Marietta

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 169329

> 
> Geoff:
> I must agree with Lanval here.
> 
> Marietta must have known what the feeling of the majority of the 
> students was about Umbridge; even if not from her own experience, 
> Cho must surely have expressed concerns in conversation with her. 
> So why did Marietta go to Umbridge? To cosy up to her?
> 
> Why did she have to report that a meeting was taking place - and 
> why was she so coy in revealing what it was or where it was? Knowing 
> dear Dolores' track record, she must have realised that if she revealed 
> the existence of the DA, Umbridge would be bound to apply some 
> sort of serious sanction to members. She could just have refused to 
> come any more with Cho and said nothing.

Pippin:
According to Cho, that wasn't an option. 
"Don't mind her, " Cho muttered. "She doesn't really want to be here, but
I made her come with me. Her parents have forbidden her to do anything
that might upset Umbridge, you see -- her mum works for the Ministry.
"What about your parents?" asked Harry.
"Well, they've forbidden me to get on the wrong side of Umbridge
too," said Cho drawing herself up proudly. "But if they think I'm
not going to fight You-Know-Who after what happend to Cedric--"

So Cho bullied Marietta into coming to the meetings. I think she
meant well, but if Marietta didn't have the courage to stand up to
Cho's bullying, what made anyone think she could stand up to
Umbridge, much less Voldemort?

So Marietta found herself between a rock and a hard place, and
she tried to clever her way out of it, IMO. If the meetings stopped,
she wouldn't have to choose between Cho and her parents, and
if Umbridge found out about their meeting place and put it 
under surveillance then the meetings would have to stop, 
wouldn't they?

Marietta didn't know that Umbridge was already aware of the
group's purpose and who was in it from Willy Widdershins, so
she didn't know Umbridge could connect her to it. AFAWK,  she
didn't tell Umbridge that Harry was involved. Willy Widdershins
did, corroborated by the parchment. 

I *don't* think that Marietta did the right thing, of course not.
But we were discussing whether Hermione did the correct thing
to protect the group by jinxing the parchment. I think not.
The bottom line is, people can't be bullied into loyalty. Even
Voldemort knows that. 

Pippin