Revenge on Rita was First lesson

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 185788

> > Magpie:
>  I don't remember anyone in canon ever 
> > regretting Hermione's treatment of Rita or thinking for a second 
> > they'd contributed to the "crazy Harry" story in OotP by it. 
> 
> Pippin:
> It's in GoF. Hermione pulls out her copy of the Prophet, and Harry 
is
> worried about what it might say. Hermione says that there's nothing,
> just a small piece saying that he'd won the tournament. Not even
> anything about Cedric. She guesses Fudge is forcing them to keep 
quiet.
> 
> "He'll never keep Rita quiet," said Harry. "Not on a story like 
this."
> Whereupon Hermione announces that Rita has been keeping quiet since
> the third task and isn't going to be writing anything at all for a
> while. Hermione's a little scared of what she's done, judging by her
> "oddly constrained" and "trembling" voice. 
> 
> At the time, they're expecting  a crime spree, and then Fudge will
> just look stupid. But on re-reading, it's clear that they just shot
> themselves in the foot. 

Magpie:
I see what you're saying, but it's not clear at all on my re-reading. 
The whole thing completely depends on me seeing Rita as an honest 
writer who would have reported the truth because it was the truth and 
that's not Rita. I retain the same impression I did in OotP, which is 
that they were just lucky that Rita wasn't leading the way on the 
crazy!Harry spin. I doubt she'd have any trouble with that story 
(it's not like she was in the graveyard with Harry to begin with) 
selling her papers. 

Pippin: 
> Harry is dispassionate about Rita's stories "Gone off me a bit, 
hasn't
> she?" except when Snape makes it personal. Then he's angry at Snape.
> But Hermione gets angry, not at the person who sent her bubotuber 
pus,
> but at Rita, and unlike Harry, she seeks revenge.

Magpie:
Hermione is dispassionate about Rita's stories until they become a 
practical nuisance. That's when she sends Rita the message that you 
don't f**k with Hermione Jean Granger--a lesson Rita learns. It's 
perfectly rational for Hermione not to get angry at the person who 
sent her the pus. She goes to the source of the problem and takes 
care of her. Much smarter.

Harry is annoyed at stories about him that are annoying and angry 
when Snape publically humilates them with them. I don't see how this 
is proving that Snape's picking on Harry in class has caused Harry to 
be less sensitive about public humiliation. Fear of public 
humiliation is very common for Harry throughout the books--it's far 
more associated with him as a character than Hermione. (Granted he 
also deals with it more, but that's just yet another reason he hardly 
needs Snape's help to get used to it.) 

Hermione by nature makes plans and manipulates events. That's why she 
reacts with a plan, imo, not because she's so much more out of 
control angry than Harry. It's the same reason it's Hermione making 
plans to take care of Voldemort where Harry just deals with how he 
feels about having to take care of him. Harry's a stewer.
Hermione wasn't angry at the intitial story or the initial laughter 
about it so it's not the public humiliation that bothered her. 
Snape says humiliating things to both of them publically. Harry hates 
Snape and Hermione doesn't. 

Pippin:
 I wouldn't call that
> dispassionate. All Harry does is call Rita a cow behind her back.

Magpie:
I would. Hermione's not flying off in a rage here, she's coming up 
with a viciously efficient plan to punish Rita that works. She's 
angry at the attack on her, but doesn't commit a crime of passion in 
return. Her revenge is cold-blooded. 


> > Magpie:
> > I have never seen that as being a theme of canon at all. How does 
> > something working out well within the fictional world translate 
into
>  a warning that this sort of thing doesn't work out well in that 
same
>  fictional world? Storybook revenge is just fine plenty of times in 
> these books. 
> > 
> 
> Pippin:
> It's like the Tale of Three Brothers. It can be read as a morality
> tale, but Dumbledore prefers to see it as a bit of history, 
preserved
> in the form of a morality tale. He still draws a lesson from it, but
> not the same one. For him, it's not a story about death, it's a 
story
> about three dangerously gifted wizards. The main point, that the 
cloak
> can be used to protect others, is only a passing detail in the
> morality narrative, but becomes very important when linked to other
> events. 

Magpie:
Not seeing how that shows this theme of the books you said was there.

Pippin:
> Hermione doesn't feel remorse, in the sense that she's sorry for the
> pain that she caused Rita. Nor does she feel that she was a bad 
person
> for indulging in blackmail. Nevertheless, she took a great risk, one
> which frightened her, and produced very mixed results. We know it
> wasn't worth it because she didn't try it again.

Magpie:
The fact that the same kind of opportunity and situation never came 
up again does not prove that Hermione decided it wasn't worth it. The 
book showed Hermione use blackmail without remorse and without bad 
consequences. The fact that one can insert some lukewarm objections 
to that doesn't make those objections the point in the story. I don't 
know what JKR thinks about it, but given what I read in the story I 
would predict her answer if challenged to be slyly gleeful about 
Hermione's triumph and at most add a lukewarm warning not to try this 
at home kids because the author of your life doesn't have your back.

-m