Re: If Severus is nuanced, so is Lily
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First, I did not use offensive language in my post, please refrain from attributing it to me.
duj brought up most of what there is to address Lily's faults (as well as why 'badly executed' doesn't wash - now that I know how things turned out, 90% of HP is 'badly executed' - things I thought were meaningful didn't have what I saw in them) no need for me to repeat her.
I'll add that when she speaks of making excuses for him, she speaks of making excuses to her friends, not her other friends. She gives herself away there - she didn't really think of him as a friend.
What Severus laughed off was Lily's accusation that his friends were doing Dark Magic and he found it funny. Since we don't have a canon definition of Dark Arts I can't judge who is right in that exchange. (We do have canon evidence that outside the Gryffindor common room people have more nuanced views of 'Dark Arts'.) It does seem that Lily has fallen into the fallacy common among Gryffindors that merely labeling magic as Dark makes it the worst thing possible, and any magic, however harmful, that isn't labeled Dark is better.
But maybe I would have enough presence of mind to try to bargain for my child's life, as well.
Maybe in a magical universe this makes sense - one of you might accidentally say something with binding power. In the universe I inhabit bargaining with a murderer by offering the life of the only aware witness is pointless - who would hold the murderer to hir word?
duj brought up most of what there is to address Lily's faults (as well as why 'badly executed' doesn't wash - now that I know how things turned out, 90% of HP is 'badly executed' - things I thought were meaningful didn't have what I saw in them) no need for me to repeat her.
I'll add that when she speaks of making excuses for him, she speaks of making excuses to her friends, not her other friends. She gives herself away there - she didn't really think of him as a friend.
What Severus laughed off was Lily's accusation that his friends were doing Dark Magic and he found it funny. Since we don't have a canon definition of Dark Arts I can't judge who is right in that exchange. (We do have canon evidence that outside the Gryffindor common room people have more nuanced views of 'Dark Arts'.) It does seem that Lily has fallen into the fallacy common among Gryffindors that merely labeling magic as Dark makes it the worst thing possible, and any magic, however harmful, that isn't labeled Dark is better.
But maybe I would have enough presence of mind to try to bargain for my child's life, as well.
Maybe in a magical universe this makes sense - one of you might accidentally say something with binding power. In the universe I inhabit bargaining with a murderer by offering the life of the only aware witness is pointless - who would hold the murderer to hir word?