From the other side : Part 1 : Zacharias Smith and other lambda students

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 88900

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Doriane" <delwynmarch at y...> 
wrote:

Del:
> I disagree with your conclusion that first-years don't ever make 
the 
> team because they lack the ability. Harry didn't, for example, and 
> I'm sure there were quite a few others over the past century who 
were 
> both very talented and very well trained when they went to Hogwarts 
> (James comes to my mind...). They could very easily have made it to 
> the team. But they weren't allowed to bring their broomsticks and 
to 
> do the try-outs. 

Geoff:
I would agree to disagree. I see no reason why a promising player 
can't use a school broom.

Possibly, there are not normally opening for new pupils in the teams; 
but Harry may be unusual in that he /is/ a promising player - and, 
remember, Gryffindor need a Seeker. As Mcgonagall says: "Heaven 
knows, we need a better team than last year. Flattened in that last 
match by Slytherin. I couldn't look Severus Snape in the face for 
weeks....." (PS "The Midnight Duel" p.113 UK edition)

> > Del:
>> Okay, you got me on that one :-) But if you don't mind me nit-
> picking, you'll notice that all that the kids know was brought to 
> them through rumors. DD admits that the kids weren't given any 
> official version of what happened. So who knows *what* the kids 
> actually believe happened ?! How much do they know ? Weren't the 
> facts distorted in the rumor-spreading process ? 

Geoff:
Who spread the rumours? The only people who knew that Harry had gone 
down to the Dungeons were Ron, Hermione and Dumbledore. Dumbledore 
may have said something to the staff who prepared the tasks - 
McGonagall, Snape etc. so any knowledge must have emanated from them 
as source. But beyond that, the rumour mill had no one to feed it.

Geoff again: 
> > And if there is anyone (other than the Slytherins perhaps) who 
> > think the Dolores Umbridge is the first apparently sane and 
> > impartial person in power to come to the school, they either have 
> > led a very sheltered life or ought to be out looking for the 
> > marbles they have lost.
> 

Del:
> Dolores Umbridge : you have to know her to realise who she truly 
is. 
> Harry got on her bad side right away, but not everyone did. Many 
> students had actually no reason to fear her. Many students were 
> probably scared the year before by Moody's violent methods in DADA 
> classes, and got only more insecure with the whole matter of the 
> death of Cedric and LV's hypothetic return. So when Umbridge 
arrived, 
> preaches peace and non-violence, and delivering reassuring speeches 
> about the non-existence of LV, well, I guess she must have 
attracted 
> quite a few students. I remember how it was when I was a teenager : 
I 
> wanted excitement allright, but on my own terms, when *I* decided 
it. 

<snip>

> So I honestly don't think that only the Slytherins liked Umbridge : 
I 
> suspect quite a few other students from all Houses must have liked 
> her too. She was apparently trying to bring peace, order and better 
> quality to the place : a lot of teenagers crave that.

Geoff: 
She was?

When I was a pupil at school, we often picked up vibes about the 
teachers from body language, comments overheard, reactions etc. 
Students must have picked up on the fact that Umbridge was not 
hitting it off with amny staff. Pupils who were present when she 
observed McGonagall couldn't have failed to sense the antipathy 
between them. We know that some of the pupils had certainly realised 
that Trelawney was mightily put out by Dolores (whether deserved or 
not).

Dean (I think) who fell foul of her and had the same quill treatment 
handed out as Harry had already experienced. Any older student with 
any knowledge of English would have been concerned at the use of the 
name Inquisitor with all its undertones. Then we have the setting up 
of the Inquistorial Squad who are given powers to override the 
Prefects; who are they? Mainly sycophants and bullies from Slytherin. 
And Educational Decree number 23 which banned all organisations - the 
act of an impartial and charming lady trying to bring peace and order 
to the place?

Hmmmm.

OK, I take your point that you are trying to see the "real" Harry and 
not the one on a pedestal but I think anyone who looks at Harry 
objectively sees an ordinary teenage guy caught up, perhaps, in out 
of the ordinary situations but I do not believe that he seeks to be 
special. He wants to be just Harry. I like him, warts and all and I 
think that even those in the school who have thought him strange are 
beginning to see that, up to a point, he is just one of them. I would 
hate a Harry with a halo.