In Defense of Molly Weasley (Long)

[guzuguzu]

No: HPFGUIDX 175109

Pippin wrote: 

> The showdown in the action movie traces back to the medieval
> jousts and trials by combat as romanticized in the stories of King
> Arthur -- and that's a tradition that we and the wizards share. 
> Ron and Draco are both familiar with the custom of wizard duels
> from day one. It's no surprise to me that Ron's mum and Draco's 
> aunt would structure their battle as a duel or that other wizards
> would respect it and stand aside. 

I like your post and this idea of the honor duel and I wish we knew
more about the Wizards' version of it. I guess it only is an honor
duel if it is one-on-one, but when Draco, Harry and Ron discuss it in
the first book it seems customary to choose a Second who will continue
the duel if you die. I don't know if Molly and Bella perceived it as
an honor duel (they obviously didn't arrange it in advance), but maybe
there is such a thing as an impromptu honor duel. 

I was thinking about the concepts of the Second and teamwork and
whether there was a deeper meaning to the students Molly sent away
from the duel. Obviously she sent away Ginny, who was her own daughter
and underage, but why send away Herminone and Luna-- they were of age
and had been fighting all night? Maybe she considered them surrogate
daughters. But then what is the meaning of the second three (unnamed)
students she sends away? They weren't important enough for Rowling to
note their gender, age or house, which she almost always does when
describing the students-- they're usually "Ravenclaw boys" or
"Slytherin first-years"-- something like that. So it's not as if they
are real students, they are almost concepts of students. It's a weird
moment. Molly rejected their help. Would she have rejected the idea of
a Second? What if it wasn't a student but a teacher who ran to help?   

Ginger wrote:

> Maybe I've missed it in other threads, but it seems to be missing in 
> this one:  Bella couldn't have beaten Molly.  She couldn't have 
> beaten anyone.  After Harry got back from his out-of-body journey, 
> everyone on the good side was protected. 

guzu: 

This is a good point, and I don't think I saw it mentioned before. I
took it that the power that Harry brought back made Voldemort's spells
weaker, but you might be correct-- it might have made *Bella's* spells
weaker as well. Not only that, perhaps his being in close proximity to
the fight tipped the scales. That would make the duel make more sense
to me. I need to read the chapter again and think about this theory more.

guzu, who would like to thank the folks that brought the subject of
this thread back to the Harry Potter books