Marietta

[Ken Hutchinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 169569

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Janette <jnferr at ...> wrote:
>

>  montims:
> 
> I would also mention that Umbridge set Dementors on Harry, off her
own bat,
> not knowing that he could fight them off, and not caring who else
could have
> been attacked.  If Dudley, why not also Mrs Figg if she was witness
to the
> murder of the boys?  This isn't revealed to us until the end, so
there is no
> reason for any of the characters to take this into account, but it
colours
> my opinion of Umbridge on every re-read...
> 

Ken:

I don't agree completely that the characters are unable to take
Umbridge's Dementor attack into account correctly. It is true that no
one had any way to be certain that it was Umbridge who ordered it or
with so much of the Ministry against Harry to even suspect her in
particular. But the Dementors were still under the Ministry's control
and those who believed Harry would therefore know that someone in the
Ministry, as a loose cannon or under orders, had instigated the
attack. Furthermore putting Harry before the full Wizangamot for a
minor juvenile offense, and changing both the time and the venue with
almost no notice was an obvious ploy to hustle him off to Azkaban as
quickly as possible and with only the barest hint of due process. What
could be the only purpose for this? The purpose is cleverly hidden to
the WW public and many readers are fooled too. It *appears* that the
purpose is only to discredit Harry and get him out of the Ministry's
way. When you consider that someone in the Ministry *had* to have
authorized this attack it becomes clear that the real purpose of
putting him in Azkaban is so the Dementors can finish the job!

In other words to those who believed Harry the report on how the trial
was conducted made it dead certain that the Ministry or a faction
thereof was doing all it could to *murder* Harry, not just silence
him. And it was pretty clear from her conduct at the trial that
Umbridge was part of that faction. Of course no one could know until
the end of the book that she was that particular sub-faction in its
entirety. 

This last reading of the book made me realize how truly evil Dolores
Umbridge is. From Hermione's point of view this would have been
obvious all along. I'm not saying that you can't have pity on
Marietta, a schoolgirl making the best decision she could. I am saying
that Hermione knew this game was being played for all the marbles and
she could see that the larger Fudge/Umbridge faction was as big a
threat to the WW she wanted to live in as the Death Eaters. She,
another schoolgirl, may not have picked the smartest method of dealing
with a rat but I would have to say that generally the action she took
was justified by the circumstances. The gloves are off in OotP between
the Ministry and the loyal opposition and the Ministry is on track to
become a totalitarian regime complete with genocide or at least
apartheid directed at non-humans, and political murder or a gulag
system for their human opposition.

This was not a schoolyard prank and it should not be judged as one.
Fudge and Umbridge may have started with good intentions but they were
stopped just this side of Nazism. At the close of HBP the poison they
spread between the Ministry and all the other factions opposed to the
DE is still crippling the fight against them. They have done
incalculable damage to the Cause. Hermione was right to oppose them by
any means she could think of and it is regrettable that Marietta got
caught in the cross fire. The choices the both Hermione and Marietta
make are the choices that totalitarianism forces on its citizens.

Ken