[HPforGrownups] Re: Who is the adult (Was: Who's to blame for Occlumency?)

[Janet Anderson]

No: HPFGUIDX 101396

"Ava" <lethafaraday at yahoo.com> observes:

>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?

"Not a supporter of Voldemort" does not necessarily equal "on the right 
side."  Look at Umbridge's role model, Fudge.  Look at Percy Weasley.

As Dumbledore has said, being on the right side is a *decision.*  Children 
can be raised in proximity to the right side, and to appropriate values 
(like the Weasleys).  They can be raised in proximity to the wrong side, and 
to inappropriate values (like Draco Malfoy or Sirius Black).  Or they can be 
raised in a vacuum (like Harry).  They can, and often do, remain in the 
proximity they started in when they become adults.  But they will, sooner or 
later, have to *decide* where they want to be.  Part of the point of the 
Second Wizarding War is that *everyone* is going to have to decide, by word 
or deed, where they want to be, from children and teenagers on up to aged 
wizards.

I think Umbridge's decision was made when she sent Dementors after Harry and 
his muggle relatives.  I think Fudge is still waffling, because he now knows 
which side he *should* be on but still wants the easy way of being 
"undecided" -- I'd say "returning to childhood," but childhood is no 
protection from Voldemort as he very well knows.  Draco Malfoy has chosen 
his family's side; Sirius Black rejected his family's side -- but so has 
Percy (temporarily, we all hope, but who knows?).

Harry has been comfortably (if not safely) ensconced on the side that his 
parents and Dumbledore are on for the first few books.  In OoP, he has to 
learn first hand what it is he is choosing -- danger, loss, and 
responsibility -- and what he is rejecting -- power, but power used to kill, 
torture, maim, frighten, and bully.  He gets to see what Voldemort can do -- 
to the Longbottoms, to Bode, and finally to his friends and Sirius.  He sees 
discord in the Order; he sees the influence of Voldemort helping to unsettle 
his refuge at Hogwarts.  His attempt to perform an Unforgivable Curse isn't 
his first step toward evil -- it is his final proof to himself (and 
incidentally to Bellatrix, who will undoubtedly tell Voldemort) that he 
can't turn toward evil even if he wanted to.  He doesn't really want to be 
evil the way Voldemort's people do, even if he gets angry enough to want to 
do what they do.  He has in a way been making that choice all the time.


Janet Anderson

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