[HPforGrownups] Re: Punishing Marietta

[Janet Anderson]

No: HPFGUIDX 120854

Neri said:

>Hermione's jinx wasn't designed against Marietta personally. It was
>designed to warn the DA that they have a traitor in their midst.

...and to let them know who it was.

Dumbledore's Army has a lot of problems, but one thing they will not have: 
the knowledge that an *unknown* traitor was in their midst, with the 
resulting fear and distrust of each other.  We all know how much trouble 
this caused in the first Order.

What would have happened if Dumbledore had used such a device when 
recruiting for the first Order?  Harry might still have parents.  Sirius 
might not have ended up in Azkaban.  Molly's brothers, and the other Order 
members who were "picked off one by one," might have survived.

Remember, Marietta *chose* to become a traitor. She could have left 
Dumbledore's Army and not said anything. Choices.  Very important.  Her 
choices weren't in any way restricted or dictated  by the hexed parchment, 
before or after she went to Umbridge -- it merely let the other people who 
would be affected by her choices know what she had chosen.  Doesn't 
Dumbledore say that it's our choices that *show* what we are?


Happy New Year,


Janet Anderson