Neville Longbottom's Memory Problems (Lumos 2006 Material)

This is a quickie from Lumos (I will probably have quite a number of these, rushing around, as Pauli said, organizing the spatio-temporal parameters of my physical belongings ... I will probably have larger bursts too, like on Granger's talk on Rowling as a Post-Modern, but I'm also having smaller "tidbits" that I'm anxious to get out there to readers because all of it is just so good). Peg Kerr gave the talk on the issue of the role of Memory in the books and she mentioned the issue of Neville. Now, I had already heard the theories of the possibility that Neville's memory has something to do with damage from the extensive memory charm work that was necessary because of the possible witnessing of his parents' torture. My impression was that what people note as Neville's problems being characteristic of memory charms (corroborated with other evidence of people who have had damage due to memory manipulation, such as Lockheart and even Bertha Jorkins being so damaged from Voldy breaking the memory charm on her that he killed her, a charm which, according to the HP Lexicon, caused her to be so forgetful, like Neville) was definitely valid but didn't go all the way to presenting evidence that this element would place him as a strong contender for a major role in the final action. What Peg Kerr noted, though, does, to me, present such type of evidence. She noted that there are 2 distinct times in the series thus far that Neville's memory problems have plaid a major role in the central action/plot. The first is that it is his rememberall that Harry goes to catch and is spotted by McGonnegal as a great seeker and pulled in for Gryffindor seeker in PS/SS, a role which we have seen have major symbolic significance for Harry, as well as major plot developments (as when Harry broke his arm with a bludger because of it [CS], as captain of Gryffindor team he goes up to see hospitalized Ron but then has to get to the match, placing him in the path of Malfoy and poly-juice-pumped Crabbe and Goyle, which gives him clues as to what's going on, etc. ) The second instance is that it is Neville's poor memory that leads him to write the passwords down in POA and thus Sirius is able to have Crookshanks get them for him and is able to get into the Castle. This sends Scabbers running to Hagrid's and it is following when he runs off in the final sequence that puts Ron in the path of Sirius as the dog, and in the company of Harry and Hermione, and all three winding up in the shrieking shack together for the big event. I like this because, like Jo2, I really like Neville. I like him as a symbolic paring with Harry and I'm excited to think that his themes may play a major role in the final action (and I'm sure others could present other cases of Neville's memory playing a major role, which I would love to hear about in the comments).