HBP CHAPTERS 7-9 POST DH LOOK

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 184367

> Alla:
> > 
> <snip> 
> > Funny, Snape indeed does not do demonstration of Unforgivables.
> 
> Carol:
<snip>
 his job now is to teach Defense
> against the Dark Arts, not the Dark Arts themselves. Maybe DD asked
> him not to use them or maybe the Ministry won't grant him permission
> given his background. Any other ideas (or arguments supporting one
of these possibilities over the others)?

Pippin:
I think it ties into Snape's definition of the Dark Arts. His lecture
in  chapter 9 sounded like such a load of waffle that I never  tried
to figure out what it meant.  But the last time I read it, something
finally clicked. What Snape was saying, IMO, is that the Dark Arts can
never be  defined by their form, which is always changing.  They are
defined by their result.

Fake!Moody demonstrated the Unforgivable Curses in form only, which
was not, by Snape's definition, a demonstration at all. No humans or
sentient Beings got so much as a nosebleed.  Only Neville and Harry
were much disturbed by what befell the spiders, and only because they
were reminded of experiences which the other students did not have. 

Fake!Moody made them take the Imperius curse seriously for a moment,
after making the spider dance, by telling them what he could have made
it do instead. But when he does demonstrate it on the students, he
only makes them do silly things, and it's back to being a joke again. 

 But Snape's "shadowy, gruesome pictures"  convey to the class that
the danger they're facing is real: the magical destruction of mind,
spirit, and body. The messy remains of the Inferius victim demonstrate
that better than the image of an AK victim, which would probably look
like  natural death.

I think this is the definition that Rowling wants us to use. If so,
this is the greater good that Dumbledore is fighting for: an end to
the use of magic for such purposes, not only by Dark Wizards rebelling
against wizarding law but by everyone.

Now, over the course of canon we can see that some wizards don't get
it. SWM!James loathed the Dark Arts, but  he thought of them  as a
certain form of magic. And just as he thought it was okay to insult
Lily as long as he didn't use any really bad words, he thought it was
all right to torture people as long as he didn't use any really bad
spells. 

Lily originally seemed to share this view, defending James and his
friends by saying, "They don't use Dark Magic, though." I think her 
remark, in SWM, "You're as bad as he is" signals a change in her
thinking though.

Crouch Sr., also "always very outspoken against the Dark Side" also
didn't get it.  In defending the WW against Voldemort he allowed the
Aurors to use their magic just as destructively as the Death Eaters. 

Ginny's remark, "By the sound of it, Malfoy was trying to use an
Unforgivable Curse, you should be glad Harry had something good up his
sleeve!" shows a similar confusion. Harry, though, is not fooled,
despite being cheered by Ginny's support. Later, he agrees with Ron
that the spell he used was "not great." 

Pippin