Responses to Marietta (was: Misc. responses, some quite old)

justcarol67 justcarol67 at yahoo.com
Sat May 26 18:53:39 UTC 2007


No: HPFGUIDX 169320

bboyminn wrote:
> <snip>
> Again, you are illustrating my point for me. Where in cannon does it
say it is NOT acne, or chicken pox, or measles? Harry gives us his
initial reaction, which is the reaction of a surprised boy under
stress. He further
> gives us a visual symptomatic description of what he
> sees, but he doesn't define it. In other words, he 
> doesn't say acne or measles or chicken pox or skin
> infection; he simply describes what he sees.

Carol responds:

Acne or dragon pox, they're canonicaly pustules, defined by Merriam
Webster online as "a small circumscribed elevation of the skin
containing pus and having an inflamed base. So they're small, inflamed
bumps oozing pus (ugh). Moreover, they're *purple*, they're close-set,
and they spell out SNEAK." They cover so much of her face that she
pulls up her robes to her *eyes* to hide them. And she's still trying
unsuccessfully to hide them as of HBP. 

*Harry* doesn't give his reaction. The *narrator* describes the
pustules as Harry sees them, with unusual objectivity. The girl is
"horribly disfigured" but Harry isn't disturbed by that. He thinks she
deserves it. I don't see any indication that the description is that
of "a surprised boy under stress." He isn't horrified by what he sees.
In fact, we have no indication of his reaction at all, only the
description I quoted earlier (minus "purpustules"--sorry about that),
until the next page, where he feels "a surge of pride in Hermione's
jinxing ability" (OoP Am. ed. 613). Not, IMO, one of Harry's finer
moments, but, of course, he can't be expected to sympathize with her
at the moment, and his chief concern is how he's going to get away
with lying to Fudge (611). My point, though, is that he expresses
neither surprise nor horror on seeing Marietta. All we get is the
narrator's description of the pustules, not Harry's reaction, until
his moment of pride in Hermione. 

Fudge, however, is clearly shocked. He says "Galloping gargoyles!" and
"leap[s] backward in shock, nearly landing himself in the fire" when
Marietta raises her head (she's been hiding her face in her hands).
Marietta is so distressed that she wails and hides her face and shakes
her head "frantically" (612). Her eyes are "wide and fearful" (613).

bbpyminn: 
> <snip> My central point is we don't know what the spell was or how
it works.
> Since we don't know, we don't know that an act of kindness or
loyalty on Marietta's part won't cure the spell. We don't know one way
or the other because there IS NO CANNON to base our discussion on, so
we are left with nothing but speculation.
> 
Carol responds:

We have canon that Hermione jinxed a piece of parchment. It seems
likely then, that whoever reverses the jinx would have to examine the
parchment itself to see what spell was cast on it (as Snape examines
the opal necklace before he can deal with the curse on Katie) before
knowing what the counterjinx is. And if it's a spell that Hermione
invented (which can't be determined at this point), only she would
know the countercurse (though perhaps someone like Snape or a St.
Mungo's Healer could invent one once the jinx or hex or whatever it is
was identified). Umbridge can't reverse it, but she's no Healer of any
kind. I'm guessing that Madam Pomfrey was also consulted, but being
unable to diagnose the injury, was consequently unable to treat it.

While we're speculating, it seems likely to me that Marietta's mother,
a Ministry employee who would (I hope) have been informed by Umbridge
of the consequences of her daughter's loyalty to the Ministry (and who
certainly would be concerned *as a mother* with her daughter's
disfigurement and distress) would take her to St. Mungo's for
treatment, but if she did so, they, too, failed to find a countercurse
(if they'd found one, she'd be cured) probably because without the
parchment, they can't identify the spell. And surely, there's no
existing spell that spells out that specific word under those specific
circumstances. Hermione must have adapted an existing spell or
invented one based on her research of similar types of spells.

We have canon for St. Mungo's treating spell-caused injuries and canon
for treating curses by determining the spell cast on an object (the
opal necklace). Can you show me some canon for any kind of spell
that's reversed through an act of loyalty or kindness? And why would
Marietta show loyalty to the people who disfigured her when she can't
even remember what happened?

Carol, who thinks that the canon we do have leads to the conclusion
that the spell is either permanent or curable only by a person who
knows what curse was cast (that being, at this point, only Hermione)





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