DADA , Snape and Slytherin

[fourfuries at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 24288

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Steve Vander Ark" <vderark at b...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., cimorene21 at h... wrote:
> 
>DADA is training students the why of magic, not just the how. It's 
>like ethics courses for  doctors. Without a thorough training in 
>this, a school trains wizards with no foundation of good and evil. 
>The product would be ammoral, easily-swayed wizards who wield power 
>without the understanding that would keep them on the side of the 
>right and good. It's all about intention. 

Which brings us to a question that is heavy on my mind.  Is Draco 
Malfoy evil, or merely the product of poor examples in his mother and 
father?  How about Snape and the whole Slytherin gang?  I am sure 
this has been discussed before on the group, but I am asking 
specifically what qualifies one as an evil wizard, or a potentially 
evil wizard.

Obviously it is something in the character of the person before they 
reach Hogwarts, because the Sorting Hat seems to sort the prideful, 
ambitious, snobby and hateful people into Slytherin.  But are these 
the only evils? Cornelius Fudge is going to do terrible damage in the 
next book IMO and I doubt that he is a Slytherin alum.  His blindness 
to the real danger, and his complacency with easy answers are just as 
dangerous as the active plotting of Malfoy, sr.

I agree with Steve about the purpose of the school to be to train 
character as much as talent (see my prior post Re:  Magical Talent 
and Wands Part Two).  The challenge comes in admitting that teaching 
right and wrong means that we voluntarily choose NOT to do things we 
are perfectly capable of doing.  Good people voluntarily restrain 
themselves.

Voldy says to Quirrell in PS/SS "The Man With Two Faces": 
(paraphrasing) "There is no right and wrong, only power, and those 
too weak to use it."

As a result Dumbledore observes in chapter two that Voldy has "powers 
I never had", but Minerva immediately replies "that's only because 
you are to noble to use them".  The difference between Voldy and 
Dumbledore, then, is Dumbledore's sense of restraint.

I think Snape would like to be the DADA teacher, because he knows 
more about the dark arts than anybody else at Hogwarts, with the 
possible exception of Prof D (In PoA, doesn't someone say that Snape 
came to school knowing more curses than most kids ever learned in 
their 7 years?)  Drak Arts is Snape's natural interest, he likes 
power, and was probably a Death Eater because of these natural 
inclinations.

But he learned somehow to restrain himself.  He pulled back from evil.
So, my question is where do Slytherins learn restraint?

4FR