Family and Other Loyalty

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 177777

> 
> Betsy Hp:
> The reason it struck me as odd is how it reflected on our heroes.  
> Hermione permanently marred the face of a fellow student because that 
> student showed more loyalty to her mother than towards Hermione.  JKR 
> could have had Marietta choose to snitch for obviously selfish 
> reasons.  She did not.  And my view of Hermione was tainted because 
> of JKR's story-telling choice.
>

Pippin:
It's not that Marietta showed more loyalty to her mother than to
Hermione, it's that Marietta promised her loyalty to the DA and
then went back on it. I think we get JKR's views on Hermione's
means of punishing traitors when the silver hand turns out to be a
similar device. The curse doesn't kill Marietta, OTOH it doesn't
give others a chance to intercede for her either. It doesn't leave
room for a second chance.

JKR does not want us to see Hermione as entirely beneficent,
and in the end canon does not show her that way.

I hate to keep harping back on this, but I haven't seen it addressed
except in a facetious comment that the Trio really wouldn't be able
to keep their hands off the Elder Wand. Canon is that they accepted
Harry's decision not to use the wand and that Dumbledore thought 
it was the right thing.

The Trio understand that they are not wise enough or good enough to
rule the WW unopposed, so the argument that JKR presents them
as perfect people is a strawman, IMO.

Pippin