Family and Other Loyalty

[montavilla47]

No: HPFGUIDX 177803

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "sistermagpie" <sistermagpie at ...> wrote:

> Winterfell:
> Hermione had no way of knowing who if anyone would betray them, and 
> it's that clear act of betrayal by Marietta (for whatever reason) 
> that triggered the jinx's effects; not Hermione herself taking 
> specific action against the student who caused the jinx to activate. 

Montavilla47:
Not to dump on your point about Hermione, but the way you 
state this suddenly made me think about Dumbledore's 
defense of Snape in HBP.

"He had no way of knowing how Lord Voldemort would
interpret the prophecy--which family he would target..."
(That's a paraphrase.  I don't have the book in front of me.)

Voldemort's interest in the Potters wasn't only triggered
by Snape's telling him about the prophecy.  They
also qualified for it by defying him three times.

Of course, they probably didn't know that they would
invoke this prophecy by doing so.  They may or may 
not have done part or all of the defying before 
Voldemort ever heard it.  

But then Marietta also didn't know that she'd be 
triggering a jinx by defying the D.A.  She also 
didn't know that when she signed her name, she 
was signing up to break a Ministry law.

> > Winterfell, who regrets what happened to Marietta but nonetheless 
> believes it was deserved by her actions.
> 
> -m (who has no problem with bad consequences on Marietta for what she 
> did, but thinks the punishment goes far beyond anything like justice 
> or natural consequences, and is still surprised the book and author 
> ultimately seem to see vengeance as a valuable end to itself so that 
> the fact that Hermione's plan is useless as both a deterrant or a 
> safety measure doesn't matter at all.)

~Montavilla47
Who normally never uses these post-sigs, but wanted to add
that JKR tends to invite these arguments by exaggerating the
punishment on minor villains to the point that many readers
start feeling sympathy instead of satisfaction.