muggle baiting vs. muggle torture / Hermione vs Marietta

[triinum]

No: HPFGUIDX 155386

<snipping the other paragraphs which I don't oject to much>

> Alla:
>
> Not to me. Hermione  IMO was right ( although as I said, not
> perfectly executed too), because  the reason she casted that hex was
> protection, protection of fellow DA members from treachery. I **so**
> don't see any vengeance here, but that is JMO.

Triin:

Oh, come on! :) It was not meant for protection, how could it have
been? It _did not_ protect the DA members, did it? And there is
absolutely _no way_ that simply cursing the parchment _could have_
protected them, is there? Hermione is not fool, she knew that casting
the curse and _not telling_ anyone could by no means prevent betrayal.

To prevent betrayal, she should have cursed it, and then said, "now
that you've signed, know that anyone who tells on us, will be
disfigured for life." (Or, she could have cast a curse that kicks in
_before_ the traitor does the deed, say, right after she/he decides to
do it.)

Only, she didn't. She chose not to tell anyone, which was highly
unpractical at the circumstances (because telling would certainly have
prevented the whole disaster). Was it just an Idiot Plot on JKR's
part? Or did Hermione choose vengeance over safety? (Or was she afraid
that she'd be hexed to oblivion if she told them?) What other reasons
could she have had to cast the curse _secretly_? Identifying the
traitor later, so that measures could be taken to prevent further
offences by her/him? Yes, that's reasonable, but writing "sneak" on
someone's face in blisters is not the only possible way of marking
them, is it? So, there _had_ to be a good measure of vengeance
involved, even before anyone had betrayed her. Let's hope that
'identifying the traitor' was the main reason, and 'vengeance' the
secondary one in Hermione's acts.

I do understand vengeance, and I don't blame H for casting the hex,
but I in her place would have started feeling sorry for Marietta after
calming down and thinking a bit. After all, as far as we knew,
Marietta chose the "right" action (regarding the info she had) and not
the "easy" one, just like DD teaches us to do. It wasn't a Peter-type
betrayal of ones classmates, it was DDM!Snape-type betrayal of them.
All for the better cause; only she was misinformed. Should you be
punished for stupidity/misinformation? Perhaps, but not by
blister-writing 'sneak' on a young girl's face, which I consider a fate
somewhat worse than death.

In conclusion, Marietta's guilt can be arguable, but the fact that the
objective of Hermione's curse was _not_ to protect DA from betrayal, is
simple logic, IMO.

Triin