Neville's part?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 166417

Bruce wrote:
> > As I have pointed out before, killing an enemy combatant in time
of war and killing in self-defense or the defense of another do not
constitute murder in any legal system of which I am aware.  All but
the most extreme pacifistic ethical systems admit the use of deadly
force in the latter two circumstances.
> 
> Geoff:
> I quite agree with you on your premise regarding killing in
self-defence or defending another.
> 
> However, I think the problem lies in how it is interpreted by the
individual doing the killing. Many ex-soldiers have returned from wars
mentally and emotionally scarred because they have had to kill in any
circumstances. I think this can be a contributory factor in many cases
of PTSD.
> 
> In the case of Neville, he is of a gentle and retiring nature. It
was quite surprising when he was the one remaining in action with
Harry at the end of the Ministry battle.
> 
> And even Harry, who I think has had to develop a thick skin over the
years to deal with events round him, has serious misgivings.
<snip>
> You can tell Harry (and Neville) that killing Voldemort and his
followers is justifiable and not murder, but they have got to surmount
their moral barriers before they will feel at ease with this - if that
point is actually ever reached.

Carol responds:
I agree with Geoff. Setting aside the legal system of the WW, in which
only Aurors have ever been authorized to use a Killing Curse (it's not
clear whether they're still authorized to do so), Avada Kedavra is
itself Dark magic and, if what we see with the Crouches is indicative
of their effects in general, Dark curses corrode the mind and the soul
(whether or not they're used to commit murder in a way that would
split the soul, in itself a rather confusing proposition).

There are, of course, other ways to commit murder, but Sectumsempra,
for example, is also Dark. And we see that Harry is (temporarily)
horrified by what he's done when he sees Draco, whom he regards with
good reason as an enemy, lying in a pool of his own blood. We can
imagine how he would have felt if Draco had died. I don't think he
could have gotten over it. And if Neville were to kill anyone, I'm
sure the effects would be even worse.

Then there's JKR and her values. We've seen the (Christian) themes of
Love, mercy, and forgiveness repeatedly in these books. We know that
Love in various forms has saved Harry from Voldemort and
(ostensibly--I'm a bit worried here) from temptation by the Dark Arts.
Somehow, Love (agape love for the whole WW??) will enable Harry to
defeat Voldemort. That's hard to reconcile with murder. It fits better
with, say, sending him through the Veil.

And even if the Prophecy really means that Harry must kill or be
killed (I'm not sure that he's interpreting it correctly or even that
it *must* be fulfilled--where is freedom of choice if that's the
case?), Neville is under no such compulsion. He isn't the Prophecy
Boy, and his nemesis has been set up since GoF as Bellatrix Lestrange,
the leader of the group of Death Eaters who Crucio'd his parents into
insanity. I can see him having her at his mercy--and *showing* mercy,
i.e., holding a dsiarmed Bellatrix at wandpoint and choosing neither
to kill nor torture her. He will not, I'm sure, stoop to the level of
his cruel and evil enemy. Nor would he be so foolish as to let her go.
A few words followed by an Incarcerous and/or Petrificus Totalus
(whose effects Neville is thoroughly familiar with) would be
sufficient. Turn her over to the Aurors and send her back to Azkaban,
which, I hope, wlll have some sort of anti-escape device on it and
highly trained Aurors as guards to replace the Dementors.

At any rate, I don't think JKR will want her heroes to suffer the
moral anguish involved in killing even a wholly evil character, not
even in self-defense. I think we'll see Love and mercy and forgiveness
triumph, with any dead Death Eaters killed off-page by characters
other than the Trio and their young friends. Mad-Eye has killed when
he had to, Evan Rosier and possibly Wilkes. He, or Rufus Scrimgeour,
or Severus Snape, or maybe even Remus Lupin, who was ready to murder
Peter Pettigrew, may end up killing a bad guy. 

But I think JKR believes that Harry and Neville in particular have
suffered enough. It's time for them to have the only reward they've
ever wanted, a normal, happy wizarding life. And, yes, they'll be
famous for awhile, but Harry is used to that, and fame is fickle,
even, or perhaps especially, in the WW. There's time yet for Harry to
be an Auror and even to have twelve children (poor Ginny!) and become
Minister for Magic, and for Neville to have a long and peaceful career
as Herbology teacher at Hogwarts.

Carol, who thinks that the legal aspects of self-defense in any RW
system are irrelevant and that it's the psychological and moral
aspects that concern JKR