Slytherins come back WAS: Re: My Most Annoying Character

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 180189

> > Magpie:
> 
> > I don't think it's even that complicated--Slughorn=Slughorn, just
> as
> > any character=themselves. Slughorn might be fat, but he doesn't
> > encompass all the students in his house. The line is describing a
> > perfectly straightforward thing: Slughorn is running at the head,
> and
> > behind him are shopkeepers and parents of non-Slytherin students
> who
> > stayed. <SNIP>
> 
> Bev:
> 
> You are ignoring the FRIENDS.
> The book says Slughorn is leading the families, FRIENDS and the
> shopkeepers and homeowners of the village. Who else would the 
friends
> be if not of-age Slytherin students following their head of house?

Magpie:
Slytherins have been very consistently shown to not be friends with 
anybody in other houses. So no, of course I wouldn't hear "friends of 
students who stayed" and think of the Slytherin. That would be silly 
words to use when you actually meant "Slytherins" who are characters 
in themselves that we know--and not as friends but anyone but each 
other. For God sakes, in JKR's interview where we actually learned of 
this idea what did she say? She said the Slytherins. She's not 
incapable of saying what she means. Trying to work "the Slytherins 
who left earlier" into this sentence is torturous. And requires a lot 
of invention that would totally take somebody out of the story at 
that moment--like the explanation you've given here. I'm going with 
the more obvious words on the page here, which JKR totally changed in 
her interview. The moment she described there did not happen on the 
page. 

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.

Magpie:
Dumbledore killing anybody directly isn't canon either. I don't see 
how that's particularly more clear than a sentence that this. In one 
case we've got Dumbledore telling us what happened, so speculation 
assumes he's lying or leaving stuff out. In this sentence we're 
talking about a narrator the author's using to describe the scene 
with the author having even less reason to lie than Dumbledore 
andless room for speculation. JKR might have faults as a writer, but 
she's got the basic competence. If she got information across in this 
convoluted a way in any other part of the book the story would be 
incoherent. When Ron enters a room she says Ron entered the room, she 
doesn't say: the door opened and there stood Angelina's boyfriend--
meaning Ron.

-m