Conspiracies and re-assessments

[Nora Renka]

No: HPFGUIDX 111896

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> 
wrote:

> 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?

Lily doesn't, but...

"Students all around had gathered to watch.  Some of them had gotten 
to their feet and were edging nearer to watch.  Some looked 
apprehensive, other entertained...

Several people watching laughed; Snape was clearly unpopular...

'It's more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean...'

Many of the surrounding watchers laughed, Sirius and Wormtail 
included, but Lupin, still apparently intent on his book didn't, and 
neither did Lily."

Loathsome as we may (and I certainlny do) find James' behavior, there 
are very strong textual hints that a lot of the students are, 
frankly, getting a kick out of it.  It's Lily the Muggleborn who 
doesn't buy into the larger community standards here.

<snip>

> 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? 

I think James is certainly being cruel, and it's an awful action, but 
I personally am reluctant to term it 'evil', partially because of the 
rather unclear motivation and intention--the pantsing seems to be a 
misdirected vengeance for Snape's calling Lily a Mudblood.  There's 
also questions of scale, and let's not succumb to the slippery slope 
here.

-Nora gets ready to go into full hibernation mode in a nice cold 
library