Marietta yet again

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 176777

Eggplant wrote: 
> <snip> Then she [Marietta] was dead wrong and when you make an error
of that colossal magnitude you can expect to pay a price.
>  
> "Carol" wrote:
> 
> > She would have seen herself as fighting for the wrong side, 

Eggplant responded: 
> It could be, of course she'd have to be a moral imbecile, but it
could be. However to tell the truth I don't much care how she saw
herself, I see her as a traitor. <snip>
> 
> If people just kept their word that jinx was of no importance, if
they don't keep their word, well, I don't believe it is common
practice for gorilla resistance organizations to make life easy for
potential traitors.
>  
Carol:
Erm, I think you mean "guerrilla organizations." And we're talking
about a group of kids who were for the most part thwarting a teacher
who refused to teach them practical defensive skills. Most of them did
not know or believe that Voldemort was back. Only Harry and the Death
Eaters actually saw him. (Cedric died before knowing what the thing in
Wormtail's arms was.) The DA was not the French resistance. It was a
bunch of kids who were trying to learn spells from Harry. Marietta
mistakenly saw them as a threat to the Ministry. Given the state of
affairs (the Daily Prophet under the control of the Ministry, the
Ministry, including most of the Wizengamot, believing that Dumbledore
was lying about the return of Voldemort, Voldemort keeping himself
well hidden and concentrating on the Prophecy) her mistakes are quite
understandable. Yes, she was snitching on her fellow students for
breaking the rules, but she was not aware that those students (or at
least HRH and Neville and the Twins) were genuinely attempting to
prepare to fight Voldemort and his Death Eaters. IOW, Marietta was not
a secret Voldemort supporter trying to aid his return to power.

In any case, it isn't "common practice" to jinx parchments in RL,
either, so perhaps RL comparisons don't apply here. I still say that
Hermione was less than honest in presenting her reasons for having the
students sign the parchment, especially considering that the jinx had
no effect as a *deterrent,* only as a punishment. (Her actions have no
bearing one way or another on the degree of Marietta's guilt. It's not
a matter of one or the other being in the wrong. Both are in the wrong
to varying degrees, IMO. Poor judgment in both cases. It would have
been best all around if Marietta had refused to sign and walked away
or never attended in the first place.)

Eggplant:
<snip> 
> And she was wrong, dead wrong. In your post you imply that she had
one erroneous idea after another after another, but you seem to forget
there are consequences when you are that wrong about so many things.
And by the end of book 5 everybody knew Harry was right and Voldemort
was back, but did she apologies for her treacherous behavior? Nope,
not in book 5,6 or 7. If it had been me I'd be totally ashamed of
myself and I certainly wouldn't be complaining about pimples, I'd
think I deserved the disfigurement. 

Carol responds:
Of course, there are consequences for being wrong and making mistakes
but that's different from deliberately doing wrong. Marietta had a
choice between betraying the DA and (in her view) betraying her mother
and the Ministry. *We* know that she was mistaken, but *she* couldn't
have known or she wouldn't have made the mistake. And, having had her
memory modified by Kingsley so that she forgot everything relatd to
the DA, including her own betrayal, how could she possibly be expected
to apologize?

BTW, it seems to me that Fudge, an adult who actually knew Dumbledore,
made even greater mistakes (which he came to regret). What would your
punishment for *him* be? I happen to like the humbled Fudge of "The
Other Minister" and wonder what happened to him.

Carol, noting that there's no need to put her name in quotation marks