Harry's Use of an Unforgivable Curse

[Jason]

No: HPFGUIDX 96152

Jim Ferer wrote:
> The justice system does care if it's righteous anger or 
> not - the state of mind of the actors always matters. If 
> this was the Muggle world, the prosecutor probably wouldn't 
> bring charges at all,
   
Jason:
I wouldn't bring charges. There's no way you could sentence a 
juvenile for such a crime anyway. Much less one committed under 
those circumstances.

Del:
> He would, if the law is as described : any use of an UC is 
> condemnable. After all, if Harry can be tried for breaking 
> the Underage Magic Restriction Rule or whatever it's called, 
> he would most definitely be charged for using an UC.

Jim :
> given the circumstances, and if he did, you'd have a heck of 
> a time finding a jury that would convict Harry of anything.  
> They'd be back in twenty minutes.  


Jason: Agree with Jim.  

Del wrote:
> In GoF, after learning of the UCs, Harry wishes he could use 
> Crucio on Snape, even though he had taken pity on the spider ! 
> In OoP, Harry uses Crucio even though a) he knows it's strictly 
> forbidden, b) he's gone through it himself, and c) Bella used 
> it on Neville just minutes before ! That to me shows that Harry's 
> anger and hate are strong enough to *corrupt* him, which is scary. 
> I *do* wonder if we won't see him managing to use Crucio efficiently 
> on someone else he hates in the next book. It's the logical 
> progression I'm afraid. 

Jason:

I'm not understanding why or how this is such a bad thing. Imagine 
someone killing your parents and enjoying it. OR worse TORTURING 
YOUR PARENTS INTO MADNESS SO THAT THEY'LL NEVER KNOW WHO YOU ARE. 
Now if this was done in front of you, and the person responsible is 
about to get away scott free, what would you do? Let them go? AK 
them? or Crucio them?

In my head, Crucio is no different than beating someone senseless. 
In fact, Crucio would seem more humane because the pain is liften 
when the spell is. A broken bone lasts much longer. If someone tortured 
my friend and his parents and killed my godfather, I'd be taking 
Hagrid's advice and ripping them limb from limb and I dont think 
any jury would find me guilty of anything.

I actually think Harry should be commended for not trying to kill 
Bellatrix.

And in another point, if this is the beginning of VW2, Harry could 
be seen as a soldier in war and any pain or death he caused would 
only be a casualty of war and thus unpunishable.
 
Jason