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

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 187891



Alla:

<SNIP>

> > 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:
><SNIP canon, go upthread to read it> ===
> 
> 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. 
> 

Alla:

No, I do not believe it does. I did not make up the story about Pansy wanting to give Harry to Voldemort and that is what I was talking about. I totally understand what you are saying about interpreting it as her house not supporting her, but I will go with the simpler one here, without thinking about sounds from the benches. Harry sees wands towards him, that is enough for me. Maybe Harry did not hear the earlier sound of the benches and some people get up already and some did not do so yet. And even if you are correct (which I do not agree with) and what JKR **really** meant here was for us to deduct that Slytherins really did not support Pantsy and she was a lone wolf or something, my point was that on its face picture is vivid and damning IMO.


Pippin:
> 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. 


Alla:

Well, I specifically talked about *this particular reader*, that means that I talked about my reactions, not everybody else"s.

And also I was not saying that Pantsy is the character most assosiated with Slytherin's in my mind either. Do you know who is such character for me? It is Draco, absolutely and most definitely. He was is and will be a face of Slytherin for me. I am afraid his baby steps towards being a decent human being do not count for me as an emotional punch of the reversal.

And Snape? Snape is a face of Slytherin? Snape to whom Dumbledore regretfully pronounces that maybe they Sort too soon? I thought that was Dumbledore being an ass, but I think since he is JKR's mouthpiece, author went out of her way in DH to show that Snape managed to NOT be like people from his house.

Let me be clear, I am not talking about any of Snape's actions per se, but only him as reflection of his house. I maintain that the idea of DH that he is not, even if he wanted to be in Slytherin.

I mean, Harry praises him for his courage, for his courage of all things. We are shown that Snape over the years obtained *saving people thing* LOLOLOL, just as certain Gryffindor.

Oh, no I am afraid I cannot measure Slytherin house by Snape at all.

To go back to Pantsy, her **action** for me is the action JKR wants me to remember the nowadays house Slytherin by. I saw no Regulus or Andromeda in this generation of Slytherins, only Pantsy Parkinsons and Dracos.

JMO,

Alla