The Dark Arts (Re:help with JKR quote/ Children's reactions)

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 176569


>Geoff:
>This to me suggests that the Map was in a different league to 
> the Diary which, being a Horcrux, was a dark object by definition.

zgirnius:
Indeed, it would appear that the Horcruxes, the (related) potion/magic 
that recreated Voldemort's body, and Inferi are the only magic we could 
say for sure is "the Dark Arts", because they never were endorsed or 
used by any white hats. Harry used Crucio, he and Minerva used 
Imperius, Harry used Sectumsempra (even after knowing its fuction), 
Dumbledore endorsed the use of Avada Kedavra by Snape, and everyone and 
their cousins uses jinxes, hexes, and curses.

Yet we have characters flagged for their supposed obsessions with the 
Dark Arts (Harry despises Draco for his, just as we are told James 
despised Severus for his). Neither Snape nor Draco at any point in 
their careers are shown as having an interest in Horcruxes or creating 
Inferi, however.

What I take away from this, myself, is that all the magic I brought up 
to date *is* Dark, down to the teeniest, most amusing little jinx. 
Rowling said so on her website, and her statements are consistent with, 
and would to an extent be logically deducible from, the text. There is 
no logical flaw in the magical foundations of the Potterverse regarding 
what is Dark. 

So in particular, James and Sirius were adept and frequent users of 
Dark Magic as schoolboys. So is Harry, though his use is more judicious 
in my view. Draco also knows and uses his Dark Arts. Severus was an 
expert who created new spells of this type. His pal Mulciber was 
another person who used them. 

All the good guys who go about looking down their noses at those greasy 
Dark Arts obsessed oddballs? Hypocrites, up to a point. The real life 
equivalent that springs to mind is the Western democracies who gripe 
about human rights violations in assorted dictatorships around the 
world. Not that they are wrong to do so, human rights violations are 
bad things that should be griped about and prevented whenever possible, 
and some of those dictatorships violate them to an appalling extent 
with appalling frequency. But the hands of those complaining are not 
squeaky clean either.

So when Sirius thought Severus was 'into the Dark Arts', he was not 
actually saying that Severus knew or did things that are materially 
different from things Sirius knew and did (except that his knowledge 
may have been prodigious for an eleven-year-old). Sirius was making 
assumptions that this knowledge and interest would lead Severus to make 
different choices than Sirius's regarding the Voldemort war. At age 
eleven, these assumptions were based more on prejudice due to 
looks/House preference/other factors than any knowledge he had of 
Snape's personality and interests. (Nil, early on).