Slytherins come back WAS: Re: My Most Annoying Character

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 180170

> > >>Betsy Hp:
> > > Because, this strikes me as a similar thing.  
Slytherins         
> > > returning to fight *against* Voldemort shouldn't be something 
the 
> > > reader has to either guess at or read so deeply between the 
lines 
> > > one risks the accusation of making things up whole cloth.  
(The   
> > > accusation I'm leveling, actually <g>.)
> 
> > >>Pippin:
> > But this is only an issue at all because you've set up an 
artificial
> > distinction between Slytherin students and Slughorn.
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> Um, no, there's nothing "artificial" about it.  There is a definite 
> distinction between Slughorn and Slytherin.  Maybe if JKR had used 
> Snape (the real head of Slytherin, not a Johnny-come-lately) or 
more 
> correctly, Draco, who's been the face of the Slytherin students 
> throughout the series, maybe then I'd have bought the suggestion 
that 
> Harry recognized shop-keepers and students' parents, but not his 
> fellow classmates.

Magpie:
I don't think it's even that complicated--Slughorn=Slughorn, just as 
any character=themselves. Slughorn might be fat, but he doesn't 
encompass all the students in his house. The line is describing a 
perfectly straightforward thing: Slughorn is running at the head, and 
behind him are shopkeepers and parents of non-Slytherin students who 
stayed. The word Slughorn represents Slughorn, the only thing it 
could represent. All the symbolism in the world can't make that 
sentence tell us that there are different people in that crowd than 
the ones described. However much Slughorn symbolizes Slytherin he's 
not leading any of them in that sentence. Even if it had been Draco 
or Snape at the head there it would still be Draco or Snape and non-
Slytherins.

-m