[HPforGrownups] Re: Amortentia and re The morality of love potions/Snape the teacher

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 152346

Carol:
> Carol, who can't understand why readers are ready to forgive Draco for
> trying to murder Dumbledore and nearly killing two schoolmates through
> his carelessness but not to forgive Merope, who is not much older, for
> trying to find love in the wrong way

Magpie:
Ooh, I was hoping for this one, since it so often comes back to "I can't 
understand why so many people [fill in the blank] Draco..." :-)

I am very willing to forgive Merope.  I didn't think that was the basis for 
the discussion.  If it comes to how I feel about her as a character I think 
she's really sad and feel sympathy for her.  I just think I can do that 
without distorting what happened and why, or making Tom into a villain.  She 
did something to Tom Riddle, and he didn't do much to her--I can forgive him 
too.  She drugged a man with a love potion because she wanted love, got an 
artificial version for a while, and once she stopped the potion he went back 
to the man he really was all along, a man who didn't love her.  That must 
have been upsetting if Tom in love was a husband she'd want to have, as he 
may well have been.  I feel sorry for her, but I don't think Tom Riddle is 
the person to look to as the source of her misery.  I don't think we're told 
he's ever cruel to her.  He just wants to get away from her, which to her 
was possibly the most painful thing for her. Had he provided for her and her 
child with money there's a good chance things would have ended the same way, 
with Merope dumping Tom in an anonymous Muggle orphanage and dying, because 
as a character she was about the despair at not being loved.  It's not like 
she was a girl trying her best to survive and just couldn't.

To put Draco in a similar situation, I would look perhaps at his would-be 
murder victims.  Dumbledore does seem to forgive him, that seems an 
important thing.  Do Ron and Katie forgive him? I don't know, but I don't 
think they owe it to him to forgive him.  If he apologized to them it would 
be good for Draco, but they might hold it against him for the rest of their 
lives.  So might Bill hold it against him for being responsible for Fenrir 
being in the castle.  There's nothing he could really do about that.

Draco and Merope are both two people in less than happy situations who 
nevertheless choose to do bad things of their own free will.  I wouldn't 
condemn either of them completely yet.

Sean Hately:
Can we just forget about these kids and what they need so the Nevilles of 
this
world are happy at school? Why is Neville so important? Why does every 
single
class in the school have to be Neville friendly?

Magpie:
Honestly, I think this is the center of the whole discussion of 
Snape-as-teacher.  Not whether or not classes should be Neville-friendly, 
but that the teachers in Hogwarts are designed to remind us of familiar 
types of teachers.  Those of us who have positive associations with Snape's 
type will feel better about Snape.  I have negative reactions to Hagrid as a 
teacher, but I think it's good that I'm not able to just outlaw them from 
schools.

That's not to say Snape's behavior can't be criticized and that he shouldn't 
be reprimanded. His bullying of Harry, especially, is just embarassing to 
watch. But outside of Harry, he does seem well within the bounds of teacher. 
The real Snape, iirc, when told about the books his former student had 
written, described his fictional counterpart as "a very elegant revenge," 
which didn't surprise me.

I'm female btw, and I don't relate to Snape as a teacher who humiliates or 
reads out grades and things like that.  I remember the teachers I had who 
did that as jerks and that sort of thing didn't help me at all.  Any teacher 
who yelled at me would have to work really hard to get me back. It's more 
his general manner and sarcasm and all that that reminds me of teachers I 
didn't hate.

-m