A plot parallel: Playing dirty

[Porphyria]

No: HPFGUIDX 47912

I've been pondering the issue of certain HP characters with a fondness for 
applying rules to other people but deftly avoiding them personally. 
Consider the following, and let me know what you think:

Let's say that, in the course of your daily affairs, you realize that 
someone you know constitutes a grave danger in their professional capacity.
  They are capable of causing grievous and irreparable damage within their 
current job. You have more than enough proof of this, since you have 
witnessed with your own eyes an example of this person being deceitful, 
betraying a trust and even going on a rampage. You have no doubt in your 
mind that this is the case.

So what do you do? Do you go to someone in a position in authority? Say, 
that person's employer, a ministry official, or your trusted mentor, and 
say "This person *needs to be sacked.* They are *dangerous.*" Or do you 
find some vicious little way of taking matters into your own hands, some 
nasty means of knocking them out of commission so that they cannot 
constitute a danger anymore? Do you play dirty?

Of course I'm talking about -- Hermione and Skeeter. OK, Snape and Lupin 
too. But is has struck me that these two events are strangely similar, and 
I don't recall any discussion of their parallels.

Of course Rita Skeeter *is* a deceitful and hurtful character whom nobody 
likes, and Hermione was accurate in her assessment of her. Lupin, OTOH, is 
basically a great guy, and Snape was deeply mistaken about him at the end 
of PoA. But in Snape's defense, he did go to Dumbledore, apparently on 
several occasions, and try to demand Lupin's dismissal before doing 
anything about it himself. Hermione, however, didn't seem to consult 
anyone before imprisoning and blackmailing Rita Skeeter, and this has 
struck me as a very reckless decision which I'm worried will come back to 
haunt her.

Yes, blackmailing. Am I wrong, or is that exactly what Hermione does by 
telling Rita she'll narc her out to the Ministry if she publishes another 
article within a year? "Rita Skeeter isn't going to be writing anything at 
all for a while. Not unless she wants me to spill the beans on her." Isn't 
this worrisome, since a pair as boisterously reckless as *Fred and George*
  worry about using blackmail? Didn't the subplot of Fred, George and Ludo 
Bagman indicate that blackmail in the Potterverse is wrong from many 
people's point of view?

<GoF>
"- that's blackmail, that is, we could get into a lot of trouble for that-"

"- we've tried being polite; it's time to play dirty, like him. He wouldn'
t like the Ministry of Magic knowing what he did -"

"I'm telling you, if you put that in writing, it's blackmail!"
</GoF>

Well, maybe Hermione hasn't put anything in writing, but I'd say it's 
close enough.

So I ask, do you agree that Hermione's treatment of Skeeter is oddly 
similar to Snape's treatment of Lupin? Are their more contrasts that I'm 
forgetting? Does the twin's temptation to blackmail Bagman factor into 
this theme? How does it relate to the overall motif of Harry operating on 
his own for 'good' reasons? And what constitutes 'playing dirty' in the 
Potterverse?

~Porphyria