Thoughts On A Sneak
Marietta, Marietta, Marietta. What do we know about her, anyway? She’s Cho’s friend. She reluctantly joined the DA. She betrayed them to Umbridge, and wound up with a memory charm and a SNEAK written across her face. She doesn’t, as far as I can remember, speak a single line in the book, but she seems to have left an impact nonetheless.
So who is she and what’s she for? Is she just to show the good side’s philosophy of ‘the ends justify the means’…it was alright to memory charm her because something bad could’ve happened? Is she just to show Hermione’s arrogance…branding someone was alright because she betrayed them? Is she going to redeem herself later? Who knows?
Thus far, I have written one Marietta fanfic and am now working on a second. And she has become a favourite character of mine, for reasons I can’t fathom. She’s betrayed the DA, after all. She doesn’t seem to have many redeeming qualities.
And yet…
I don’t know. I think in the end, a lot of people would do what she did if they were put in her position…as in, let parents down or let friends down and choose parents over friends, if they were putting pressure on you. I know it’s not much of an excuse, since as Harry pointed out, Ron’s dad also worked for the Ministry and he didn’t betray them…but Marietta was only sixteen (I think), hadn’t been through as much or seen as much or well, loved as much as Ron had. She wasn’t a heroine, just a normal, probably quite popular, slightly bratty, ordinary teenage girl…and she took the easy way out. As many people would.
Hopefully, though, she won’t next time. Who knows?
There’s also the SNEAK thing to think about…whether she still has it or not, whether Hermione was justified…but I’ll leave that to you to discuss. ;)
August 8, 2004 @ 4:28 pm
Here via . *waves* There’s another significant difference between Marietta and Ron: both have parents working for the Ministry, but Ron’s parents are on Dumbledore’s side. If I recall correctly, Madam Edgecombe was the one monitoring the Floo networks for Umbridge. Mr. Weasley has no reason to encourage Ron to turn anyone in to Umbridge, as he’s working for Dumbledore. But I imagine Marietta hears a lot at home or in letters from her mother about how Dumbledore’s a fool, Umbridge’s rules are for everyone’s safety, etc. Ron has nothing to gain from his family by betraying the DA. Marietta has a lot to gain: her mother’s trust and approval, things I don’t think she gets much of. I’m another Marietta fan, in case you couldn’t tell. ;)
August 8, 2004 @ 4:55 pm
Here from as well. The memory charm always bothered me too. It seems to be pretty standard procedure in the magical community, especially when dealing with muggles. I wondered if the dubious morality of it was an oversight on JKR’s part, but now I wonder if she intends for it to be an example of the small evils that have infiltrated the good side. The SNEAK hex, although a little extreme, seems like standard teenage vengeance to me (not that that excuses it). I’m not surprised that Hermione came up with an extreme punishment for someone who ratted her out for breaking the rules. I think it’s also an example of the kids’ poor strategizing abilities, like having their secret meeting in a quiet pub where everyone could hear them. Ideally, you want people to know they’re going to be punished so they’re deterred from breaking the rules. Springing a punishment on them later might satisfy your thirst for vengeance, but it doesn’t really help you out in the long run. I think Marietta’s story is a small demonstration that for all their practical experience, the kids aren’t yet ready for the more subtle aspects of fighting a war.
August 8, 2004 @ 4:57 pm
Here via daily_snitch I’m not a Marietta fan. I don’t like her one bit, but I can see where she might be between a rock and a hard place. The real villain of this whole piece is Umbridge, who actually had the Inquisition Squad going and loved to torture her students. One of my big problems with Marietta is, if she knew her mother was siding with Fudge and that the DA was a “forbidden” group, why did she go and join? Yes, Cho probably wanted at least one of her friends there with her, but didn’t Marietta stop to think that maybe this was Not A Good Idea for someone in her position? Not very Ravenclaw-ish. Was Marietta too weak to say no to her friend? Was she in some kind of denial, thinking that she would just keep Cho company and put her head in the sand regarding the possibility of getting caught? Maybe Marietta figured that she could just cross that bridge if and when she came to it, and wasn’t sufficiently strong-willed or intelligent to know what to do when that bridge actually appeared. So she crumbled. And this also raises the question of why Cho insisted that Marietta accompany her to the DA if she knew that Marietta’s mother worked for Fudge and it would put her on the spot? It appears we have two Ravenclaws who weren’t doing very much thinking. Maybe Cho was so needy, and Marietta was the only friend she had left, that she didn’t really care, or again thought “we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” I don’t think the “SNEAK” punishment was fitting, though. It’s going to serve no purpose but to humiliate Marietta and make her angry, because she doesn’t remember what she did. Far more effective would have been to have Cho and everyone else in the DA confront her and get her to realize the consequences of what she did. Marietta did deserve some consequences IMO – she’s not an innocent little lamb – but the punishment should fit the crime and Hermione’s really didn’t.
