[HPforGrownups] Re: Betrayal

[GulPlum]

No: HPFGUIDX 53813

finwitch wrote:

<snip>

>Oh and BTW, Madam Hooch saying that anyone who didn't stay put was out the 
>course, Harry *was* out the course after that-- only he ended up in Gryff. 
>team! Did Malfoy *also* get kicked out the course?

L.O.O.N. point: she didn't threaten them with being kicked off the course. 
She threatened them with expulsion from Hogwarts. Probably a typical empty 
teacher's threat (much like Snape's continued threats to do horrible things 
to the Gryffindors), but a threat nevertheless.

The charge of favouritism still stands. Malfoy probably wasn't punished 
because no teacher ever saw him in the air during the lesson.

Nevertheless, Harry *did* show exceptional natural talent and it would've 
been objectively rather silly for McGonagall not to have recognised it by 
giving him a place on the team. She does, however, leave Harry with the 
words that punishment will be reinstated if he doesn't train properly.

Regardless of the circumstances, though, and returning in a roundabout way 
to one element of the original topic, this is just another one of those 
things which add to the public perception that Harry gets away with 
breaking the rules, or perhaps even appears to be rewarded for doing so.

I'm certain  that we haven't seen the end of this topic in the books, and 
whilst Ron and Hermione (partially because they're involved in some way 
most of the time Harry "gets away with things") are generally likely to 
believe him, Ron's already shown that he can forget that "things happen to 
Harry" (the Rift), and Hermione has also been slightly disbelieving at times.

One person who's always trusted and believed Harry is Dumbledore. There has 
to come a time when even he won't believe Harry's explanation, and that's 
going to be a very BIG moment, when Harry will be all alone. I expect that 
to happen in Book Six. This is another reason why I believe that Hagrid has 
to go in Book Five, because he would *always* believe Harry, regardless of 
what he's done or not done.

One of the Bangy things about that moment is that Harry will be left 
questioning whether he can even trust *himself* (which he already did in 
CoS, and perhaps one of the things JKR was referring to when she spoke of 
that book's importance). The ultimate betrayal.

--
GulPlum AKA Richard, who is surprised how this post ended up, considering 
it started off as a LOON one-liner. :-)