[HPforGrownups] Re: Chapter Discussion: Goblet of Fire Ch. 4: Back to the Burrow

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 191476

Quoting sigurd at eclipse.net:

> Dear Shelley
>
>
> You say " Not only don't we see a lot of Slytherin in that final   
> battle, but the epilogue shows us pretty much nothing changed when   
> it came to Houses:  Harry's son is having to make a choice between   
> being a Slytherin and a  Gryffindor, between competing loyalities,   
> the same as it was for Harry.  Even if the house competitions were   
> momentarily set aside for one battle  against Voldemort, it's pretty  
>  clear that the House system was not  abolished in any way."
>
> Yes you are correct. I had high hopes that at the end of the battle   
> where Rowling paints a vivid picture of the smashed vessels which   
> have spilled the glass (or whatever substance they are made of)   
> beads all over the floor that it was a symbolic "smashing of the   
> House" system and a metaphorical mixing of the blood shed by all the  
>  houses in a common battle, but I saw in the final chapter that was   
> not to be. Far more eloquent is the simple nod of recognition that   
> Potter gives to Malfoy down the train platform. I was astounded.   
> That's it!?  One would have thought that for all he had done, Draco   
> and his whole clan would have been sent up for life to Azkaban in   
> maximum security. It goes to prove what I was saying about the   
> British school system- doesn't matter if you're an axe- murderer, so  
>  long as you have good manners, wear the right clothes and can tell  
> a  Claret from a Riesling you can do what you want and all is OK.


I'd have to disagree with this last point.  Harry owed his very life  
to Narcissa Malfoy's quick thinking, courage and willingness to stand  
there and tell Voldemort...a freakin' LEGILIMENS, for pity's  
sake...that Harry was dead when he wasn't.  Voldie was perfectly well  
capable of deciding that just Harry's head, on the end of a spear, was  
all he needed, which would have put paid to the Boy-who-Lived, curses,  
prophecies and the like notwithstanding.  And if he'd twigged that  
Narcissa was lying, he'd have probably Cruciatus'd her into a crispy  
crunch.

_Lucius_ may well have had to go back to Azkaban (I rather imagine he  
had some...interesting...discussions with the Aurors after things were  
all over, on the subject "why aren't you in Azkaban where you're  
_supposed to be?_") but I could easily see Harry going to bat for  
Narcissa.  And Draco could easily have pleaded coercion, just like  
Xenophilius almost certainly did.  Xeno only betrayed the Trio because  
the bad guys had Luna, and he was so desperate that he'd do anything  
to try to get her back; Draco was doing what he did because Voldemort  
had threatened his parents' lives, and he knew full well that Voldie  
was quite well able to carry out his threats.

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