Sorry, forgot to check who wrote this before snipping:
> > He will SHIP Ginny, however, the nature of the ship will be outside 
> of our rather impoverished platonic versus romantic polarity;
> 
> Do you mean that Harry and Ginny will have a relationship based on 
> romance but never fulfilled - isn't this platonic? 

I don't know when Ginny's birthday is, but she was possibly born sometime near the death of Lily (& James).  Ron would have been about 18 months &she is jsuta year behind him in school.  We've debated at what point a child must be 11 before starting at Hogwart's (Hermione's Sept birthday-was she 11 or 10 when she started?).  Let's just say the cut off is November 1st!  What if Ginny was born on the night Lily died?!  I know it's far fetched, but what if?  Kids coming from Wizard families wouldn't be leaving public schools, so letting them in a little early wouldn't raise any muggle eyebrows, so it's possible.  Lily could be some part of Ginny which is why Harry and Ginny would have to keep it just friends!

Now, on to Neville.  I've just finished listening to/reading GoF for the 3rd time.  The whole thing with Bertha's memory being severely affected by memory charms and the theory about Neville having had Memory charms placed on him to forget the torture scene makes a lot of sense!  I think it is a JKR clue.  Part of the reason Snape is so heartlessly cruel to Neville could be because he doesn't agree with coddling Neville and fuzzing out the ugly truth.  Maybe he thinks he can jog Neville's memory by antagonizing him.  Maybehe feels he can teach this poor child more if he can get past the forgetfullness and bumbling. This could be one of his wierd ways of caring for the kids.  Another way he deals with the kids is by being nice to Malfoy & co.  Give them false sense of security so that they trust him and he can manipulate them later.  Also doesn't hurt for those rotten little boys to tell their DE dads how Snape is wonderfully evil and baits HP.  Different motives for why he treats different kids the ways he does.

Kitty


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