Of Love and War, of Quidditch and Seekers

"We can do you blood, love and rhetoric - consecutively or all together" -Richard Dreyfus as King of the Players in "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" This is just a last little post while waiting "the big day" - Just some stuff I cam across in reading book 5 on the night shift. The thing that I was saying about Cho having her own 3-4-5 chiasm - it is actually a little more intricately detailed than I at first realized. In addition to the book 3 introduction of Cho as a driving force, with her whole own chapter in the form of "Gryffindor vs Ravenclaw" chapter in POA, there is a book 5 bookend to that ... a final match between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw in which Gryffindor wins and takes the cup. Only this time it is not Harry squaring off against Cho as seeker ... it is Ginny. In fact, Ginny plays what I think is a REALLY central symbolic role in this time in OotP when Harry is under Umbridge's ban. Bascially Ginny, in two matches, relives the central importance of the seeker image as it played out in books 4 and 3. In book 3, Harry loses to Cedric at the match where the dementors show up, meaning Gryffindor loses to HufflePuff. In Book 5 ... Ginny plays seeker against Hufflepuff in a match lost by 10 points ... but she "pulls a Krum" in the deal. She loses the game by catching the snitch, ... just like Krum did in the world cup in book 4 (like my brother Steve said, "losing the world to gain your soul") - the book where Cedric dies. Any doubts from the shippers about whether it is Ginny or Cho Harry is meant to be with, or whether the book 6 pairing of Harry and Ginny was an unexpected double-cross on Rowling's part? Ginny beats Cho as seeker in the final match in book 5, just as she wins the snitch to win Harry in book 6. So, in all of this Ginny is pretty central as Harry's love interest (meaning "love" as "courtly love" in a way that is larger than the mere emotional part). But some of it makes me wonder if Harry is going to make it out alive in book 7 to marry her and have those 7 kids I want to see them have. Why? Well, for one it would make a pretty neat 2-6 chiasm if he died in 7: Ginny introduced in book 2, they get together in 6 after Harry loses Cho to Cedric in 4 (and 5 really), but that is the closing of Ginny and Harry's chiastic life ... it would tie out neatly. But the other thing I wonder is if it is "written in the stars." Actually I mean a very specific text scene on that: the Astronomy OWL practical during which they witness Umbridge's attack (and failure thereof) on Hagrid from atop the same tower that Harry sees Dumbledore die on in HBP. Follow the text and the stars there. When Harry is distracted by the commotion below, what he is distracted FROM is filling in .... the position of venus - the "love planet." As far as I can see he never gets around to filling it in correctly on his exam chart. BUT he does, in the commotion, get around to mislabeling it ... as Mars - the red planet of the Roman god of war. I am not saying this is conclusive (obviously none of us are ... she has written it too well to guess it so systematically ... which is why we all love it so much ... except for whoever the dud is who thought getting a librarian to sneak pictures was a good idea or whatever happened, trying for a little Barty Jr fame and glory or something) ... and I am obviously pulling really hard for survival and marriage and kids and all - but just saying that when I read that bit last night it made me frown a bit because it does seem to be the type of thing Rowling could use as a hidden clue that Harry is destined for a bloody end with Mars, rather than a marital end with Venus. Also keep in mind that the whole time Hagrid is being attacked ... and I have said I am on the side that says he dies in book 7, which is, as John Granger often notes, slated to be the "Rubedo" stage of the 3-stage alchemical process (with Sirius Black dying in the black stage book, and Albus Dumbledore dying in the white stage book and so Rebeus Hagrid will probably die in the Red Stage book). So, the mislabeling is going on during an attack on a red character whom I think is slated to die this book, a character Harry has deep ties to etc ... not looking good, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed till Friday night (And on being "written in the stars" - I prefer to take Firenze's line on it - even the Centaur's misread the stars sometimes)