Marietta

[juli17 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 169333

My problem with the whole Marietta discussion is not whether she was  wrong
(she was), not whether she betrayed the group (she did), not whether  Hermione
was uncharacteristically idiotic to use a hex that worked *post* betrayal  
rather
than some other spell that would actually be a deterrent to betrayal (she  
was),
nor whether Hermione's punishment was overly-harsh in its application (I  
believe
it was, at least in terms of its protracted nature). My problem is that we  
are 
talking about a bunch of FIFTEEN YEAR OLDS here. They are essentially
still children, engaging in school activities, reasoning and making  decisions
based on their youthful understanding and impulses, not soldiers on any  
actual
front line with the fate of their countrymen clearly in their hands.
 
This is schoolyard stuff, learning something in spite of that learning  being 
against
the rules, planning defensive strategies in preparation for a *potential*  
future war.
Potential. It is not happening yet, and many don't believe it will ever  
happen.
The French Resistance has NO relevance whatsoever, nor any other wartime 
resistance (and the battle that eventually occurred at the DoM was  absolutely
not foreseeable nor was the DA in training for such a voluntary  
offensive--which
only a handful of Harry's closest friends joined, BTW, not the whole  DA). 
 
The worst that could happen to the students here was that they perhaps  they
would be expelled (I say *perhaps* as we've seen more than one student  given
much less harsh punishment for expellable behavior). And in fact the DA  
students
*were* caught and *did* escape punishment, rendering Umbridge's decree  not
unexpectedly futile in the face of the unimpedable force of will known as  
Dumbledore.
(And since we have never been told that being expelled equates to having  
your wand
broken and being unable to practice magic--Hagrid supposedly committed a  
serious
crime in addition to breaking school rules--we have no real basis to assume  
the two
are always or even often related, more in fact to believe they usually  
aren't.)
 
Meanwhile those in the French Resistance who were betrayed faced rape,  
torture,
and death. Perhaps also the destruction of their families and of their  
villages in 
retaliation. While being kicked out of school is unpleasant and could have  
some
consequences for a student's future, it somehow pales when compared to  being
raped, mutilated, dead. Greatly pales, IMO. Two different ballparks. Two  
different 
planets even. 
 
While Marietta was certainly wrong, applying the word "evil," suggesting  
that she
committed "treason," that she should have been shot, and so on, all  comes off
as far more out of proportion to the reality of the situation than any  
argument 
that Hermione might have been wrong in turn. 
 
Julie, thinking wartime judgment requires an actual war in  progress 



************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]