Of tower passwords, Luna Lovegood, and Ravenclaw ambivalence
Remember how, in Deathly Hallows, Harry paid a token visit to the Ravenclaw common room in search of information on the diadem Horcrux? We saw then the special torture honor that Hogwarts bestows on those students whose wit is their greatest treasure: a system for gaining common room entry that is unique among the houses. While Slytherins,
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Another interesting case is Harry himself. Maybe it was just savvy audience strategy for Jo to place him where she did on the intelligence spectrum - relatably above-average but not brilliant, uneven academically rather than across-the-board mediocre like Ron. But I’ll bet he also reflects Jo’s own beliefs that 1)if you’ve got one thing you’re really good at, the rest doesn’t matter so much, and 2)ethics are huge. There’s a moment among Snape’s Pensieve memories that’s never followed up on, but which really caught my attention: when Snape is running down the 11-year-old Harry and Dumbledore counters him by describing Harry as “modest, likable and reasonably talented” (italics mine). He’s quoting other people’s opinions, but the fact that he doesn’t contradict this underwhelming assessment of Harry’s talent has always struck me. By the time of the King’s Cross chapter, Dumbledore’s opinion of Harry’s worth, as opposed to his likability, has obviously been revised more than a little upwards, and the biggest part of that seems to be that Dumbledore has come to consider Harry morally superior to himself - it’s certainly not down to his grades going up, and probably not even to stuff like his precocity at Patronus-conjuring.
In the end I don’t value learning above all myself, so in a way I shouldn’t consider myself implicated in Jo’s contempt (if that’s what it is). But I balk on behalf of my fellow riddle-answering Ravenclaws, because I understand why a Ravenclaw might consent to be treated like an intellectual performing seal: so many of us who are smart that way aren’t good at all that much else, so we figure that demonstrating our smarts is the only way we can ever be loved. When adults enable smart kids in this way of thinking - or worse, actually exploit it - I get pissed off.
If you've made it through all that pontificating, thanks for your patience, and I promise in return to comment on the next really long thing you post!
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