August 8, 2004 @ 5:05 pm
Hey there. Flew in with the . I never even thought about Hermione’s ethics with the matter of Marietta. Thanks for bringing that up. Hermione appears to be almost perfect sometimes, so I like to find instances of her being at fault (I’ve heard that when characters have no where else to go, they get killed off. I don’t want this to happen to Hermione). I read your fic and I really enjoyed it. It was wonderful, reading the POV of Marietta who’s usually skipped over or hated because of what she did. I am looking forward to reading your next fic about Marietta.
August 8, 2004 @ 7:34 pm
Essentially Marietta joined a club at the urging of her friend at a point in time where it was still a completely reasonable exercise. By the time it turned illegal, due to Umbridge’s mandates, and there became a true risk to it, she was already in and I don’t see a way out, frankly. I don’t think Hermione would have let anyone walk away. And then, she was dealing with and participating in the forming of a revolutionist/terrorist group. A young, unfocused one, but based on an older tradition — the Order — and dealing with the pressures of that and her parents and the fact she shouldn’t have been asked to join in the first place, it’s completely unsurprising she snapped. The fault wasn’t in her, she reacted normally, reasonably even, but the fact she was involved at all is a sign of the amateur way the DA functions/ed. Really, you can parallel the treatment of Marietta with the death of Regulus due to the Death Eaters in a lot of ways. – Andrea.
August 8, 2004 @ 8:11 pm
No need for me to say anything, but I will say–well said! Honestly, I would have hated to be in Marietta’s position. The group was supposed to be a way to learn DADA, right? Just as you said–she never should have been there. And I agree there is no parallel between the Weasleys and Mrs. Edgecomb there. Mr. Weasley might as well be considered an honorary DA member. Here via Daily Snitch, btw:-)
August 8, 2004 @ 8:49 pm
Still, from what we see, Marietta was a very reluctant member of the DA even before it was illegal. She clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes and didn’t seem to really want to be there. It makes me wonder, if she hated it so much, why she went ahead and signed the parchment and joined anyway. Did Cho boo-hoo-hoo until Marietta relented? Were all of Cho’s other friends even more reluctant? Did Cho even have any other friends by this time? I think that Marietta was too easily led and didn’t have the spine to say “no.” It’s not as if there were no other Ravenclaws there to keep Cho company anyway (Michael Corner, Padma Patil, Anthony Goldstein, Terry Boot and Luna Lovegood all joined) – and besides, Harry was leading the DA and Cho obviously wanted to hang out with him. I would probably cut Marietta more slack if the DA was something she wanted to participate in and went willingly. But either Cho twisted Marietta’s arm really, really hard or Marietta needed to practice her “no, thank you.”
August 9, 2004 @ 6:01 am
Ooh. Fascinating. Would say more, but lunchtime’s just up. I nearly wrote a Marietta/Padma fic once. It had Evil Padma. It was going to be a bloody weird fic.
August 9, 2004 @ 8:02 am
I guess I don’t see Marietta as ‘betraying’ the DA as such, since I can’t see why she would owe them any loyalty. The Gryffindor members (the Twins, Ron and Harry in particular) were openly hostile to members of other houses in the beginning, iirc; threatening people who voiced opposing opinions (for example, Zacharias), and not hesitating to use violence against people they didn’t like. I wouldn’t feel particularly loyal to them, either.
August 12, 2004 @ 2:12 pm
That’s a very good point. And one I haven’t seen brought up yet. *nods*