Views of Hermione

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 160561

Carol earlier:
> 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. (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. 
> 
> 
> Sherry now:
> 
> Just because I do think Snape committed murder on the tower, does
not suddenly make me someone who believes anyone should take revenge
on Snape or Peter.  One of the moments I most love in the entire
series is when Harry stops Sirius and Remus from murdering Peter. 
I've already said how I feel about what Hermione did to Rita.  Neither
do I think that taking revenge against Snape will help Harry win
against Voldemort in the end.  In fact, I think his hatred of Snape,
though perfectly reasonable--one would not easily love someone one saw
murder another person in front of one's own eyes--I think it could
become a dangerous distraction from what Harry needs to do.
> As far as not wanting Snape to seek revenge against Sirius for
whatever happened back in their Hogwarts days, as this is 20 years
later, and we have been told by JKR we don't know all the details, I
think taking revenge is out of line there as well.  There's more to
that story than we know, but even if what we've been told so far was
all there was to it, I would not want to see Snape take revenge 20
years later.  
> 
> As for Harry learning to forgive Voldemort, I hope that isn't
required for the ending.  Maybe he can learn to forgive the former tom
riddle, who was once an innocent boy, but it would be way too sappy
and unrealistic to expect Harry to forgive and even love Voldemort,
the one responsible for his parents' deaths, his miserable upbringing,
the death of Sirius and now the hand behind the hand that murdered
Dumbledore.  I don't believe justice requires forgiveness and love in
order to apply it.  As for revenge, at least I'm fairly consistent,
because I don't want either the good guys or the bad guys to practice
it.  It isn't really true to imply that we all think revenge by Harry
is the way to go.

Carol responds:
First, my apologies for overgeneralizing. I meant many of the same
people who condemn Snape's desire for revenge approve Harry's. And I
should make clear that I don't condone Snape's desire for revenge,
either. I just don't use it as a basis for judging him as "bad." Nor
do I think we should view Harry's perspective of Snape's actions on
the tower as definitive, however evil they appear at face value.
There's a lot we don't know, including what passed between Dumbledore
and Snape before and during the events on the tower. (There's a scene
in GoF in which Harry and DD exchange a look of mutual understanding
without any awareness of Legilimency on Harry's part. Foreshadowing of
Snape and DD?).

While I believe that Harry will (and should) forgive Snape, I don't
think that the Love that will be his weapon has anything to do with
loving and forgiving Voldemort, who is essentially no longer a fellow
human being. It may involve compassion for the boy Tom Riddle, who was
lost to hope and goodness so early, but it will, IMO, primarily
involve love of his friends and the WW and, on a more abstract level,
love of Wizardkind. Quite possibly, he will suffer more losses, or the
loss of Sirius Black will help him to understand what others have
suffered and continue to suffer at the hands of Voldemort. I think
that being motivated by this kind of love rather than by hatred and a
desire for revenge is necessary for him to defeat Voldemort, to remain
pure-souled and innocent of hatred and the desire to hurt and kill
that motivate Voldemort and his followers. If Harry shares the same
hatred and desire for revenge, if he can conjure up the sadism
necessary to cast a successful Crucio, how is he any different from
the Death Eaters?

My apologies for being unclear and perhaps a bit inconsistent. At
least we agree on Hermione and Rita Skeeter! I think we also agree on
the difference between justice and revenge and the need for Harry to
fully learn that lesson.

Carol, who also loves the scene in which Harry saves his father's
friends from becoming murderers through an act of mercy that does not
preclude justice (a trial and imprisonment for Wormtail--which, of
course, would have ruined the story)