Harry Potter and the Nature of self defense

[Tandy, Heidi]

No: HPFGUIDX 19757

Susan wrote:
> 
> 
> of course it doesn't make Harry evil. First, good people do bad 
> things.
> Second, good people lose their tempers.
True, but...
> 
> But third, and most importantly, Harry was acting in self 
> preservation and self defense. Marge has set her dogs on him and 
> treats him with total contempt. Why shouldn't he blow her up?
> She is the one with power over him, he doesn't have the ethical
> restraints that the false Moody should have had when turning Malfoy 
> into a ferret......

Well, it's not self defense, in the legal sense, either under US or UK law.
Harry's actions against Krum in the maze were in defense of another (Cedric)
which is a functional equivilant, but self defense, as a matter of Muggle
law, can only be used against physical force (and while Marge had used
physical force against Harry in the past, in that scene, she wasn't) and can
only match the physical force - in other words, it cannot be more forceful -
you can't meet a stunning spell with an AK, but you could meet it with a
body bind curse, if the wizarding world uses a similar or parallel rule on
this issue.