Mourning Fred

[Bex]

No: HPFGUIDX 173848

> Asli
> Did anyone else think that Fred's death was not really influencing?
> When you receive very bad news, it takes couple of days to sink in and
> to feel sad. I felt like we only saw that stage, although Jo tried to
> write the mourning. And also, we didn't see how George reacted. I
> think it was a very big hole in the book, we should have seen and felt
> grief over Fred with George.
> Also did anyone else think that killing Fred was somewhat worse than
> killing George?
> 

Bex now:
I cried over Fred. I expected one of the twins was a goner, and I had
a sneaking suspicion that it would be Fred (he's the ringleader - he
gets the better lines - etc.), but I was completely unprepared for it,
especially right on the heels of him extending the hand of forgiveness
to Percy - I cheered for both of them then. (I expected the twins to
be the last ones to welcome Percy back - certainly not the first.)

I think that since Fred got the better lines and he was the
ringleader, that the reader felt a little more pain than if it had
been George. Naturally, the Weasleys would mourn a brother, a twin,
and son, no matter which one it would have been.

Part of the lack of mourning was timing. By that point the denouement
was set in motion - Harry has the most motivation at that point to
find the snake and finish the job. They were in the middle of a
battle, and I think that the most they could do for Fred was what
Harry and Percy did - they pulled his body out of harm's way - no time
for memorials.

Once the final battle was over, we are treated only to Harry's
thoughts - we don't see the Weasleys at all reacting to Fred's death,
and I think that Harry would have felt like an intruder into that
particular scene anyway. (I don't think we would have seen a large
outburst of emotion from George - he'd have saved that for when he was
alone.)

I felt at that point that Harry needed to finish his mission, and
apparently JKR did, too - I wanted him to report to Dumbledore that
all was completed and LV was defeated, and then just have a quiet
moment as the reader to reflect on Dora (a much preferred name over
Tonks, in my book), Lupin, Colin, and Fred, before continuing on to
the Epilogue. Showing us the grief on Molly and Arthur's faces would
not have really had a place in the story, and it would have not been a
proper memorial to Fred anyway, IMO.

I think it would have been nice to see a mention in the Epilogue about
the Weasley Wizarding Wheezes best-selling product became Fred's
Firebombs, or a mention that George named his oldest son Fred, but I
honestly feel that that's all that was missing from the story.

~Bex