To kill or not to kill and resolutions of the storylineWAS :Re: Disarming spell

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 185526

Carpl (!!) earlier:
> > I think not. The narrator says, "They [Charlie and Slughorn] 
*seemed* to have returned at the head of *what looked like* the
families and friends of every Hogwarts student who had returned to
fight, along with the shopkeepers and homeowners of Hogwarts." Note
the narrator's uncertainty, which reflects Harry's. 
> 
> Magpie:
> I took the uncertainty to be whether or not it's ALL of their
friends and family or just some--it's pointing to the number. ,snip>

Carol again:
that's your reading, but I don't think you can say "it's pointing to
the number" quite so definitively. when has Harry seen all these
friends and families and how could he possibly know who all those
people are?

Carol earlier:
> > 
> > But the narrator doesn't say that they're the students "left at
Hogwarts." Quite the contrary. They're the students who *left 
Hogwarts and returned* with what Harry *assumes* to be their friends
and families. Who could they be except the Slytherins and a few
miscellaneous students from other Houses?
> 
> Magpie:
> All the people we already saw return to fight along with Harry. 
Mostly everybody involved in this melee has returned for it. <snip>

Carol again:

Let me try just one more time and then I'll let it rest. Here's the
quote again, this time with a different emphasis:

"They [Charlie and Slughorn] seemed to have returned at the head of
*what looked like* the families and friends of every Hogwarts student
*who had returned to fight*, along with the shopkeepers and homeowners
of Hogwarts." 

These students are returning to *Hogwarts*, following Slughorn and
Charlie out of Hogsmeade, not returning to the fight. They can only be
students who went to the Hog's Head--Slytherins, some Ravenclaws, and
a handful of Hufflepuffs. The rest of the students, along with the
staff and the Order members, never left Hogwarts. They are already in
the Great Hall when Slughorn, Charlie, the citizens of Hogsmeade, and
the returning students (with what Harry can only assume to be their
friends and families) come up the stairs to the entrance hall and try
to make their way to the Great Hall, where those who never left the
school still are.

No one from the school leaves to get reinforcements (though someone
evidently summoned Charlie). Only those who went to the Hog's Head
could have Apparated out to get their friends and families. You can't
Apparate or Disapparate on the Hogwarts grounds.

Carol, trying one last time to make her interpretation clear