At this point, Pansy Parkinson damns all of Slytherin by pointing at Harry and shouting out, “But he’s there! Potter’s there! Someone grab him!”
Ain't that the truth. Everyone - including the author - damns the entire house because of Pansy's self interest. The treatment of the Slytherins was really one of the most simplistic themes of the entire series - they're all rotten apples. Snape? As soon as we're shown he's on Dumbledore's side he's immediately promoted to Gryffindor ("I sometimes think we Sort too soon ...").
When you deal in Rowling's post-publication attempts to retcon her canon - oh, some Slytherins *did* return - really! - it all looks even worse. I like sistermagpie's comment that any Slytherin allies would have most definitely been noticed by Harry.
Yes, Harry. It’s the diadem. We’ve known that for two years now. And you’ve known it for two chapters at least.
...
Okay, it’s an interesting story, but you know what? Harry doesn’t actually need this information at all.
I don't agree. When Harry slips back into Hogwarts and meets up with Neville and the DA he asks about possessions of Ravenclaw's and Luna suggests the tiara. And things seem to move on from there, with the *assumption* that the 'missing diadem' is Riddle's horcrux. But it's never *proven*. The identity of the Ravenclaw horcrux isn't even supplied by the ridiculous Dark Lord Mental Broadcast Network which otherwise tells our hero everything he needs to know. As far as I can remember, anyway.
So I think the history lesson from the Grey Lady might have been useful in that regard, even though it's still never *proven* that the diadem is a horcrux, is it? Right up to the point where it shrivels into ash?
But the only object anyone seemed to associate with Ravenclaw was the lost diadem... and how could the Horcrux be the diadem? How was it possible that Voldemort, the Slytherin, had found the diadem that had eluded generations of Ravenclaws?
It's only a possibility ... all the Grey Lady says only reinforces that possibility ... although what she says - that she told (only?) Riddle about it and its hiding place - goes some distance in firming up that possibility.
Meh. The whole horcrux thing was messy from day #1. Rowling couldn't have 'horcrux detection' spells or Arithmantic theorems *proving* the number of horcruxes because then the whole surprise of Harry being a horcrux would have been untenable. So instead it's one of the fuzziest parts of the whole series. A pity it was also one of the most important.
Is this ironic foreshadowing for later on when we discover that Dumbledore used Lily as a pseudo-hostage to force Snape into lifelong servitude?
Too complex for Rowling, I think; plus I believe we're supposed to all think good of Dumbledore (like Harry). Nice concept though!
Ginny and Tonks are at a window firing down spells. ... Aberforth slopes by to comment on the battle.
I'd like to note that this is the one and only time we have any idea of what Ginny did in the battle. Remember how Rowling had promised, in the "Interview o' Doom", that Ginny would show some 'powerful magic' in the final novel? I debated a pro-Jo apologist once who could only find this scene in the book:
Even as he watched, Ginny sent a well-aimed jinx into a crowd of fighters below.
“Good girl!” roared a figure running through the dust toward them, and Harry saw Aberforth again
That's it for Ginny's battle prowess - one "well-aimed" jinx. HA HA HA!
Which, sadly, eclipses all of her accomplishments in the earlier books - breaking her ankle at the ministry and ducking curses at the end of HBP.
Grab the book! That’s going to revolutionize potion-making! Get the book!
Heh. :-)
Nah, we've all forgotten the book; that was just filler for the sixth novel, something to fill up the school year until we got to Dumbledore's death scene.
... it bleeds a black, tarry substance, shudders, and breaks into pieces.
How convenient.
Yes! It must have been Fiendfyre, something that we readers didn't have a clue about until it was actually used ... oh, right, this is a Rowling book.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-12-09 03:01 am (UTC)Ain't that the truth. Everyone - including the author - damns the entire house because of Pansy's self interest. The treatment of the Slytherins was really one of the most simplistic themes of the entire series - they're all rotten apples. Snape? As soon as we're shown he's on Dumbledore's side he's immediately promoted to Gryffindor ("I sometimes think we Sort too soon ...").
When you deal in Rowling's post-publication attempts to retcon her canon - oh, some Slytherins *did* return - really! - it all looks even worse. I like sistermagpie's comment that any Slytherin allies would have most definitely been noticed by Harry.
Yes, Harry. It’s the diadem. We’ve known that for two years now. And you’ve known it for two chapters at least.
...
Okay, it’s an interesting story, but you know what? Harry doesn’t actually need this information at all.
I don't agree. When Harry slips back into Hogwarts and meets up with Neville and the DA he asks about possessions of Ravenclaw's and Luna suggests the tiara. And things seem to move on from there, with the *assumption* that the 'missing diadem' is Riddle's horcrux. But it's never *proven*. The identity of the Ravenclaw horcrux isn't even supplied by the ridiculous Dark Lord Mental Broadcast Network which otherwise tells our hero everything he needs to know. As far as I can remember, anyway.
So I think the history lesson from the Grey Lady might have been useful in that regard, even though it's still never *proven* that the diadem is a horcrux, is it? Right up to the point where it shrivels into ash?
But the only object anyone seemed to associate with Ravenclaw was the lost diadem... and how could the Horcrux be the diadem? How was it possible that Voldemort, the Slytherin, had found the diadem that had eluded generations of Ravenclaws?
It's only a possibility ... all the Grey Lady says only reinforces that possibility ... although what she says - that she told (only?) Riddle about it and its hiding place - goes some distance in firming up that possibility.
Meh. The whole horcrux thing was messy from day #1. Rowling couldn't have 'horcrux detection' spells or Arithmantic theorems *proving* the number of horcruxes because then the whole surprise of Harry being a horcrux would have been untenable. So instead it's one of the fuzziest parts of the whole series. A pity it was also one of the most important.
Is this ironic foreshadowing for later on when we discover that Dumbledore used Lily as a pseudo-hostage to force Snape into lifelong servitude?
Too complex for Rowling, I think; plus I believe we're supposed to all think good of Dumbledore (like Harry). Nice concept though!
Ginny and Tonks are at a window firing down spells. ... Aberforth slopes by to comment on the battle.
I'd like to note that this is the one and only time we have any idea of what Ginny did in the battle. Remember how Rowling had promised, in the "Interview o' Doom", that Ginny would show some 'powerful magic' in the final novel? I debated a pro-Jo apologist once who could only find this scene in the book:
Even as he watched, Ginny sent a well-aimed jinx into a crowd of fighters below.
“Good girl!” roared a figure running through the dust toward them, and Harry saw Aberforth again
That's it for Ginny's battle prowess - one "well-aimed" jinx. HA HA HA!
Which, sadly, eclipses all of her accomplishments in the earlier books - breaking her ankle at the ministry and ducking curses at the end of HBP.
Grab the book! That’s going to revolutionize potion-making! Get the book!
Heh. :-)
Nah, we've all forgotten the book; that was just filler for the sixth novel, something to fill up the school year until we got to Dumbledore's death scene.
... it bleeds a black, tarry substance, shudders, and breaks into pieces.
How convenient.
Yes! It must have been Fiendfyre, something that we readers didn't have a clue about until it was actually used ... oh, right, this is a Rowling book.