[HPforGrownups] Whose side are we on??

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 156112


> Nikkalmati:
She
> wants to show kids, good and bad, that you just  can't get away with
> everything.  Someday some one is going to call you on  it - personally. 
> Just as the DA
> members hexed Draco and friends into slugs  and Dursley got his 
> comeuppance.

Magpie:
So if that's what she's showing us, and if it's okay for the good guys to 
not be good sometimes, then why is it bad for someone to say that these 
characters can't get away with everything and someday someone is going to 
call them on it and they weren't good here or there?

Because it's one thing to say "why can't they be forgiven for doing somethng 
wrong?" and another to say that while defending them against any charge that 
they've done anything wrong, or suggest those incidents shouldn't be spoken 
of.  Draco and his friends got hexed into slugs, Harry got his nose broken, 
Dudley got the toffee, the twins indirectly contributed to three of their 
brothers being put in serious danger. The idea applies to everyone, even the 
good guys whose immature behavior (is that what we'd call it if it was 
Dudley?) is the exception to their otherwise good intentions.

It' is, imo, the difference between an artificial world where those bad 
characters only exist to be punished by us and a real world where even bad 
people are people.  When I read the book I think JKR is writing the latter. 
I can't imagine Snape existing in his present form in the former.  The whole 
Pensieve scene seemed to be showing this sort of point.

-m