Intrinsically Good magic

[Amanda]

David:

> It's fairly obvious, IMO, that much magic can be regarded as 
morally 
> neutral, but capable of being pressed into the service of either 
> good or evil just like, say, high explosive, but *some* magic seems 
> somehow to be intrinsically evil - though as yet we have seen 
> remarkably little in the way of examples.  We haven't had much 
> evidence of magic that's intrinsically 'good', either.
> 
> Thoughts?

One. We have seen one very powerful example, referenced a couple of 
times. Sacrifice. Even more powerful when made for love.

Off the top of my head (I'm at work):

Whatever Lily did for Harry was intrinsically good, to the extent 
that it was anathema to those who intended evil to him. They couldn't 
even *touch* him. I'd consider that good on a pretty definitive and 
elemental level.

Life-debts feed into this as well, inasmuch as they are a giving by 
the saver to the savee. The saving of lives as we have seen it 
involves sacrifice and risk. Dumbledore tells us that they create a 
bond; I submit that this bond is an intrinsically good one. James 
saved Snape at great risk to himself. Harry saved Pettigrew by 
denying his own desire to see vengeance, and "saved" Sirius and Lupin 
from committing a (possibly) intrinsically evil act.

Sirius obliquely underlines this polarity, when he tells Peter he 
should have died rather than submit to Voldemort. Peter has not 
simply made a bad choice and been weak--he has rejected the 
intrinsically good choice of sacrifice for his friends, which (who 
knows?) might have *strengthened* them, and chosen the evil.

And an interesting thought, that last, which came to me as I 
typed...what if those who fall, making a good choice, strengthen the 
side of good even though they die? Makes Pettigrew's betrayal a 
double one. And it feeds nicely (and ominously) back into Love As A 
Spell Component, and the corollary that Dumbledore will die in such a 
way that his death will strengthen the protection of Harry/Hogwarts. 
(and the theory continues, either Harry or Snape or both will believe 
that Snape killed him, and the death of Dumbledore is how Snape will 
buy his way back into the full faith of Voldemort).

Okay, have to be productive now.

~Amanda