HogCon Day 2: Dumbledore’s Army Panel Discussion
As we open Day 2 here in the Room of Requirement—the original meeting grounds of the infamous DA—a panel of the surviving members of the DA awaits questions from the crowd. Among them are Mr. Harry Potter and his beautiful wife, Ginny Potter, Ron and Hermione Weasley, George and Angelina Weasley, Lee Jordan, Katie Bell, Padma and Parvati Patil, and a much-bandaged Zacharias Smith.
Percy Weasley steps up, holding up his hand to silence the crowd. “Thank you all for being here. We will now begin taking questions in an orderly fashion. The first queries go to our correspondents from the Daily Prophet, Scribble Inkwell and Arabella Featherman.”
Scribble: “Thank you, Mr. Weasley. My first question is to Mr. Potter.”
(Harry inclines his head benignly.)
Scribble: “Mr. Potter (smiles), I would like to first ask how that scar of yours is feeling.”
(Many relieved laughs.)
Harry: (Touching his forehead.) “Quite well when not being plagued by Fanged Frisbees.”
(The Potter/Weasley children snicker in the first row.)
Scribble: “That is a relief to us all.” (Checking notes.) “Going back to your days of fighting Umbridge, what would you say was the one thing that kept you all going despite the immense pressures of persecution and injustice?”
(The panel looks one to the other until Lee Jordan clears his throat.)
Lee: “We were all fighting for something greater than ourselves, weren’t we? For the most part, that is.” (Shoots a nasty glance at Mr. Smith.) “I don’t think even slicing our own hands open stopped us because we just couldn’t let an evil witch like Umbridge win. And it was quite fun watching her get riled up.”
George: “Never gets old. Sent her one of them woodpecker wands to her cell in Azkaban last week. Received quite a few thank you letters from her fellow inmates, didn’t we?”
Ron: “Being locked up with her is worse punishment than the old Dementors were. Those prisoners deserve a good laugh, if you ask me.”
Scribble: “Speaking of those prisoners, many of them were the source of the DA having to both go into hiding and for the most part, returning to Hogwarts to fight the final battle that defeated You-Know-Who. Some of whom lost their lives. How can you want them to have a laugh after all the pain they inflicted?”
Lee: “Easy enough, we’re not them, are we? We’ll always miss Lupin, Tonks, Lavender… Fred… and the others. But what would we become if we spent the rest of our lives hating them? No use now they’ve lost and are paying for their crimes.”
Harry: “Our friends wouldn’t want us to be consumed with hatred for what happened to them. I’d like to think Fred would prefer we laugh.”
George: “Hear, hear. And what’s better than a bunch of old Death Eaters laughing at Umbridge rather than rooting her on?”
Ginny: “Dumbledore told my husband (reaches for Harry’s hand) not to pity the dead but to pity the living and above all those who live without love…. What we’re trying to say is that we don’t hold a grudge against the Death Eaters; we pity them.”
Scribble: “Well said, Mrs. Potter. I will now defer to my partner, Arabella, for her questions.”
If you would like to meet Luke Youngblood, the Muggle who played our beloved Lee Jordan, be sure to purchase your tickets to MuggleNet Live! 2015: Expo Patronum taking place this April in London before they sell out. More details at live.mugglenet.com.
