[HPforGrownups] Re: Sympathy to the characters WAS: Respecting the Dursleys

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 159705


> Pippin:

> Of course the Weasleys are, over all, a nice family, but we get
> to see that it's partly Gryffindor values that make them so.
> It's not haphazard that there's usually someone to rein Molly
> or Ron in when they start to go too far. There is a very strong
> Gryffindor taboo about picking on people weaker than yourself,
> and it's constantly being enforced by the Gryffindors themselves.
> It's shocking in the Pensieve scene when we see it ignored, but
> it points up that this taboo is a choice, not a law of nature, and
> it could at any moment be set aside, if people don't care enough
> to enforce it.

Magpie:
I've always thought that strong Gryffindor taboo of not picking on those 
weaker than you are was one of those things where the memory of the text is 
corrupted--it's not there.  The Twins go after people two against one.  They 
go after Percy, they try to join Harry in beating up Draco (only one can), 
they turn Neville into a canary, they shove Montague into a Cabinet two 
against one, they hex Zach from behind, they give Dudley the toffee. 
"Deserving it" always trumps "weaker."

If there's one thing that *isn't* a shock to me in the Pensieve it's that 
Gryffindors don't mind outnumbering, or going after the weaker or younger. 
I don't think James was the first Gryffindor to easily slip back and forth 
between protector of the weak and bully. Ron and Molly have never stood out 
in my mind as the two Weasleys with the mean streak. I'd describe Ron as far 
more having confidence undermined by his family than getting reined in by 
them. In fact, in my memory (which could also be corrupted) when Ron feels 
the Twins need to be reined in he doesn't think he can do it.

-m