Neville and AK (Was: Re: How's Harry going to learn the curses?)

[meriaugust at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 87232

> meriaugust wrote:
> 
> > I think Neville would be one of the first in the DA to use the 
> > Unforgiveables

snipping my own post

> Berit replies:
> 
> Do you really think so? My impression of Neville is that he would 
be 
> the last one to turn to an Unforgiveable to torture the one's that 
> tortured his parents... more snipping

Meri again : 

I think that Neville is a great kid: upstanding, decent and worthy 
of our admiration for dealing with all the pain that he has suffered 
with such grace and aplomb, but that doesn't mean that he'll never 
use an Unforgiveable. In fact I think that this makes it all the 
more likely that he will, because IMHO, one of JKR's major points is 
that sometime good, well intentioned people can make bad (or at 
least morally questionable) descions for very good reasons. This is 
evidenced by DD and his royal screw up when it came to dealing with 
Harry and the prophecy in OotP. If I may, I'd like to use a very 
very OT example to illustrate my point (and those readers who have 
not seen "Saving Private Ryan" should skip this one). In SPR the 
most Neville-like character is the translator, Cpl. Upham, who has 
never seen battle and has never even fired his weapon in combat 
before. He is a bit of a poet, and often doesn't understand the 
reality of warfare, and gets drafted to go with Cpt. Miller's squad 
to rescue Pvt. Ryan. In one firefight the squad takes out a Nazi 
machine gun nest, and loses their medic to wounds inflicted by the 
German guns. The Americans capture a German soldier, and while the 
majority of the squad, including the captain, wants to execute him 
then and there, Upham, who pitties the pannicked German, conivnces 
them to release the German and send him off to surrender to the 
first Allied unit he can find. They do so, but at the last battle, 
after they have found Ryan, Upham witnesses Miller being shot by 
enemy fire, bullets fired by the German he took pity on and 
released. With nary a blink of the eye, Upham kills the German at 
point blank range. This is a real war, he realizes, and unsavory 
things must be done for the right side to win it. This is, I 
believe, the choice Neville will have to face: AK a DE or have one 
of his friends, or himself, die. Which would you have him be: dead 
with morals intact or alive with nothing to mar his conscience other 
than the fact that he killed a bad person to save a good life? The 
WW is at war, after all, people will be killed on both sides, and 
while the use of an Unforgiveable is a last resort, I think there 
will be a time when Neville (and Harry) will be pushed to that last 
resort, with good reason. Anyway, hopefully this clarified my stance 
a little. Sorry for rambling. 
Meri (fellow Neville lover)