HP and Moral Choices

[Sharon Hayes]

No: HPFGUIDX 176095

>   zgirnius:
>   Yes, in "The Elder Wand" Voldemort questions Lucius
>   about Draco's
>   absence, suggesting Draco might have turned traitor.
>   He would not
>   have, if Draco was at the school on his orders.
>   Draco's back in the
>   same situation he was in during the latter part of
>   HBP. Then, he knew
>   he and his parents would be killed if the mission to
>   murder
>   Dumbledore failed. In DH, Draco can see that they
>   will all be killed
>   if they don't prove their use to Voldemort in some
>   way.
>
>   What we don't know, is whether Draco is any more
>   able to follow
>   through on his plans than he was in HBP. He did have
>   Dumbledore dead
>   to rights, after all, but did not bring himself to
>   kill him. In the
>   RoR he tries to get his friends interested in the
>   diadem (shades of
>   his focus on repairing cabinets in HBP…focusing on
>   anything but
>   actually doing Very Bad Things to people), uses no
>   offensive spells,
>   an quickly loses his wand. So my own view is that he
>   is again driven
>   by his desperation, but remains unable to do what he
>   must to be a
>   useful Death Eater.

Sharon:
Ah I see yes you are correct. So Draco is on the path to 
redemption after all. However, I think Harry still would 
have saved Draco even if he wasn't, just out of decency 
or something similar. So the book gives many instances 
of decent behaviour on both sides. The fact that Lucius 
and Narcissa don't care whether Voldie wins in the end 
shows they have some compassion and love, if only for 
their son

>   zgirnius:
>   I'm happy to provide the reference. <SNIP>

Sharon:
Thanks that's excellent, again you are correct (and I have read 
the book 4 times!) 

To my mind it is really Snape who is the hero in DH. Snape 
attracts the hatred of everyone he is trying to help, he does 
the right thing, even when it makes him look very bad. That 
seems to be the mark of a true hero. Harry is also a hero for 
giving himself up unarmed to Voldie, again, he does the right 
thing. But I wonder if Harry would have done it so easily (well 
of course it wasn't easy but you know what I mean) if his parents, 
Sirius and Lupin hadn't died. He was going to join them, and 
that was a comfort to him. I am not trying to take anything 
away from Harry sacrifice, but when I think of it, I realise 
that it was his close connection with death that allowed him 
to make the sacrifice.

So I guess I have changed my mind -- Harry is a hero in the 
traditional sense, but better, becuase he doesn't try to kill 
off the baddies. He doesn't even use the Killing Curse on Voldie 
at the end - -is that becuase he knew he only ahd to disarm him 
to win the Elder wand -- or is it as I earlier suspected, that 
he couldn't bring himself to use the Avada Kadavra. Maybe a 
little of both?

Sharon