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

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 186374

 
> Magpie:
> I gotta say that for me yes, even if you finish the sentence easier than getting killed. "What is easy" just doesn't relate well into "cut off your own hand." Those were two hard things Peter was choosing between there. I think most people would find it easier to die.
> 

Pippin:
Most people haven't turned spy, betrayed their friends, cut off one of their own fingers and murdered thirteen people. Peter's humanity has shrunk along with the intact part of his soul. There isn't much left of him beyond the simple instinct to survive, IMO, and so he cuts off his hand the way an animal would chew its leg off to escape a trap.

But there is *something* left. It's kind of amazing that Harry can say, "You owe me, Wormtail" and mean, "You owe me for saving your life" and not "You owe me for betraying my parents and murdering my classmate." 

Although Harry once agreed that Wormtail should be killed if he tried to escape, that alternative isn't easier for him any more. 

I do get what you're saying, that it would be more dramatic if Harry had to struggle with his feelings in order to forgive. 
But forced forgiveness isn't forgiveness at all. "The quality of mercy is not strained" and all that. Harry might have to struggle to understand, but once he does understand, forgiveness has to come naturally. 

I think that we don't see Harry struggling to understand because he's had the struggle already. He knows how hard it was for Ron to change, how much effort it took for Draco not to fall any further into evil, and  how many much braver and savvier wizards were duped by Voldemort. All that changes the way that we, and Harry, see Peter. Harry no longer finds it hard to imagine there could be a smidgen of self-respect in Peter and reach out to it.

Pippin





> Pippin:
> > Peter had plenty of time to discover that it's not easy living as a coward, but it was familiar and so, moment to moment, it took less effort than trying to be brave. 
> 
> Mapgie:
> Yes, I really do get this reading of "easy." Likewise Sirius finds it easier to run off and fight Voldemort than he does to stay in Grimmauld Place (which makes him feel like a coward). The main point seems to just be that Dumbledore's telling everybody to just do what's right, mmmkay? And that means fighting Voldemort. Whether you're too scared or too protective of your position, or whatever.
> 
> -m
>