Who is the adult (Was: Who's to blame for Occlumency?)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 100803

Darin:
> I really do wonder about people who find such fault with Harry, 
who  seem to speak of Harry with such disdain, who adore 
everything about  Snape and sometimes, the other Slytherins - 
(Please note that I am  not applying all of this to this particular 
poster - I simply have  not read enough of his/her thoughts to 
know) 
> 
> It makes me wonder what they get out of the books, if they are 
> cheering for the bad guys.
> 
> And this gives me the chance to post one of my other 
moderately 
> infamous rants, which my young friend Talia Dawn will 
remember.
> 
> The Slytherins ARE the bad guys.
> 
> They aren't the underdogs. They aren't misunderstood. They 
aren't  just waiting for a big old hug from some goth teen to 
redeem them.
> 
> They are thinly veiled cariactures of Nazis and KKK and Hitler 
Youth  rolled into one.<
> 
> I'm sure there are those who would find fault with me saying 
this, 
> but the books are titled "Harry Potter and..."
> 
> Not "Draco Malfoy and..." Or "Severus Snape and..."
> 
> So maybe I give Harry more slack than other characters. Not 
only  because he has gone through more grief at a younger age 
than any  other character -- I'll grant that Snape was bullied in 
school, but  did he have to fend off a version of V-Mort four times 
in five  years? -- but because at the core, he's the guy to root for.
>

Pippin:

Er, yes, but  there's not much point in rooting for Harry's 
redemption since he's never done anything really bad.   In 
keeping with what some have seen as Christian themes in the 
work, it could be Harry's task to be an agent of redemption for 
others, Slytherins included, which, I hasten to add, does  not 
preclude their being just as bad as you say. 

"Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as 
snow"* --while some believe that no one who sheds innocent 
blood can ever be redeemed, there is a strong current of  
Western thought that holds differently, to say the least.

Pippin
*Isaiah 1:18