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Sorry for making another Augusta Longbottom post. I wasn’t clear enough in my last post, because after reading the comments on my last post I could see that many readers felt I was criticizing her which was not my intent at all. Augusta loves her grandson very much, but she is an old-fashioned woman who admires duty, courage, integrity, honor and “ ( Read more... )
I think she has tried to replace Frank with Neville. It is a common temptation for bereaved parents to force a child in the family to act as a replacement for another lost child. It is an understandable temptation. It would be so easy for her to see this toddler a boy like her son, her son’s son as her boy back to her again.
What is more they are at war. In OotP Neville says that his gran always said that Voldemort would come back. I found that a very interesting statement, that reveals a lot about Augusta’s state of mind. She expected Voldemort to return. What did she think would happen when he did? What did she think would happen to her sons attackers when he returned? Bellatrix screams at her trial that she would be freed when V. came back. Did Augusta believe that too? What did she think the world would be like after he returned? It would be very easy to see your grandson as a fighter against your son’s enemies. Someone who could right the wrong his father can’t. Someone who could fight the same fight his father and mother fought but this time without damage, and winning.
But Neville isn’t his father and that is shown very dramatically when he doesn’t manifest magic. The fear must have been horrible. To be a squib is a terrible fate in their culture. What a blow to have the only son of these talented and tragic people also struck with a tragic circumstance. She didn’t handle it well, not because she didn’t love him or wasn’t concerned for him. She cried when he proved magical; she cared a lot.
I think she was disappointed in Neville and I think he knew it. (I think others were as well. I think he often met people who were shocked by him, expecting his parents and receiving something else.)
She is disappointed that his talent doesn’t measure up to his parents. She is disappointed that he isn’t Frank. Those feelings are separate from her desire for him to be proud of his parents. That is an additional issue. Children who have parents they are not proud of (say children of the mentally ill or of people in jail or of those with addictions) often feel ashamed of themselves as well. They see their parents as a reflection on themselves. I think her desire to have Neville be proud of his parents despite their condition was wise and would not have been destructive it had not also been accompanied by a sense of failure and inadequacy.
Neville never appears to resent his parent’s sacrifice. I believe that too is a good thing and is a product of how he was raised. He views their sacrifice as necessary and heroic. A child with parents in the condition of Neville’s would need armor to deal with their condition. Augusta gives him that, but she also undermines him at the same time. Theirs is a very interesting dynamic.
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