Evil Hermione

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 154872

Rebecca:
. It's no secret what 
> Umbridge is about, and her reputation preceeds her. These sentences are what 
> bother me:
> 
> 'Don't mind her,' Cho muttered. 'She doesn't really want to be here but I 
> made her come with me. Her parents have forbidden her to do anything that 
> might upset Umbridge. You see - her mum works for the Ministry.'
> 
> 
> 'Don't be scared, dear, don't be frightened,' said Professor Umbridge 
> softly, patting her on the back, 'it's quite all right, now. You have done 
> the right thing. The Minister is very pleased with you. He'll be telling 
> your mother what a good girl you've been."
> 
> As a daughter who knew one's parents were worried about 
upsetting Umbridge,  wouldn't one warn one's mother than 
you were going to tell Umbridge rather  than let her find out 
this way, through her job?  

Pippin:
If Marietta was trying to protect her family she did the right thing 
by not bringing her mother into it. Her mother hadn't done anything
wrong, but if she'd been told, she'd have had to decide whether 
to inform on  her daughter or become a collaborator. I know in RL
in high security workplaces, you are supposed to report a security
violation to a security officer first and they decide who is supposed
to be told about it.

Marietta may have felt she was protecting Cho from falling deeper 
into something that was becoming more dangerous and seemed
to be shifting away from studying for OWLs and becoming the
resistance league that Hermione had said originally would be 
a mad idea. Harry was teaching them to fight dementors, and at
this point the dementors are still Ministry employees. What was
Marietta supposed to think? 

Umbridge is an obvious metaphor from the reader's POV, but from
the standpoint of the people in the books, she isn't. She doesn't "stand
for" anything in the WW, she's just a bureaucrat trying to keep her 
boss in power. 

I would take Umbridge's report that Cho told her everything 
voluntarily with a grain of salt. We know what Umbridge's
interrogations are like. If she was willing to lay hands on 
Marietta in front of Dumbledore and her own boss, I doubt
she was gentle when no one was watching her.

I know this list too well to think any argument is going to be 
definitive, but for those who are still insisting that Hermione was 
totally justified, think of this. If Harry had confessed, as he was
fully intending to do before Dumbledore stopped him, he also
would have had "SNEAK" written on his forehead, despite that
his only intention was to protect Dumbledore. Hermione was 
very lucky that her curse did not strike one of her friends.

Pippin