[HPforGrownups] Hermione and Marietta

[OctobersChild48 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 154832

I am responding to Betsy and Magpie about the Hermione hex on Marietta. I 
don't have the computer skills or equipment to include the posts I am responding 
to. As I said in an earlier post I am on this list to hear other people's 
opinions and takes and that I am open to changing my own. I do understand the 
opinion that the two of you have about this situation. Although you decribe the DA 
as a study group I see it as literally being an Army, and as such Marietta 
was a traitor. I felt very uneasy about them letting Marietta join considering 
her feelings and reluctance to do so, but it was rather like being between a 
rock and a hard place. Even if they didn't let her join she knew about the group 
and would have a direct line to it through Cho so she still had the potential 
to betray them. I believe that it was because of Marietta that Hermione made 
the hexed contract (for lack of a better term) to begin with, and her 
instincts turned out to be right. Having said that, I totally agree with you that her 
recruiting was handled very badly to begin with. 

OoP is one of the most unpleasant books I have ever read. I had a very hard 
time getting through it the first time and had to force myself to read it again 
before the release of HBP. It is one unpleasant occurence after another, 
after another, and the one between Hermione and Marietta is one of the lesser 
unpleasantries to me. Furthermore, although Hermione is my least favorite of the 
Trio, I admit that I am in awe of her very gifted talent which often blinds me 
to her deviousness. Also, I am not totally convinced that Marietta is scarred 
for life. Yes, the marks are still on her face at the beginning of HBP, but 
then she drops off the radar never to be heard of significantly again (IIRC). 
The scar on Harry's hand is fading as time goes by so perhaps the same applies 
for Marietta's face. 

I think the brief mention of Marietta at the beginning of HBP is just a JKR 
plot device as a reminder of events that occured in OoP, just as the mention of 
Serius' will is. Then both situations are just left hanging. We don't see a 
grieving Harry just as we don't see a remorseful Hermione, or vice versa. 
Therefore, it is impossible to know if the disfigurement is permanent or not. It is 
yet another of JKR's not fully developed plots. She was so concerned about 
the length of HBP that I believe she left out a lot that needed to be included, 
and I can see her making that same mistake with the next book with nowhere to 
go from there.

Sandy 


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