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

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 187904


> Alla earlier:
> > <snip> Harry sees wands towards him, that is enough for me. <snip>
> 
> Carol responds:
> 
> You snipped the canon, so I'll put it back in before respondsing,
> <SNIP>
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Um, yes I did, everybody reads the whole thread before replying to my post so no need for me to leave it in if it can be read upthread. I hope you are no implying that I did something wrong here.
>
Carol responds:
I only meant that the canon you snipped was relevant to my post, so I put it back in. I was trying to save people the trouble of going upthread (which is hard to do the way Yahoo is currently set up) by requoting the relevant portion in my post. My point was not that you did anything wrong but that the canon, as I read it, indicates that Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff were pointing their wands at Slytherin (automatically assuming that they agreed with Pansy), not the other way around.

BTW, I agree with Steve (bboyminn) that Pansy's motive was simple self-preservation, wanting the school to capitulate to Voldemort's demand out of fear of being slaughtered rather than any strong pro-Voldemort or anti-Harry sentiment (though those may have been secondary motives). After all, LV has just said, in essence, that if they give up Harry, no one will be hurt and if they don't, everyone will be killed. She appears to be taking him at his word.

As for the other Slytherins, there's no indication that any of them drew their wands. They just followed McG's order to follow Slughorn to safety. Again, their motive seems to be self-preservation. If any of them felt loyalty to the school and wanted to fight to save Hogwarts, how could they have said so under such circumstances? No one trusted them.

Carol, who thinks that, as usual, Gryffindor (especially Harry and McGonagall) assumed the worst regarding Slytherin, as did the students in the other houses, without necessarily being correct