Hating Dark Arts (was re James' essence...)

[juli17 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 154029

 



a-svirn:
Yet it is really hard to believe 
> that a  sixteen-year-old James Potter gave any more thought on the 
> subject of  Dark Arts than his sixteen-year-old son ever did. (And 
he 
> had much  less incentive than Harry to think about such things.)  
<SNIP>

Alla:

I don't think we will ever agree on this  one from what I remember of 
the past discussions.  :) It is NOT hard to  believe for me at all 
that at sixteen James may have given a lot of thoughts  about the 
subject of Dark Arts, especially given what was happening in the  
world around him. I think the Voldemort's rise may have given him a 
lot  of incentive to do just that. IMO of course.
 
 
Julie:
This is possible, but I have to wonder if Dark Arts are directly
analogous with evil and with Voldemort. After all, you can kill
with plenty of non-Dark spells if that's your desire, and I'd think
certain Dark Arts might be useful outside of their potential
danger. So it does seem strange that James *hated* Dark 
Arts as a concept the way Sirius implies, rather than hating,
say, Death Eaters (whose direct tie to Voldemort is irrevokable),
or other particular persons he believes wronged him or his in
some way using Dark Arts.


a_svirn:
<SNIP>
By the  same logic I'd say that the 
> teenage James's hatred of the Dark Arts  boiled down to the hatred 
of 
> one Severus Snape – a slimy jit who  knew more nasty curses than it 
> was his fair share.  

Alla:

Entirely possible OR it is also  possible that James  had other 
reasons to hate Dark Arts in general and people associated with  
them, which we just don't know about yet.


 
Julie:
It's still strange to me that James hated Snape so passionately
for performing nasty curses (Dark Arts curses, presumably), while
he was fine with hexing anyone who annoyed him. Does he really
think it's fine to humiliate and hurt others as long as it's not an
official "Dark" spell or hex? Does the label truly make the  difference?
(Yes, I know this is contradictory to my what I said above!)
 
Now I wonder if James has a very specific reason for hating the 
Dark Arts, as Alla suggests. Something that happened during his
childhood, perhaps, that made him hate Snape and perhaps most
Slytherins (or any other kids from "Dark Arts" families) from the 
moment he came to Hogwarts as an eleven year old. I think it is
entirely possible. That hate between James and Snape--and between
Sirius and Snape--that apparently existed from that moment they
all started school (and didn't yet even *know* each other, to the  best
of our knowledge) seems entirely too personal to be engendered
by a learned and generalized distaste for a particular brand  of magic. 
 
Julie


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