Loved it! So in character. Just great. The way you made us all think it through. Just brilliant. Thank you!

o gosh, it's a great one! thanks for reminding me of the details of that scene with spitting, and thanks for providing a great insight into very valid reasons for that Imperio. All the tea humor was also great. Thanks a lot for writing!

Well done.

Brilliant. Oh, Min...and Harry...

Well-written, but I utterly disagree with the argument and the conclusion. Harry's Cruciatus was not only completely unnecessary but it endangered all the innocents in the room because it prompted him to come out from under his Cloak and effectively give warning he was about to attack. (If Carrow had been a better fighter, that would have been disastrous.) It was a war-crime, and war, with its loneliness, stress and associated evils, is nevertheless not an excuse for crimes of war. Harry *should* look back at this incident with shame. He *should* know he was wrong, and and that he has the capacity to go dark.

Of course, Minerva is wrong too - they all are - in thinking Harry wouldn't throw dark curses except in extremity. That wasn't even his first Crucio, nor was it his first successful Unforgivable, and even before he started using them, he had cultivated darkness in himself by fantasising about them - for instance, daydreaming wistfully in GoF about Snape under Crucio. But leaving that aside, the equation is still wrong. Bolstering Harry's future self-image does not justify using an Unforgivable. It's completely out of proportion - and wrongheaded too. If Harry needs to come to terms with what he's done, it should be through counselling, not through being fed lies.

Griselda is wrong when she argues that it is only intention to do evil that makes Unforgivables wrong. There can be a greater good justification for using Unforgivables in extreme circumstances; there is no justification for using them in lesser circumstances. What makes a war-crime is not merely the intention but the proportionality: perceived military benefit to likely collateral damage. Using an Unforgivable when a lesser spell would do has no military benefit, and there is always collateral damage - if nothing else, it lessens the caster's resistance to using it again in ever less-appropriate situations, thus creating future victims.

*grins*

I just love obnoxious logic!

Nicely done. :-) I've always felt that that particular episode required a little more justification than the books provided! Very nice analysis and defence.

Thank you so much for writing this! I had always wondered about the Unforgivable use in Book 7 and about McGonagall's take on it, and I am so glad that you did justice to the topic and to her reactions. You did a great job exploring the ethics of Unforgivable use and the guilt and personal qualms that come after using the curses. I particularly liked the scene with Moody during the first war, which I could definitely see happening. Thanks for writing and posting!

Genius! I can't actually think of any adequate words to say how much I loved this, i'm still trying to memories every single detail your wrote. I love it when people can pick up on small things and visualize and write a whole story behind that thin, the reasoning behind it, the after thoughts to it. You have my respect.

I love this. You've picked up on one tiny detail, and in turned it into a story of its own, believable, convincing and with some truly fascinating theories and ideas. WEll done!

wonderful

I hope you forgive me for not writing another review to this marvellous fic, but just saying how impressed I am by your storytelling and fic writing abilites, your characterisations, your reasoning and everything else, and how much I love this wonderful and exceptional story!

I love the story.

But there is one condition I'd like to make, before we hail you in as the new Headmistress," Professor Marchbanks added, and now she was positively grinning.

Minerva had to swallow several times before she could manage a word.

"What condition?"

Professor Marchbanks pointed at the teapot. "That you show me you can Transfigure this into proper tea. As the brew stands, it's hardly worth an "Acceptable".

Brilliant! I believe the characters were completely in cannon and I loved it :D

But of _course_ it was perfectly ok for her to cast the Imperius and for Harry to do that Crucio. They're Gryffindors, and anything they do is always right.

Just ask the Marauders.

Funny, there's no guilt about almost murdering Snape.

Of course, that was perfectly all right, too. (see rule about almost killing Slimy Snakes always being ok).

And Minerva is about to start another couple of decades where she teaches her favorite House that anything _they_ do is right, too, especially if Slytherins are harmed.

Oh, brave new world, where the house of the Snake finally learns its true place!

What a pity no Slytherin is _ever_ going to be stupid enough to help out the next time a new Dark Lord shows up.