Did Lavender die?

[birdsofshore]

This has been puzzling me lately.

In Deathly Hallows it says:

"Two bodies fell from the balcony overhead as they reached the ground a grey blur that Harry took for an animal sped four-legged across the hall to sink its teeth into one of the fallen. "NO!" shrieked Hermione, and with a deafening blast from her wand, Fenrir Greyback was thrown backward from the feebly stirring body of Lavender Brown. He hit the marble banisters and struggled to return to his feet. Then, with a bright white flash and a crack, a crystal ball fell on top of his head, and he crumpled to the ground and did not move."

So, "feebly stirring" to me, meant that she was injured, perhaps seriously injured, but not dead. When I read it, I expected her to get medical treatment after the Battle was over, and that she would survive.

Then, when I saw the film version of Deathly Hallows, I noticed that it looks as if Lavender is killed by Greyback during the attack. You could argue she is unconscious, or paralysed, but she does look dead. However I just passed it off as either a) making her look more seriously injured to be dramatic, or b) one of those things where the films differ from the books. I don't count film canon as superceding book canon, in any case.

However, when I went to Harry Potter Wiki to check something, (yes, yes, I know it's not exactly the most pre-eminent source, but where else do I look?) they are quite certain that Lav is dead:

"Immediately after the attack, she was seen feebly stirring, but later died from her injuries."

They cite Harry Potter Page to Screen: The Complete Filmmaking Journey as the source for this. I do actually own this book, and it's lovely, but it's freaking massive and I am not trawling through it at the moment to see on whose say-so Lavender allegedly died.

Now, I've seen Lavender alive and kicking in several fanfics lately. I don't want her to be dead. For one thing, I really quite like her, and also, I want to put her in my fic. I know it doesn't matter what Harry Potter Wiki says. If Snape can be resurrected in fic, I am sure Lavender can. But it's annoying me. Hands up who thinks Lavender is still alive at the end of Deathly Hallows? I mean, if you think that's what JKR intended, not just your own personal head canon.

Also, if she's alive, then she's a werewolf, I presume? Or did I get that wrong? Where are all the Were!Lav fics? Probably in those dark and scary comms I never go to. Or is being a werewolf now just one of those annoying little things that we don't mention in polite company, like having a verruca or something?

Come and tell me all the things about Lavender, I beg you!

Comments

[torino10154]

Yeah, that's it. I mean that is just NOT how I approach defining canon and makes me unwilling to trust them across the board now because who knows what other movie or Lego (!!!) canon they've slipped in.

[tryslora]

Oh yes, that'd be a lovely fic and totally something I'd love to explore. I was just looking at it from the POV of if I were the writer and putting together the original scene (with no plans for something after), because I thought it tied up the threads between Hermione and Lavender neatly.

[tryslora]

Sometimes I read with my writer hat on and actually notice things. :) I don't think I even would've noticed, honestly, if I hadn't been doing such a close reading from Lavender's POV.

[tryslora]

Yes, it does. I had a LOT of discussion with RP folks after DH came out because we were all ripping apart things in the final battle as we prepared to run/play games that took place after it.

My favorite head canon is that the other body with Lavender is Seamus. In one game I played, they had matching scars that stretched from her body in a line across his body where a curse had caught them, pushing them over the railing together. Since he appears later in the battle, he was obviously in better shape afterwards. But that is totally head canon. :)

[nathalieweasley.livejournal.com]

Gotcha, that makes sense. (And I'd love to read that fic :))

[nathalieweasley.livejournal.com]

I know :(

[nathalieweasley.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, websites veering off vague canon and inserting their own opinions (sans the option of meta) are frustrating.

You're welcome!

[mab.livejournal.com]

He wasn't transformed because if he had been, then so would have Remus... but it could be that Fenrir just went down that path of becoming more wolfish as happens when you engage in darkarts.. like voldemort resembling a snake after fracturing his soul so many times. Fenrir embraced the wolf.

[faithwood.livejournal.com]

So, so late to this party.

Nonetheless... someone (possibly you??) said above that you simply don't say a character 'stirred' in the last scene they're mentioned, if you meant for them to die. That's just weird writing and should never get past a half-decent editor.

She stirred, she lived; had she been frozen/still/unmoving/whatever we'd know she's dead.

It's one of those things. Like the Draco Malfoy's Dark Mark debate. I simply cannot see it as ambiguous. The claim is: we didn't see him show us his Mark; therefore, it's possible he doesn't have one.

It's just... his Dark Mark was used as an actual clue that Harry had to solve in order to figure out Voldemort's actual plan for Draco. And Harry was right and Draco's Dark Mark was instrumental to solving this puzzle. It's just not possible to go back from that and claim, after the book ended, that, lol, no, Draco didn't actually have the Mark; the fact that the idea led Harry to the right conclusion was merely an accident.

No, no, no. Not even the author can contradict the obvious implication of the text like that.

(I'm not saying that one can't explore different possibilities in fics. Of course not! Go for it! I'm just saying that the actual text is clear: Lavender is alive; Draco received the Dark Mark. I'm just... PUTTING MY FOOT DOWN, OKAY.)

Also, yes to the Lavender thing being a Hermione character moment, which, if Lavender had died, would become pointless.

[eidheann_writes]

Coming back because Im still thinking about it...

Greyback was "human" during battle of hogwarts because Lupin was.

Edit: and it says that right below me in a collapsed comment. It is just one of those days...

[birdsofshore]

I'm so happy to read your thoughts! I read the scene to Mr Birds (I may have said this upthread already) without telling him the context, and asked "is that person about to recover, or are they dying?" He was totally unambivalent that the person was coming round from the attack.