DH reread CH 12 -- Cracking a Few Eggs.

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 186455

---  "pippin_999" <foxmoth at ...> wrote:
>
> Steve:
> > 
> > So, my point is, if the wizard world is OK with it, then why 
> > are we still outraged?
> 
> Pippin:
> Because Sirius was outraged in GoF. He was dealing with a 
> context of war, in which many people approved of what Crouch
> was doing. 

bboyminn:

And I think Sirius, if he were around, would still be outraged,
but I also think he would understand and forgive, though not
without a stern lecture first.

I think in hindsight, even Harry has his regrets, though, of
course, I can't know with certainty. 


Pippin continues:

> And because Dumbledore eventually discovered that if he 
> allowed this power to be used, he a) couldn't keep it out 
> of the hands of people like Grindelwald, and b) couldn't 
> control how he himself used it in a moment of rage or fear.
> 

bboyminn:

Now you seem to be talking about something completely different.
You seem to be talking of the Elder Wand and not the 
Unforgivables.

Dumbledore DID trust himself to own the Elder Wand and to use
it with restraint. But he didn't trust himself with the other
Hallows, though that was a lesson he had to learn the hard
way, and it ultimately cost him his life. 

But, in the context of Unforgivable curses, there was nothing
to stop Dumbledore or anyone else from using them but their own
self restraint or lack thereof. 


Pippin Concludes:

> It's easy to cheer when Amycus and Alecto are punished and
> brought under control. JKR wants us to know just how easy it
> is. But that doesn't mean that we're supposed to think Harry
> and McGonagall acted wisely or for the best. Sirius clearly 
> wouldn't have thought so.
> 
> Pippin
>

bboyminn:

In this last part, I think you make a very good point. JKR 
wanted us to have this moral debate. She wanted us to see how
easily even the best of us can slip over the line. 

I further agree that what Harry did was wrong, I just don't see
it with the same intense moral outrage that some see. I am 
disappointed that Harry would make that choice. But at the same
time, I understand how it could happen, and the fact that he
was very restrained in his use of the curse, does in my mind
create mitigating circumstances. 

For some the response is true outrage, but for me it is 
understanding coupled with disappointment. Yet, I can forgive
it, while not believing it was the wisest choice Harry could
have made. 

I do very much think JKR put this in the story as a point of 
moral ambiguity. I think she wanted us to at least internally
have the very debate we are having, and did so knowing that
there could never be a right answer to the dilemma. 

Harry is not perfect, but on the whole, he is a moral, noble,
and right-thinking right-doing person. His virtues far outweigh
his flaws.

But then...that's just my opinion.

Steve/bboyminn