The Final Battle: Canon and In-game

[wintercreek]

Okay, bear with me here because I just moved across the country and so I have not researched this post properly. But. I want to talk about the end of the term in-game and how it compares to the end of HPSS. (We may have listened to the audiobook of HPSS in the car. *g*)

First off, Ron's still involved in the chess match even though it's Harry, Draco and Hermione down there. Interesting that it's Draco who sacrifices himself as Ron did in the book - this sets Draco up as the heart, the role that Ron arguably fills in the original heart-mind-hand reading of the trio. (They could also be read as body-mind-soul - in both cases, Hermione's the mind. More on this immediately!)

Second, Hermione's able to use Draco's wand to defend Harry because "their turn of minds are similar enough that his wand worked perfectly well in her hand". Now Draco's being paralleled with canon-Hermione as the mind. Fanonically Draco is very intelligent; one AU even had him sorted into Ravenclaw, to his father's displeasure. Draco seems to be standing outside the canon trio rather than slotting into one of their roles - he's borrowing from them and creating his own element.

Third, in canon Harry makes it to the final confrontation on his own and is protected by his mother's love and sacrifice. In-game, it's Hermione's actions that protect Harry. I am only a sometime-H/Hr 'shipper and this is not an argument for romantic love between eleven-year-olds, but it does seem that Hermione acted out of her affection for Harry, saving him at great risk to herself. Hermione may be here paralleled with Lily-and-James, in that she both cares for Harry, placing herself in harm's way as Lily did, and actively fights for him as James did.

Finally, it's Hermione's parents that end up making the sacrifice. Just as we know that Harry's parents canonically died for him, McG tells Hermione that she "needed to remember that my parents were strong and they loved me and they would rather them than me." And although they are, as Hermione says, not dead. Just werewolfed it comes to something very much the same in this universe. In-game-Hermione and canon-Harry are connected here; in-game-Hermione and in-game-Harry are connected here as well, possibly, if Harry knows that his parents died protecting him before he was "adopted" by the LP.

Also, Percy telling off Sally-Anne strikes me as similar to McG's telling off of the trio in canon as they try to contact Dumbledore. And yet it's quite different in that Sally-Anne is seeking help during the climactic scenes rather than before and is not directly involved. That Percy's a prefect and not a professor seems to be a good in-game translation of the increased visibility and power of prefects, who did not seem as prominent in canon.

What do you all think? Are these specious parallels? Or ones worth following up on? How do you think the roles of the in-game characters shook out relative to canon?

Comments

[longstrider.livejournal.com]

We didn't see the part that had to do with the Potters in this universe. It took place in the transfigured room. Harry knows more about his family than any character has said in the journals. Quoting from McG's post (http://alt-mcgonagall.livejournal.com/8446.html):

What Marvolo told me later, you see, is that he was able to see his heart's desire in the Mirror as well as his Father. I shall always remember what he said to me in my office then: 'I think you'd better have this.' And from his pocket he draws the Stone. Well - not the Stone in its natural form, of course, but its Transfigured form. I could not think how he had picked it from the mass of things I had jumbled together in that room, but he said, 'it was my mother's handkerchief - well, it wasn't, is it? It must be something else you Transfigured, something very important. I think it's what Macnair wanted.' Oh I am telling this in a jumble, aren't I? It seems Marvolo had picked it up on his way through the jumble-room almost by chance, remembering it from a previous encounter with the Mirror of Erised as his mother's. Then, when he looked in the mirror, his father (James Potter I mean) showed him what it was - and told him somehow not to tell the Lord Protector. When I asked Marvolo how he knew to trust the Mirror's image, he looked quite uncomfortable and wouldn't answer. I have never wished more to be a Legilimens.

There's clearly more going on than we got to see (D'uh!)

On a slightly different note I'll repeat something I've said before, but it's come up again with the talk of visiting friends over the summer. I really seeing the things that are better in this world than canon, in particular what brought it to mind is all of the cross house friendship, including Gryffindor/Slytherin, which were almost unheard of in the books. It's nice to see something nice in a world this grim.