Do people like SYCOPHANTS?

[talondg]

No: HPFGUIDX 36953

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "ssk7882" <skelkins at a...> wrote:
> Dicentra wrote:

> I hate murder.  I really do: I just *hate* it.  I'm not crazy about 
> killing at all, to tell you the truth, but murder is something that 
> I simply and purely and absolutely detest.  And to my mind, once 
> someone is lying on his back staring at you while you're holding a 
> weapon on him, it's no longer self-defense if you kill him.  It's 
> murder.

Hrm. Well.

That's not totally without precident, after all. There's a long 
Western tradition of the "honourable surrender" where the enemy you 
have under your control is now under your protection - Geneva 
Convention and all that.

But a convention is something that *both* sides have agreed to 
honour, and that implies that both sides have honour to bring to the 
table. In order to provide mercy, the recipient of the mercy must go 
along with the deal.

But as sad as it is, there are people who are totally without the 
slightest shred of honour. People who will take advantage of *any* 
lapse in concentration, of *any* moment of weakness; people who will 
seek to do you harm the instant they feel they can get away with it.

These people have relinquished any claim to humanity they might have 
once had. They have desecended to the level of a dangererous animal - 
like a scorpion.

When you have such a one on his back with a weapon trained on him, 
that's not a person any more. That's a continued threat that will do 
you danger unless you end it, right here and now.

Your only moral obligation is to do it clean, and not prolong the 
suffering.

Consider this: the direct result of Harry's choice to spare Wormtail 
was the death of the Ripple house caretaker, Bertha Jorkins, Crouch 
Sr, and Cedric Diggory - at least, so far. Is there any doubt that 
there will be more deaths?

Killing Wormtail in the shack would not have been murder. It would 
have been self-defense and a healthy dose of justice.

DG