Nice vs. Good, honesty, and Snape: Was Snape, Apologies, and Redemption

[Renee]

No: HPFGUIDX 153019

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "houyhnhnm102" <celizwh at ...> wrote:
>
> houyhnhnm:
> 
> The problem is that niceness is a mask for so many other things. 
> Nastiness in the case of Umbridge.  Moral cowardice in the case of
> Lupin (which is why I can't see Lupin as good regardless of what side
> he is on in the war against Voldemort).  Mediocrity (I expect we might
> find some examples among the Hufflepuffs if we knew them better).

Renee:
I really hope you're not putting mediocrity in the same compartment as
nastiness and moral cowardice. The vast majority of people in this
world is mediocre (or outstanding would cease to be outstanding). 

This aside, the comment about moral cowardice (apart from being a
direct hit on my Lupin button) made me wonder about something. JKR
said somewhere that the Sorting Hat is never wrong. Yet it put both
Lupin - who has indeed displayed moral cowardice on a couple of
occasions - and Wormtail - who sided with Voldemort out of fear - in
Gryffindor, the House of the brave at heart. 

That looks like a contradiction. Either 1) JKR is wrong about what
constitutes true courage, or 2) she's lying about the Sorting hat, or
3) cowardice, of whatever kind, does not define Lupin and Wormtail and
they are really brave, at heart. Maybe Wormtail shouldn't be written
of as a lost cause; he may surprise us all yet. Maybe failing to speak
up for Snape in the Pensieve scene, and failing to tell Dumbledore
about Padfoot, does not completely cancel out Lupin's courage in the
war against Voldemort (unless you think he's ESE, he does risk his
life in battle, and spying on Fenrir & co. takes courage, too). 

Or maybe there's a fourth alternative, and I just can't think of it
because it's late and I ought to go to bed.

Renee