Character Development

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 179143

potioncat wrote:
>
> Theo Nott, Florence, Agnes...just a few of JKR's many named but
unknown characters. There are so many who spend some time with Harry
or near Harry, then move on. JKR told us a little about Theo, and
something of Dean Thomas's father. Did that information peak your
curiosity? Did something in canon make you think a character was going
to play a role later, but the character did not? <snip>

Csrol responds:

I definitely thought that Theo Nott would play a role in DH,
especially since she went to the trouble of mentioning his backstory
and personality on her website. I do hope that she publishes that
dialogue between him and Draco Malfoy even though I won't consider it
canon because it never made it into the books (any more than
Hermione's sister or Mafalda Weasley or Pyrites did, or, more to the
point, Hermione's father witnessing Godric's Hollow, since at least
Theo Nott appeared as a character.

But to point out a "stringy" or "weedy" Slytherin who can see
Thestrals, briefly link him with Draco after the DoM fiasco, have
Hermione name him and tell us that his father is a Death Eater, have
that father injured and abandoned by Lucius Malfoy (apparently Theo
didn't know that) and then, apparently, arrested with the others (we
hear that Slughorn neglected to issue Theo an invitation to his
luncheon after learning this information from Blaise Zabini, of all
people), and despite his absence from the Slytherin sixth-year
compartment (maybe he's with the four unnamed female Slytherins of
their year?) and yet still associating with Draco in Potions class
(maybe because they're the two who ought to have been in the Slug Club
but were excluded)--all that and then not a single mention of him in
DH--unless he's the one of the Slytherins with a DE parent mentioned
by Aberforth who escaped to safety rather than being held hostage as
Aberforth recommended. 

I was disappointed, to say the least. I'd like to have seen Theo
openly rejecting his DE heritage, and I'd like to know what happened
to his father, too old to be a DE, injured and abandoned, and then
arrested. Nott Sr. should have been sent to St. Mungo's and given a
chance to do community service rather than being sent to Azkaban with
his middle-aged fellow DEs, IMO. I don't think his heart is in
torture, coercion, and murder, however eager he may once have been to
join up; he's just afraid of retribution from Voldemort, so he
abjectly obeys him despite being about sixty years old. (If he's one
of the original DEs, he's older than that.) 

And poor Theo--sixteen or nearly sixteen at the end of OoP and
motherless, with his father in Azkaban. It's like Albus Dumbledore's
situation at nearly eighteen, except that Theo is still technically a
child. I wonder who took care of him or whether he was forced to fend
for himself. (Not to ruffle any feathers, but a House-Elf would have
come in handy for the poor boy.)

And another thing I want to know, speaking of the DEs in the MoM raid:
Whatever happened to the baby-headed Death Eater and who was he? I
have him narrowed down to Crabbe Sr. or possibly Rabastan (though I
think Rabastan was one of the two followers of Bellatrix, which would
mean that it was Vincent Crabbe's father--and perhaps explain why he
turned completely evil in DH).

Anyway, I know that JKR had a lot of plot threads to wind together (or
*un*ravel, if we accept the literal meaning of denouement, which
always struck me a the opposite of what it ought to mean), and it's
not surprising that she left a few plot threads dangling, but in the
case of Theo, she provided quite a bit of information, enough to
arouse our curiosity and make at least some of us think he would be
important, only to drop the ball in the last book.

At least we got to see Augusta Longbottom (Neville's gran), being
something other than a tyrannical grandmother and we got to meet
Andromeda Black Tonks, but other characters with defined personalities
(as opposed to mere names) turned out to be just filler. Why introduce
little Dennis Creevey, who fell into the lake and was rescued by the
Giant Squid--not to mention somehow sneaks out to Hogsmeade to attend
the first DA meeting when he's only a second year, if he's not going
to play a role? It's his brother, Colin, who fights in the battle and
dies young. (Could it be *Dennis* Creevey that McGonagall orders to
stay with the evacuees? Not that either of them should be there as
they're Muggle-borns.)

Carol, also disappointed that the Giant Squid, who appeared in every
previous book, turned out to be just a piece of scenery like the
winged boars and less important than the gargoyles, who rated a line
after they were damaged by the DEs