The Code of the Schoolyard and Potential Surprises in Store ;)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 168020

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Goddlefrood" <gav_fiji at ...> wrote:

> (ii) Break as many school rules as possible without getting 
> caught. With this one HRH, Fred and George, and many others 
> seem to try their best to comply.

Pippin:
The Marauders went beyond breaking school rules. They were
exposing people to attacks by a dark creature and here's what
Ron has to say about that, "Stuff like this [the attack on Mrs.
Norris] doesn't often happen at Hogwarts. They'll catch the 
maniac who did it and have him out of here in no time. I just 
hope he's got time to Petrify Filch before he's expelled. I'm only 
joking--" -CoS ch 9


Fred and George tell Harry that up until the reign of Umbridge,
they didn't do things that would get them expelled. They don't,
for example, blackmail Bagman, even though he cheated them.
Ron's not entirely sure that they wouldn't have, but it's clear he
agrees with Hermione that there's such a thing as  normal rule 
breaking and that would be beyond it. He wouldn't
have snitched on them, but he wouldn't have helped them do
it either. 

Lupin knew the Marauders had got beyond ordinary rule breaking, 
but he not only didn't tell them it had to stop, he helped them
plan to do it.  It had nothing to do, IMO, with the code of the
schoolyard.  It had to do with his being marginalized all his
life, so that, as Rowling says, he cuts his friends too much
slack. 

We can hope that Remus's friends will draw always the line at
murder -- or can we?  We already saw what happens when 
they don't. Remus stood side-by-side with Sirius, ready to kill 
Pettigrew, and it took an outside influence, Harry, to stop him.

Goodlefrood:
> What I do see in these arguments to Remus being other than good 
> is a singular lack of any speculation as to how this may affect 
> Deathly Hallows, even if it turns out to be correct, which I 
> highly doubt.

Pippin:
The werewolves want Voldemort to be their champion, at least
until he's overthrown their oppressors. It would be useful to
have Harry get rid of Voldemort then, but not before. It
echoes Ron's comment about Filch above. But the werewolves
wouldn't be joking.

I expect that Harry will find Lupin very co-operative in the matter
of locating horcruxes, but not so helpful when it's time to
actually destroy the last one. And then Harry will remember 
where Lupin was standing when Sirius died...and Lupin will
have to make his final choice.  

Alla:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/167990
See, I was brought up that teacher should try not only teach the
subject, but also try to teach the kids be good human beings. Sure,
my school system was in the communist state, but I was lucky to met
plenty teachers like that, so I do not think that I am romanticising
profession or anything. I met bad teachers too obviously.

Pippin:
Um, that's the way totalitarian systems work, isn't it? They
claim moral superiority for the leaders and the system --
That's why "noble" refers to both a feudal
overlord and the qualities  an overlord was presumed to
have. 


Someone who believed in a more individualist 
approach  might allow for competing self-interests 
in morality as in everything else, asking only for
compliance with the rules determined for mutual benefit,
and allowing that rules are only machines for making
choices, and like all machines do not function equally
well in every circumstance.

Lupin shares with Harry a willingness to break rules for a 
higher benefit, but his idea of a higher benefit is very narrow
 -- just those few people who like him. If their moral vision 
is pure, fine, but what happens when it's not? That's his
weakness. He knows it. He has to choose his companions
carefully, and I'm not sure he does.

People seem to think there's some sort of
magical barrier whereby Lupin can threaten to kill but
not harm anyone important, can betray Dumbledore but
not give away anything that might really hurt the Order,
can be cruel but not to anyone worth caring about. And
maybe there is such a barrier at Hogwarts, where there
are spells to safeguard those within its walls, but what
happens elsewhere? 


If JKR is okay with Lupin teaching her daughter even though
he needs someone to prepare wolfsbane potion to keep him
safe one day of the month, why shouldn't she be okay with
him needing a certain amount of social support in order
to keep him safe on all the other days?  

And why wouldn't she want to write about what would happen
to him if he didn't get it?

She has something to say about the nature of evil, and
I don't think she can say it with Voldemort and his thugs
alone. She's very interested, I think, in *why* people
co-operate with regimes that they know, or ought to
know, are evil, people who know they could resist, who
recognize it as a moral duty, but cooperate instead. 

Pippin
hoping that she has not snipped Goodlefrood too much,
and reminding him that JKR never went to boarding school
and is also writing from an outsiders' perspective