Marietta

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 169529

Eggplant:
> If Marietta had not betrayed them Dumbledore would not have been not
have been forced to leave Hogwarts, and if Dumbledore was still there
Voldemort could never have fooled Harry into going to the Ministry.
> But that's OK I can already hear you saying, she's not responsible
for her evil act because her head was full of wrong ideas. I tend to
think root cause of all evil acts is wrong ideas. I don't care if she
thought she was doing the right thing because she was dead wrong about
> that too.
> 
> Let me ask you something, if you were Marietta and after the
betrayal you learned the true nature of the situation would you still
feel ill used? Far from continuing to complain about my acne I'd fall
to my knees and beg for forgiveness.

Carol responds:

If characters are responsible for the unintended and unanticipated
consequences of their actions, then Trelawney is responsible for the
consequences of the Prophecy and Harry is responsible for both
Wormtail's restoration of Voldemort (along with Cedric's murder)
because he showed Wormtail mercy and Sirius Black's death because he
listened to the fake vision. (Obviously, I don't hold any such view.)

Really, Eggplant, I understand that you hate Marietta and view her as
a traitor, but realistically, the only consequence she could have
anticipated was expulsion for her fellow students. Hate her for that,
if you will, but let's not exaggerate. She didn't know that Voldemort
was back, and as far as she was concerned, Sirius Black was a wanted
murderer and Voldemort supporter who was still at large. The people
responsible for his death are Bellatrix, Voldemort, the Malfoys, and
Kreacher, and not even they anticipated his fighting Bellatrix on the
dais with his back turned to the Veil.

As for still feeling ill-used after learning the consequences of her
action, that's going to be a bit difficult given the memory charm, but
no one was expelled and DD *chose* to go into hiding and take the
blame. Those are the only direct consequences that Marietta would need
to feel sorry about, so, no, I don't think she'd be begging for
forgiveness. She might, however, have regretted her action if she'd
retained her memory and had the SNEAK hex on her forehead for a week,
but the longer she suffers from it, IMO, the less likely she'll be to
regret her actions. And even if she gets her memory back, the last
thing she's going to blame herself for is the death of sirius Black.
If Harry and his friends had actually been expelled and had fallen
victim to Voldemort, it would have been another matter, and she would
certainly be suffering terrible remorse--if she had her memory and
knew what she had done. But that didn't happen. All that happened was
a petty tyrant taking over Hogwarts and being made a fool of by the
Weasley Twins.

Carol, thinking that Marietta, like Percy, is deluded rather than evil
and should be judged accordingly, especially given her youth