OR one should be able to say "I have no sympathy for 
> Dudley and that is why the question whether Twins are responsible 
> with their power or not in **this** particular instance bears no 
> significance to me whatsoever"

Magpie:
Right--it's good to be able to separate our personal reactions to 
things from describing them accurately.  Whether the Twins' actions 
in this scene is significant in a certain way for the story is also 
different than whether a particular reader has to find it 
significant for themselves.  Some people do automatically and some 
people don't.

> Alla:
> 
> This is a great example. I cannot find what Draco says funny, no 
> matter how many times I would reread this scene. Little shmack 
> considers it possible to degrate the person he never met. Oh, and 
I 
> am not sure that Hagrid is exactly servant in Hogwarts. Isn't he 
an 
> employee just as any Hogwarts teacher?

Magpie:
That's the joke. To Draco, a groundskeeper is a servant--whether 
that's accurate or not might be a matter of opinion.  So Draco 
says, "I've heard of him, he's some sort of servant..." and Harry 
indignantly corrects him by saying he's the head groundskeeper, and 
Draco says, "Exactly."  He thinks Harry's just helped him out with 
the specifics but to Draco, who may very well have a groundskeeper 
at home, he's one of the servants. It's the classic clueless 
snobbery joke, making Harry all the more irritated.  With the Twins, 
I almost always find their verbal wit far funnier than their 
practical jokes too. 


> Alla:
> 
> I guess this is again the question of degree for me and that 
depends 
> again on how big JKR considers good guys trasngressions are.

Magpie:
Oh, I doubt it will be a huge thing either.  I don't think the 
realization about himself would be Harry realizing he'd been a 
completely horrible person--he hasn't been.  To go back to Jane 
Austen, Lizzie was upset for herself for making a mistake, not 
realizing she was so horrible.  Draco's realization, if he's to make 
one, would involve a much more fundamental shift.  I don't know what 
JKR will do with him but she's certainly brought him to the edge of 
a personal earthquake if she wants him to have one.

-m