Slytherins come back WAS: Re: My Most Annoying Character

[montavilla47]

No: HPFGUIDX 180180


> Alla:
> > And of course Phinelius' words as some people remarked make little
> > or no sense if they did not. To me anyways.
> 
> Magpie:
> They made perfect sense to me the first time--as they must since
> Slytherin students are not written as returning to fight in the book.
> Slytherin played an important part in the destruction of Voldemort
> without any return of the Slytherin students. Snape alone made a huge
> contribution.
> 
> Alla again:
> 
> And they never made much sense to me. I remember your explanation 
> but it did seem convoluted to me. How would he know about Regulus 
> and Snape?

Now Montavilla47:
As far as Regulus goes, I suppose it depends on what Phineas 
overheard when he was listening to the Trio in his portrait.  

But, as far as Snape goes, Phineas was right there on the wall during
Snape and Dumbledore's planning sessions.  He even helped out at 
one point by letting Snape know that they were in the Forest of 
Wherever-It-Was-They-Were.

Now, what didn't make sense to me was the Headmaster Portraits
neglecting to point out whenever the heck the decision was made
by whatever magical entity decides about Headmaster Portraits that
Snape didn't deserve a portrait because he "deserted" the school.

Because they were *all* there for the planning sessions, so they
all had to know that Snape was fighting Voldemort all along. 

> Alla:
> Yes, the words are on page. The words about crowd of people leading 
> by Slytherin head of the house. And as Carol said, there is not even 
> an observation that not a single Slytherin was among them. I think 
> it is filling in to assume that Slytherin head of the house brought 
> some of his students back, I really do.

Montavilla47:
A crowd of people that are specified as being the families of students
who were fighting in the castle and shopkeepers from Hogsmeade.  Had
JKR wanted to clue us in that the crowd included the Slytherin students 
who had left, she could have said, "leading a crowd that looked like
the families of the fighting students, shopkeepers, and a few of Slytherins 
who had left earlier."

Had it been me, I might have added for good measure, "Harry thought 
he recognized a tall, weedy Slytherin as someone he'd taken class with 
for six years, but it was hard to tell without the school uniform."

Alla:
> But would you mind explaining to me how is it different from making 
> an assumption that Dumbledore killed people, please? I mean the 
> words are on page which does not include Dumbledore killing anybody. 
> I would say those are much more explicit than vague description of 
> the crowd leading by Slytherin head of the house.

Montavilla47:
Just to agree with you, Alla, I do think that it's an assumption that 
Dumbledore ever killed anyone directly.  I'd say that he made 
plans that got other people killed when they didn't work out the
way he wanted them to. But, that's definitely an inference I'm 
drawing from various clues.  It's never stated directly. 

Which sort of leaves us with the question of whether he felt any
responsibility for doing that.  For example, he says, "Poor Severus,"
when Harry brings up Snape's role in the plan--but is that regret 
for putting Snape in Voldemort's line of fire or just pity that 
Snape happened to get killed?

Does Dumbledore feel any responsibility about Vance's death?  (I 
find it very hard to believe that Snape gave any more information
to Voldemort than he was authorized to give, including the 
information that "lead to her capture and death.")  Does he feel
responsible for allowing Snape to take that prophecy to Voldemort?

The only deaths he shows regret for is Ariana's and his own (or 
rather, for his tragic flaw that led to his untimely death).  But, he
also pleads for lives when he drinks the potion in the cave.  So, he 
regrets *something*.  I just don't know what it is.  Still.

Montavilla47