Responses to Marietta/Willy Widdershins

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 169218

Magpie wrote:
> I have a hard time believing that, given that part of the reason
given for Marietta siding with the Ministry was that her mother 
worked there so she thought she was doing the right thing. (And 
really, how much longer is a "mite longer" since she's starting a new
school year with them?) It seems a little too much saying that the
whole world really agrees with the heroes even if they do something
mean to their own children. A parent might agree that their child did
something wrong, but I doubt they'd get behind some other student
doing that kind of punishing.
> 
<snip>
> Just to be clear, I'm not blaming the DA--I know Umbridge is the bad
guy here and I don't think they deserved to be expelled for starting
the group. It just seems a little wonky to me to have the kids do this
thing, but then put the consequences all on someone else. It seems to
keep them from owning the action entirely, so that the stakes are high
for Marietta but not when it comes to their own actions. (Especially
since the way they went about it, imo, courted disaster that didn't
require villains.)

Carol responds:

Essentially, I agree with Magpie here. Certainly, Marietta's mother
would have supported her daughter's action and taken her to St.
Mungo's. Apparently, there's no countercurse to Hemione's jinx (just
as the only countercurse to Severus Snape's Sectumsempra seems to be
one that he invented himself, probably some time after he invented the
curse). If St. Mungo's can't heal the pustules, it's because they
don't know what caused them, IMO. (Neither, of course, does Marietta,
especially since she's also had her memory, erm, adjusted. Umbridge,
FWIW, attempted to find a counterjinx and failed; it's unclear whether
she consulted Madam Pomfrey and most unlikely that she consulted the
one wizard who might have been able to figure it out: Severus Snape.)

FWIW< I'm not quite sure that all of the students were participating
for noble reasons; to me, they seem like neutral or personal reasons
(Cho is there because she likes Harry, Zacharias because he wants to
know what really happened with Voldemort, and most of the fifth years
because Umbridge is teaching them nothing and they want to pass their
exams). The Twins are there as much to have a good time and learn some
new spells as to provide moral support to Harry. Probably, HRH are the
only ones (along with Neville and possibly Luna and Ernie) who
actually think they'll be fighting Voldemort. They have no reason,
yet, to believe he's really back. DD told them virtually nothing the
previous year, and the Daily Prophet has contradicted him for months,
with no supporting evidence from Harry's/DD's side. That aside, I
agree that all of them know what they're doing, which is essentially
going behind Umbridge's back and defy the Ministry. Too bad Marietta,
who has already presumably passed her OWls and whose mother works for
the MoM, was dragged to that first meeting at all! (I do like the fact
that the "bad kid" was not a Slytherin this time around, but that's
the only thing I like about the whole business, in particular
Hermione's underhand tactics.) However wrong Marietta's behavior was,
she could not have anticipated Dumbledore's action. She wasn't trying
to get the headmaster in trouble; she was just reporting a group of
rule-breakers who, as Magpie says, new quite well that they were
breaking the rules. The difference between Marietta and the others is
that they thought those rules deserved to be broken; Marietta, the
Percy of this little group, didn't.

I should add that the idea of horrific disfiguration is canonical and
goes beyond heavy makeup or a balaclava to cover the pustules. The
narrator's description makes not only her humiliation but extent of
the disfigurement itself crystal clear:

"Marietta gave a wail and pulled the neck of her robes right up to her
eyes, but not before the whole room had seen that her face was
*horribly disfigured* by a series of close-set purpustules that had
spread across her nose and cheeks to form the word 'SNEAK'" (OoP Am.
ed. 612).

It would have been one thing to let her go around like that for a week
or two, but it seems to be permanent. Not only is she being punished
far beyond the most unpleasant and demeaning school detentions (*other
than* the sadistic Umbridge's horrible quill), but the whole thing is
meaningless now that her memory has been altered. Unless Cho has told
her what she did, she doesn't even know why she's being punished, and
even then, she doesn't remember.

But to the point of my post, finally. We've forgotten a bad guy here.
Marietta could have simply left the group with no consequences after
the first meeting, even with Hermione's jinx on the parchment, if
Willy Widdershins, wrapped in bandages from head to foot after his
misadventure with the Muggle toilets, hadn't spied on the group and
reported them to Umbridge. At that point, they had technically done
nothing wrong (other than taking DADA lessons into their own hands as
a "study group" because they rightly considered Umbridge's lessons
worthless rubbish). As Dumbledore points out, Umbridge did not post
her decrees "banning all students societies" until two days later,
after Willy reported the meeting to Umbridge (Mundungus, with
presumably better intentions, having done the same to DD) (614-15). No
rule broken, nothing for Marietta to report--and no fear that she
would be in trouble herself for participating in an illegal student group.

Carol, noting that "Widdershins" means "in a left-handed, wrong, or
contrary direction" (no offense to lefties intended!) and wondering
whether Wrong-Way Willy will make any more minor mischief in DH
(alliteration only partially intentional!)