Death and Justice

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 36991

DG wrote:

> Sirius and Lupin are treating him as if he were the most 
dangerous creature in the universe, and are entirely correct to do 
so. Past behaviour is on their side.
> 
> Harry's big mistake is to equate the putting-down of Wormtail 
with"murder".
> 
?  said:
> > Even if the other person involved is a dangerous animal, that 
> > doesn't mean he deserved death as punishment. Death is 
too  _ultimate_ for punishment.
> 
> Death isn't punishment. Death is the removal of a danger that 
cannot be removed any other way. Can you rehabilitate a 
scorpion?


Sirius and Lupin wanted to kill Wormtail, not because they 
thought he couldn't be held safely in Azkaban, but because they 
thought he had it coming for betraying Harry's parents.  This is 
what Harry understands, and what is more Lupin and Sirius 
affirm this by their own words, and by saying only Harry has the 
"right to decide". That  would make no sense at all if the decision 
to be made was "Is Wormtail such a present danger that we 
have to kill him immediately in self-defense?"  If Sirius and Lupin 
had killed Wormtail, it would have been to satisfy their own need 
for revenge and  they would have been no better than Voldemort. 

Soldiers kill under orders to achieve a  strategic objective.  What 
strategic objective would have been served by killing Wormtail? 
Keeping him from returning to Voldemort? But  Wormtail was not 
at all eager to return to Voldemort and decided to do so only 
*after* his exposure and escape. 

Only Harry had any idea that Wormtail might return to the Dark 
Lord,  because only he knew of Trelawney's  prophecy. But as 
Dumbledore says, such predictions can not be the basis for our 
choices. If a prophecy is not real, then it has no bearing on the 
future.  If it is a real prediction, fated to come true, then no 
decision can alter it. If Harry had let Wormtail be killed,  
Trelawney's prediction would simply have applied to ghost 
Wormtail instead.  Ghost Wormtail could have led Bertha to her 
doom, Voldie could have possessed her, broken the memory 
charm from inside, and gone on to free Barty Jr. just as before. In 
the wizarding world, death is *not* ultimate. 

JKR has designed her world this way, IMO, so that she  can look 
at the question of whether someone "deserves" death apart from 
the question of self defense.


Pippin