Slytherin Treachery ?

[Geoff]

No: HPFGUIDX 191579

Geoff:
Having been a member of the HPFGU group since the summer of 2003, I 
have got to know a lot of members and have also come to the conclusions 
that discussions on the group remain in the main amicable and in general 
we accept the fact that we all have our own take on the story, especially 
when we extrapolate an idea beyond canon into the realm  of "could this 
be what happened?" where there is no written confirmation or denial of
an event.

To use long posts and grandiloquent language to try to force an opinion 
down the group's throat in an "I say so, so this is right and you are all 
failing to understand JKR's meaning" attitude can appear to be demeaning 
and patronising. 

Otto: 
> Your philibuster of quotations is irrelevant....

<snip>

> The rest of your argument is mere prevarication. 

<snip>

> Sorry, Pippin, but "I vuss only followink ORDERS!" Hasn't worked since Nuremberg.

<snip>

> Your argument is a tissue of excuses.

Geoff:
I do not believe that Pippin is guilty of filibustering (even in its correct 
spelling!) because she is not attempting to obstruct a debate by talking it 
out of time.

Again, the charge of prevarication is unfounded. I do not see that Pippin 
is attempting to be evasive. As I said earlier, we all have the right to 
express our views. Obviously, you do not agree. But that does not allow 
you to dismiss them out of hand in a scarcely polite and definitely
partial manner.

Turning to your Nuremberg remark, I am of the opinion that you are 
barking up the wrong tree.

If you consider the people of Germany - the people and not the leaders -
many of them had not been followers of the Nazis. Hitler never actually
got a full majority in democratic elections and once in power, his 
organisations such as the SS or the Gestapo set out to silence opposition 
either by exterminating them or frightening them into keeping their 
heads below the battlements. It was only a very few leaders, for example 
Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Klaus von Stauffenberg, to name but two, who 
were prepared to speak out and put their lives on the line.

The same is true today. Huge numbers of people silently endured Stalin's 
Russia and still are frightened to speak out in North Korea and it is 
becoming clear that many in Syria, Algeria and other countries in that 
area are only just finding a voice because they believe that they will not 
be denounced to the authorities by spying neighbours and executed, 
imprisoned or denied justice.

Agreed, Slytherin is not a country but the families who are largely represented 
in it tend to be in the same cultural group - purebloods who see, or 
originally saw, Voldemort as a suitable leader for their culture and cause, 
rather as the German Army first saw Hitler as someone who would restore 
the pride that they had lost in the 1918 defeat. Many of these latter came 
to regret that choice and some worked behind the scenes to try to counter the 
worst policies of the Third Reich.

I have already hinted in earlier posts that I do not see Slytherins as a 
group acting as a single unit. There must be pupils in the school who do 
not want to be Death Eaters and parents who think the same. We have seen 
that even Draco, who has been something of a poster boy for supporting 
Voldemort becoming disillusioned: terrified by Voldemort's threats to his 
family; frantic because of his failing attempts to work out a way of killing 
Dumbledore; trying to skulk in the shadows of the assembled faithful
at Malfoy Manor at the start of DH and his very surprising reluctance to 
identify Harry later at the Manor. But for the, perhaps small, group who 
really want to get out of the way, their fear of they and their families being
punished has also been compounded with the unyielding lack of support
for their house from Professor McGonagall, now the de facto Head, and 
the rather ambivalent attitude of Dumbledore towards the house in the past,
and I have already expressed about the dismissal of the house en bloc from 
the Great Hall.

Like real life, the Potterverse is not filled with wearers of white or black hats; 
most of them are varying shades of grey and many of the pupils of Hogwarts 
merely young people trying to keep out of trouble and danger whose first 
reaction would be to follow the Head's instructions and only have second 
thoughts when time allowed.