Views of Hermione

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 160538

Carol earlier:
> > And Hermione does have a ruthlesss, vindictive, revenge-seeking
> > streak. "I'll get that Skeeter woman if it's the last thing I do!"
> > (badly quoted from memory, but you get the idea). And she attacks
> > Ron with her birds because she's hurt and jealous, even though she
> > knows that he'd never physically or magically harm her (however
> > dense and provoking he may be sometimes).
> <Snip>
> > Carol, who doesn't dislike Hermione but does want to see her learn
> > a lesson or two in humility and to realize the futility of revenge
> 
> Charles:
> 
> Yes, Hermione is vindictive. So is Dumbledore, who told Tommy boy
> that "I admit that merely taking your life would not satisfy me,"
and so is Harry, who says, "I'd want him finished, and I'd want to do
it." What seems to keep getting lost in the shuffle here is that
> justice and revenge go hand in hand. When any society imprisons a
> lawbreaker, when a student is punished for an infraction, etc. what
> is happening is socially sanctioned revenge.
> 
> Charles, who is still sticking up for a character he doesn't even
> really like.
>
Carol responds:
Justice is not socially sanctioned revenge. It is, at least ideally,
the impartial assignment of merited rewards and punishments based on
reason, not revenge. Here's the online definition from Merriam-Webster:

1 a : the maintenance or administration of what is just especially by
the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of
merited rewards or punishments b : JUDGE c : the administration of
law; especially : the establishment or determination of rights
according to the rules of law or equity
2 a : the quality of being just, impartial, or fair b (1) : the
principle or ideal of just dealing or right action (2) : conformity to
this principle or ideal : RIGHTEOUSNESS c : the quality of conforming
to law
3 : conformity to truth, fact, or reason : CORRECTNESS

Now granted, criminals are punished, but not out of revenge. The idea
is to protect society and to prevent or deter the criminal from
committing future crimes.

Revenge, OTOH, merely satisfies a psychological need to hurt someone
who has hurt you. ("I'll get even with that Skeeter woman if it's the
last thing I do!") It is not the place of a sixteen-year-old to punish
anyone--not Rita Skeeter, not Marietta, not Ron. The only authority
has is her position as Prefect, which allows her to assign students
who break rules detention (though I would think she'd need the aid of
Hogwarts magic or the backing of a teacher to administer any such
punishments, and we never see her do it). Marietta, as you say, has
not broken a school rule. On the contrary, she's trying to do as
Umbridge has told her, to report troublemakers who "lie" about
Voldemort being back. What everyone seems to be forgetting is that
neither Harry nor Dumbledore has presented evidence that Voldemort,
who has been "dead" for thirteen years, is really back, and Harry has
refused to explain how Cedric died. Had he done so, the students
attending that meeting would have had the chance to shake their heads
and call him crazy and leave before the group became an organization
with a roll sheet or to believe him and remain. As it is, Marietta
stayed because of Cho and the fifth years stayed because they wanted
to pass their OWLs. Only Ron, Hermione, the Weasley Twins, the Creevey
brothers, and Ernie Macmillan understood that the real need to learn
defensive spells had nothing to do with school--or with defiance of
the MoM except as it prevented them from learning what they needed to
learn.

To return to justice vs. revenge: Harry will have to take justice into
his own hands simply because the socially sanctioned agency is both
inept and corrupt, and because, despite Dumbledore's words about the
Prophecy not having to come true, he is the instrument of Fate. If
Harry doesn't destroy Voldemort, no one will. (Hermione is in no such
position, yet she blackmails Rita Skeeter and imprisons her in a jar
for a year. If anyone did that to Hermione, fandom would be in an
uproar. Not all that different from what Barty Jr. did to Mad-Eye,
except that she didn't pull Rita's hair out or Imperio her.) 

If Harry's greatest weapon is indeed Love, he's going to have to let
go of his desire for revenge and his hatred of both Voldemort and
Snape. (I really don't "get" Dumbledore's words about Harry wanting
revenge for his parents' death as a motivation for destroying
Voldemort. It doesn't fit with the whole, pure soul concept at all.)
Note that the same people who condemn Snape for wanting revenge
against Sirius Black for what Snape considers to be a murder attempt
condone Harry's desire for revenge against Snape and Hermione's for
revenge against Rita Skeeter. Possibly they would also have condoned
the murder of Wormtail at the hands of Lupin and Black, regardless of
the legal and psychological consequences for the murderers, becuse
Wormtail deserved it (as he certainly did). IMO, Harry was right to
spare Wormtail and try to hand him over to the authorities rather than
mistaking revenge for justice and allowing Lupin and Black to kill him
themselves. Vigilante justice is not justice. It's murder. And
Hermione taking the punishment of wrongders into her own hands is no
better, especially in the case of Rita Skeeter, where she's clearly
motivated by revenge. (Funny how she discourages the Twins from
blackmailing Ludo Bagman because they'll get in trouble(!) yet engages
in blackmail herself the very next year.)

Carol, who hopes that both Harry and Hermione will learn to
distinguish justice from revenge in Book 7