Slytherins come back WAS: Re: My Most Annoying Character

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 180117

Magpie wrote:
> <snip> She 
> was careful enough to set them up as turncoats with all the
"Slytherin needs to choose sides NOW" followed by them being ordered
out *at wandpoint* after dramatically siding against Harry <snip>

Carol responds:

*One* student (Pansy Parkinson) dramatically sided against Harry, at
which point most of the school pointed their wands at Slytherin and
McGonagall ordered them all out. They were dramatically *treated as*
traitors, but all most of them did was take advantage of the
opportunity to save their skins. (Only Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle
dropped out, and Draco's motives seem to b mixed rather than evil).
And, as no one seems to acknowledge, the underage Slytherins (more
than 5/7 of the group) would have been sent to safety with the
underage students from the other Houses in any case.

Magpie:
> Even the very sentence she's referring to says Slughorn returns with
the relatives of the students who stayed to fight (no Slytherins 
there) and the shopkeepers in Hogsmeade (so not students). She 
actually did think it was a good idea to tell us who returned there.
She just didn't say it was any Slytherins. So this is a place where 
for me, there's no question: what's written in the book far trumps 
the author's mis-remembering of the event. <snip>

Carol responds:

Let's look first at what she actually wrote:

". . . Harry saw Charlie Weasley overtaking Horace slughorn, who was
still wearing his emerald pajamas. They seemed to have returned at the
head of what looked like the families and friends of every Hogwarts
student who had remained to fight, along with the shopkeepers and
homeowners of Hogsmeade" (DH 734). We are, of course, seeing from
Harry's perspective, and the words "what looked like" indicate that
he's interpreting the scene. It makes no sense that Slughorn would
have brought the parents of the students who remained at Hogwarts to
fight. Much more likely that he'd have brought the parents of the
students he accompanied to the Hog's Head. And the students most
likely to follow him into battle are the students of his own House.

I agree that what JKR wrote and what she thinks she wrote are
different, but what she did write is sufficiently vague that it dpes
not reclude the idea of Slughorn leading the (older) Slytherins (or
some of them) into battle, along with non-DE Slytherin parents.
Phineas Nigellus' boast about Slytherin playing its part makes more
sense if Slughorn did, indeed, lead at least a handful of older
Slytherins into battle. No doubt that's what JKR *intended.*
Unfortunately, she didn't clearly transmit that intention to the reader.

On another note entirely, someone in another forum mentioned that
Scorpius's middle name is Hyperion. Where did that come from? Can
anyone provide a link?

Carol, who thinks that some older Slytherins following their HoH into
battle is entirely plausible if not probable and wishes that JKR had
made it clear in the book that they did so