Intrinsically Good magic, and motives over ends (Fwd from OTC)

[abigailnus]

No: HPFGUIDX 59336

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Amy Z" <lupinesque at y...> wrote:
> > I innermurk conclude now:
> > *My* whole point was that Cedric's death was *not* a consequence of 
> > Lily's sacrifice. There were too many other choices and people and 
> > things involved to trace it back to that.
> > The only way you can make it a consequence of Lily's choice is to 
> > make it Harry's fault that Cedric died. Since you concede that 
> point, 
> > it is not a consequence.
> 
> There, I can't agree.
> 
> "Fault" has a moral valence.  It was not Harry's fault that Cedric 
> died, though he feels as if it was--which is understandable; survivor 
> guilt is a heavy burden even if one *didn't* do anything instrumental 
> to bring the person into danger, the way Harry inadvertently did when 
> he insisted they take the Cup together.  It was not Lily's fault that 
> Cedric died.  It was only Voldemort's fault, and Wormtail's.  

I think I have an example that illustrates Amy's point.  Two weeks 
ago I took my mother's car to the bank where I ran a few errands.  My 
bank is right near a very good bakery (which is why I try not to go to 
the bank more than absolutely necessary) and upon leaving, I decided 
to go into this bakery and buy some cookies - just for my brother, of 
course!  I then got in my mother's car and, while trying to make a left 
turn, didn't yield the right of way to a car coming from my right, and 
we collided - I'm fine, the other driver's fine, but I put a dent his car.  

Now, if I hadn't gone into the bakery, I would have arrived at the left 
turn a few minutes earlier, and the driver I ran into wouldn't have been 
there.  It's entirely possible that I still would have had an accident, 
maybe even a worse one.  Any number of things could have happened 
as a result of my leaving the area without being delayed by either pastry 
or exchanging insurance details, but they didn't.  The fact remains that 
my accident is a consequence of my choice to go into the bakery.  It is 
also a consequence of my choice to go to the bank, of the fact that my 
mother lets me drive her car, of the fact that I was born 22 years ago, 
and of the fact that I didn't yield the right of way.  Only that last choice 
makes the accident my fault, but all the other choices (made by myself 
and others) led up to it.

By the same token, Lily's choice to sacrifice herself for Harry set in 
motion a chain of events which led to many results.  One of those 
results was that Cedric Diggory was in the position to be killed by 
Voldemort at the end of GoF.  His actual death was a choice made by 
Voldemort and Wormtail, and they carry the blame for it, but it is 
still a consequence of Lily's choice 15 years earlier.  

Abigail