Marrietta's betrayal

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 110949

Batchevra wrote :
"I am going to play devil's advocate here. If there is a law that
promotes a lawful killing of a group of people and in that law
includes killing people who are hiding some of that group of people
then would you obey that law? remember it is anarchy if you choose to
disobey that law. "

Del replies :
I understand what you're trying to say, and my initial answer was that
in that case I would *want* anarchy. But then I thought a bit more and
I realised that it's just not that simple. History has it that when
such laws exist, there are quite a few people who actually like them,
a majority of people who refuse to think about them, and a minority
only who will fight them. There are several factors which come into
consideration, including self-preservation, preservation of one's
family and interests, personal connection to the group of people in
danger, personal morality, and so on. So my answer is now : I don't
know. I *hope* I would find the courage not to obey that law, but I
don't know if I would be willing to risk my life and my loved ones'
lives. I'm afraid that like many people I would downplay the cruel
reality to protect my own little world, at least at first. And to
finish, I'll say that when faced with it, anarchy is a terrifying
thing for most people. Most people would rather suffer under a wrong
rule than risk everything they have in anarchy.

Batchevra wrote : 
" There are times when disobeying rules or laws are correct in that
the laws are used in a harmful way. The DA was teaching the practical
side of DADA, Umbridge was making sure that none of the students were
competent in that. The students needed to know how to do the DADA
spells in order to pass their OWLS and defend themselves. Also, in
passing the OWLS would determine what jobs they were getting after
Hogwarts, definitely important. "

Del replies :
Now that you mention it, I realised 2 things.
First we don't know that Harry checked the curriculum to know which
spells he should teach the DA. I'm not sure the Patronus charm, for
example, is OWL material.
Second, we don't know how bad the non-DA fifth-years did at their DADA
practical OWL.
Oh, and third : anyone could grab a book and study the charms on their
own or with their friends in their common room. They could even enroll
the help of the 6th- and 7th.years. The DA were not just about
learning some spells, they were mostly about resisting Umbridge.

Del