The Sneak Mark (was "Slytherin" Hermione?)

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 112617

Delwynmarch wrote:

> 15-year-old kids might think it's
> acceptable to disfigure a schoolmate who crossed them, but I, at 
the
> age of 30, disagree strongly.

But was she disfigured?  We don't know.  It depends how long it 
lasts.
 
> Second, the Jinx is very much an injustice, for multiple reasons : 
> 
> 1. Nobody was warned about it. They agreed not to tell, but there 
was
> never any mention of what would happen if they did, and especially
> there was no mention of something so dreadful. 

There are two elements of injustice at work here.  One is whether it 
was all right to administer a punishment at all; the other is 
whether the punishment was too extreme.

For the second, it depends.  I agree that the punishment was harsh, 
though it did elegantly fit the crime.  If she still has the sneak 
mark when they return to school in HBP, then it's definitely too 
much.  If it turns out she had to endure 2-4 months of nonstop 
publicity about having ratted out her friends, it seems within the 
realm of reasonable severity to me.  

(No, the betrayal wasn't to LV, just to Umbridge.  But the need for 
DA was desperate and Umbridge's interference with it well-nigh 
criminal; this wasn't just a petty matter of getting kids in trouble 
with the headmistress, but an attack on a very important project.  
And there are clear overtones of undercover DEs here, being that JKR 
has dwelt a great deal on the suffering that's been brought about by 
people who "signed" and then reneged on promises.)

For the first, about your point that there has to be a warning that 
there's a punishment . . . I have some problems with this idea.  
What makes a person a lawbreaker is not that she acts despite threat 
of punishment--it is that she violates the law.  Are you saying that 
if you break a promise to me, I can't tell everyone you did that 
unless I specifically warned you beforehand that that's what I would 
do?  

Only Marietta is responsible for her having signed the agreement.  
If she wasn't willing to be a part of a secret group, she had the 
chance to leave instead of signing.

Amy Z