Wizard morals, was Re: werewolf joke!!

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 96134


 AmanitaMuscaria : 
>>>- There seems, as has been commented before, a  very odd 
morality working (or not) in the wizard world. The 'werewolf joke' 
results in a telling-off for MPWW and Snape's  lasting emnity. 
>From Snape's POV, it could have resulted in him dying  or 
becoming a werewolf himself, with the attendant difficulties 
Lupin  has around jobs.
Tom's 'unmasking' of Hagrid as 'The Heir of Slytherin' leads to  
Hagrid's expulsion and hire as gamekeeper at Hogwarts - the 
Ministry  who believed Tom thought he'd KILLED a girl, for 
heaven's sake - and  what about her parents?
 OK, wizards obviously are somewhat more durable than 
muggles -  dropping a child out of a window means the child 
bounces down the  street, but they obviously can get hurt and 
die. So, what sort of morality do wizards subscribe to?<<<

Remember 'Jaws'? 'There's a monster around but nobody will 
admit it because there'd be a panic and we can't figure out what 
to do  about it anyway' is the plot of innumerable horror 
movies...not to mention real life official inquiries. I'd say the 
morality of the wizarding world is depressingly familiar.

But they do seem to have an old fashioned 'fight your own 
battles' attitude. Though 'Help will always be given at Hogwarts 
to those who ask for it,' it seems there's a lot of peer pressure 
against asking.

As to your examples, we don't know what happened to Sirius as 
a result of the werewolf 'joke'  so we can't say that he escaped 
with a telling off--for all we know he got suspended or spent a 
month scrubbing bedpans in the hospital wing. But to expel 
Sirius would be to admit that Lupin was too dangerous to be 
around the other students, and I don't think Dumbledore was 
ready to do that. One of his mistakes, IMO.

Myrtle's parents were Muggles, in no position to call either 
Hogwarts or the Ministry to account.

 Cedric's parents knew what happened because Harry told them, 
but an official investigation would only have given the Ministry  an 
excuse to blame it on Harry and Dumbledore, and if Amos made 
waves he'd have  lost his job. And none of it would have brought 
Voldemort to justice.

Pippin