Evil Hermione, and Traitor Marietta

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 154986


> Lanval:
> See, I doubt that. It's possible, but I think of Marietta as neither 
> bright enough to see the Big Picture, nor all that morally 
> conflicted. She strikes me as both indecisive and petulant, and a 
> bit shallow. (Hard to say; she gets so little page time. But if a 
> character is not majorly important, then perhaps the author chooses 
> to show only the relevant bits? We'll see; perhaps you're right, and 
> we will find out more.)
> 
> But my personal impression is that she ratted out of spite, out of 
> jealousy that Harry was still occupying so much of Cho's mind, and 
> out of a desire to get on Umbridge's good side.

Carol responds:
Well, yes, but as you say, this is your personal impression. I think
you could convincingly show that she's "indecisive and petulant," but
can you provide canon to show that she's jealous or that she wants to
get on Umbridge's good side? I think that if the latter were the case,
she's have "ratted" much earlier. (I wonder if fear had more to do
with it--the increasing tyranny of Umbridge's regime?)

> Lanval:
> Yes, exactly. And I do agree with those who think that Hermione 
> knows how to lift the hex. Likely it's connected whith the parchment 
> itself, though. What happened to it, anybody remember? <snip>

Carol:
IIRC, the last we saw of it was in Umbridge's hand in DD's office. As
I said in another post, I'm afraid that the jinx would simply be
lifted from the parchment, because it's the parchment that was jinxed,
not Marietta herself. Its *effects* wouldn't be undone, any more than
Snape's removing the curse from the opal necklace (as he presumably
did) cured Katie Bell. (He still had to slow the effects of the
already activated curse so she could be sent to St. Mungo's.) I doubt
that Hermione can undo her own handiwork. Probably not even Snape
could do it, not that he'll have the opportunity!
> 
> Lanval:
> Perhaps this is where the readers are supposed to see the difference 
> between, say, Sirius, who grew to realize that all he'd ever been 
> taught as a child was wrong, and Draco, despite the fact that his 
> family does much worse than the Blacks, still appears to be stuck in 
> his ugly bigot mindset? <snip>

Carol responds:
Not that I'm defending Draco's mindset, but there's a difference here.
Draco lives in a "Wiltshire mansion," elsewhere referred to as a
"manor"; Sirius lived in a London tenement, surrounded by loud Muggle
neighbors and overflowing rubbish bins, with house-elf heads on the
walls and a generally dark (and Dark) atmosphere (possibly not quite
so bad when his parents were alive, but still unpleasant and
depressing). His parents were eccentric, and if his mother's portrait
is any indication, she, at least, was prematurely mad and old. (She
died at sixty, and was probably slightly younger when the portrait was
painted. That's not ancient even by Muggle standards, and certainly
not by WW standards. McGonagall is "a sprightly seventy as of GoF.)
Draco, in contrast, has younger parents, who whatever their views and
loyalties, are at least sane. His mother is beautiful; his father is
rich and influential. Until his father's arrest at the end of OoP
shows the potential danger of being a Voldemort loyalist, his father
seems to him a perfect role model--be like Father and you'll have gold
and politicians sharing your pockets, and a trophy wife to boot.

The wonder to me is not that Sirius wanted to get away from his family
rather than emulate his father, but that Regulus didn't join him in
his rebellion from age eleven onward.

Carol, who can't believe she's still contributing to this thread 
>