ship_manifesto | Pansy Parkinson/Theodore Nott (Harry Potter) (Reply)

Title: "Why Nott the Better Choice?"
Author:

reddiej
Spoilers: None really, just a few lines in passing from OotP
Personal Website: ReddieJ's LiveJournal (What? It's personal... yeah.)

Why Ship a Couple of Lesser-Known Slytherins?

What defines the traits of a Slytherin student? As it's been said countless times in the Harry Potter books a Slytherin is known to be cunning, determined, resourceful, and the type to take care of themselves before anyone else. Another common factor found in Slytherin students is that they would take any means to achieve their goals - as in, they would do just about anything to get what they wanted, and would settle for nothing less than the best. Such characteristics are shown in all the Slytherin students, especially the most popular in the books - Draco Malfoy. He truly is the epitome of a Slytherin student, and basically sets the standard as to how other Slytherin students should be. It also lets the readers understand what a Slytherin is capable of, whether good or bad.

So now you're asking yourself, "What does this have to do with Pansy Parkinson and Theodore Nott?"

They are both Slytherins, and as such I felt the need to describe the House characteristics before getting onto the individual characters. Yes, it does sound rather biased of me to say that if one Slytherin fits the mold then they all do. I don't believe that, to be honest, for the simple fact that Harry Potter was almost destined to be in Slytherin and he's nothing like Draco Malfoy; not really. I don't think that all Slytherin students each fit the description of what the Sorting Hat throws out every September during the Welcoming feast, but there is a lot of truth in what it says.

Who, and Why Pansy Parkinson and Theodore Nott?

Now, I'm going to start with Pansy Parkinson first here. In the books she's seen more or less as Draco's simpering, almost air-headed female friend (I'm not going to say girlfriend because even though the two did go to the Yule Ball in fourth year it doesn't necessarily mean they're dating - Harry and Parvati Patil went together as well but they never dated either). Jo Rowling has always said that Pansy is the leader of her group of 'giggling Slytherin girls', who are very mean-spirited and ruthless to those they don't like. Case in point, this is an example of how malevolent Pansy can be, just because she can:

The subject of the Quidditch World Cup carried them all the way down the drive and out through the gates. Harry could hardly believe how easy it was to talk to her, no more difficult, in fact, than talking to Ron and Hermione, and he was just starting to feel confident and cheerful when a large gang of Slytherin girls passed them, including Pansy Parkinson.

"Potter and Chang!" screeched Pansy to a chorus of snide giggles. "Urgh, Chang, I don't think much of your taste . . . At least Diggory was good-looking!"¹

So in essence, she sounds like the female counterpart to Draco, who is of course, the leader of his group of minions. Pansy has always been seen from the point of view of Harry and his friends, so naturally she won't come out in a good light. I am most certainly not saying that she is a saint in disguise of a spiteful, heinous bitch - but really, not everything Harry sees is true, now is it? We're reading the books from the eyes of a biased and inquisitive Gryffindor teenage boy. He's not going to know a lot about many things, now is he - especially about those that have nothing to do with him? But that's fine; this isn't about Harry and how he sees things, but the fact that because he doesn't see everything about everyone around him, and therefore neither do the readers, we are left to judge everyone in Harry's life, both allies and foes.

I'll admit it now, I do see Pansy as a completely ruthless bitch. But do I believe that "she's thicker than a concussed troll,"² as Hermione Granger sees her? Not necessarily. That, like many things in the books, is very much left to be interpreted. Is she really this idiotic prissy girl who follows Draco around like a lost, little puppy dog? Or is she a bit more Slytherin than that - is there really a cunning and determined girl behind the façade? Again, all is left to intepretation. Because we are left to assume and judge characters and their actions in accordance to how we want them to be - meaning, we can have Pansy be a bit more ruthless (I mean, she is the gang leader to her group of friends, and even someone as stuck-up as Draco would take her to the ball, but there could be the fact of pure-bloodedness that has to do with that, and this is not the place to discuss such things as it is), and we can also have her more conniving. Overall, we can have a Pansy who wants someone better than Draco Malfoy (and why wouldn't she?) ...

... Which now leads us into Theodore Nott. To be honest, we knew almost nothing about Theo from the books, and he was only mentioned twice³ (you more or less assume that the 'stringy Slytherin boy' who saw the Thestrals was Theo since his mother died - I highly doubt that was Blaise Zabini) in passing in 'Order of the Phoenix'. Lots of readers don't even remember Theo from the books, which I can understand, but when Jo puts up that bit of information about him on her website, then we have a lot to work with. Jo said that Theo was the only person Draco, who deems rather highly of himself in the canon, as an equal... which more or less means that Theo is much more interesting than Draco could ever be (not that Draco was really that interesting in the canon to begin with, but I don't want to sit here and be all anti-Draco). He is also more clever than Draco is, and the fact that he chooses not to stoop himself as to be one of Draco's cronies like Crabbe and Goyle and insteads wants to live the 'loner' life, as Jo said on her site⁴, shows that he doesn't care for things like popularity. I think most of everyone who read that new info about Theo wanted desperately for that deleted bit to be in the books (I surely did), but alas, all we can hope is that Jo makes Theo more prominent in the last two books.

So now we've analyzed Theo and Pansy a bit with the help of the canon, and you're still ask, "So what's the point?" Well, I, like many other HP fans would like to see an interesting and new ship, and any new relationship between two characters that isn't so two-dimensional. Plus, since they are both purebloods, it's not as though they can't be together. I'm sure the Parkinsons and Nott, Snr. would be happy to have their children fall and love and get married, etc. Even though we're still not sure if the Parkinsons are in cahoots with Lord Voldemort (just because they haven't been mentioned as Death Eaters doesn't mean they don't support him - just think of Sirius's parents), it doesn't mean the two families don't have an amicable relationship, even if it's just in the sake for their children to be 'betrothed' to one another (better Theo than Draco).

With Theo and Pansy we can finally see how bad a pair of Slytherins in love (or lust) can truly be, and not have any of it to do with Draco Malfoy.

Footnotes:
¹ Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (U.S. Ed) p.557-8
² Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (U.S. Ed) p.188
³ Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (U.S. Ed):
p.444:Most of the rest of the class were wearing expressions as confused and nervously expectant as Ron's and were still gazing everywhere but at the horse standing feet from them. There were only two other people who seemed to be able to see them: a stringy Slytherin boy standing just behind Goyle was watching the horse eating with an expression of great distaste on his face, and Neville, whose eyes were following the swishing progress of the long black tail.

p.583: If anything more was needed to complete Harry's happiness, it Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle's reactions. He saw them with their heads together later that afternoon in the library, together with a weedy-looking boy Hermione whispered was called Theodore Nott. They looked around at Harry as he browsed the shelves for the book he needed on Partial Vanishment, and Goyle cracked his knuckles threateningly and Malfoy whispered something undoubtedly malevolent to Crabbe. Harry knew perfectly well why they were acting like this: he had named all of their fathers as Death Eaters.

⁴ J.K.Rowling Official Site - Malfoy & Nott (Chamber of Secrets/Goblet of Fire)

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