Personal sacrifice, personal loss: Who suffered most?

A friend, who is also a bit of a Harry Potter fan, sent me this captioned picture today and it got me thinking: of all the characters in the Rowling world who themselves survived the entire situation, which one would you say suffered most as a result of the Voldemort's rise to power and the war to defeat him?

The caption would suggest that Hermione made the greatest sacrifice and I might be willing consider this possibility (that Hermione made the greatest sacrifice of all by erasing herself from her parents’ memories) if it weren’t reversible.

But she can reverse it.

What cannot be reversed are the Weasley family’s losses (one son dead, two sons injured), nor the losses suffered by Mrs. Tonks (her husband [Ted Tonks], daughter [Nymphadora Tonks], son-in-law [Remus Lupin] and sister [Bellatrix Lestrange] were all killed, leaving her alone with a half-werewolf grandson). 

And you have to figure that Hermione and Ron set out for Australia fairly soon after the war ended with Voldemort’s death to track down her parents, reverse the obliviate spells she cast on them and remind them who she is!

Note, in Chapter five (the last chapter I’ve finished) of The Way Forward, my fan fiction post-Deathly Hallows novel, I make it clear that Hermione and Ron go to Australia to retrieve her parents!

I will have to take some more time to think about this question as I am sure there are a whole cast of characters, minor or major, who suffered great losses as a result of the events of the Rowling books.

The "club-house leader" is Mrs. Tonks, by the way. But is there someone out there who sacrificed more?

Teddy Lupin: Harry Potter, the Next Generation?

How did I not recognise this? It's sitting there, staring me in the face! Once you see it, it is so obvious you're amazed you didn't notice it as soon as you read the seventh book.

Teddy Lupin is the next generation of the Harry Potter character.

Orphaned in the final battle against the Death Eaters, son of two of Voldemort's staunchest opponents, left to fend for himself in the magical world. With Harry Potter as his god father.

I have to credit Emily and Clare for opening my eyes to this fact this past Christmas. They pointed it out as we watched the extras to The Deathly Hallows, Part 2.

It's brilliant. And it speaks so much to how J.K. Rowling imagined her magical world continuing to develop, even after the end of Voldemort.

If the death of the Dark Lord represents the final defeat of the "pure blood" movement, then it also represents the beginning of the fight against other forms of oppression in the magical world, including the oppression of Goblins, House Elves, Centaurs and, yes, Werewolves.

Teddy Lupin represents that future.

It's interesting to note that there are at least three examples in the Harry Potter novels where Werewolves are allowed to join wizarding communities:
- Remus Lupin is, of course, the most famous example, welcomed by Albus Dumbledore to Hogwarts as a student and, later, as a teacher, befriended by James, Sirius and Peter while at school, a respected member of the Order of the Phoenix in both wars against darkness;
- Voldemort and his Death Eaters, the champions of the pure blood cause, include Fenrir Greyback in their army, although it is clear from the way Greyback is treated by Bellatrix at Malfoy Manor that the Werewolf is not seen as an equal; and
- I believe that there was a Werewolf guest at one of Slughorn's parties: Sanguini, wasn't it? Sorry, I don't have access to my books right now and the internet is not helpful on this score.

I think it would be very interesting if someone were to write a fairly serious novel following Teddy Lupin and the challenges he faces growing up in a society that is still not particularly tolerant of his racial background. It could be a real metaphor for the modes of oppression people currently face in our own society.

And, of course, in writing that book, the author could also have some fun with the idea that Teddy is really Harry, the next generation.

Maybe the nineteen-years-later epilogue did make the cut!

One week. Just one week until the final movie opens.

Exciting, isn't it? But have you read about the ticket sales? Apparently, many showings are ALREADY SOLD OUT, an entire week in advance. Do you have your tickets?

As excited as I am about the opening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, I am now convinced that I will wait until at least a couple of days after opening to go to see it. First, because I don't have tickets yet. And second, because I don't really want to see this movie for the first time in a packed theatre, possibly surrounded by people who will talk, or burp, or otherwise interfere with my enjoyment.

I did get some good news yesterday, however. While surfing the net, I found an on-line entry that suggests that the 19-years-later epilogue of the novel will, indeed, be in the movie. It was nothing definitive but one website, in providing a list of actors for particular roles, actually included the names of the child actors who play the "next generation" (like Scorpius Malfoy, Teddy Lupin, even Harry's children with Ginny: Albus Severus, Lily and James) in the film. These characters only appear in the Epilogue of the final novel!

I'm very pleased at the thought of this. Of course, they could have filmed the epilogue, then left it on the cutting room floor. Who knows?

Well, I guess we all will in just one week's time.

Pondering the complexities of Remus Lupin

I really like the character, Remus Lupin, in the books. He's a good guy but a tortured soul. He knows he what he could have been but he hates what he has become.

I very much liked the way J.K. describes Lupin in the flashbacks Harry experiences to his father's time at Hogwarts. She always says that Lupin wears an expression of delighted surprise at having been included in the cool group at his school.

I think that's a really nice thought and great insight into the character he displays throughout the novels.

The scene in the kitchen at Grimmauld Place in the final novel, where Lupin offers to abandon his family and join up with Harry, Hermione and Ron, though really hard to read, rang true for me in every sense. I thought J.K. captured both Lupin's desperation and fear in that moment and Harry's genuinely angry reaction to his offer.

Most of all, I remember feeling very sad when both Lupin and Tonks die in the seventh book and I worried about their new-born son. I'm going to interpret the epilogue to The Deathly Hallows as implying not only that Teddy does all right as he grows up but also that Lupin's fears that he will be a werewolf too turn out to be unfounded.