Disappointment and Responsibility (was Re: Requiescat in Pace: Unforgivables)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 174963

> 
> lizzyben:
> 
> I never read a Christian message into the text, and am not a 
> practicing Christian. I don't care if the books have a Christian, 
> pagan, atheist or Hindu theme, as long as there is some type of 
> coherent theme in the novels. And that's what I find lacking. So, 
> I'm not disappointed by the lack of a Christian theme, but the lack 
> of any coherent theme. 

Pippin:
I think the theme is stated  all over the place.  It's choosing what to 
believe, specifically, whether to believe, as Dumbledore did, that
one can " find something to value in anyone, however 
apparently insignificant or wretched" (ch 2). Kingsley put it
another way in his broadcast: "Every human life is worth the 
same, and worth saving." (ch 22)

Did Harry know this all along? I don't think so -- didn't he say,
back in PS/SS that Neville  was worth ten of Malfoy because Neville
was a Gryffindor and Malfoy was in "stinking Slytherin" ? And yet
at the end of it all he says this "It doesn't matter to us. But if it
matters to you, you'll be able to choose Gryffindor over Slytherin."

Sounds like  rather a major shift in Harry's thinking. Of course
we're not told how it happened, um  except for Harry getting to
walk a mile in Snape's black boots in HBP, masquerading as the
Halfblood Prince,  trying to find proof  that his classmates are 
messing with something way over their heads, and nearly getting 
expelled for it, being accused of messing with Dark Magic, 
thinking his best friend will drop him if he finds out who Harry
fancies, etc.   

Then there's Harry in DH, given the seemingly impossible task of destroying
a wizard incomparably mightier than he, unable to share the burden
with anyone except his two closest friends, cut off from his parents,
having to dismiss the help of their best surviving friend, and no longer
sure he can trust the master who gave him the task. Sound familiar?

Lizzyben:
> 
> No, what really broke the novel for me wasn't the lack of Snapey-poo 
> or Draco, but the lack of any example of a good, or even decent 
> Slytherin 

Pippin:
Must we  define good and decent, or brave and trustworthy,
in Gryffindor terms?  If good and decent means rushing headlong into 
battle with no idea what you're going to do except hit the enemy with 
everything you've got -- well, that's not the Slytherin way. 


But as Harry discovered, there are other kinds of bravery. 

If trustworthy means never being sneaky and underhanded, then there's 
scarcely a character who qualifies. Certainly not Harry.  But
as Dumbledore says, he wouldn't trust anyone but Snape to be able
to dangle on Voldemort's arm and yet betray only the information
that Dumbledore deems worthless.  Snape never let Dumbledore
down, despite feeling, more than once, that Dumbledore had let
*him* down.  And contrary to what many seem to believe, IMO, Snape
died bravely.

Now, I may be way off course here, but consider the facts.
The legend of the wand that must pass by conquest was widely known.
Voldemort and Snape seem to have discussed it. 
Everyone knew that Grindelwald was supposed to have had a wand of
exceptional power. 
Everyone knew that Grindelwald had been beaten by Dumbledore.
Snape knew he himself  had *not* beaten Dumbledore. 

So....

Regardless of whether Snape realized that Draco had disarmed
Dumbledore, (and he certainly could have found that out)  Snape had
to know all along that the wand could not have passed to him by 
conquest. Snape could have given Voldemort, if not  the *real* reason 
that the wand was useless, at least *a* reason that the wand was useless. 
Snape could, in other words, have tried to get Voldemort to spare him,
at the cost of setting Voldemort on a few more innocent lives. 

But he didn't. 

He may not have shown remorse for all his failings, but he did
show true repentance for one of them-- he faced the same temptation
he had faced when he gave the prophecy to Voldemort, and this time he
passed it by.  

Choose to believe, or not.

As to the other Slytherins...

Voldemort claims that the Slytherins who left the school joined him.

But he is a notorious liar.

In fact, we don't see *any* of the Slytherin students doing his bidding 
Draco is acting quite on his own.

We don't know whether the Slytherins  left in order to
join him, or whether they left to keep their families from being used as 
hostages, as Voldemort used Neville's grandmother. 

Some of them might even have had sneaky plans, ala Regulus. They
might have even come back with Slughorn, polyjuiced or in disguise.
  
 JKR doesn't tell us. Once we had to choose whether to believe with no 
certain evidence that Dumbledore was right to trust Snape, 
Now we have to choose to believe that we can "find something to 
value in anyone, no matter how *apparently* (emphasis mine) 
insignificant or wretched."  Or not. 
 

JKR doesn't make it easy for us, because in RL it's not easy. There are
always going to be occasions when people *apparently* fit the labels
and stereotypes. And there are genuine, deeply felt differences between
cultures that are not going to be wiped away by everybody standing
in a circle singing the WW equivalent of Kumbayah. We should take heart,
JKR seems to be saying, from brief glimpses of how things could be: the
chastened wizard, Fudge, led forward by the goblin and the house elf at
the end of OOP. Or the moment in DH when "nobody was sitting according 
to House anymore."   Including Draco Malfoy.

Pippin