No doubt everyone knows the legendary names: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger. Fans of the fictional universe created by the writer Joan Rowling and embodied in a large-scale epic about the Boy Who Lived will probably be able to name more than a dozen minor characters who have made their own invaluable contribution to the development of Harry's story.
It is noteworthy that some heroes became famous not so much for plot significance as for the attractive appearance of the actors who brought the famous images to life on the screen. And even more interesting is the fact that a number of Rowling's characters had no special meaning for novels and films, nor external beauty, and all the same, these characters remained in the memory and in the hearts of passionate fans were lost. A vivid example of such an image is a Hogwarts student named Marcus Flint.
First appearance
A tall, athletic six-year-old is first mentioned in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. When Harry, having demonstrated outstanding broom possession while capturing the magic artifact of Neville Dolgopups, enters the Quidditch team, the guys from the Slytherin faculty become his main rivals. The captain of the Slytherin team at that time was Marcus Flint. Oliver Wood, captain of the Gryffindor team, is quietly at odds with his main opponent; the only manifestation of their mutual hatred remains too strong handshakes before the start of the next match (young Potter even thinks that the guys are trying to break each other's fingers).
Second appearance
At the beginning of the next school year, described in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the main character and his eternal foe, Draco Malfoy, enroll in the second year of Hogwarts. This means that Draco now has every right to play Quidditch for his faculty. However, instead of deserving a place in the team thanks to worthy skills and talent, Malfoy Jr. takes the position of catcher by cunning: Marcus Flint (photo) and all other team members receive the latest broomsticks of the Nimbus 2001 model from the former Death Eater - Draco's father. Having thus bought a catcher’s place, Draco subsequently poses a major threat to Harry Potter on the Quidditch school field.
Of the other players in the Slytherin team, virtually nothing is known, but the book mentions that Marcus Flint was extremely pleased with the new broom. He himself could not afford such an expensive purchase, since his family was not distinguished by special wealth or influence.
In the second fantasy epic book, as in the second film, Flint is involved in a skirmish between the Gryffindor team, the Golden Trio (Harry, Ron and Hermione), and Draco Malfoy. Hermione accuses Draco of indirectly giving a bribe, to which Malfoy Jr. responds with the first insult in the history of the characters, emphasizing the division of wizards into purebred and muggle-born. Having become furious with the heard swearing “Mudblood” thrown in the direction of his best friend, Ron Weasley tries to send a curse on Malfoy. The ginger guy’s broken magic wand sends a curse at himself, and Ron begins to cough up slugs right on the Quidditch pitch. Marcus Flint (actor Jamie Yates) at this time is laughing at his Gryffindor friends along with the rest of the Slytherin players.
Third (and last) appearance
Since the first volume of the Potterians mentioned that Flint was in his sixth year at that time, none of the fans of the story expected to meet the Slytherin captain again in the third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Answering numerous questions about the inconsistency, Joan Rowling explained that the guy's almost complete lack of intelligence was manifested in the final exams, as a result of which Marcus Flint received unsatisfactory marks in all subjects and remained in seventh year for the second year.
In the third book, he continues to play for the hunter and remains the captain of the Slytherin team. At one of the matches of Gryffindor against Hufflepuff, Flint, along with Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, disguises himself as Dementors to scare Harry Potter and put him out of the game. The Boy-Who-Survived successfully repelled a mock attack, which in turn frightened the Slytherins with a magical Patronus.
Future
Presumably, after graduation, Marcus Flint, like other graduates of the most sinister Hogwarts department, supported Voldemort and joined the ranks of the Death Eaters. This conclusion can be drawn from an unattractive description of a character whose teeth were of different lengths and reminded Harry of a mountain troll.
A few words about politics
If Joan Rowling wanted to show, with an obvious example, how unpleasant and repulsive students of the Slytherin faculty seem to be, then she completely succeeded with such characters as Pansy Parkinson, Gregory Goyle and Marcus Flint. From the “Harry Potter” throughout the plot you can draw only one impression of Slytherin: only brazen like Draco, stupid like Crabbe and Goyle, or just manic-minded personalities - the descendants of the bloodthirsty Death Eaters, study there. On the one hand, such a narrow vision of characters has become an excellent basis for dividing people into friends and enemies: in Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff - good students, in Slytherin - bad students.
On the other hand, who did not think about the fact that there are simply no clearly evil people? For some reason, Rowling is focused on demonstrating fidelity to fanatical beliefs, on marring several generations at once (including young children who have just entered the Slytherin faculty), and on selecting all the Dark Lord's followers to the same comb. Explicit exceptions to the general rule are only Professor Severus Snape and traitor Peter Pettigrew.
Unfair shortcuts
Can every Slytherin be considered a potential brutal killer? Externally, Marcus Flint serves as a vivid example of such a worldview: he looks like a troll, does not shine with intellect and prefers physical reprisals to calm negotiations. Unfortunately, that is how nearly all adult adherents of Lord Voldemort are described. Perhaps the writer was just too lazy to give these characters the characters and images of real people, and that is why she created them “on a carbon copy” so that the main character could fight with a clear conscience against an army of troll-like, stupid, cruel, bloodthirsty and interchangeable wizards.
Fan fiction
Of course, many fans of the Potterians at first sight were attracted by the mysterious captain of the Slytherin team Marcus Flint. Fan fiction, where he became the central character, can be divided into the following thematic groups:
- rivalry with Oliver Wood;
- rivalry with Harry Potter;
- romantic relationship with Hermione Granger;
- participation in student life at the Slytherin faculty;
- neutral biographies.
You can read in fan fiction about why Flint has such an unattractive appearance, why he loves Quidditch so much, what he has in common with Hermione, and how his future fate develops after the events of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Of course, these are just assumptions. But those are interesting stories written by fans: in them even the most nondescript characters find a new life.