Dark Magic Doth Never Prosper, Part II

[terri_testing]

Part II contains:

Drawback to Not Teaching the Dark Arts
Harry: Seriously Evil Wizard Coming Through?
Blood/Death Magic, Lily’s Sacrifice, and Albus (The White One)
Why Teach that Dark = Evil?
Historical Considerations

Comments

[oryx_leucoryx]

The Marauders Map: Of course we must consider that Remus recognized it and was trying to get Harry out of trouble and get the map out of Severus' hands without giving himself away as one of the creators of the map. And Severus may have been suspicious about those nicknames and their style of insults and was trying to find a way to tie it to the Marauders. He may have been trying to see if he could prove there was a conspiracy of Remus and Sirius to get Harry. So we do not know if what they say in that conversation reflects their true opinion. What is suspicious about the Map is that it tracks true identities and gives instructions to those who are up to no good. (And yes, I'm pretty sure that had Remus heard someone he respected and who understood the Map's function call it dark he wouldn't have taken it well

The Map

[terri_testing]

What Severus knew about the Map (and what Remus glossed over) is that it didn't just regurgitate canned insults--it insulted Severus personally. So it did "think for itself" to at least some extent; it identified the victim, and tailored its insults to him. And it speaks in the voices of the teenaged Marauders but with understanding of the passage of time. (That is, it insults Profesor Snape, not teen-Snivellus, but using the teen-Marauders' knowledge of Snivellus.)

I wonder, if, say, Lockhart had tried the Map, someone whom the teen-Marauders hadn't known, how would the Map have insulted him?

Severus finds the parchment in Harry's possession after an illegal excursion to Hogwarts. He doesn't know it's a map, but he must wonder--he's already speculated--whether the voices of the Marauders had given Harry "instructions to get into Hogsmeade without passing the Dementors?" (One of the Marauders' areas of expertise--and indeed they had, if not precisely by texting Harry.) In which case Severus must have suspected that Remus (one

Rest of your comments

[terri_testing]

Yes, about the Animagus transformation, both would be logical

Re: Rest of your comments

[lynn_waterfall]

Ron is a Weasley, and his parents shun and abhor Knockturn Alley.

Well, Arthur and Molly definitely don't want their kids going there, but that isn't necessarily shunning and abhorring. Hagrid doesn't want Harry to go or be there, either, but he saw nothing wrong with going there himself.

It seems to me that they mostly just treat Knockturn Alley as a dangerous part of town, and not somewhere kids should go alone, or without *close* supervision.

In HBP, Harry tells Arthur that the Trio followed Draco to Borgin and Burkes. Arthur knows that that's in Knockturn Alley; we know that from the conversation in CoS right after Hagrid leads Harry out of there. But he doesn't express any particular emotion in response to hearing that they went there.

In short, Arthur had already realized that they'd put themselves in danger by going off somewhere without their bodyguard, and the fact that they'd gone to Knockturn Alley didn't make much difference on top of that, at least not once they had gotten back safely.

Re: Rest of your comments

[oryx_leucoryx]

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