Deathly Hallows, Chapter 29: The Lost Diadem

[oneandthetruth]

Neville hugs the Trio and rather high-handedly tells Aberforth reinforcements are coming, and they should be sent along through the portrait hole, too. It’s no wonder Aberforth’s quarters look so shabby, with all those people running through them day and night.

As Neville and the Trio walk through the tunnel into Hogwarts, they update each other on

Comments

[terri_testing]

/Yes, she doesn’t appreciate him when he’s his quiet, Herbology-loving self. No, it’s only when he puts himself in harm’s way that she finally condescends to appreciate her own grandson. How wonderful. /

Actually, it's worse than that. Neville put himself in harm's way when he volunteered for the Sirius-rescue mission in Book 5. He flew from Scotland to London on an invisible creature (when he's had a phobia about flying/falling ever since Uncle Algernon). He fought bravely, saved Harry's life by jabbing his wand in a DE's eye when his broken nose prevented him from articulating clearly enough to cast spells, defied Bellatrix herself, ordered Harry not to give up the prophecy orb for his sake, and continued fighting bravely after he'd suffered the Cruciatus from Bellatrix.

All that, and Augusta is still ragging him to prove himself to her by taking a class he doesn't like and isn't particularly good at, at the beginning of book 6.

Courage to face one's deepest fears? Putting oneself in danger to help others? Resource? Determination? Refusal to give up, in the face of being disarmed, outnumbered, and in overwhelming pain?

All worth little or nothing, in Augusta's eyes.

But start mouthing off and indulging in vandalism--NOW Neville's a True Gryff and her son's worthy heir.

Makes you wonder, really it does, what Augusta and her son thought of Barty Senior's innovative policies....

[oryx_leucoryx]

Neville can see thestrals - he saw his grandfather (which one?) die. Still, flying cross-country is a big deal.

[sunnyskywalker]

Who was it who said the seventh book might as well have been called Harry Potter and the Snape-Shaped Hole? Because it does read like that. We're stuck in a tent with Harry the Maguffin, trying to piece together little scraps to figure out the real plot back at Hogwarts.

[terri_testing]

You know, the first time I read that phrase I just took it as a vicious-and-merited commentary on the cartoonish-nature of Jo's last book.

In children's cartoons, the coyote leaving a coyote-shaped hole in the glass when he hurtled himself upon his inevitable destruction....

But you've transfigured it (or, at least transfigured my understanding of it).

The Snape-shaped hole.

What SHOULD have been there. The absence that warps what WAS present around it.

Everything organizes itself around making sense of the hole.

[jana_ch]

...the real story is actually about Neville and Severus...

In dramatic terms, the protagonist of a story is the one who undergoes change. If there's no change, you don't have a story; you just have an incident or a series of incidents. Severus and Neville are the only characters in the Potterverse who undergo positive change. Everyone else either stays the same or gets worse. Harry at seventeen is not much different from Harry at eleven--which counts as negative change, since he should have been spending those seven books growing up.

As you say, Book Seven should have been about the interactions of the Primary Protagonist (Severus) and the Secondary Protagonist (Neville). Instead we're forced to drag around after Harry, who's not a Protagonist but merely a Hero, and a singularly un-appealing one.

[oryx_leucoryx]

In COS, when Ron receives Molly's Howler, Harry doesn't realize what it is until Ron says so, and the Howler starts yelling. But Neville manages to mention that Gran had once sent him one, and that trying to ignore it made the outcome worse. Under what circumstances was that Howler sent that Harry did not witness the event? Well, it is possible that Neville received it while camping with Great Uncle Algie. Or he received it at Hogwarts, on a day Harry wasn't present at breakfast, when the mail usually arrives. When did Harry miss breakfast in first year? I think the only times were the three days he was incapacitated after his encounter with Quirrellmort. Is it possible Gran berated Neville for trying to stop Heroic Harry from breaking rules? (I'm assuming she heard of the events from Neville. Or possibly her old classmate Minerva.)