What Is Easy vs. What Is Right---Take Two

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 38869

Okay, you all have convinced me.  No matter how much he loathes them, Harry
Potter would never just stand there and let Draco Malfoy, Greg Goyle and
Vince Crabbe be dragged screaming off to Azkaban for a crime he knew for
sure they hadn't committed.  Harry's probably one of the most _decent_
people at Hogwarts, and if he knew for sure the Anti-Trio were innocent,
he'd do all he could to help them---just because he's that sort of person,
and wouldn't be able to live with himself if he hadn't done all he could to
save them.  (How he turned out so nice after all those years with the
Dursleys is one of those mysteries I'll never understand.)

By the same token, Hermione would never, ever knowingly let anybody, even
the Anti-Trio (or Snape) be convicted for something they hadn't done.  She
is IMNSHO the bravest of the Trio, and has enough courage to stand up tall
and resolute in the teeth of a howling Wizard World court-cum-lynch mob,
_demanding_ to be heard, and _demanding_ to be allowed to give her evidence.
If she _did_ succumb to that sort of temptation for long enough for someone
to be convicted for something he or she were innocent of, she'd be all but
paralyzed with suicidal-level guilt.

However, there is a _third_ member of the Trio.  One who is impulsive,
short-tempered, hates the Anti-Trio, and has been known to act on his
dislikes.  What if it were _Ron_ who was faced with a terrible temptation,
when the Anti-Trio were accused of something horrible---he knew very well
that they couldn't be guilty, but he was the _only_ person who knew?  Maybe
even the Anti-Trio weren't aware that he had this knowledge---otherwise
they'd be screaming, at their "trial," for Ron Weasley to be called in to
give evidence.  So---what would happen if Draco Malfoy was exonerated and
released from what would have been a life sentence at Azkaban, and it came
out that _Ron Weasley_ had known very well that he was innocent, but had
kept quiet and knowingly let them be convicted?  So we've got Draco, a
trembling wreck being gently led around Hogwarts by Madam Pomfrey, an object
of horrified pity even from Hagrid and the Gryffindors---_and everybody
knows that Ron did this to him deliberately!_  I think that in this case,
Ron would find out just what Harry felt like during the first of the
Triwizard tasks.  He'd have to face up to the fact that his impulsiveness
and vengefulness had led him a long way down the path to the Dark Side.  I
think he'd eventually be forgiven, but he'd go through some serious hell
before he did---not just from Harry and (especially!) Hermione, but possibly
from Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, and his family.