[HPforGrownups] Re: Apologies and responsibility

[lady.indigo at gmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 139337

On 9/1/05, msbeadsley <msbeadsley at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> And Harry is supposed to tell the difference between "necessary
> rulebreaking" and "rulebreaking without much remorse or learning from
> his mistakes" how, exactly? He is supposed to know "necessary" and "to
> fight against unfair things" (like Umbridge, whom he opposes at the
> risk of being eventually imprisoned) from where he should refrain or
> have remorse because--um, why, exactly?


Let's make this very simple. Harry breaks rules because of, say, the 
Sorcerer's Stone, as the more he noses into the situation and learns about 
the subject the more he gets the feeling something very dangerous might be 
going on. He wants to do something about it, because as far as he's 
concerned he knows things about what's going on that nobody else does. He 
breaks the rules because of, using your example, Umbridge - because Umbridge 
is taking so much abusive power over the school that the rest of the 
teachers encourage poltergeists and Fred and George throwing people into 
closets. Any idiot from age 10 to 100 can see she's bigoted, sadistic, and 
any other number of things; she needs to be stopped.

Harry breaks the rules to get a good grade in Potions, or in other classes 
where Hermione does his homework for him (something I never liked either), 
looks into Snape's Pensieve in order to fight dirty (only because Snape was 
fighting dirty, yes, but chances are he wouldn't have that luxury when he 
came face to face with Voldemort; he should have found some 'proper' way to 
learn the lesson)...and this benefits no one but him in a situation that's 
completely unthreatening if he fails. 

How does he not know the difference? I should think it was obvious. And if 
he honestly *doesn't* understand the difference by this age, even with 
Hermione looking over his shoulder and telling him all the time, I'm more 
than just worried about him.

Oh, and Lockhart didn't *need* anything except to be taken to the 
authorities. The only reason I'm not completely freaked out that they 
basically used him as a meatshield (I'm remembering mainly by the movie 
here, but still) is because there was probably no time to do anything else 
under the circumstances.

- Lady Indigo


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