[HPforGrownups] Re: Responses to Marietta

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 169211

From: sistermagpie <sistermagpie at earthlink.net>
>I am truly disturbed by Marietta still walking around with word on 
>her face in pustules--and who cares if it's "just a word??" Who 
>wants a word written on their face in oozing pustules? Or even a 
>single pustule? As far as we know she is permenantly disfigured. I 
>don't think that's an exaggeration. It just seems like the truth. 
>Marking people in this way used to be, iirc, a common form of 
>barbaric punishment. If it was no big deal there would be no reason 
>to do it. It actually is an act I would normally expect to be the 
>kind of act that defined the bad guys in a story.

Bart:
I'm disturbed too. But I have a hard time believing that Hermoine COULD find and cast a spell that strong, that nobody could break it. On the other hand, I DO know of a case where students cast a bit of magic which nobody seemed able to break; Fred & George's swamp. However once Umby the Pink was gone, suddenly the magic didn't seem quite as powerful. 

Now, let's look at Marietta. Frankly, I DO feel a bit sorry for her; it was very clearly shown that she was more or less dragged in by Cho. She absolutely did not take it as seriously as the rest of the members. So, one can see her being the weak link. However, consider the consequences of her actions; it caused Dumbledore to become a wanted wizard, tossed from the school. MAJOR LEAP OF LOGIC: I think that whoever her parents took her to, or even possibly her parents, decided that she should live with it a mite longer for the lesson to set in. 

Bart