[HPforGrownups] Veterans Suffering, was Re: CHAPDISC: 34, The Forest Again.

[k12listmomma]

No: HPFGUIDX 185049

> Ceridwen:
> Ginny, Ron and Hermione, together with Harry our core group "Nineteen
> Years Later," all fought in the war, too.  They didn't face Voldy, but
> they faced other DEs as intent on killing them as Voldy was on killing
> Harry.  It might just as easily be Harry soothing Ginny's nerves, or
> Ron and Hermione reassuring each other.
>
> With St. Mungo's level of physical care, there would have been very
> few visible scars - only the ones from Dark Magic would remain.

Shelley now:
But that's only true for the ones that were treated, for the people who 
didn't want to be scarred. Dumbledore still had his scar, didn't he? Mad Eye 
Moody didn't seem bothered to fix his face- I almost took it that he wore 
his scars as a badge of honor, not that they weren't fixable because they 
had been done by Dark Magic. And Fred, I'm not sure he would have replaced 
his ear, even if the magic was possible. Not everyone in the wizarding world 
felt the need to remove every scar.

> Draco or Goyle should have burns somewhere, perhaps Ron, Harry and 
> Hermione,
> too.  The deepest scars, though, given the children killed, would be
> the ones seen reflected in haunted eyes as parents see their children
> off and perhaps think of that day when classmates or siblings were
> killed.

Shelley:
I could see if a twing of a memory occured- Harry seeing a child and 
thinking he looked (or acted) a lot like the young Colin Creevy, or another 
one that was killed, and feeling that momentary guilt or saddness of regret. 
It's what that scene lacks- a momentary rememberance of one lost.

> Hogwarts isn't safe if someone really wants in there.
> They've lived that.  Since kids don't tell their parents everything,
> quite a few of these soul-scarred people might wonder what sorts of
> shenanigans are going on that they don't know about.
>
> Ceridwen.

Shelley:
This, I have debated on. Was it really that Hogwarts was unsafe, or that the 
whole Wizarding World was unsafe while Voldemort was alive? Because people 
were killed everywhere- Diagon Alley was practically cleared out while 
people feared the worst- so the terror wasn't limited to the school grounds. 
Voldemort travelled far and wide to kill people whom he wanted information 
from. The battle only came to the school grounds because 1) that's where the 
Diadim was (the reason Voldemort stationed Death Eaters there) and 2) that's 
where Harry was. In normal times, without Harry and Voldemort in the 
picture, the main harm that I could see would be from fellow student's 
spells going astray, or from not using proper care when in the Care of 
Magical Creatures class or the Herbology class (such as not watching your 
backside from the Venomous Tentacula when it was teething!) In normal times, 
I really don't think Hogwarts was any "safer", or "less safe" than anywhere 
else in the wizarding world, given that any magical person could blow 
themselves up with magic at any time, and that magic itself could be 
dangerous if used improperly.

So, I don't think any of these parents should worry, although they would, 
given what they went through, but I think most would realize that the world 
was now a much safer place overall than when they were in school. Kind of 
like being in London after WW2- during the war, there were bombing raids, 
and it wasn't safe in the city. Kids were shipped to the country side for 
protection. After the war ended, 19 years later, did parents worry about 
their kids attending schools and playing in the streets? No, for the war was 
long gone. I think Hogwarts would be like that- rebuilt, polished, and most 
of the old battle scars removed with new contruction. I'm assuming by then, 
except for the memories of the parents, Hogwarts would be a perfectly safe 
place again. The tricks that kids can play on one another are quite harmless 
compared to the antics of Death Eaters. I think any parent, any reasonable 
parent, realizes that there are always shenanigans going on that kids don't 
tell about- and part of that is just raising your child right so that they 
don't do stupid stuff, and part realizing that it's out of our control most 
of what the kids do, as they have to make their own path in life, and that 
you can't control everything. I think the few paranoid parents who were 
still living in the past wouldn't send their kids to Hogwarts at all, but by 
19 years later, that move might seem very extreme and truly paranoid and out 
of place. I think most parents might fondly remember the years before the 
war, when they were yet innocent and untouched, looking forward to learning 
magic, and remembering the fun they had before Voldemort terror. At least, 
that would be the type of parent I would try to be, sending a child to 
Hogwarts in the year that Harry did his. I might be battle-scarred, but I 
would be happy knowing that my kids wouldn't be.