Maraurders/he exists

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 168283

Pippin wrote:
<parts I agree with snipped>

>  Nor were Harry and Draco having any kind of a hex war when
Dumbledore compared them to James and Snape, IIRC, Draco had never
even tried to hex Harry at that point. <snip>
 
Carol responds:
While I'm generally on your side in this discussion, I don't think
this statement is quite correct. Setting aside the Duelling Club in
CoS, in which they hexed each other under controlled conditions
(controlled by Snape, not the inept Lockhart), Draco had tried to hex
Harry from behind and been turned into a ferret for it. Also, Draco,
with his cronies as backup, had approached HRH on the Hogwarts Express
and insulted them, stating that they were on the losing side, and been
hexed for their pains. There's also the Densuageo incident in GoF.
That hex was aimed at Harry but collided with Harry's hex (both were
deflected; Draco's hit Hermione and Harry's hit Goyle). Granted,
however, they're not hexing each other before or after every class.

> Pippin:
> Well, that depends, doesn't it? Hermione didn't think it
[Levicorpus] was benign, and she's not exactly a shrinking violet when
it comes to retaliatory hexing.

Carol:
True regarding Hermione. Funny thing. She's a good guy, but she
certainly does retaliate, both against Marietta and Ron (not to
mention blackmailing reporters and temporarily keeping them in jars).
So maybe JKR is a little *too* tolerant of retaliatory hexing.

Nevertheless, I don't see Levicorpus *in itself* as any worse than the
 jinxes and hexes that the kids routinely use on each other, from
Petrificus Totalus (used by Hermione against the innocent Neville in
SS/PS) to Densuageo and whatever hex Harry used to cover Goyle with
boils (of course, his intended target was Draco, but that's beside the
point). Levicorpus is embarrassing when it's used to humiliate someone
(Teen!Severus or the Muggle woman at the QWC), but if Lupin is telling
the truth, it was a popular hex in their fifth year. Certainly, Ron
isn't upset when Harry accidentally uses it on him, once he gets over
his initial surprise. He even thinks it's funny.

Hermione, OTOH, is not fond of the HBP, who is (inadvertently) helping
Harry to outperform her in Potions (and I do understand her resentment
here). And Harry is using one of the Prince's hexes, Langlock, on a
defenseless Squib. Consequently, she wants nothing to do with even the
innocuous Muffliato. So she associates Levicorpus with Death Eaters.
As I understand that scene, however, the DEs in general were using the
Hover Charm, Wingardium Leviosa, to suspend the Muggles over their
heads. One of them used a different charm or hex to spin a child
around, and another (someone suggested it might be Lucius Malfoy) uses
Levicorpus to flip Mrs. Roberts over and expose her drawers (much as
Severus's greying underwear was exposed in his worst memory), So, IMO,
Levicorpus in itself is not worse than, say, the Prince's own toenail
hex or the other hexes and jinxes (Jelly Legs, Rictussempra, the
tickling charm) etc. that the kids routinely use against each other.
But, like Stupefy and Impedimenta and many other neutral spells, it
can be put to bad use by bullies and Death Eaters. (So, for that
matter, can the Marauder's Map, which was used by Barty Crouch Jr. to
help him murder his own father.)

Carol, who agrees with Pippin that JKR believes in forgiveness, not
revenge, and that Harry's forgiveness of Snape will be of great
importance in DH