[HPforGrownups] NOW: sexualized violence

[k12listmomma]

No: HPFGUIDX 179303

>>  Susan: I guess this is an area of disagreement. Romantic love
>>  does not always lead to sex. Someone might be in love, and not want
>>  to have sex for many, many reasons....
>
> Kemper now:
> Let me clarify.  The love potion seems to elicit passion from the
> victim.  The physical act of love is the result of  emotional romantic
> love.  This is more true for youth and probably less so for those
> getting on in life.

Shelley:
One thing we have to remember is the potion could be of various strengths- 
age and dosage. Remember Ron? He got one that had been aged (strengthened), 
plus he kept stuffing his face with the items that were tainted, meaning he 
probably got 4 times the normal dosage at one shot. It's like with any other 
drug- a little Tylenol, and your headache is removed. A lot of Tylenol, and 
your internal organs are damaged for life.

A little Love Potion in a weak state- a romantic night where you can't say 
anything wrong in the eyes of the person afflicted with the potion, because 
they are starstruck. A lot of Love Potion, or an aged one and the person 
might even be obsessive to the point of wanting to kill themselves if they 
couldn't even be near the person that was the object of the potion. Ron 
punched his best friend, Harry, because he thought he had said something bad 
about Romalda. He was totally beyond his own control. Harry feared for him, 
because he couldn't think for himself.

Add to the that the response and intent of the person whom the Love Potion 
was made to be the object- Romalda wanted a date with Harry. She probably 
wasn't looking for more than a nice snog. She probably would not have 
suggested to Harry the idea of having sex. Merope wanted much more. She 
wanted a marriage, she wanted sex, she wanted children. She wanted a life 
where she was loved and appreciated by someone on a daily basis, even if was 
falsely induced. I believe Molly might have already been dating Arthur, and 
maybe he was a bit prudish about sex, and Molly wanted him to go further. I 
could see the love potion being used on him on that night they stayed out 
really late in order to get him to go further, on a date already previously 
planned without the love potion. In a mild state with a person whom you 
already had a relationship with, and the person might not have even realized 
that the suggestions of sex weren't theirs in hindsight. But, you take 
someone in a Ron-state of being heavily dosed, and the suggestion of sex 
would have gone over with an immediate ripping off of clothes without any 
thought of consequence of place, time, appropriateness of the situation, 
self harm or any rational thought. He would have known in hindsight that 
those thoughts weren't his. A person under a mild influence still might have 
their wits about them, to want to do it when it's suggested, but still have 
some self control as to the where/when planning stage, to keep themselves 
hidden or from self harm. I see the degree of Love Potion as affecting the 
degree of suggestibility the person is under from the person who did it to 
them, and from others. Harry was able to lead Ron around based on 
suggestions relating to Romalda ("come here, I will take you to her"), and 
that's the real danger of the Love Potion. If someone had said to Ron 
"there's Romalda, down there on the grounds, and she wants you to jump off 
this tower and fly down to her", Ron would have easily done it, without any 
rational thought as to self harm or the immediate death that would follow, 
because his mind was totally shot.

FWIW, I don't think that a repeated dose of strong Love Potions would leave 
the victim unharmed. I think Merope saw the damage she was doing to Tom 
Riddle Senior, that day by day his brain showed a little more the affects of 
such drugging, and that the only way he was to go on living was if he 
stopped being drugged the way she was doing to him. Sure, she had the wild 
sex that made her feel appreciated and loved, but that she was coming to the 
realization that it just wasn't real, and that she was killing this man whom 
was the father of her child. Thus, she had to let him go, let him get back 
to the state of being able to make his own choices in his own right mind. I 
think in the end she ended up with extreme emptiness of it all, and that is 
what killed her. She had committed a terrible crime, and she knew it.

Contrast that with Molly, who probably doesn't have that same regret. She 
was dating Arthur (under my proposed scenario), and he already loved her, 
and they ended up married with kids anyway, so in hindsight she probably 
doesn't hold it in the same view of "violation". She just got her "perfect 
night" a bit earlier than it would have happened anyway. She might have been 
able to do the same thing with a Luck Potion.

Shelley