OOP: Something that disturbed me

[David]

No: HPFGUIDX 65180

Marina:

> > Okay, here's something I haven't seen brought up yet: am I the 
only  
> one who was disturbed by the way Kingsley just blithely rewrote 
> Marietta's memory in "The Centaur and the Sneak" chapter?>

Jenny:
> 
> No, you're not the only one.  I was actually hoping something was 
> wrong with Marietta herself in that scene and that's why she said 
> nothing.  I didn't have any problem with Hermione's spell, though.
> 
> I noticed that in OoP, people in the Order and on 
> the side of Good in general do things that are sneaky, unfair, or 
just 
> plain mean.  Harry's use of the Cruciatus Curse still bothers me, 
as 
> does Sirius's recklessness and encouragement of Harry to break 
rules 
> at school.  All I can say to justify these things is that in times 
of 
> war, people do what they have to do to survive.  Had Marietta told 
the 
> MoM people what she and her peers had been doing all year, the 
> consequences would have been very bad.  
> 
> I think we'll be seeing more sketchy behavior in books 6 & 7, and 
I'm 
> willing to bet Harry will be a part of that.

But these things are quite different.  We don't know how Harry feels 
afterwards about his use of Crucio, whereas it's fairly clear that 
the members of the order feel Kingsley's use of Obliviate is 
justified by the circumstances.  Sirius' recklessness and 
encouragement of Harry are different again: expressions of his 
character that he can't or won't control.

To me the crucial difference is that the story makes clear that 
Sirius recklessness was indeed destructive, and that Crucio is 
always wrong, so warning bells ring for Harry.  However, it's 
difficult to rid oneself of the sneaky feeling that this memory 
charm thing is never really going to be resolved morally - in 
effect, that JKR treats it as lightly as the WW does.

David