Hexing the parchment (Was JKR's Messages)

[dungrollin]

No: HPFGUIDX 120759


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Lucy Wooten <esmereldah at y...> 
wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> > Alla:
> 
> <snip>
> > What I am not sure if I am OK with or not is that 
> > Hermione did not WARN the group what is going to happen to 
someone 
> > who will betray them.
> 
> Hickengruendler:
> 
> I think there are two reasons why Hermione did not tell anybody:
> 
> 1.) She wanted to see which DA members were truly loyal. 
> <snip>
> 2.) The loyal DA members might have felt offended, if they knew 
about 
> the hex, and the group might not have become as close as they did.
> 


Dungrollin:

It's a strange way to police a secret - surely the most important 
thing was that the secret stayed secret.  Punishing someone for 
ratting once the secret was out and Umbridge knew was silly - you 
want something to stop them ratting in the first place.  It smacks 
of childish vindictiveness (even if that's not how Hermione intended 
it).  

Hexing the parchment wasn't really necessary for plot reasons in the 
context of OotP, JKR could relatively easily have written the scene 
in DD's office without having Marietta disfigured - it wouldn't have 
been that hard.

Was it that Harry needed a good reason to get rid of Cho, and Cho 
complaining about Hermione was as good a way of alienating Harry as 
any?  Well, that could easily have been done the other way around, 
with Harry having a fit of temper and saying something nasty about 
Marietta, thus alienating Cho.

More interestingly, it could be that Hermione's logic had to fail 
her for once for plot reasons.  Perhaps somebody needs a grudge 
against Hermione for book 6.  It's one of those situations where 
both sides think they're absolutely right: Marietta says "If you'd 
warned me that I'd end up horribly disfigured, I would never have 
joined in the first place, and you'd never have been betrayed." 
Hermione replies: "You ratted on us!  You deserve everything you 
got!"  Ample scope for the beginning of a long-lasting enmity.    

And if Hermione comes top in everything (except DADA, presumably), 
and is one of the best friends of the back-in-the-limelight boy who 
lived, she could become rather unpopular.  Particularly if Marietta 
was one of Krum's fans.  Another betrayal in HBP?  Well, it's 
unlikely that the trio are going to trust Marietta again, but the 
situation has changed somewhat because everyone now knows that 
Voldy's back.  There could be a 'lets all pull together' attitude, 
with a nice bit of back-stabbing at a crucial moment.

Dungrollin.