Marietta

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 169603

---  "pippin_999" <foxmoth at ...> wrote:
>...
> Pippin:
> Oh, I agree. But his actions show that Harry doesn't. 
> 
> ... In his eyes, Hagrid is a well-meaning person who 
> made a mistake. That's much the way Cho thinks of 
> Marietta. Harry's the one with the double standard, 
> IMO. There's one set of rules for his friends, and 
> another for people he doesn't know very well. 
> 
> 
> Pippin
>

bboyminn:

But Hagrid is a well-meaning person who made a mistake.
Marietta, on the other hand, is an ill-meaning person who
made a mistake. There is no way Marietta can claim she 
didn't know her actions would be harmful to the people
involved. She had enough knowledge and evidence to know
that Umbridge would not be kind to people who broke her
petty rules.

Now, I can understand Marietta's action. She we torn
between conflicting loyalties. We may never know what
exactly made her tell Umbridge, but we do have enough
to know that she was torn between at least two 
conflicting loyalties. But none the less, I still say
there is no way she could not have known that ratting
out her friends would be a bad thing for them. 

I have to wonder when Marietta was weighing her 
loyalties if she ever asked herself what harm the DA 
Club was doing? Yes, it was against Umbridge's rules, 
but she should have been able to see, smart girl that 
she is, that Umbridge's rules were pretty petty and 
pointless; as well as restrictive and counterproductive.

She wasn't acting on a rumor, she had been in the 
DA classes and knew they weren't about overthrowing
the government or creating a secret army for 
Dumbledore. They were simply about training themselves
to pass their test and learn to properly defend 
themselves.

So, again, how could Marietta conclude that the DA Club
was in anyway harmful, subversive, or counterproductive? 
Again, I acknowledge they were against the rules, but I
find it hard to believe every student at the school 
did not find Umbridge's rules to be petty, pointless,
oppressive, counterproductive, and arbitrary.

That makes it very hard for me to see Marietta as
'well-meaning'. It further makes it hard for me to 
sympathize with her punishment. Though, I have to 
admit that, as I've already said, I expect Hermione to
eventually do the right thing and clear up the spots.
I further expect Marietta to do the right thing and 
understand that the stakes are much much higher than
petty school rules, and act accordingly.

My sympathy for Marietta is limited because, conflicted
loyalties or not, she really had no underlying 
justification for her actions against people who were
trying to help her.

Steve/bboyminn