Right vs. Easy (Ron WAS: Re: DH reread CH 4-5)

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 186337

> Magpie:
> Ron faced bad choices whichever way he turned. Harry wanting him to destroy the Horcrux takes away the "easy" part. There's a bad consequence to not doing it. I just think this is a situation where everyone is too personally invested in everything to truly have an easy choice. I'm sure there are plenty of places we could describe in these terms, but I see no moments that are setting up a stark, dramatic choice that turns on exactly this phrase. What I do see are people faced with a lot of hard choices. It's a slightly different thing.

Zara:
Here's one: Stay at home, bored, your brilliance and your youth wasted, with your invalid little sister, or spend more time, perhaps even travel to see the world and seek fantastic artifsacts out of legend, with a handsome, amusing, intelligent companion. Notice he has a rather dark side, or ignore it. Consequence of choosing "easy": dead sister, guilt that lasts the rest of your very long life.

Another: Reject the overtures of a band of future terrorists because they'd call your best friend a Mudblood and your mother a blood traitor...or, finally enjoy the acceptance you were hoping to find when you came to Hogwarts. Consequence of choosing "easy": it's the first step along a path that will lead foirst to the loss, and later to the death, of that same best friend, now also the woman you love.

Another: Ignore the bad behavior of your friends towards others, because you don't believe anyone else will like someone with your condition. Let them in on your potentially deadly secret, or suffer your monthly transformations alone. Consequence of choosing "easy": the worst enemy of you and your friends learns your secret.

Another: Make an honest effort to learn a skill from a teacher you hate, or blow him off. Consequence of choosing "easy": You enable a chain of events that leads to the death of your beloved godfather.

But I also find that the definition of "easy" in this discussion is being formulated in what I find a very unconventional manner. I don't think we are supposed to consider risking death, torture, the loss of all we hold dear, etc. "easy" just because we would feel guilty or remorseful for choosing something different, because we have principles and want to do what is right. By that definition, no prncipled person ever makes a choice of right vs. easy. (As, any choice but the "right" one is suddenly judged easy by virtue of the person's inclination towards pricipled actions, or by virtue of their friends/family having such inclinations). 

 So I would say both Hermione and Ron *are* making a difficult choice to join Harry. Snape is (having previously made easy ones) now making a difficult choice to live and die as Dumbledore's spy. Harry makes a difficult choice when he goes into the Forest (he, arguably, does have a far stronger pragmatic reason to seek the destruction of Voldemort than anyone else, as Voldemort is certainly seeking the destruction of Harry over all else).