Chapter Discussion: Goblet of Fire Ch. 4: Back to the Burrow

[Geoff]

No: HPFGUIDX 191471


I would like to comment on the following extracts from three recent 
posts and then to look at a section of canon in my response to these 
comments.

Post 191466: 
Otto:
> This is part of the "house" system which is a model of the English 
> Prep school system which divides people by "class and origin" 
> assuming that people will "be happier with their own kind" but at 
> the same time that leads to the attitude of "What can you expect, 
> they're not our kind dear."'

and also:
 
>Being American I cherish our illusions of equality before the law.'

Geoff:
I fear you have just given yourself away with the latter comment, 
because having come through the UK system both as a pupil and 
a teacher, I feel I must disagree with you.

Although I did not attend a boarding school, I did go to a reasonably 
well-established and reputed grammar school in South London for 
my secondary education,  being among other things a prefect. We 
had a house system, like apparently most schools, four apparently 
being the norm. There was indeed a great deal of competition between 
the houses in both academic and sporting skills and individual successes 
were also rated highly. but there was never any "they're not our kind, 
dear" attitudes between the houses of the school. There was considerable 
rivalry with other neighbouring schools at various levels and there was 
always an exchange of usually impolite remarks at inter-school activities! 
In my teaching, I worked again in a school with a four house system 
where there was rivalry but there was also a fierce school pride when it 
came to such things as district sports days. So, although there are 
grounds for your disparaging comment in terms of inter-school rivalry, 
I would defend the school house system for the way in which I saw it 
working over nearly 40 years.

Post 191468:
Otto:
> I hear what you say, but I'm doubtful. I think that the divisiveness was 
> not worth any positive benefit they got. My opinion on what I read in 
> the text, was that in the final battle there was pretty much a mass 
> desertion of Slytherin to the other side, or, if they did not join the 
> enemy, they pretty much stacked arms. Slughorn's running around 
> trumpeting "We did our part!" sounds a bit too strained for me.

> One other thing. I recall everyone from Neville's "gran" to even Percy 
> Weasley coming into to stand in the line for the crunch. The tunnel 
> from Hogsmeade to Hogwarts was like the NY subway at rush-hour- 
 >but I don't remember any Slytherins mentioned doing that. Nor did I 
> hear any great debate from the Slytherins when Pansy Parkinson 
> wanted to toss Harry on Voldemort's pikes.

Post 191470:
Eric Oppen:
> At the Battle of Hogwarts, a lot of the Slytherins were in a dreadful
> position: What to do if your parents are with the DEs but your own
> sympathies are with the DA? Shoot at your family or your friends?

Geoff:
Eric has a good point here. We know that, however Ron much may rant, 
not every Slytherin is a Death-Eater-in-training. After all, Harry might 
well have finished up in the house without a little manipulation from 
other contacts.;

Let's look at a piece of canon:

`The silence swallowed them all again. Every head turned, 
every eye in the place seemed to have found Harry, to hold 
him frozen in the glare of thousand if invisible beams Then 
a figure rose from the Slytherin table and he recognised 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 towards 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."'

(DH "The Battle of Hogwarts" pp.490/91 UK edition)

When Pansy says her piece, while the other houses are ranging 
themselves in support of Harry, not even one other Slytherin rises 
to their feet in the space of time before McGonagall speaks.

Now, there may be pupils, as Eric suggests, whose sympathies lie 
with the side of light. To publicly stand in company with the other 
houses may well be a daunting move and it is possible that some 
members, especially younger ones were still "screwing their courage 
to the sticking point" and were not afforded the option of making 
their minds up in time.

And what about Minerva McGonagall? Was it not rather arrogant of 
her to assume that the outburst of one single Slytherin was the voicing 
of a unanimous decision? Instantly, she categorises every member of 
the house as an opponent and bulldozes all of them out of the Hall. 
Those who perhaps wanted to take a neutral stance or express support 
were denied the chanced, being swept along in the crowd and maybe 
too afraid to attempt an escape. 

I place this action on her part in the same pigeonhole as Dumbledore's 
tinkering with the House points at the end of PS, actions which have 
always left question marks in my own mind as to the impartiality which 
should have been practised by these two important Hogwarts figures 
but were not.