Conspiracies and re-assessments

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 111892

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "quigonginger" 
<quigonginger at y...> wrote:
> > Pippin:
> > ::blinks:: IMO, grayness was studying illegal magic and 
leading a  werewolf through a populated area for kicks. Evil is 
holding  someone against their will and threatening to strip them 
naked  in public. Does evil have to be wearing a robe and a hood 
before  we recognize it?
> 
> Ginger ponders:
> 
> Wow, this is one of those areas where I don't think there will 
ever be a consensus drawn.  We all bring in our pasts and 
experiences.  
> 
> Personally, I don't think James and Sirius were any worse than 
the  kids I grew up with.  I knew plenty of guys who got "pantsed" 
on the  schoolyard.  I never got "pantsed" myself, but I did get 
"bra-ed".  
<snip>
.  Schoolyard brats, certainly.  Evil, to me, means a deeper lack of 
moral concern.  
<snip:
> I guess the gist of what I'm saying is that if I label J&S as
"evil", 
> then I have to label the RL people I know who did the same 
things as "evil" as well.  I can't do that, because I know they are 
not.  



Pippin:
Ahhhh...community standards. Okay, but the community which 
should apply is not yours, or mine, but Hogwarts. Is 'pantsing' 
normal student fun at Hogwarts? Have we ever seen anybody 
'pantsed'  at Hogwarts before? Lupin says they were out of line 
and he ought to know. This is not considered a bit of dirty fun. Lily 
doesn't tell Snape to be a good sport and buck up, does she?

My dictionary says that 'evil' adds to 'bad'  "connotations of 
depravity and corruptive influence."  I think that adult Sirius and 
Lupin were cognizant of those elements. Sirius says that they 
were berks, a word with an obscene derivation, which concedes 
depravity even as it masks it.

Lupin says he knew at the time they were out of line, so that's 
corruptive influence, especially since James tries to get the 
community to approve his actions, "Who wants to see me take 
off Snivelly's pants?"

But perhaps you think canon takes a different view of evil? Are 
you saying that in the Potterverse,a  person who does evil and 
repents of it is not only evil no longer, but never was evil in the 
first place? 

Pippin