When does a war begin?

[Renee]

No: HPFGUIDX 120925


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "delwynmarch" 
<delwynmarch at y...> wrote:
> 
> Lupinlore wrote:
> "In the case of Hermione and Marietta, Marietta was not at war BUT 
> HERMIONE WAS."
> 
> Del replies:
> Very interesting post, Lupinlore. Thanks!
> 
> Concerning the discrepancy between Hermione and Marrietta: I don't
> think I ever argued that Hermione didn't feel she was at war. The
> Trio, the Order and their associates were very much at war. What I
> disagree with is the concept that the entire WW was at war, and 
that
> as such Marrietta and the rest of the general public should have 
acted
> as people in a war. Marrietta possibly did not consider herself 
either
> as a combatant or a non-combatant in a war. She considered herself 
as
> a civilian in an organised country in times of peace. Expecting 
her or
> anyone else in the general public to act and think even remotely
> anything like the Trio or the Order did is simply unfair IMO.
> 
> Hermione was a soldier in an army. Marrietta wasn't. They can't be
> held to the same standards of action and thought.
> 

Renee:
Marietta got the same information from DD as the other students did 
about what happened at the end of the Triwizard Tournament. True, 
she did face a dilemma: to believe her own mother, working for the 
Ministry that denied Voldemorts return, or to believe DD. In the 
end, loyalty to her mother apparently overrode loyalty to the 
Headmaster. 

Yet loyalty to DD *is* a standard of action and thought in the HP 
series. According to the Headmaster himself, at the end of COS 
Fawkes the Phoenix saves Harry because of his (Harry's) loyalty to 
DD. So, from a story-internal point of view, the message does seem 
to be that Marietta is in the wrong - unless you think DD has been 
set(ting himself) up as a false god, and that his words at the end 
of COS are invalid. It's doubtful whether this is JKR's intention, 
though. 

Personally, I'm not 100% happy with this loyalty to DD as a standard 
for behaviour, but I see no possibility to argue it away. To me, the 
conclusion that we're meant to consider Marietta a sneak seems 
inevitable, however much I'd prefer to see the situation as one in 
which right and wrong are distributed on both sides.

Renee