Give Credit Where Credit is due

[jekatiska]

No: HPFGUIDX 150323

> Julie:
> I agree that these kids (teenagers) are able to perform on the same 
> level as adults. Where I would qualify that is whether they perform 
> with the same *understanding* as adults. 

  <snip>

> So I would agree that we can't underestimate what teenagers will do, 
> from the Maurader's nastier pranks to Draco's attempted murder. But 
we 
> also should remember they don't have mature thought processes yet, 
and 
> perhaps this is why Dumbledore sees them as salvageable even when 
they 
> are at their worst. 

Jekatiska:

Children are capable of unbelievable cruelty, as can be seen from for 
example child soldiers, or the brutal killings committed by children 
and teenagers you sometimes hear of in the media. Children make very 
good soldiers: they don't care, because they don't understand. (Lord 
of the Flies comes to mind...) However, Draco did NOT kill Dumbledore, 
and I think this is significant. Nor did Harry kill Sirius in the 
Shrieking Shack scene in PoA, though this is less significant, owing 
to the fact that Harry did not really know how to kill someone, nor 
had he been immersed in a culture of killing and torture like Draco. 
After all, his father is a Death Eater, they have all sorts of dark 
stuff at home, and he's been brought up in a DE environment ("Auntie 
Bellatrix taught you Occlumency?"). And yet he could not bring himself 
to kill Dumbledore, the headmaster of his school, someone he has 
known, though remotely, for several years. This, I find, is a sign of 
a kind of maturity. But then, this lot are now of age, or like Harry, 
very nearly, so you would expect some maturity by now. Can we treat 
them as kids?

Jekatiska