The Houses Mystery

[jodel at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 44640

Much of the conundrum over how one can claim that all the known Dark wizards 
have come from Slytherin (Really? Not even any from Durmstrang? Say what you 
*mean*, Hagrid...) and still account for the likes of Peter Pettigrew comes 
unraveled when one remembers that to SUPPORT a Dark wizard does not make 
*you* a Dark wizard. If Voldy took over Hogsmeade and everyone there had to 
do his bidding, does that mean that Hogsmeade would be a town of Dark 
wizards? 

We do not have a really clear deffinition from canon as to what actually 
constitutes a Dark wizard. We do not even have a clear statement that the 
unforgivable curses are Dark magic. Only that they are illegal and that Dark 
wizards will not scruple to use them against their foes. Everything has been 
implied to this date, but a direct statement has yet to be made.

And where does one cross the line? Use one Dark spell and that's it? ("One 
foot, one lousey foot and you're a cannibal for life!") Or must one have some 
actual background of formal study in the Dark Arts to qualify? ("Any clown 
can doodle, but it takes work and talent to be a Dark *artist*...")

For example, let's take the case of Peter Pettigrew. We have seen Pettigrew 
use one (count them, one) unforgivable curse onstage. And that only after he 
had been serving as Voldemort's general factotem for a year. He didn't need 
the Dark Arts to pass the DEs information on Dumbledore's forces' actions. He 
didn't need the Dark Arts to spy on the Weasleys in the form of a rat. We 
don't even know for sure that he even had the Dark Mark until after he joined 
Voldemort in Albania and helped him into a rudimentary physical body. Is 
Pettigrew a Dark wizard? Well, he is *now* (he's had to be). Whether he was 
thirteen years ago (as opposed to a wizard who supported a Dark Lord) is less 
certain. 

The thing I'd like to know is; what did HAGRID mean when he was sounding off 
about Dark Wizards? 

And, I agree with Cris, in that what I suspect is that Hagrid was talking 
about Dark *Lords*. And there you've got a much better case for saying that 
the only ones you've ever heard of were ex-Slytherins. Anybody from any house 
may find some reason to take up the Dark Arts which makes it seem worthwhile 
to them. But it is by far the most likely to have been the ex-Slytherin who 
chooses the Dark Arts as the road to making himself the Lord over all others.

And does it really take much of a stretch to believe that Hagrid meant "Dark 
Lord" when he said "Dark wizard"?

-JOdel
(afternote; Pettigrew *does* have a wand, other than Voldemort's. He stole 
Lupin's at the end of PoA.)