Good/bad characters/Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil

[Núria Obradors Pi]

No: HPFGUIDX 38357

Barb said:
>Thoughts? Can anyone think of a "bad" person who has actually done
>something good without an ulterior motive? I admit I am still
>unsure where to slot Fudge--he seems full of ulterior motives,
>frankly, and I'm not convinced one nice thing he did for or said to
>Harry in PoA was genuine.

I unfortunately know a couple of *mean* people. There are two things
common to bad people: 1) they don't believe they're bad; and 2) they
never do anything nice without ulterior motives. So IMO it's perfectly
normal the baddies who seem to do good things have ulterior motives to
do so. About Fudge, I don't think he's bad - it's not like he rejoys
with other people miseries (real or not) like Volde or Malfoy. But he's
also too faulty to be good -too stubborn, too proud and too pendant of
public opinion.

********
Katherine wrote about Snape and Lupin:
>I doubt that Snape's hate for Lupin comes out of suspecting that
>Lupin was in on it. Snape has typical prejudices against Lupin being
>a werewolf, but I don't think that was his only reason for hating
>him, since the Snape and Sirius hate had reached levels that couldn't
>be reached unless this had been going on for a long time. I don't
>know what these other things could be. Anyone have suggestions?

I think that Snape probably regrets Lupin being such great friends with
popular James and Sirius, despite being a werewolf. IMHO, I don't think
the cunning nature of Slytherins, along with the high concept they have
on themselves, helps them build true, honest friendship. To Snape's
proud and prejudiced mind, it must be inconceivable that a monster such
as the werewolf is having better friends than he's got.  Naturally, this
is all but my speculations.

Nuri
leaving to eat supper - Tripe and tail stew! Yummy!