Its interesting that Rowling has explored this theme from the opposite point of view as well, with Percy Weasley and Quirrel and Peter Pettigrew - young men who start out, more or less, on the right side, but allow themselves to be taken over by their own ambition or intellectual arrogance or cowardice. I can't think of any female characters in the books who display this sort of turncoat behaviour, though. Hermione has moments of ruthlessness, I guess, but I can't seriously imagine her turning to the dark side, as it were.
One of the things I've always liked about Rowling is her refusal to paint her characters in black and white - everyone is a little morally ambivalent, and even Dumbledore admits his mistakes are 'correspondingly huger' than anyone elses'. There's no doubt that Draco would have died from Harry's Sectumsempra, if Snape hadn't (conveniently) been close by, and for all we know, Draco might have been in the process of making up his mind to walk away from it all, when he was so rudely interrupted.
Either way, I think its important for the credibility of the story that Rowling shows that (relatively) intelligent people are also attracted to the DE movement, not just crackpot weirdos like Bellatrix; otherwise Voldemort wouldn't present half as much of a threat.
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Date: 2006-05-14 03:12 am (UTC)One of the things I've always liked about Rowling is her refusal to paint her characters in black and white - everyone is a little morally ambivalent, and even Dumbledore admits his mistakes are 'correspondingly huger' than anyone elses'. There's no doubt that Draco would have died from Harry's Sectumsempra, if Snape hadn't (conveniently) been close by, and for all we know, Draco might have been in the process of making up his mind to walk away from it all, when he was so rudely interrupted.
Either way, I think its important for the credibility of the story that Rowling shows that (relatively) intelligent people are also attracted to the DE movement, not just crackpot weirdos like Bellatrix; otherwise Voldemort wouldn't present half as much of a threat.