Dark Magic and Snape (was:Re: CHAPDISC: HBP24, Sectumsempra)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 161407

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > As Shelley says, it's about intent.  So the werewolf, driven by 
> > bloodlust is dark.  But Lupin, with his usual human             
> > complexities, is not dark.  Would a shark be dark, though?  It's 
> > essentially a killing machine, but without malice really.  

> >>a_svirn:
> Werevolves are also without malice, really. They are driven by 
> bloodlust they can't help, not by vengeance or, say, their        
> concerns for the "greater good".

Betsy Hp:
Hmm, but werewolves are driven by a perverse sort of hunger.  Sharks 
kill to eat and to survive.  But werewolves kill or bite to cause 
pain.  I don't get the sense that their urge to hunt is driven by 
hunger or survival instincts.  It's more a way to perpetuate a 
terrible curse.

However, it's also a mindless kind of darkness.  So I agree that the 
werewolf isn't driven by vengence or even malice.  At least, not 
from what we've learned in the books.  The bloodlust seems pretty 
mindless.

> >>a_svirn:
> By your own logic Lupin in the Shrieking Shack scene is more dark 
> that Grayback in the Tower scene. Of course, we know that Grayback 
> is not entirely without malice either – he bit Lupin to 
> punish Lupin's father.

Betsy Hp:
Well, both men are humans in each scene.  So neither could be called 
a "Dark Creature".  Or, I suppose you could, but they aren't lost in 
their bloodlust, a creature of dark instinct.  They're human and so 
capable of darkness, but not dark by definition. So I'd say 
Grayback, in his desire to eat Dumbledore as a human not a werewolf, 
is actually the darker of the two.  (This presupposes a good Lupin.)

The interesting thing (IMO) is that I'd call Grayback darker than 
your usual werewolf.  He positions himself so when he turns he's 
most likely to attack a child.  (IIRC the books imply that as a 
werewolf he doesn't consciously choose his victim, just goes for the 
nearest, and most vulnerable human.)  So Grayback acts out of 
malice, using the werewolf within.  But it's the human, not the wolf 
that feels the malice.

Which goes towards the idea that it's not the magic, but the 
wielder, that makes something dark.

Betsy Hp