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

[Jerri&Dan Chase]

No: HPFGUIDX 186401


Montavilla47 said:
> So, he and Harry agree to take the Cup together--a decision that
> leads to Cedric's death.
>
> So, when we do get to see someone make the clear choice of
> "right" over "easy," he dies five minutes later.

And Geoff replied:
>There is a double irony here because Harry could have taken
>the "easy" way, acceded to Cedric's urging to go ahead and
>take the Cup.
>
>Instead, he opts for the "right" way which is to coax Cedric into
>joining him.

I can still remember when reading GoF how hard this point hit me.  This 
death hurt me more than any others in the first 6 books.

There wasn't a mistake made, neither Harry nor Cedric did anything bad or 
selfish or foolish.  They were in a contest, and were racing to get the 
prize winning Cup.  Neither could have realized that the Cup was a trap. 
They both did good, unselfish things, Harry helping Cedric from Impero/Crum 
and warning Cedric about the Spider and Cedric helping Harry when the Spider 
had him, as well as earlier in the contest Harry warning Cedric about the 
dragons and Cedric advising Harry to "take a bath."

So, they both did what was "right" and both got punished for it.

Cedric's punishment was the very final one of death.

Harry's punishment was seeing Cedric die, knowing that if he (Harry) had 
done something different (take the cup alone) that Cedric would have been 
alive.  Then he had the experience of watching Lord V return and knowing 
that he had provided one of the ingredients (blood) that Lord V wanted.  The 
fact that Harry managed to escape with his life didn't make the experience 
anything but painful for Harry.  I didn't wonder that Harry had nightmares 
about it at least all summer long, and that by the time he and Dudley met 
the dementors at the beginning of OoP that Harry's worst memory had changed 
from his parents death to the events of the graveyard.

Now, JKR ended up showing us by the end of DH that this was one of the many 
needed steps to lead to Harry's defeat of Lord V.  But Harry couldn't know 
that at the time.

Therefore, I admit wondering about JKR/Dumbledore's statement about 
remembering Cedric when one had to choose between doing what was easy and 
what was right.  Could it have been meaning that one never knows which path 
is more dangerous?  If Cedric had taken the easy path and taken the cup 
alone, would Baby Mort have used him instead of Harry, and then killed him, 
or killed him at once and tried again to get Harry?  If Harry had taken the 
easy path and taken the cup himself, would it have changed the events in the 
graveyard, other than not having Cedric killed?  I suppose that DD would 
have known earlier that the Cup had been a portkey and taken Harry somewhere 
as Cedric would have reported it?  We never really learn what happened at 
Hogwarts during that very long time between when the Cup was taken and Harry 
returned with Cedric's body.  Did anyone realize that the boys weren't still 
in the maze?

Jerri