Harry's Use of an Unforgivable Curse

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 96622

nmjenson" wrote:
> Anybody else unsettled by Harry's use of an unforgivable curse at
the end of OotP? I mean, it should be punishable by lifetime 
> imprisionment at Azkaban ... and he seems to have gotten away with 
> it! Dumbledore didn't mention it to him .... he HIMSELF doesn't seem 
> to realize how serious it was. I realize Sirius's death overshadows 
> his emotions, but still.

Carol:
I was unsettled by it, yes, and I think we're meant to be, but the
important point is that Harry *fails* to cast a successful Crucio, as
Bella mockingly informs him. Only people who enjoy making other people
feel excruciating pain (or perhaps those who are coldly indifferent to
others' pain) can cast that spell effectively. I also don't think you
can be imprisoned for a spell you failed to cast. It's no quite like
having a gun (or wand) misfire; he didn't have the necessary evil
intent to make the spell work. Had he succeeded, we would almost
certainly have lost our hero--if not to Azkaban than to corruption,
the lure of evil. (Something similar no doubt happened to the young
Barty Crouch Jr.)

I hope Harry will look back on the incident, remember Bella's speech,
and understand that, whatever the dangers he and his friends will
face, the Cruciatus Curse and the other Unforgiveables must not be
part of his arsenal--in other words, he can't use evil to fight evil
without becoming evil himself. We learn through our mistakes, and I
think that's what happened in this instance.

Carol