[HPforGrownups] Values of Potterverse WAS: Re: muggle baiting vs/Being good and evil

[Marion Ros]

No: HPFGUIDX 155257

houyhnhnm:
> > I have often wondered what would have been the attitude 
> > of Peter, James, and Sirius toward Lupin had they 
> > surprised his secret and had he *not* been a member 
> > of their House. Would they have been friends with 
> > him then or would they have persecuted him?

Alla:
> LOL. The canon is that they **were** friends with the "dark 
> creature"". Any canon support for your assumption that they would 
> have persecuted him?


Marion:
Well, they persecuted Snape, who wasn't a Dark Creature but, like Sirius said "a little oddball up to the eyeballs in Dark Arts". Snape was a Dark Arts geek. He made his own hexes (growing toenails into claws, etc.).  He sounds rather harmless, actually. At least Snape didn't turn into a raging monster once a month. But he was ugly, scrawny and *in the wrong house*! 

Sirius' excuse for the Marauders' persecution of Young Snape is that "James hated the Dark Arts", but in the pensieve scene we see that his excuse is "that he exists".  If the Marauders' excuse for persecution of a fellow student is so flimsy ("he is an ugly Slytherin", "he is interested in the Dark Arts", "he is an oddball" and "he exists") I could easily see them excuse their persecution of a Slytherin student because he "was a Dark Creature".

Besides, if, according to you, it is proof of one's nobleness to befriend a Dark Creature, then Voldemort must be very noble indeed. Voldie is friends (or at least allies) with Fenrir Greyback and other werewolves. He's got Dementors as his allies. And let's face it, Voldemort does offer Dark Creatures civil rights and that's more than the Ministry does. Indeed, the Ministry wants to regulate and control Dark Creatures (think of Umbridge).  Of course, civil rights for werewolves mean they get carte blanche hunting and eating muggles, but hey! Details!

Hmm... Maybe there's a reason Dark Creatures are called Dark Creatures? Maybe the Marauders were incredibly irresponsible and stupid when roaming around the countryside with a loose werewolf? Maybe they were incredibly *lucky* nobody ever got killed or injured (or turned)?

But that's another discussion entirely.

Point is: if the Marauders persecuted Snape for being a geeky Slytherin dark arts geek (and thus in their eyes a potential Dark Wizard) then it would be only to easy for them to persecute and point fingers at him crying "Dark Creature! Dark Creature!" if Snape were a werewolf instead of Lupin.  

It's all part and parcel of that lovely Gryffindor attitude you praised in another post, Alla. They don't see it's wrong to lie, cheat and break rules when it's done by someone who is 'noble' and 'against the Dark Lord'. They automatically slot Gryffindors into the 'noble' side (because Gryffindors are *courageous*, right?) and Slytherin in the 'supports Dark Arts and supports Dark Lord' side ("there wasn't a Dark Wizard who was not from that House", Hagrid, a Gryffindor, tells Harry in PS/SS).  According to this worldview, it would be terribly noble of them to befriend a Dark Creature but at the same time it would also be very noble of them to persecute the same Dark Creature if he were Slytherin, because Slytherin is the Dark Arts House and if you want to be noble you have to be against the Dark Arts and therefor against Slytherins and therefore against Slytherin werewolves.

Marion