Sadism or not ? McGonagall and her punishments

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 186634

a_svirn:
The point I was making was that "it was wrong of her, but she felt she had to do
it" is a bad argument. The point is it was wrong, and if she felt so then she
felt wrong. The difference between McGonagall and Umbridge not in their
motivation but in how many lines they were willing to cross to achieve their
objectives.

Alla:
You mean of the same degree of badness as why do it if she does not like it argument LOL? But all jokes aside let me try to clarify myself because if you were to consider my argument to be bad, I want you to consider the exact meaning that I intended.

When I said it was wrong of her, but she felt she had to, I did not mean that her inner nature was calling to her, or something like that. I meant that she may have felt that she had no choice as a teacher. Surely we can agree that even best teachers sometimes have these problems of students misbehaving? I would be very surprised if even Sprout escaped it through years, good as she is.

So what is Hogwarts teacher to do if she needs to give punishment? I do not know how they assign detentions, but I am thinking whatever needs to be done in school at the moment (unless you are Umbridge or Snape in my view).

So when I say " it was wrong of her", I did not actually mean that for all of her punishments, I meant that sometimes for all I know in some situations her heart may go out to the student, but she still feels that she has to punish it to make sure or try to make sure student will not do it again. When I say it is wrong of her to embarrass Neville in front of the class, I say it is wrong, period.

But while I do not like password punishment at all, I really do not think that she should have let this one go, woudn't you agree? There is of course the irony that password was stolen from Neville and she is wrong in the first place.

Or when she caught trio off the grounds, she could not just let it go, no? If she knew that Unicorns were killed and let them go, she should be fired, but what if indeed she did not. To me under this condition this punishment really does not look extraordinary under Hogwarts standard.

> 
> > Alla: 
> > I just rank McGonagall higher than Snape, that is all.
> 
> a_svirn:
> Well, I don't. I think they are pretty much pot and kettle.
>

Alla:

I understand this.