CHAPDISC: DH30, THE SACKING OF SEVERUS SNAPE

[amiabledorsai]

No: HPFGUIDX 184501

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

> 
> 4.Do you think Harry would have Crucio'd Amycus if he had not felt
> that rush of affection for Professor McGonagall moments before?  A
> Stunning Spell would have worked just as well and would have had the
> added bonus of not alerting Amycus to the fact that he was, in fact,
> in the Tower. (I'd like to avoid the moral points of the Crucio by
> Harry, but that's like trying to avoid discussing Severus' teaching
> methods!)

<Lurker pulls off Invisibility Cloak>

I like to think that Harry would--he was, after all, not using an
Unforgivable, he was merely using a spell deemed suitable for students
to use on other students.  Deemed so, in fact, by "Professor" Carrow.
 The same "professor" who beat Neville to a pulp, and who by Neville's
testimony has hurt Seamus even worse.  It is rough justice, to be
sure, but at this point, it's the only justice Harry can be sure of. 
He owes it to Neville, to Seamus, to Michael Corner, and to every
other supporter he has in the school.

More interesting to me is McG's reaction: she not only does not
chastise Harry, she ups the ante by using the Imperius Curse.  To me,
this is the passing of the baton, this is Minerva acknowledging Harry
as her leader.  This also, and this is more subtle, I think, Minerva
anxious to bring this to a head--to purge her beloved Hogwarts of the
thugs who've taken over, who abuse her students.

It's one of the most powerful and telling scenes in the book.

Amiable Dorsai