Marietta

[Dana]

No: HPFGUIDX 169539

 
Eggplant:
> If Marietta had not betrayed them Dumbledore would not have been not
> have been forced to leave Hogwarts, and if Dumbledore was still 
> thereVoldemort 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.


Dana:
To some level I agree because if Marietta really had a moral problem 
with holding the secret of this illegal gathering (for instance 
because he mother is a ministry employee) then she should have gone 
to either DD or her head of house and not to Umbridge, who herself at 
that specific time was not a specific *Hogwarts* authority. Marietta 
did not just sneaked on other students breaking Hogwarts school rules 
but Ministry rules and her betrayal was therefore not just a mere 
student ratting out other students. The MoM was on a specific smear 
campaign against both DD and Harry from the start of the school year 
and Marietta being the daughter of a MoM employee must have known 
this, especially because it was her own mother who was in charge of 
monitoring Floo Network activity. 

In RL WWII, people in Europe, in occupied territory, snitched on 
people giving shelter to Jewish people because they were scared of 
repercussions if the Germans found out through other means. It was 
not merely thinking about doing the right thing, it was being scared 
of somehow being associated with those that resisted that occupation. 
I believe that is what happened with Marietta, her being scared that 
her involvement in the DA would somehow either backfire on herself or 
on her mother. To some level this is an understandable reaction but 
she should have thought about that before she joined the group and 
made a stand that she rather not be associated with this idea, 
instead of joining up first and then get scared for her own 
involvement. In both Harry Potter and in RL people die when people 
get scared and sell information to the other party. Wormtail did the 
same thing and it caused more then 2 people their lives, he chose to 
join LV's side because DD's side was losing the war and Wormtail was 
scared that his connection to DD and opposing LV could get him killed 
and he rather sell out his friends then die himself. 

Many people in the WWII, did the same thing when it seemed Hitler's 
regime was going to be undefeatable and they actively participated in 
selling out others so they could gain the protection for themselves 
and their families. We rather forget this side of war and rather 
remember the heroic deeds that let to victory and freedom but these 
stories are very real. Anne Frank's story is probably the most famous 
of these. She did not have to die, she was not murdered by the 
Germans but she died of disease just mere weeks before the camp was 
liberated.    

The intentions of the person selling the Franks and the other living 
there, out, might not have been out of pure evil but we should not 
underestimate the consequences these actions still had. Otto Frank 
came back from the war alone, he had lost his entire family because 
of it, no one of the other people, in hiding there, ever returned. 

As Sirius said in GoF, war brings out the best in some and the worst 
in others. The MoM might not have been on the side of LV at the time 
the events of OotP took place but their actions put a lot of people 
in serious danger. It was actually very comparable with what happened 
with Hitler when he first started to take over countries. It seemed 
so innocent at first and no one interfered but these actions caused 
Hitler to be able to gain strength by taking over richer countries 
like for instance Austria and making allegiances with Mussolini and 
when finally the rest of the world realized what Hitler was planning, 
it was already to late and he overran most countries with relative 
ease. 

I think the basis of Harry Potter is the same, if countries before 
WWII had united and forget about their differences for a moment then 
Hitler would never have been able to build up his army and hold 
Europe under his clutches for 5 long years and it wouldn't have cost 
millions of people their lives. And yes after WWII most countries 
denied their responsibilities in letting it happen or even in taking 
care of the havoc Hitler caused, they pulled back and just took care 
of their own and that was it. No one learned a single lesson from it 
and it could happen again because people these days are no longer 
willing to fight for a single cause let alone their fellow human 
beings. Let others take care of it and let it be as far away from my 
bed as possible. 

Marietta's action did sent a rollercoaster of events into action as 
the removal of DD and him being a fugitive was, in my opinion, 
directly linked to the removal of Hagrid and with it McGonagall. DD 
prevented Marietta from putting Harry in direct danger but he could 
not prevent the indirect implications her actions had in the events 
of OotP. Hermione's actions are in my opinion not a result of bad 
judgment on Hermione's part, on the contrary, Hermione knew perfectly 
well what implications, going against the MoM, could have if they 
were caught and in a sense, her putting a jinx on the paper, they all 
signed out of free will and specifically stated that by signing this 
they'd swore to keep the secret, prevented at least Harry's removal 
from Hogwarts and as we see in GoF LV specifically states that he 
could not get to Harry there. Unfortunately DD could not undo the 
part of Marietta's sell out of the location and the time of the 
meeting even if Marietta was prevented to implicate Harry further. 
Marietta's actions had far more implications then just putting some 
fellow students in trouble, her actions caused an even further rift 
between DD and the MoM that only could be resolved with LV's 
exposure. 

I can only say in our world or Harry Potter's world there does not 
exist something like pure good and holding characters up to this 
standard because they are the main characters in a fight against evil 
is unrealistic to say the least. There is only responsibility for 
ones actions and some characters seemed to be far less willing to 
claim their own in events. There is only one evil in JKR's world and 
that is willingly leading people to their death's for own personal 
gain (what ever that gain is) and that is what separates the good 
guys from the bad and put the rest in the middle. No where did I ever 
see one person being portrayed as flawless just because he is on the 
side of the supposed good and neither do I think should the reader 
hold people to these unrealistic standards. Even love is portrayed as 
something so beautiful and so terrible at the same time that the door 
in the DoM is permanently locked. Morality is not a static thing but 
when you hold a specific morality to one group then one should apply 
that same morality to the other and not apply different moral 
standards just because people are on different sides of the fence. If 
one wants to condemn Hermione for putting a jinx on a piece of paper 
that every one signed out of their own free will then one should 
apply that same standard to Marietta's actions and then see who's 
actions had the biggest consequences. 

JMHO

Dana