Snape's punishment a "moral" issue? Was "Two Scenes..."

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 144116

 
> > Pippin:
> > The thing for me is that Harry tells Slughorn that his shame will be
> > cancelled out if he gives Harry the memory, or that's the way I 
> > read it. You can certainly argue that Harry had no right at all to 
> > say such a thing, but nevertheless he did. And I think that if 
> > Dumbledore held out such a pardon to Snape, it is Harry's duty, as 
> > Dumbledore's man to honor it.

Nora: 
> There's a time differential here, it seems to me.  Why is Slughorn's 
> memory so essential?  So that Dumbledore **and Harry** can pursue 
> their program of figuring Voldemort out.  Harry is, at this point, an 
> active and informed participant in the program, so he does have 
> rights regarding this situation.
> 
> Snape is a little different, because Harry has not been informed as 
> to reasons for why Dumbledore trusts Snape, and is thus not an active 
> and equal partner in the enterprise. 

Pippin:
But what about the families of Hepzibah Smith, Hokey the House Elf,
Cedric Diggory and all the others who have not been informed as
to the reasons for Harry's enterprise? Who don't even know that it
is thanks to Horace Slughorn's information that Voldemort murdered
the people they loved? Would they all be as willing to pardon Slughorn 
as Harry is? What right does Harry have to speak for them? 

I'm really not very comfortable arguing that Harry does have
that right, but nevertheless he assumed it, and he would be a hypocrite,
IMO, and false to Dumbledore, to seek redress
against Snape when  Snape has already been pardoned,
-- assuming that Snape was indeed pardoned, and fulfilled  the conditions 
under which Dumbledore pardoned him. Dumbledore did not know
the full extent of the harm that would come from Snape's actions
when he pardoned Snape, but neither did Harry know anything about
what Slughorn had done when he pardoned Slughorn. 

Pippin