Neville and the Sorting Hat

[susanmcgee48176]

No: HPFGUIDX 178296

I would love to talk about the character development of Neville.

I loved the part in the DH where he draws the sword of Gryfinndor
from the Sorting Hat, and kills Nagini.

How far has he come from the clumsy boy who forgot everything!
I have always thought that he was forgetful because of the trauma
of his parents being tortured into insanity by Bellatrix
.that he
was trying to forget about that! and it made him absent minded and
forgetful. Post traumatic stress.

I also think he was handicapped by not having a wand that chose
him (we learned so much more about wand lore in DH
Ollivander's
exposition about how any wizard can use a wand, but will do his
best work with the wand that chooses him was fascinating and
speaks directly to the idea that one of the reasons that Neville
had a hard time was because he had his father's wand.)

Also, the self-confident young warrior who is leading the
opposition to the Carrow's reign of terror at Hogwarts is
a far cry from the little boy who was terrorized by Professor
Snape (to the point that his boggart was Snape). I love the way
that Harry is a part of Neville's development in Book 5, and how
Neville is galvanized by the Lestranges escaping from Azkaban.

And now we hear (Leaky Cauldron Sat. night Podcast) that the
Sorting Hat almost put him in Hufflepuff. As DD said
..sometimes
the SH sorts too soon
.in this case, I gather it honored Neville's
desire to be brave like his parents and to be in Gryffindor.

All I could think about when I read that section in DH was "it
takes a true Gryffindor to pull THAT out of the hat."

Susan