Also, I wonder why none of the other wizards throughout the world never came to the aid of the British wizards after Voldemort and the Death Eaters had taken over? For example, the wizards and witches from Beauxbatons in France?
Kind of makes the whole Tri Wizard tournament seem pointless doesn't it? Isn't the whole point of the Tri Wizard tournament supposed to be "international magical cooperation"?
I guess the next Tri Wizard tournament will be somewhat strained, with all the Hogwarts students and faculty saying to the other schools, "thanks for nothing with that whole Voldemort war, as$holes!"
Well who knows what they were dealing with. We get a very tunnel vision view of the HP world, lots of stuff can happen outside the scope. Maybe there were French Death Eaters who kept surrendering in droves and totally bogged down the French wizarding bureaucracy.
Yeah. The french are very grateful for us pulling their butts out of the fire in TWO world wars, aren't they?
I found that section a little tedious, but I think the point was the testing of the association of Harry, Ron and Hermione. Would the friendship and/or romantic association stand up to the demands of the "quest," or not.
Ron is like the son in the parable who says, "I won't go work in the vineyard," but then does anyway.
And speaking of the Bible references, I have to say I didn't really like how that was done. The holidays, the churches and cemeteries, the occasional "Thank God!" and yet nobody, Muggle or magical, is observant of any religion. I found it very inconsistent.
As with "Lord of the Rings," I found the absence of faith in God from the narrative context creates a sense of existential despair that is not overcome by the feel-good "happy ending." No matter how noble the pagans, all endings are death and damnation without the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ. And yes, I get all the typology and symbolism ... but that doesn't still doesn't fill the gaping hole in the milieu, in my opinion.
That'd be an interesting psychoanalytic question for Rowling to answer. It's probably not a conscious thing.
I'm thinking it's a cultural British/Scots "take care of your own" mindset. I'm betting she never really even considered having "non-locals" come to help.
And perhaps she even sees the modern-day UK as already being in the grips of a corporate state that is less evil, but just as repressive as that in the final book ... and the shape of the final battle maybe represents her wish that the normal British people would finally wake up and take a hand once more in their own freedom. (That would definitely be the Scotswoman in her....)