Evil Trio/Draco is evil/Train Stomp responses

[Diana <dianasdolls@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 51579

marinafrants wrote:
>I think that whether or not the Slytherins deserved to be hexed 
and/or "stomped" is not the real issue here, at least not for people 
who are bothered by the scene. 
<heavy snipping>
>Given that message, the confrontation on the train can come across 
as quite disturbing for reasons that have nothing to do with whether 
or not the Slytherins deserved it. Draco came in and behaved like a 
vile git, yes. The Gryffindors were enraged and struck back with 
violence. Was their rage justified? Yes, I think it was. I see 
one big problem here, however: justified rage and unjustified rage 
feel *exactly the same* at the moment when you're actually feeling 
it.

karywick wrote:
>I do agree that the treatment of the knocked out and maybe injured 
evil trio is a bit callous. But isn' there some sort of war malady 
where normal caring individuals become shell shocked and immune due 
to what they have been through from the enemy. Maybe that's the 
case? 

dicentra63 wrote:
>However, the reaction of the Trio and twins *after* the hexing can 
be
disconcerting--or at least telling--and I'm not talking about the
two-step. They shove the unconscious bodies out into the corridor and
cooly sit down to play Exploding Snap as if nothing had happened.
What does this tell us? Does it mean that the Trio have become
callous and insensitive? Is OoP going to show us a Trio that doesn't
care about ethics at all? (If it does, I'm tossing it over the 
fence.)
<more snipping>
>Or is there a more symbolic meaning to it all? DCG have been a thorn
in the Trio's side for four years. It could be that the Trio have
arrived at the point where DCG just don't bug them anymore. Harry was
hearing a ringing in his ears as Draco began his rant, but afterwards
he's not still mad. (If he is, we aren't told.) 


Now me:
    While I can understand the concern expressed on this list 
regarding Harry and his friends hexing and subsequently ignoring the 
unconcious Evil Trio, I do not feel that what Harry and company did 
to DCG [Draco, Crabbe, Goyle] means they've grown callous and 
unfeeling or that they're on the road to being juvenile delinquent 
wizards. 
    Let me explain my reaction to this scene.  I cheered when the 
Evil Trio got hexed and I couldn't stop grinning while reading the 
entire scene.  I still grin every time at this scene when I re-read 
the books. 
    My post expressing that DCG greatly deserved the treatment they 
got explains part of the reason why I cheer at their fate at the end 
of GoF.  While reading the books, I noticed too many incidences to 
count of one of the Trio pulling another member of the Trio away 
from Draco in order to prevent retaliation.  Hermione must have 
said "just ignore" him at least two dozen times to Harry and Ron 
throughout all four books.  I agree that ignoring a bully is a great 
way to combat the bullying, but that's in normal circumstances with 
normal bullies.  However, Draco, who continued to verbally assault 
the trio regardless of whether they ignored him or not, is turning 
out to be more than just a typical bully.  Why do I say that?  
Because Draco, by the end of GoF, isn't just insulting the trio, 
he's threatening them with death - and not just them, but every 
decent person and Muggle-born wizard and witch in the WW.  And 
unlike the Draco in the first three books, this Draco has a father 
who has resumed being a DE in service to a very evil wizard 
determined to kill everyone in that train car.  The fact that 
Voldemort has a vendetta against Harry personally also raises the 
threats Draco makes to a much more serious level.  
   I do not think the threats and comments Draco made at the end of 
GoF were like his usual previous taunting - they had purpose and 
menace behind them - I think the trio recognized this and hexed them 
because of it.  No, I don't think DCG were capable of killing any of 
the trio on the train, but I think the underlying death threat was 
very real, even if Draco couldn't carry it out right there.   
   In so many books and movies I've read and seen, the hero turns 
away from killing the villain at the end because the villain 
isn't "worth it."  This was exactly the reason Harry saved Peter 
Pettigrew from Lupin and Black - killing a scum like Peter wasn't 
worth Lupin and Black crossing the line into cold-blooded killers.  
Yes, I know Wormtail deserved to die, but Lupin and Black were going 
to kill him in cold-blood - Wormtail didn't have a wand or any kind 
of defense after all.  I can understand why Harry stepped in - he 
didn't want Lupin and Black to cross the line between seeking 
revenge and cold-blooded murder, no matter how deserved.  
   Now back to the train car. Harry and everyone else didn't know 
that they would all say their hexes at the same time resulting in 
DCG being knocked unconcious.  As others pointed out in other posts, 
all the hexes being thrown at DCG were relatively harmless and it 
was only their combining that resulted in odd effects and 
unconciousness.  So, I can hardly see how that fluke meant our 
heroes had *intended* to knock DCG out; it was just a happy 
coincidence.  Well, Draco did shut up, didn't he?  ;)
   As for their actions afterwards, I would have been shocked if any 
of them had expressed concerned for Draco and his cronies as they 
lay out in the hall.  I think by this point in Harry's life, his 
rivalry with Draco has gone way, way, way beyond childhood dislike; 
I'd say it's even beyond loathing at the end of GoF.  It's now 
ascended to practical acceptance of the existence of everyday evil.  
Harry has already met supreme evil in Voldemort.  Harry didn't gloat 
afterward or occasionally go out and kick the Evil Trio, he just 
ignored DCG since the immediate threat against him and his friends 
had been removed.  
I also think that in that train car, Harry and his friends had 
finally had enough.  Enough of Draco's cruel comments, enough of his 
threats against Muggle-borns, enough of Draco, period.   I believe 
that as far as Harry and his friends were concerned, Draco, Crabbe 
and Goyle were now not only considered annoying, but possibly 
dangerous,  extensions of Voldemort.  If Voldemort had shown up in 
the train car and everyone had hexed him, walked on him then pushed 
him out into the corridor to be ignored, no one would be 
complaining.  Just because DCG are fourteen doesn't mean they aren't 
evil and capable of evil acts and words.  Voldemort and the DEs 
didn't cut Harry any slack just because he was a toddler, or when he 
was eleven or twelve or fourteen.  
   With all that went on and the horrible things that happened to 
Harry in GoF at the hands of Voldemort and Wormtail and the other 
DEs, I believe that Harry doesn't think of Draco as outside of 
Voldemort's sphere of evil anymore.  Harry *saw* Lucius Malfoy, 
Crabbe's father and Goyle's father return to Voldemort.  He heard 
them laughing at him as he writhed in pain.  Harry *knows* that 
Draco believes in the same "pure-blood" bigotry as his father, and 
that Draco shares his father's adherence to Voldemort.  Judging by 
Draco's actions throughout canon, we have no reason to believe that 
his views vary one iota from his father's views.  Harry wouldn't be 
concerned about harming someone evil - he didn't care about burning 
Quirrell's skin to keep him away from the stone in PS/SS, did he?  
So, I believe that Harry truly feels that Draco, Crabbe and Goyle 
are evil.  I don't mean that Harry would kill them or even try to 
get someone else to kill them - I just mean that Harry will be on 
his guard from now on around DCG.  And he'll be willing to go as far 
as needed to fight back.   

Diana