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

[Ava]

No: HPFGUIDX 100905

Mel "melclaros" <melclaros at y...> wrote:
> > Rather like...oh, say Sirius and James at that age? Oh, but THEY 
> > ****changed****. Right. Because they were Gryffindors. Gotcha.

"greatelderone" <greatelderone at y...> wrote:
> However speaking on the behalf of the dead, both Sirius and James 
> started off as against the dark arts and probably against the 
> Slytherin's way of racism while later fighting against Voldemort 
> in the OOTP. Draco on the other hand has three strikes against him 
> in that regard: he supports Voldemort, the Dark Arts and the elitist 
> ideas maintained in the House of Slytherin.


That goes back to Mel's point.  Does being on the 'right' side mean 
all is forgiven?  We are told that Dolores Umbridge is not a 
supporter of Voldemort.  Does that make her horrible pen-thing & 
other charming behavior forgiveable?  Mere peccadilloes in the 
service of Our Side?  

But of course not, you protest.  Umbridge is yukky.  Nobody likes 
her.  Right.  She's easy.  Now Sirius, lots of people like HIM.  
He's really not a bad guy, arguably (I leave THAT argument to you, 
however.)  So he's the hard case.  As they say, hard cases make bad 
law.  Or in this case, the more inclined you feel to forgive the 
defendant, the more likely you are to let him get away with 
attempted murder.

Ava