The Sneak Mark (was "Slytherin" Hermione?)

[Tonks]

No: HPFGUIDX 112725

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Rebecca Stephens 
<rsteph1981 at y...> wrote:
> 
> What if you join a group, with some peer pressure, and
> promise not to tell about it.  Then you find out it's
> a group for murdering people of a different race or
> nationality?  Does your promise still make it morally
> wrong for you to go to the police?  Now, I am by no
> means saying that the DA is equivalent to such a
> group.   I'm simply saying that all promises aren't
> meant to be kept all the time - it is sometimes more
> wrong not to tell than to break the promise.
> 
> 
> Rebecca
> 
Tonks here:

Yes, I would agree with that. But it was not that type of group. If 
the group had turned out to be a Jr. DE group, then the right thing 
to do would be to tell and face the consequences, even if you did 
not know fully what those might be. Again, I think that the point is 
that one can get into a situation through a series of choices that 
seem not so terribly wrong at the time and end up in a real fix.  

And to answer Hunter Green:  I think the difference between what 
Marietta did and what Wormtail did is a matter of degree.  The basic 
action was the same.  Marietta may not have gotten anyone killed, 
just potentially expelled.  But being expelled is no small thing 
either.  It is the personal and moral weakness that is the same for 
both characters.  The consequences of their actions are worlds 
apart, yes, but the seed from which both developed is the same.

Also, after the kids signed the paper "there was an odd feeling in 
the group now. It was as thought they had just signed some kind of 
contract." (p.347)

Hermione was a salesman to be sure.  She did not force anyone to 
sign, but she did *encourage* Ernie to sign after he objected.  
After he made the choice to sign "nobody raised objections after 
Ernie..."

As to Hermione, it would have been courteous of her to tell the 
others about the jinx.  It is typical Hermione behavior to assume 
that what she does is the best thing without taking counsel from 
anyone.  She must have had some concern that someone might tell or 
she would not have done it.  

But lets look at the lesson here:  
What might be a motive for the author to not punish Hermione?
Maybe the lesson is that one is expected to do the right thing, not 
because you are threatened if you don't, but because it is the right 
thing. One is expected to have an internalized sense of values as 
opposed to one imposed from the outside by someone else.

Tonks_op