chapter discussions, SS/PS, chapter 5, Diagon Alley

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 187889


> Alla:
> 
> I agree with everything you wrote in this paragraph, except your first sentence :)
> 
> Of course I agree that she showed plenty of Slytherins doing brave things in the name of good. However, did it do to me the reversal of the House as a group? No, unfortunately not. Somebody and I honest to goodness do not remember who it was wrote soon after DH that despite all of those contributions when time passes, what readers will remember the most about Slytherin will be that it was the house of Pansy Parkinson.<snip>
> But now when two years passed, when I am thinking about it, I am forced to agree and want to give that person his or her dues if this person steps forward of course.
> 
> The episode that for me packs the most emotional punch is disgusting Pansy wanting to sell Harry to Voldemort and a lot of her house supporting her, this picture just stands out the most vividly for this particular reader.  

Pippin:
It's a vivid picture, but it seems to owe more to your imagination  than Rowling's.

This is what JKR wrote:

Then a figure rose from the Slytherin table and he recognized Pansy Parkinson as she raised a shaking arm and screamed,"But he's there! Potter's *there*! Someone grab him!"

Before Harry could speak, there was a massive movement. The Gryffindors in front of him had risen and stood facing, not Harry, but the Slytherins. 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.

"Thank you, Miss Parkinson," said Professor McGonagall in a clipped voice. "You will leave the Hall first with Mr. Filch. If the rest of your house could follow."

Harry heard the grinding of benches and then the sound of the Slytherins trooping out the other side of the Hall.

===

Harry doesn't see what is going on at the Slytherin table once the other students have risen and are standing in the  way.    But Harry  hears the benches grinding *after* McGonagall orders the Slytherins to leave. If the Slytherins had stood up in response to Pansy's plea to grab Harry or to support her as she faced all those wands, then the benches would have been pushed back already. 

A quick google search reveals 4.9 million hits for Slytherin Snape and 4.5 million hits for Slytherin Draco. There are 340,000 for Slytherin Pansy Parkinson, so I  doubt she is the character most associated with Slytherin in most people's minds. 

Pippin