OK we're to THAT point on Snape/

[Alison Williams]

No: HPFGUIDX 102052


Shaun Hately wrote -

>This is a school where 11 year old children are sent into a forest in the 
>middle of the night to hunt something that is killing unicorns, and which a
>half giant arms himself against, as a form of *detention*. This is a school

>where children engage in a sport at high speed and altitude, which we have 
>seen result in some very impressive injuries. This is a school where when 
>an ancient monster is roaming the corridors petrifying students, classes 
>continue virtually as normal. This is a school where the trees are capable 
>of killing you, and which spent a year guarded by creatures that could suck

>out your soul. A school where an interschool sports involves dodging dragon

>breath!

--

What an excellent point!  Interesting enough to drag me out of lurkdom for a
moment.

It made me think again about something that has been bothering me for quite
a while, which is how people *will* try to judge the Wizarding World by the
standards of our own modern materialist, litigious, health and safety
certified, muggle world.  

The WW is much more physically dangerous than ours even in everyday life, 
without the extra danger posed by Voldemort.  It is full of 'interesting'
creatures, powerful spells and potions, dangerous sports and accepts the
carrying of potentially lethal weapons by everyone including children.  Of
course they have powerful antidotes, repair, healing and defensive spells as
well and so, presumably, have developed a rather different psychology with
regard to risk and danger.  An attitude that might look, from our
perspective, like utter recklessness. 

This has helped me understand some incidents that seem to be examples of
such recklessness.

For example, seeing the life threatening 'prank' played by the Marauders on
Snape in this context puts it in a different light.  Snape, presumably,
knowing the WW's attitude to physical danger knew very well that he wouldn't
have got far if he'd rushed off to the Wizengamot to claim damages and
probably isn't entirely surprised to find that Dumbledore expects him to get
over it.

Injury or death is taken as something of an occupational hazard for wizards
and so Sirius and Remus can derisively say to Peter at the end of PoA, "You
should have died!", as if that should have been totally obvious to anyone,
with not a hint or shred of sympathy for his weakness in fear of Voldemort's
cruelty.

Molly may coddle children but Dumbledore positively incites them to
interfere in physically dangerous business from the Philosopher's Stone
onward.  He also reinforces this by rewarding them for doing so!  He expects
his young charges to learn, not just their lessons, but also to cope with
the dangers that they will face in the real world.  Umbridge in OotP, of
course, takes the opposite and much more modern muggle line of 'protecting'
her students by allowing them only Defence Against the Dark Arts theory.

So is this different view of physical risk all there is to it, or is there
more?  

I think there is more. In the WW not only is physical danger ever-present
and approached somewhat recklessly, it is also seen by the wisest of
characters as not the most serious of concerns. 

Dumbledore tells Voldemort in OotP that he is wrong to think that death is
the worst that can happen, he even spoke of it in rather positive terms at
the end of Philosophers Stone as "the next great adventure", for those who
are prepared for it at any rate.  The dementors kiss is described as worse
than death.  Nearly Headless Nick in OotP speaks of death rather wistfully
as something he has missed out on through fear and clinging to a shadow of
life.  

What is seen in the WW as the really serious danger, to be avoided at all
costs, is not physical harm or death but a distinctly spiritual form of harm
- the loss of hope, of self-respect and of love for others.  The greatest
threat for a wise wizard seems to be not to the body but to the immortal
soul, and very often the choice is a direct one.

If only the book-burning type of Christian had eyes to see and ears to
hear...!

Or am I making all this up just to make myself feel better about Sirius?

Alison