Lavender, Parvati, & Pansy
Yes I'm late to the party, but *shrugs* I was reading one of the responses to JK's weight rant, and the author was complaning about JK's use of Pansy, why not Parvati and Lavender? The obvious answer is Pansy is one of the "bad" girls, Parvati and Lavender are considered two of the "good" girls. That's clean, simple, and straightforward. But of course I have more to say:
Parvati and Lavender are not shallow twits who are bitchy to everyone that they think is beneath them. They really, really, aren't the mean girls* from high school.
Lavender is shown to be an animal lover, even helping with blast ended skrewts. Parvati seems to be a very good friend to Lavender, putting up with a lot of sickening behavior in HBP. I give Lavender tons of credit for her handling of her break up with Ron. Shouting is downright polite if you think a boy is cheating on you, and that's all she does, and she cries. No backstabbing, horrible rumors, insults, or cat fights, no drama. Both girls are sweet to Neville, and generally seem nice to everyone. I can't think of anytime when they make fun of someone or tease them, or do anything remotely mean. Nor can I even think of a time where they actively try to exclude anyone. Yeah these girls like fashion and boys and get all goey eyed for a cute teacher, but *gasp* so do, oh, most girls.
But they never put the fashion or boys above anything else, just like they never put status before anything else. Parvati ditched the amazing Potter cause he wasn't interested in her, and Lavender fell hard for "just another Weasley" and went for him. Neither of these girls seem to think twice about blood or money or looks, if the person isn't horrid, they'll be cool to them. The only people either of them seems to ever have raised their voice to is Malfoy, when he was being horrid. The shallow, vapid, horrid claim doesn't hold cause these girls aren't any of the above. They're just nice, normal, teenage girls who sometimes act silly. (Boys, clothes, divination.)
Pansy though? I like the girl, I like Pansy, fic, think she has potential, but the girl is shallow. In canon, she doesn't give anyone 'cept rich, son of a powerful family, Draco Malfoy the time of day. We never see her even trying to be nice to anyone who has less power, blood, and money, than her. Is it because of how she was raised? In good part, yes, but she can try to overcome her prejudices but she doesn't even seem to want to. While it seems that she really does care for Malfoy to some extent, the question is, would she if he wasn't a rich pureblood and the son of an old and powerful line? Hmm, I don't know, but I doubt she'd be so eager in her affections if that was the case.
*shrugs* Lately I've become a major Lavender fan, so maybe bias there, though I've been a Pansy fan for a while. Ok, generally I just like most of the characters, so *shrugs*
* Am I the only one who never had "the mean girls" in high school? I mean I had the girls who made my life a living hell in elementary school, but in high school nobody bugged me if I didn't bug them.
Had a very long essay on Ron and careers, and yet for Hermione it's clear cut. I think the girl should be the magical equivalent of an engineer. Judging by the spells she has modified in canon, she'd love that kind of work. Lots of research plus lots of applications, and a practical aspect to boot, and she'd get free time to lobby on Elf Rights. Yeah, that seems perfect for her. I can't see her just lobbying for Elf rights, cause that just feels like an underutilization of her talents.
Oh, and for this all things HP post, I need to throw in a comm plug: hbpspork
Come on, join in on the fun. I love HBP and still think that there are things worth sporking in that book. So, won't you join, pretty please?