JKR and the boys (and girls)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 161585

Jen wrote:  
<snip>> 
> OOTP started to feel chaotic, with more and more whirlwind 
> interactions.  That's when it hit me, anyway. I expected to meet new 
> main characters in the first half of the series, but it struck me as 
> an odd choice to spend pages and pages on Luna and Grawp in OOTP, 
> and Scrimgeour in HBP, when we'd never met them before that moment.  
> (Was there any way to have already known characters fill these 
> roles? I guess that Q. will be answered in Book 7.)  Like with 
> Aberforth, there have been hints all along about him so he won't be 
> such a surprise if he comes to the forefront. Or Scabbers, we didn't 
> know he was Peter but still he was in the story before his debut.  
> The new DADA was set up early on so that's become an expectation for 
> a new character each book.
> 
> Anyway, I'm off the subject a little but do think the sheer volume 
> of characters has undermined the relationships.  I'd rather have 
> seen a few of Grawp's pages in OOTP devoted to relationship 
> development myself. 

Carol responds:
Scrimgeour's role is foreshadowed in OoP, rather like the reference to
"young Sirius Black" in SS/PS:

"Lupin glanced at Harry, then said to Tonks, 'What were you saying
about Scrimgeour?'

"'Oh . . . yeah . . . well, we need to be a bit more careful, he's
been asking Kingsley and me funny questions. . . .'" (OoP Am. ed. 122,
ellipses in original). 

It's pretty clear from this brief reference that Scrimgeour is Tonks'
and Kingsley's superior and that he'll reappear in a later book or
books. (There's a similar reference to Ragnok the Goblin in relation
to Bill Weasley as the Order's liaison to the Goblins, so I'm waiting
for him to reappear. Even the ominously named Bode, who is Imperio'd
and then killed in OoP, was identified as an Unspeakable in GoF.)

As for Luna, there was no way to foreshadow her, since she's Ginny's
age, not Harry's, except for a casual reference to the Lovegoods as
not attending the QWC in GoF. We get to meet her and are introduced
primarily to her eccentricity in OoP, but we also glimpse her
intuitive understanding of Harry's needs, a talent that I'm sure will
be further developed in Book 7. It was necessary to introduce her in
OoP rather than HBP so that she, like Neville, could be a loyal member
of the DA and participate in the fiasco at the MoM (and be part of the
events at the end of HBP on the night of Dumbledore's death). I wonder
if she'll provide some insight into Snape!

As for Grawp, he's foreshadowed by the revelation about Hagrid's
giantess mother, Fridwulfa, in GoF. I'd be perfectly happy if he'd
never entered the story, but then JKR would have had to provide a deus
ex machina to rescue Harry and "Hermy" from the not-so-benevolent
Centaurs in OoP.

Carol, pretty sure that Luna and Scrimgeour have small but important
roles left to play but hoping that we've seen the last of Grawpy