Your reading of the epilogue and the hopes for Rose/AlbusSeverus/Scorpius is spot on. Though I think ASP might choose Gryffindor as a house, he might also choose a Slytherin (Scorpius) as a best friend, which might finally mean an end to the Gryffindor/Slytherin prejudices, and be an echo back to the founders (didn’t the Sorting Hat say during one of the songs that Godric and Salazar – as well as Helga and Rowena – were best friends at first?) [It would be ironic if Albus chose Slytherin and Scropius chose Gryffindor, though.] And with a successful Gryffindor/Slytherin love affair in Rose/Scorpius as well, what a resolution of contraries! And I can image the amusement of the DumbledorePortrait and the SnapePortrait when the new trio appears in the headmasters office – can you see the look on their faces at the possible friendship of the Harry and Draco lookalikes of Albus and Scorpius? Or the Rose/Scorpius romance? And the Snape portrait will have some sneering (but inner-ly amused) comment about the Albus Severus name? Okay, I’m stopping now before this deviates into fanfic territory!

Back to the topic.

John, you wrote: “freely choosing love and sacrifice to transcend a fallen world embracing death and self.” What a way to describe the whole series! :claps:

Poster DA1 wrote: “Great good can be accomplished by flawed (i.e. sinful) human beings inspired by love. … Dumbledore, Snape and Harry all have their flaws – but look at the good driven by love and choices made.” I applaud you too!

I don’t think the Eliot/Norwich choice has to be either/or. They’re both part of English history, literary and theological. I almost wonder if she didn’t choose the line for its aesthetic rightness before she even realized its connotations. I love that some expressions contain within them such a richness of allusion, showing that Harry Potter is part of a long, ongoing conversation.

And I love the epilogue. I kept going back to read it, and each time I became more impressed by its artistry. We know JKR can wield words, lots of words, well. All the more reason to be impressed, I think, by the modest, almost sparse (or do I mean spare) feel to the epilogue. It seemed so carefully planned and so well executed. I kept getting the sense of a beautifully set-up photo, or a finely edited three-minute home movie (the kind my dad used to take on our old film camera). The last chapter ended well, but we needed, desperately need, that epilogue to put things in perspective and to come full circle on some themes and emotions. So thanks for unpacking the alchemical underpinnings of that masterful epilogue, John!

There was the door to which I found no key;
There was the Veil through which I could not see;
Some little talk awhile of Me and Thee
There was – and then no more of Thee and Me.

The locked door – the veil – Wow! Enjoy!

Dobby

Grateful John

The text I have devotes pages 147 to 152 to the weasel. It is wonderfully suggestive. I append a few quotations.

“Searching for symbolic images that would convey serious Christian lessons, the early glossarists pointed out that although the weasel is the smallest of the carnivores, yet it can win combats with much bigger animals than itself – so, they said, the weasel is the perfect symbol of a Christian who, no matter how weak in himself, can still triumph over Satan, the most terrifying monster of hell.” p.147 (Can you say, Chamber of Secrets?)

“The weasel conceives through the ear and gives birth through the mouth” is a dictum from the ancient world attested by Plutarch, Aristotle, and Ovid.
“Likewise, the disciple and also the initiate, listening to the word of the master, receives through the ear the seed of wisdom and of inner light which impregnates his spirit; then having thus learned much through attentive listening, the candidate for initiation becomes in his turn a teacher, and through the wise and eloquent speech of his mouth gives birth to disciples who are his spiritual children.” p.148
(Here I would add the Bible citations from ACTS chapter 8 and 15, Romans chapter 10: 5 – 17, and 1 John 5:13 – all of which refer to the hearing, believing and confessing of faith in Jesus Christ which gives new birth.) Can you say EPILOGUE?

The familial care of the weasel made it a symbol of carefulness, vigilance, and active paternal affection for some symbolists. This, and the power of revivication shared with the lion and the pelican made it easy for the weasel to become one of the fauna symbolic of JESUS CHRIST. p.149. (Can you say Mollie and Arthur?)

“Pliny also tells us in two other passages of his great work that the weasel is the most implacable vanquisher of that terrifying reptile, the basilisk or cockatrice: ‘This monster as has often been proved for kings wishing to see its corpse, cannot withstand weasels, which lure it into a cave and kill it by the odor they exhale’. In another passage he says that the weasel itself will pursue the cockatrice into its lair, where everything nearby is burned by the reptile’s breath. Then, with nothing but its odor, the weasel kills it, and dies at the same time. All the ancient Christian symbolists took note of this… . In the works of medieval writers and artists, the weasel becomes the image of the Savior.” pp.149-150 (Dan you say Ron and Deathly Hallows?)

Interestingly, “A slightly larger (huge – o ?) variety of the weasel is the ermine… . Medieval heraldry took the ermine as the symbolic image of a man determined to protect the purity of his conscience – an image that is, above all, that of the perfect knight who prefers to undergo any misfortune rather than tarnish his name and his escutcheon by the slightest act contrary to loyalty, fidelity, or knightly honor. …Thus placed as the perfect sign of the soul’s purity, the ermine shares the symbol of the crucifixion with the swan, the dove, THE LILY, and the snow, embodying the innocence of CHRIST. Also, the ermine was one of the rare winter symbols of the Resurrection, because, while brown in summer, it then seemed to disappear, only to reappear in all its whiteness with the return of the snowy season.” p151. (Can you say HUGO – the larger weasley?)

I have cousins who mirrored similar behaviors in their childhood: the older was confident of his place as firstborn and quite full of himself. The other cousin was sensitive, like Albus appears to be, without a mean bone in his body. I remember my mom talking about the day the younger cousin beat the stuffing out of his older brother in self-defense and how the grown-ups were glad to see some backbone in the boy! Eventually the elder worked through his issues and became a decent human being…but he could never hold a candle to his younger, kind-hearted sibling.

James may have the spotlight at the moment…firstborn of Harry Potter, energetic and fun to be around. James will NEED the limelight as did his grandfather. But I think Albus will be the *quiet giant* in the long run: a recognized leader; wise, sensitive, an honor to his namesakes. I can see ASP as a future Headmaster of Hogwarts. If James takes after his father on the broom, I would imagine him to seek his fame in the International Quiddich arena.