Dark Book

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 177105

Carol:
> What disturbs me in this scene is that the wands are not pointed at
> Pansy, which I could understand if not appreciate, but at Slytherin in
> general. 
<snip>
> Unfortunately, once the other students had pointed their wands at
> Slytherin as a House, the chances that any of them would want to stay
> with a group of students and an interim headmistress who regarded them
> as enemies were almost nil.

Jen:  The book doesn't say wands were pointed at Pansy or all Slytherin 
students or in any direction.  The text says, "Then the Hufflepuffs 
stood, and almost at the same moment, the Ravenclaws, all of them with 
their backs to Harry, all of them looking toward Pansy instead, and 
Harry, awestruck and overwhelmed, saw wands emerging everywhere, pulled 
from beneath cloaks and from under sleeves." (DH, chap. 31, p. 610, Am. 
ed.)  

The students are 'looking toward Pansy' and wands are starting to 
emerge.  It seems like a very big deal to leave out if the wands were 
pointing directly at Pansy or Slytherin house because that changes the 
scene from what it's meant to be imo, the symbolic moment when the 
students of Hogwarts declared their intention to oppose Voldemort 
rather than hand over Harry in an attempt to save themselves.  (I 
speculate that after the year they'd spent under DEs, most students 
realized it was folly to put their faith and safety in the hands of 
Voldemort and his followers.)

Jen