Being Good and Evil ( Draco and a bit of Ron)/

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 154800

Rebecca:> 
> I'll be flamed by many for saying at this point, but the Weasley Twins, Ron, 
> Harry are too young in the beginning of OoP to understand these concepts 
> fully and the dangers involved if one person in the Order violates the 
> trust. The last time it happened, at the very least Harry's parents died if 
> not others prior to that as a result of 1 person's betrayal. (It's not 
> discounting youth, it's just a question of life experience.) Hermoine's 
> actions, while uncomfortable for some, reveal to me that she has learned 
> that not everyone can be trusted and tries to avert disclosure at the very 
> least. I believe this because I think some thought had to be put into the 
> parchment, jinx, and the approach and begets the question "why?" IMO, see 
> the aforementioned sentence.
> 

Pippin:
Yes, that's it. Marietta is also too inexperienced to understand what she's
committing to, and that's the reason she shouldn't have been asked to
commit. The Trio have been engaged in clandestine and illegal activities
(hiding Norbert, the flying Anglia, helping Sirius to escape etc) since first 
year. Hermione spent the summer in a Safe House, forbidden to tell
even her best friend where she was or what she was doing. *She*
understands what it means to keep secrets and be part of a 
secret organization at war, because she's lived through those things.


Marietta hasn't.  It was not wrong for Hermione to 
demand loyalty from those who joined her group, but it was wrong
for her to levy a permanent punishment and it was wrong for her not
to explain what was involved or at least attempt to do so. If she 
expected her schoolmates to pledge their lives, their fortunes, 
and their sacred honor, the least she could have done was say so. 
Thomas Jefferson did. Of course most teens would still be too young
to understand what that meant, which is why the Order doesn't
take underage members.

I think Hermione realized that it would be hard to make the others
truly understand what  would be asked of them, just as Harry realized he 
couldn't teach them what it's really like to confront the Dark Lord. 
There's no way to anticipate how someone is going to handle that kind of
pressure, no way to say whose resolve will crumble and whose won't.
Harry would never have expected that Neville and Luna would turn out
to be the most committed members of the DA. He certainly never
expected that Cho's friend, of all people, would betray him.

I'm sorry to say this, but IMO Hermione reacted to this uncertainty the way 
Voldemort would have, by acting alone and in secret, going to extremes 
as a way to frighten and intimidate the others. 

I think we learn all we need to know about the extreme nature
of Marietta's punishment when we consider what happened to
Draco. By any stretch of the imagination he betrayed his fellow
students to a far worse degree than Marietta, but all that happens
to him at their hands is a painful and embarrassing but not 
permanent hexing.

Pippin