Death and Justice

[lucky_kari]

No: HPFGUIDX 37006

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "dicentra63" <dicentra at x> wrote:
> for revenge and they would have been no better than Voldemort.
> 
> I will grant you that Siri and Remus are in it for revenge, not to
> protect society or whatever. 
> 
> So if Harry doesn't step in and they kill Peter, what happens to 
them?
>   Are they arrested and sent to Azkaban (with or without a trial)? 
or
> does the "warrior ethic" of the WW call their actions just?  Was 
Harry
> protecting them from some terrible consequences or did he just not
> like the thought that they would have blood on their hands?

This is an interesting question. I tend to think that the WW would 
have applauded them. After all, Peter Pettigrew was a hero for 
supposedly tracking down Sirius Black. And then on the sides, some 
people will criticize them (as Fudge criticized Pettigrew) under their 
breaths. But, I do think the Potterverse is Livian and that they would 
have been honoured for doing it. 

> Would the WW say that they were no better than Voldemort if they had
> avenged the Potters?  I know from our perspective they would be, but
> what about the internal logic of the novel? 

Well, I wouldn't have called them no better than Voldemort if they had 
gone ahead. I'm a bit sick of this, "We're no better than X, if we do 
this." Yes, if we do "whatever-it-is", we were wrong, but we usually 
still are better than "whatever-else." I would still think of Lupin 
and Black as upright people, even if I thought they had made the wrong 
decision in the Shack. 

>We've discovered many
> times that it's not attuned to turn-of-the-21st century western
> sensibilities (e.g. "real wizards don't apologize").  So does that
> mean JKR is asking the reader to judge the WW or simply to accept it
> on its own terms?

I think that to some extent JKR wants us to judge the WW, but only to 
the extent with which you judge Achilles's behaviour, reading the 
Iliad. Every modern reader will go, "He's a jerk." but if you want to 
enter into the story, you have to learn to somewhat appreciate his 
heroic ethos. And, you'll learn that these heroes are admirable in 
some ways that we perhaps don't think of that much. 

Eileen, wearing her Lucky Kari viking hat