hackthis_archive | Mar. 9th, 2004

The Story of Us

Everyone has one story to tell. Their story isn’t just in the foibles they recount and the tidbits they share, it’s in the timber of their voices and the darting glances when they turn away.

People tell their stories by crossing their arms and looking over your shoulder when they should meet your eye. People tell their stories in everything they don’t say. And their stories may pick up characters along the way; they may lose several more before the story ends, but people can always be defined by the story they tell and most times they don’t even have to say a thing. After all, Harry Potter’s story was written all over his face long before he ever met Neville Longbottom.

Harry was already the hero of his own story when Neville was just a bit player -- but somewhere along the line, Harry’s story changed. It picked up characters; it dropped several more. Harry’s story stopped being about a boy and started to become about a young man who made mistakes and didn’t always look everyone in the eye.

And then someone took Harry’s story and flipped it upside down.

They started reading it from the middle instead of the beginning, or they read the ending first and then went back to the start. At one point Harry’s story wasn’t even really about him anymore, and that’s when Neville found him and dusted him off.

Neville rescued Harry when he didn’t think he had anything left to give. He was pretty sure the story of his life had run out -- but Neville changed his mind. Neville picked up the quill when Harry didn’t have anything left to say to anyone, and Neville made Harry keep going. He reminded Harry that the story of his life could turn out any which way and there was no reason for Harry to think the ending had already been decided, prophecies or not.

Neville reminded Harry that it really was his life, his story, and he was the only one who could choose how it would go and who the hero would be.

Harry could be anything he wanted to.

And so, in the middle of the story the point of view changed, and the story of one became the story of two. And yes, there were problems with continuity and characterisation and fights, and all the things that make people human. The story didn’t always read like a classical novel of Ye Olde Times, but it didn’t really matter, because it was the story that was important and everything else was extra material that their memories could edit later on.