[HPforGrownups]Snape & James vs Sirius

[Annechan]

No: HPFGUIDX 57008


Le lundi, 5 mai 2003, à 04:44 Europe/Paris, Taryn Kimel a écrit :

>
> Annechan:
>> Snape on the other's way... was intelligent (cf knowing more curses
>> than seventh grade students) but not enough to be the first student
>> (James was, Sirius was second, and I bet Lily was third) he wasn't a
>> headboy (James was) and on the quidditch field, we don't know if he
>> played, we just know he's skilled enough to be a referee (anyway James
>
> Someone said (sorry i can't found who you were)
>  Hi,
>
> are you sure about your statement? How do you know there is such a
> "category" of intelligence??
>
>
> Then Taryn said :
> I'm going to disagree with that on the basis that I still /am/ in 
> school (sophomore in high school, to be exact). The top two students 
> in my class are the top two because they are rather unpopular and 
> devote mass amounts of time to their schoolwork and sacrificing more 
> of their social life than others.
>
(...)
> I'd also like to know where those ranks (James, Sirius, Lily) came 
> from. I don't recall them in the books, but maybe I've being silly. 
> You've said that Lily is just personal speculation, which I think is 
> pretty unfounded because we know about five people from that class, 
> but I'd like to know about the James and Sirius ranks. I've always 
> thought of Snape as a Hermione-type in his school days, but the type 
> who would grow mean at teasing instead of crying. I would speculate 
> Snape could've been a second to James' first.
>

Oh my fault really,
I didn't reply at the first person about the category of intelligence 
nor did i quote the scene for a certainly bad reason : laziness and 
obviousness (which should not take for granted) .

The rank I was talking about isn't a popularity rank. So I assumed that 
it was about school's grade and academic values. And I didn't say that 
school is the best way to know someone's intelligence (but rather his 
attitude to live with the school rules). But a top student, in a 
school's POV is almost all the time intelligent. Hermione has top marks 
in every class, she is the first student  in her year.

now the two quotes I based my ranked thing never mention any number.

PS (soft cover bloomsbury) p64; The Keeper of the Keys:
Hagrid says
'Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew. 
Head Boy an' Girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the myst'ry is why 
You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before.(...)"

and

PoA (soft cover bloomsbury) p221; The Marauder's Map :
McGonagall says
"Precisely, Black and Potter. Ringleaders of their little gang. Both 
very bright, of course --- exceptionally bright, in fact ---(...)"

I know it's a bad deduction, but I always believed that Head Boy was a 
distinction that you give to the best student (regardless of their 
house). It's not a popularity contest, since Percy is a Head Boy (once 
again I may assume wrongly that he is not popular). It's not based on a 
quidditch value, since Charlie wasn't a Head Boy, but only a quidditch 
captain.

"exceptionally bright" doesn't mean "best". But since I always believed 
(I'm not so sure right now) that Head Boy means top marks, I did 
believe that James and Sirius were top students. Like Lily who was Head 
Girl.

After all they managed to be animagus, that's not an easy thing. Harry 
may be a powerful wizard, everytime I read the books, I'm always under 
the feeling that Hermione saved the day with her knowledge

Admitting Snape was academically better than Potter, he could be still 
jealous. Personal and trivial example is not the truth, but my marks 
weren't top, I was in the top five students of my class but never 
better than rank 4 or 5. There was a better student than me who just 
can't admit (and they dislike me because of that) that I rarely did my 
homework, always missing days at school without real reasons and still 
have good marks without much effort than being here.

Snape may be like Hermione, they are really good in school, because 
they do work a lot. James on the hand was exceptionally bright AND 
popular. Quidditch demands a lot of time. there's practice several 
times per week, plus Head Boy duties, plus being exceptionally  bright, 
plus finding times playing pranks and creating the marauder's map, plus 
being an animangus... and the list goes on. IMHO James is disliked by 
Snape, maybe not because he was first student (as I wrote earlier) but 
because James had everything without apparently much effort than being 
here.

Snape, better at school by his hard work (or by his cunning slytherin 
tricks *wink*), could hate James for having maybe less good mark. That 
feeling of bitterness seems ridiculous, because afterall when you're 
the best, you're the best but I think it's kind of annoying seeing lazy 
people win the show. Because to my eyes working hard to get a mark, 
even a bad one" is much more better than being intelligent.

Annechan