[HPforGrownups] Re: Marietta, was Slytherin's Reputation

[k12listmomma]

No: HPFGUIDX 185665

>> Montavilla47:
>> I don't think it really matters why Marietta's disfigurement isn't cured.
>> The fact remains that the disfigurement is there months afterwards.  It 
>> may
>> be marginally better (since she's graduated from a balaclava to heavy
>> makeup), but it's still there, and we never see her completely cured. 
>> For
>> all intents and purposes, the disfigurement is permanent.
>>
>> Shelley:
>> No, I don't think that I can agree with that statement. I am thinking of
>> Hermione's teeth that got shrunk back to (less than) their normal size. 
>> If
>> the healer at the time immediately after the incident didn't shrink her
>> teeth back (what if she was away for several days?), does that mean that
>> Hermione was forever "doomed" of having such large teeth? What if the 
>> healer
>> finally got around to shrinking her teeth months later? Would the proper
>> treatment still work? I think it would have.
>
> Montavilla47:
> I don't really understand this argument.  If Madam Pomfrey hadn't
> been able to shrink Hermione's teeth and so they remained larger
> throughout the books, then yes, the damage would have been
> permanent.  Just like Lockhart's memory loss was permanent, and
> the Longbottoms' insanity, Bill's bites, and George's ear loss.  Some
> injuries in the Wizarding world are permanent.
>
> And, since JKR takes care to show us that Marietta's face is
> disfigured every time we see her in the series--and we never
> hear about them disappearing--then it seems counterintuitive
> to conclude that they eventually got cured.

Shelley:
I never said that they eventually got cured- note, the books don't tell us 
either way. I am making a distinction: The TIMING of the cure, and the 
ABILITY to be cured. I think that a Wizard trained in curses would have been 
able to heal Marietta, but that solution was missed in the books as we read 
them. Hence, she had the ABILITY to be cured, but the TIMING never happened 
in the books as we read them. In my mind, ongoing pustules aren't the same 
as permanent pustules. Some damage, as you pointed out, is permanent because 
there is no way to fix it, but that some permanent injuries were a result of 
the lack of treatment- like the scar on Dumbledore's knee, whom he didn't 
seem to mind and found a creative use for (to use a map). I disagree that 
something is permanent if at any time, you have the ability to got to the 
proper healer to get it corrected, as I think Marietta could have been 
treated and fixed. I'm not going to say that it is permanent, (discounting 
Rowling's interview about this subject) if sometime after the events we 
read, we could easily imagine Marietta going to the correct healer to get 
end the curse- much like Sleeping Beauty isn't dead, but merely waiting for 
the Prince to end that curse. It makes a difference to me that I know that 
Marietta is still awaiting her "prince" to end the curse.

> Shelly:
>> I just think there are two issues here: her initial punishment of 
>> pustules
>> and the word Sneak from her breaking of a contract; and the secondary
>> punishment she received when the healer she sought failed to know the
>> correct antidote. Blame the first on Hermione, yes, but the 2nd 
>> punishment
>> wouldn't have happened if the people in the story had recognized it as a
>> curse, and for that, I don't blame Hermione.
>
> Montavilla47:
> Okay... I can kind of see this.  I mean, it's like blaming Snape because
> George's ear can't be regrown, right?  Imagine we don't know that
> Snape was trying to hit a Death Eater when he used Sectumsempra on
> George.  Now, it was Snape's fault that he cut off George's ear.  But it
> wasn't his fault that Molly couldn't heal the wound, right?

Shelley:
Your argument makes no sense, given that you've already stated that some 
injuries are permanent because there is no way of fixing the damage, and we 
know that the worst instances of Sectumsempra, no one can fix it.  Draco 
would have died if not for the immediate and very skilled actions of Snape, 
who happened to know exactly what to do. A severed ear is different than a 
skin inflamation, by far, for to fix it, you would have to grow a whole new 
ear. No one stopped to get the ear that had fallen to reattach it, and even 
if they did, we know Wizards don't believe in stitches. Snape is fully 
responsible, for he did the damage with the intend to inflict irreparable 
damage- if he alone knew the cure, then he inflicted damage knowing there 
would be no one to fix the injured party, for he wasn't going back to fix 
that damage he had done. There is no secondary "healer missing the solution" 
in this instance, becuase there is no solution, apart from Snape. And, I see 
no evidence that Hermione committed this act with the same kind of malice- 
meaning to permanently inflict injuries on the person who would betray the 
DA by squeeling. I think Hermione knew that Marietta could be fixed, and 
it's not her fault when it wasn't.


> Montavilla47:
> It kind of reminds me last week's episode of "The Big Bang Theory."  In
> that episode, Leonard (a geek) takes on what he thinks of as a quest (
> a la LOTR or Star Wars) by challenging a bully.  The result of his heroism
> is that he gets something written on forehead with indelible ink--and thus
> ends up humiliated.  It's funny, even though we're completely behind
> Leonard as a comic hero.  I don't worry even a little because I know
> that even indelible ink will fade off skin within about a week--until then
> Leonard wears a stupid cap that covers his forehead.
>
> But, if the bully had tattooed the writing on his forehead, or worse,
> branded it there, making it permanent, then it wouldn't be funny at all.
> It would be horrific.

Shelley:
I'm just saying that part of what makes me feel bad for Marietta is the fact 
that Madame Pomfrey is treating the pustules like a hex or jinx, and thus 
misses the proper cure for this injured girl. I don't hold Hermione 
responsible when the adults in Marietta's life missed that she was cursed. I 
blame the adults for missing the cure, and I feel bad for Marietta that she 
is continuing to suffer needlessly. In the story you just told, if the ink 
were "alcohol" dissolvable (such as a permanent marker is!), and the 
characters were trying to wash it off with water, wouldn't you as a viewer 
know that they had missed the solution if it was obvious to you, and then 
feel bad for the person suffering the ink on their face still, even though a 
simple solution existed? I feel bad for Marietta because the proper solution 
isn't applied. We as a reader have "extra" information that the characters 
in the story don't know, and that's my source of feeling bad for Marietta 
when she continues to have pustules months later.