Rita - Luna and the Qubbler

sistermagpie sistermagpie at earthlink.net
Fri Jun 1 03:20:58 UTC 2007


No: HPFGUIDX 169594

> > Marion:
> > Yes, but the point I think sistermagpie was making is that if Rita
> had printed pure bollocks, and insulting, damaging and vicious
> bollocks at that, about, say, the Malfoys, then Harry and co 
would've
> loved Rita Skeeter. Rita would be seen as an ally and a friend and 
the
> fact that she prints lies for profit and political ends would not
> matter to Harry and Hermione in the slightest.
> <snip>
> 
> Charles:
> 
> Excuse me? We have already seen that Harry defends even those who 
have
> hurt him. Including Draco Malfoy. In COS, when Malfoy is being 
accused
> of being Slytherin's heir, and Harry is asked whether he thinks it 
is
> possible, he responds with a resounding no. 

Magpie:
Well, he's not exactly defending Malfoy there, exactly. He's not 
defending him from the unjustness of the accusation, given he himself 
was happily suspecting him before and brewing Polyjuice based on the 
premise that Malfoy's own guilt outweighed anything the Trio did 
against him. He just knows that's a dead end now so says so. 
(Malfoy's "defending" Harry in CoS as well against the charge of 
being the Heir.) Obviously he doesn't go around defending Malfoy from 
all attacks ever.

But regardless, nobody's accusing Harry of letting Dudley die with 
the Dementors or anything like that. That's not anything like the 
pont I was making about Rita.

Charles:
Hell, Harry could have
> killed two birds with one stone on a certain night in Little 
Whinging
> just by not sending his patronus after the dementor attacking 
Dudley.
> Dudley would have been out of his hair for good, and there would 
have
> been proof that Harry had been attacked by dementors. Harry most
> decidedly would not have been on the side of Rita Skeeter.
> 
> Look at the attitude that Harry has when he reads the Quibbler for 
the
> first time. He feels that the most sensible thing in the magazine is
> the article about Sirius, and that the article on Fudge, who has
> already become his enemy, is ridiculous. No lauding the Quibbler for
> telling lies, no feeling of being allied with it. When Hermione
> decides to get Harry's side of things published in the Quibbler, he 
is
> hesitant. His thoughts are, and I quote "[...]it would confirm a lot
> of people in the view that he was completely insane, not least 
because
> his story would be appearing alongside utter rubbish about
> Crumple-Horned Snorkacks." (OOTP) Doesn't seem like too strong of an
> alliance to me.

Magpie:
Rita doesn't write the stuff in the Quibbler, so the fact that Harry 
can tell it's rubbish (but doesn't think that deserves punishment) is 
irrelevent. The point was, would Harry like an article *slanted* in 
the way that he agrees with, and frankly I see no reason not to say 
that he would. I don't think he'd consider it a lie. That's why I 
used the example of Hermione reading an article written by Rita that 
exposed the House Elf story, where Rita told Winky's story *the way 
Hermione would tell it.* I don't think she would have a problem with 
it. I think she might think it was admirable. Winky, otoh, might be 
furious.

-m





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