Head Boy (was Re: World Building And The Potterverse...)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 167297


> Lupinlore <rdoliver30@> wrote:
> > Maybe Harry could then be Head Boy in the next year,
> > with Ginny as his Head Girl.  That would allow him to
> > almost exactly recapitulate James' Hogwarts career,
> > which is something JKR seems to be big on.
>
>
> JW asks:
>
> Are you suggesting that HP takes a year away from school,
> survives his struggle, then returns to Hogwarts to complete
> his education?
>

Yes, that would be the scenario, although I'm not really predicting
it as much as putting it out as a possibility.  Harry indicated at
the end of HBP that he would not return to Hogwarts the next year.
However, if he wants to be an auror (and God only knows why he would
want to work at the Ministry, in an office once headed by Scrimgeaur,
but there you have it) then he needs to sit his NEWTS, which mean
coming back for a seventh year -- unless you can sit NEWTS without
completing your seventh year, in which case I guess he could just
take the dratted tests and avoid the last year entirely.  Of course
the Ministry might waive the requirement, I guess, if there is a new
regime after Voldy's fall.

But, anyway, if he goes through with not returning to Hogwarts Harry
won't be Head Boy.  Of course, Ron and Hermione indicated that THEY
wouldn't go back, either, and Hogwarts might not even be open.  But I
suspect it will be, and Harry might push Ron and Hermione to go back
as a way of getting them out of the "firing line," so to speak.

The thing is we have two plot trends running into one another.  The
first is the development of Ron's character, which many people see as
foreshadowed by his vision in the Mirror of Erised.  Well, the
development has been weak, spotty, and filled with reverses (he's a
Quidditch hero in OOTP but back to his hapless self in HBP) and we've
been told that the Mirror does NOT predict the future, but the
foreshadowing is there/may be there/is hoped by some to be there.
Having Ron as Head Boy would continue his character development.  But
then HBP and OOTP are notoriously stuffed with filler, and the
Quidditch!Ron arcs may simply have been part of that.

The much stronger plot trend is for Harry to recapitulate James'
Hogwarts career.  He has been a Quidditch hero, Quidditch Captain,
nemesis of Snape, popular with the ladies, not very fond of the
rules, doted on by Dumbledore, surrounded by an adoring entourage,
and not a prefect despite his popularity (the prefect badge going to
a low-key sidekick).  We know that James was Head Boy and married his
Head Girl.  That gave heart, once upon a time, to Harry/Hermione
shippers, but since we know that isn't going to happen, and since JKR
seems quite firmly Harry/Ginny, the only way for Harry to
recapitulate that is for him to return in Ginny's seventh year and be
Head Boy with her as Head Girl.  JKR may very well not press things
that far, but Harry as the mirror of James is a VERY definite and
clear theme, much clearer than any trends in Ron's development.


Lupinlore, who also points out that the covers are inconsistent, as
Harry is not wearing a robe in the British children's cover (whereas
Ron and Hermione seem to be in dress robes) but is wearing a robe in
the American cover