DH and PS/SS

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 175287

Okay, folks.  We once had a whole set of theories about how the 
Potterverse existed in a grand cycle with some books mirroring other 
books.  I believe it was set off by JKR's comment about GOF being 
the "hinge" of the series.  In this set of ideas, everything was 
supposed to come round to the beginning, once again.

I don't believe in the grand conception of these theories -- i.e. 
that the series is some kind of fantastic palindrome where themes and 
tropes are repeated in reverse order on either side of GOF.  Still, 
if we look just at the two extreme ENDS of the series, DH and PS/SS, 
I think there might be something to the idea of a circle.  In other 
words, the two books, while different in many, many ways, had a 
striking number of fundamentals in common:

1) In both books, Harry is introduced into a new world.  In PS/SS 
it's the Wizarding World, in DH it's the fallen Wizarding World 
dominated by the Death Eaters.

2) Both books feature the trio on a journey through many clues and 
obstacles to finding a key object or set of objects.

3) Both books turn on Harry coming into possession of an extremely 
powerful magical tool he has no desire, ultimately, to use.

4) Both books feature important objects protected at Gringott's.

5) In both books Harry believes firmly until near the very end that 
Snape is a primary mover furthering Voldemort's plans.  In both books 
Snape is revealed to have been working against said plans.

6)  Both books play on the rivalries among and between houses.  Both 
end with the expulsion of Slytherin House -- figuratively in PS/SS, 
literally -- if temporarily -- in DH.

7)  In both books, Neville ends up showing depths of bravery that 
save the day in the end (with points in PS/SS, literally in DH).

I don't know how much of this was conscious on JKR's part.  If I had 
to guess at any of it being conscious, I would say it's the parts 
about Neville, Snape, and Slytherin.  Neville and Snape's roles in 
PS/SS prefigure their ultimate roles in DH.  The case with Slytherin 
house is almost as stark.  Slytherin is symbolically banished from 
the Great Hall in PS/SS by Dumbledore's intervention at the 
Leavetaking Feast to award Gryffindor the House Cup. They are 
literally, if temporarily, banished from the Hall in DH, albeit by 
their own choosing.

Oh, one other thing about the last scenes of PS/SS.  At one point we 
had a lot of discussion about DD's motives in intervening when he did 
in the manner he did.  Why intervene personally (why not let 
McGonagall award the points, for instance)?  Why intervene in the 
most blatant and public way possible?  Why wait until the feast, 
allowing the Slytherins to think they had won a great victory, when 
he could have awarded the points immediately after the trio's 
adventures (IIRC there was about a week between the death of Quirrell 
and the Leavetaking Feast)?  Well, given what we see in Snape's 
memories, there seems an obvious answer, although one much simpler 
than many proposed, and much more brutal.  DD just didn't like 
Slytherins, and this provided a fine opportunity to stick the knife 
in -- in front of God, Severus, Minerva, and everybody, I might add.  
And if he could do so while tilting the scales to Gryffindor and 
brightening the summer of a child with whom he was "quite taken," 
then so much the better.



Lupinlore