[HPforGrownups] Re: What HP Character Scares You Most?

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 191858

Eric:
> In the hands of a different writer (JKR is wonderful, but she was 
> still learning then) "Smiley" might have been an interestingly tragic 
> character. When Ron and Harry go looking for him after Ginny 
> disappears, they find him writing out his will, and he confesses to 
> them that he's a fraud and always has been. Then, with a sigh, he 
> signs his will, picks up his wand, and says "Time to man up and walk 
> the walk...it'll be strange after talking the talk for so long." 
> Basically, he's sure that he's going to his own death, but _he is the 
> DADA prof,_ and even though he's sure it's a suicide run, he's not 
> about to let one of his pupils down.

Bart:
     I disagree. The way JKR paints the character, an act of 
self-sacrifice would never have even occurred to him. The idea was that, 
beneath the laughable fraud was a deadly, chilling and conscienceless 
villain, without changing his character one iota.

     Bart