[HPforGrownups] Re: Slytherin as villains / Ender vs. Harry SPOILERS for Ender's Game

[Katie Spilman]

No: HPFGUIDX 178936





 We know Voldemort is lying because he says, "He did not come and join with me, LIKE THE REST OF THE SLYTHERINS" when we know that Crabbe and Goyle did not join him either.  Therefore, we can be certain that this is a lie.


To: HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com
From: justcarol67 at yahoo.com
Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2007 22:49:37 +0000
Subject: [HPforGrownups] Re: Slytherin as villains / Ender vs. Harry SPOILERS for Ender's Game
















  


    
            Betsy Hp wrote:



> And all of Slytherin left and joined with Voldemort.

> 

> "If your son is dead Lucius, it is not my fault.  He did not come

and join with me, LIKE THE REST OF THE SLYTHERINS." [DH scholastic

p.641 - emphasis mine]

> 

> Apparently Voldemort did a head count.  Apparently he had heads to

count. <snip>



Carol responds;

Yes, Voldemort makes this claim, but he's tormenting Lucius, whose son

is a DE and ought, according to Voldemort, to be fighting for his

cause. Do you really think that LV knew every Slytherin in Hogwarts by

sight and took a head count, some seventy students in all if we assume

ten students per year per House? 



The younger Slytherins would have been underage; surely even he would

not expect children under sixteen or so to join in. And where is the

evidence (other than Voldemort's word) that *any* Slytherins joined

in? Harry knows some of the of-age Slytherins by name and would have

noticed Pansy or Theo Nott or Blaise Zabini (who has already noted his

contempt for Death Eaters and is unlikely, IMO, to support their

cause) if they had been on the battlefield. 



You're taking Voldemort at his word in the absence of any other

evidence. McGonagall ordered *all* the Slytherins to leave and get to

safety, along with the younger students from all the other Houses and

those older students like Zacharias Smith who chose not to fight. 



Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle slipped away to wait for Harry. (If they, the

sons of DEs, didn't go out onto the field to fight for Voldemort but

chose to ambush Harry instead, how likely is it that Slytherins whose

parents weren't Death Eaters would choose to risk their lives in

battle?) We're not told that any other Slytherins went anywhere that

they weren't supposed to go (up the stairs to the RoR and along the

passageway to the Hog's Head). And once they were in Aberforth's bar,

how were they supposed to get from there to the battlefield on the

Hogwarts grounds under Slughorn's, Filch's, and Aberforth's eyes, even

if they were motivated to do so?



Only four students that we know of had DE fathers and three of them

are accounted for. There's no evidence to indicate that Theo Nott

became a DE like Draco. He's not present at the DE meeting in chapter

1, and (if we trust JKR's offpage statements), she indicates that he's

a loner, not a joiner. Blaise Zabini had no interest in becoming 

a DE, as we learn in HBP. Pansy is a loudmouth and a coward, willing

to turn Harry in to save her own skin, but I can't see her fighting

for either side. Phineas Nigellus (speaking of Slytherins in

general--we can make exceptions for Snape, Slughorn, and Regulus), "We

Slytherins are brave, yes, but not stupid. For instance, when given

the choice, we will always choose to save our own necks." Are we to

assume, despite this characterization, that all those unnamed

Slytherins who weren't important to the plot, many of them mere

children, risked their necks to fight for Voldemort when they had a

chance to escape the battle altogether thanks to McGonagall's orders?



If that's the case, Slughorn and Filch escorted *no Slytherins* to the

RoR because they all escaped and ran off to join Voldemort, ickle

firsties and all. And Voldemort, despite being preoccupied with the

Elder wand, recognized and counted seventy-odd students even though

he's in the Shrieking Shack talking to Lucius Malfoy (and perhaps

already contemplating the murder of Snape)?



If you can present some evidence other than Voldemort's word for your

view, I'll reconsider mine. Until then, I'm convinced that he was

lying to Lucius and that the Slytherins were where McGonagall ordered

them to be, herded to safety along with the younger students from all

the Houses.



BTW, Voldemort tells at least one other lie in the final chapters,

that Snape desired rather than loved Lily. I haven't looked for

others, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to find them.



Carol, now wondering whether Voldemort lied (in GoF) about James

fighting bravely or whether JKR just slipped up and forgot that little

detail




      

    
    
















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