She decided to use the incident as a real life educational tool for the rest of the student body. Since she could think of no way in which to allow the three marked children to hide their disfigurement, there honestly wasn't much else she could do. And though she could punish Mr. Potter for marking them, the mood of the school told her that wouldn't be a smart idea. Too many of the students had parents or guardians who had used behavior modifiers on them as children- she'd even undergone their usage a time or two while growing up -and completely understood that is what the marks were. The modifier would stay on the child until the acceptable behavior had become ingrained in the child. When the child had no episodes for a week or so the parents would generally remove the modifier knowing their child had learned better behavior. And those children here in the Castle who had undergone such treatment by their parents knew the marks worked the same way.
Well, parents hadn't marked the children's faces like Magic had marked these three. But still. That's what the runes were all the same. Behavior Modifiers. Meant to train a child out of a bad habit that could adversely affect their future. She had to believe Magic had chosen the placement of the runes in accordance with the crimes the children had engaged in against Mr. Potter. She didn't want to believe he'd actually choose such a prominent placement of his own accord. Yes she knew they were accused of publically trashing his reputation by spreading rumors and lying about him. But still. She couldn't quite bring herself to believe he'd think they should be humiliated quite this much.
Although Mr. Ronald Weasely would never be free of the rune on his forehead, the other marks would eventually go away when they changed their behavior and atoned for their bad acts. Once again it wasn't Mr. Potter who'd be deciding when they'd changed or atoned sufficiently since he wasn't the controlling force behind the monitor. Magic was in charge. The booklet made that clear. She had to hold onto that knowledge. The marks, except for the Betrayers Mark would go away.
But even the Betrayers Mark didn't necessarily have to ruin Mr. Weasely's life. Yes it would make things harder for him but then he was magically born and raised just as she'd been. And he should've known what was allowable conduct for a vassal and what wasn't. So he would have to learn to live with it now. Because he'd tried to kill Mr. Potter personally. And that wasn't acceptable. At all.
To make sure everyone fully understood the marks were deserved or they wouldn't be there, Minerva made copies of that little book Irma had given her about it. She personally gave a stack of reprints to each of her fellow Heads of House, explaining that since the Law of Justified Retribution was so old, a lot of the students mightn't understand what had allowed Harry to call upon it as he had. She explained she was going to set aside some class time to speak to the students about the spell and just why Mr. Potter had enacted it on the Triad but how that didn't grant them the same right as it could backfire if they called for it and just cause wasn't found. Because according to the booklet Irma had given her, Magic judged both participants and if magic found the one that had called for justice wasn't deserving of that justice, it'd punish the caller just as easily as the one the caller wanted judged. Both parties involved could also be found wanting just as easily as neither party.
Those books were handed out by all the teachers to any student who questioned either Harry's right or the marks themselves. This was one case where life itself was the best teacher possible and all of them were teachers at heart. Even Severus took a stack of the booklets though he'd already spent many hours explaining the old law to the students of his house. He'd had to do a lot of research to answer some of the questions his Slytherin were asking but he felt it was time well spent.
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