(no subject)

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

One thing that bothers me about the twins is that no matter what they do, they get away with it. There are never any consequences. When they sneak Harry out of his house, flying a magic car into a Muggle area, there are no legal consequences and Molly blusters but doesn't do anything. When they more or less ignore how badly Ginny's getting on (as do Percy and Ron), and don't notice she's being bewitched, there's no real guilt.

They give Harry the Marauders' Map - what if he disappeared some day - would they have told the authorities that they gave him a method of sneaking out of school? Or just stayed quiet and hoped things worked out?

They slip Dudley Ton-Tongue Toffees - he could have died, but again no consequences. They win their bet with Bagman (it was never explained how they knew it - maybe they used magical means in an early draft) but never face consequences (given that the Ministry is notoriously corrupt, it's surprising that Ludo is always on the defensive, and never tries to e.g. get Arthur fired or have the twins prosecuted for their illegal testing). And then Harry hands them a pile of cash, because there are no more worthy causes.

In OOTP, they spy on Order meetings (how bad is the security?) but no DEs seem to exploit this. They also drop out of school without qualifications - unlike in real life, where this would lead to months of them sitting about in the Burrow doing nothing, they instead become master businessmen.

In HBP, their shop sells stuff that is obviously dangerous if exploited, but even when the DEs use their powder, no-one blames them for selling it, or questions a society that allows such weapons to be owned.

In DH, Fred is killed, but a heroic death in battle. It would be much more likely for him to be killed in one of the twins' experiments gone wrong - this would actually force George to undergo some sort of reflection or growth as a character - but as it is, it confirms that Fred was great and everything the twins did was great.

Comments

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Okay, yeah, if I'd been related to the twins (who make me wildly appreciative of my own disfunctional family) I'd have hidden my first romance, no matter who s/he was.

Still, sneaking around Slytherin--when both of them apparently dislike the house, and would probably expect that house to blackmail them if caught--it seems an extreme reaction.

Regarding Ron's courtship of Hermione, Percy would have broken the ice. Being the second child openly to break a taboo is very different from being the first. (And then there's the fact that Hermione is demonstrably superior in nearly every particular to what Won-Won could have snagged on his own merits without a Muggleborn's succumbing to Pureblood mystique. Find a ten-"O" Owl Pureblood who's also healthy, sane, brave, and not physically disfigured, who'd consider Ron a prize worth snatching!)

Thanks so much for the link to your post about percentage of Purebloods--I just went and read it, and all of the comments, and my head spins. Yes, if we throw out that interview neat 25-50-25, what JO SHOWS isn't much near that, is it? And I usually do go on what Jo SHOWS rather than what she mouths off about.

However. Regarding the Weasleys and Bill's wedding....

There are multitudes of people there, including, apparently, rather remote family connections. (Molly and Arthur, if not Bill and Fleur, had invited Bill's [rich] great-great aunt and enough second and third cousins on the Weasley side that Molly's great-aunt Muriel doesn't find it suspicious that some random redhead is presented to her as yet another of Ron Weasly's "cousins.")

Let's imagine Pureblood (if we've correctly identified WW class structure) James Sirius Potter's marriage, or half-blood Rose Weasley's. If all great-aunts (much less great-great-aunts) and second cousins were invited to James's nuptials, Petunia & Vernon, Dudley, and Dudley's family would all be attending. And one only needs invite grandparents to have Muggles prominent at Rose's.

Unless, of course, the connection had been cut.

But Bill's wedding is, so far as Harry observes, Muggle-free. No one is dressed normally and looking around in astonished appreciation at the floating champagne bottles.

So not a one of the guests present has ever married a Muggle. And if anyone present is Muggleborn, they've cut the connection with "that side." And Molly...

Well, we know for a fact that Molly has relatively close Muggle relatives. That Squib second cousin, who became an accountant and married a Muggle woman. If remote Pureblood connections are being invited to this family celebration, why not remote Squib/Muggle ones?

Ron in CoS claimed that there was no such thing, really, as a "pureblood" nowadays, that most wizards are really half-bloods, that if they hadn't married Muggles (somewhere along the line) they'd have died out.

But being able to NAME a Muggle ancestor or relative? ASSOCIATING with them? Obviously, flat out wrong.

[oryx_leucoryx]

BTW are you familiar with that fic by duj in which Percy faked his death, dropped out of the wizarding world and went to live as a Muggle with the initial assistance of the accountant relative? He actually found out how airplanes stay up (among many other things).

[sunnyskywalker]

I'd like a link to that!

[oryx_leucoryx]

The link is Everything I've Ever Done: Reunion.

[oryx_leucoryx]

I posted the link in a separate post, but until it shows up, you can find the story on fanfiction.net The author is duj, the title is "Everything I've Ever Done: Reunion". Google should lead you there. It is a sequel to a SSHG story that diverged from canon after OOTP. There is a list of who is married to whom and the ages of their children as an extended footnote to the first chapter.