for enemies

[jedibuttercup]

... you know what, upon reflection, I don't understand Harry's punishment over the Sectumsempra incident either. It makes about as much sense as Sirius and co.'s punishment for the werewolf incident-- in reverse. What, just because Malfoy didn't finish saying 'Cruciatus', even though a review of the incident should prove he was the first one to draw his wand and fire a curse, Harry is the only one punished? Just because Malfoy was the only one who needed the hospital wing, and his Head of House was the one who found them? Not saying Harry shouldn't be punished for his idiocy in using the spell; just that it's yet another severely unbalanced consequence that seems utterly unlikely to help Harry learn how to react to danger and responsibility like a normal human being.

(Oh wait ... *cough* Dumbledore. Continually grooming Harry to increase his feelings of isolation and self-justification in service of his eventual martyrdom at the hands of Voldemort ...)

Oh, and also: one student attempts to kill and torture another, his opponent slashes him bloodily across the chest, and detentions are the only punishment handed out? And no one else objects? Fucking seriously? I guess they really mustn't ever report student injuries and punishments in any official way, or else... I'm reminded of a Hagrid quote I also tripped across recently. "It's always been a bit of a risk sending a kid to Hogwarts hasn't it? You expect accidents, don't you, with hundreds of underage wizards all locked up together."

Not that JKR seems to have cared what she was implying about the alienness of wizarding culture with all of this, beyond cleaving to conventional tropes in isolating her hero ...

I'm not really sure how much of this will make sense for Harry to realize in backagainharry, but continuing to reinforce the beneficial effects of thinking things through is going to be a must.

Comments

[beatrice_otter]

This.

I read a piece of meta somewhere about the Harry Potter universe and the differences between wizarding and muggle treatment of children and the fact that all of the muggle world's developments re: children as special things to be nurtured and childhood as a special state where kids need to be protected (instead of miniature adults who need to be trained, but also sometimes they just die, and the world's a dangerous place and that's normal) happened WELL after the Statute of Secrecy.

[jedibuttercup]

That does make sense. I saw another meta somewhere discussing the fact that basically the Wizarding World entered a state of emergency when the Statute was put into place, and hasn't lifted it since, which explains a great deal about the way the Ministry of Magic works. Protecting the Statute above all justifies a lot of the otherwise inexplicable and reprehensible nonsense that goes on, not to mention how much of the wizarding workforce seems to be tied up in the various governmental institutions (assuming we take Harry's POV at face value).

[laleia]

I always thought the ease with which injuries could be fixed in the magical world made them much more blase about injuries. Children can and do get very serious injuries playing Quidditch but even when all your bones disappear from your arm, just one night in the hospital wing can fix it so you're good as new. If you can easily relieve the victim's pain and easily fix the victim's injury so it's as if it never happened, the cause of the injury in the first place becomes less important and maybe even less worthy of reproach. (Of course, I don't think this entirely addresses the fact that in your example, one student was about to inflict pain on purpose with an Unforgivable and IIRC Sectumsempra actually has long-term effects that aren't easily fixed by magic, but I think that the easily-fixed magical injuries inform the underlying attitude the educators have about putting and keeping their students in danger.)

[jedibuttercup]

It is true that a lot of things are more easily fixable; it's also true, however, that there are a lot of things that aren't. Moody; Harry's scar (by which I mean the one left by the Blood Quill not the Horcrux); Cruciatus insanity; the months and months worth of potions Hermione had to take after Dolohov's spell; Bill's taste for raw meat; George's lost ear; Lockhart's complete amnesia; and so on.

On that scale - Sectumsempra leaves scars only if not dealt with right away, though it does require a rather specific counterspell for healing (also invented by Snape). But the relative normality of child endangerment still doesn't bother me nearly as much as the inequity in punishment.

Before the Cruciatus was ever half-uttered, before Harry retaliated with Sectumsempra - Malfoy still drew his wand and cast a curse first. It's utterly ridiculous that his only punishment was to go to the hospital wing, and Harry caught all the blame. Back in first year so simple a thing as being out of bed after curfew to inform on Harry's severe rule breaking got Malfoy assigned equal detentions (if not points loss); it comes off as nothing less that Dumbledore blatantly coddling the kid he knew was attempting to kill him because he fancied him redeemable, while letting all the punishment fall on the kid that needed to be reminded he was inescapably the wizarding world's goat.

[ffutures]

I think that you could make a case that the punishment was at least in part for using a spell without knowing what it did - that's really not something you want a wizard to do! I can't remember if this is mentioned in the story, I haven't re-read it since it was published.

Incidentally, re Half-Blood Prince - why is nobody writing "Snape is a Percy Jackson type Half-Blood" fic?