[HPforGrownups] Re: Betrayal (was Rowling and Philosophy)

[Maria Kirilenko]

No: HPFGUIDX 53720


Tom, you make a lot of good points, but I'm inclined to disagree with you on one of them:
Tom wrote:

On sabotage:
Yes, Draco and co. try to sabotage the quidditch game. But let's face 
it, in CoS Harry and Ron DRUG Crabbe and Goyle so that they can 
polyjuice into them. They deceive Draco into not only revealing the 
location of the Slytherin common room (a grievous offense and total 
breach of the general sort of "school trust," IMO,) but also talking 
about secrets that they have no right to know. All this, because 
they've irrationally concluded on their own that Malfoy is not just 
mean, but is actually a murderer! Can you *imagine* what they're 
reaction would be if they found out Malfoy had been in the Gryffindor 
common room? No, I can't give you that one, here. HRH are WAY MORE 
out of line in this scene than DCG have ever been, IMHO. DCG are 
mean. HRH are out of control when they have their minds made up. 
They'll stop at nothing to do what they think is right, even if 
they're totally wrong.

Me:

No, no, no. HRH play secret agents because they want to find out if Malfoy is really the Heir of Slytherin, and they do it in a totally unacceptable way - I wholeheartedly agree with you on that. We have a classic example of good aims/bad means here. But DCG & Flint do not just try to sabotage the game - no, their masquerade is intended to make Harry fall off his broom - "A low and cowardly attempt to sabotage the Gryffindor Seeker". Um, what exactly happened the last time Harry fell becasue of Dementors? 

Some canon:

"That was the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life."

"You fell off," said Fred. "Must've been -- what -- fifty feet?"

""We thought you'd died," said Alicia, who was shaking."

"Hermione made a small, squeaky noise. Her eyes were extremely
bloodshot."

DCG and Flint were trying to kill Harry - not just sabotage the team! That's bad means and bad aims. 

Sure, it was a stupid prank and they didn't think before acting - that is obvious <g>, although even that is hard for me to believe, as they were with Flint a *17-year-old* at the time.

So, Malfoy actually proves to be capable of killing a person, albeit not in cold blood. HRH did not plan to kill Malfoy - they didn't even tell the other Gryffindors the Slytherin password, and Ron, AFAWK, did not actually write to his father about the 'secret chamber' in Malfoy Manor. 

So, who's worse? I say DCG.

Maria



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