Necessary Evil in the Harry Potter series
So which things you think were necessary evil in the Harry Potter series, things which we think were bad but there was no alternative for them?
I think Harry returning to Dursleys in every summer was one of them. The blood wards were certainly powerful if Voldemort decided to wait for Harry coming to age to act against him. Despite the neglect and abuse, the protection kept Harry at least safe from the Death Eaters in the summer.
This is a smaller scale, and I hate saying this, but Dumbledore covering up Sirius Black's prank on Snape to protect Remus. It's a balancing act between injustice and needless death, so he had to choose the lesser evil.
I also believe the death of Potters to be one of them.
Yes, it led to misery but frankly Voldemort seemed invincible in first war and he was on cusp of victory before the backfiring of his killing curse. Death Eaters had infiltrated ministry, had support from major pure blood houses and were better organised and trained over the Order. Their only canon casualties were Evan Rosier and Wilkes compared to the Order which lost about 70-80 % of their members.
So it was frankly a miracle that Voldemort died and it provided time before Voldemort's second coming, which was utilised by Dumbledore.
I'll say that Hermione jinxing the DA contract was a necessary evil to demonstrate the severity of betrayal, but she's wrong for not telling people about it. It's bad contract etiquette.
Yeah, it was unethical for her to not inform the members about the consequences of betraying DA. Also the scarring was permanent which was harsh to Marietta.
Quote from The Gestalt Prince on April 8, 2023, 1:30 amThis is a smaller scale, and I hate saying this, but Dumbledore covering up Sirius Black's prank on Snape to protect Remus. It's a balancing act between injustice and needless death, so he had to choose the lesser evil.
Partial disagree; I think Dumbledore should have been more fortright with Severus about why he did what he did. I also think he should've given Snape the opportunity to choose a person to share the event with in order to give Snape someone to talk to in the aftermath. Remus already had his friends to talk to about things, why not give Snape -- the wronged party here -- the same chance?
I agree with @fredriq, Dumbledore should've been more upfront with Severus about the incident and shouldn't have let marauders walk away without consequences.
Sirius Black should've been expelled and Marauders should've also been silenced like Severus.
Yeah, I agree with both of you. Dumbledore could've both protected Lupin and given justice to Snape.
One necessary evil I believe is Favoritism of Slytherins by Snape. It might have seemed wrong but it was something that Slytherin needed.
Of which he did little enough on page; about the only really obvious example I can think of rn is the Quidditch booking shenanigans in CoS.
