What's in it for Snape? Finding motive...

[LWalshETAL at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 97507


In a message dated 04/05/01 14:51:21, HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com writes:

> Date: Sat, 01 May 2004 14:32:43 -0000
> From: "vmonte" <vmonte at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: What's in it for Snape? Finding motive...
> 
>  I realize that Harry is a goof-off in school ...
> 
I disagree with this statement, which I have read numerous
times before.   Perhaps Harry himself feels that he could and
should do better than he does in some classes, but from the
outside, it appears that Harry (and Ron) both actually work
rather hard.   They nearly always get their homework done
(which is amazing in itself in the schools in which I have been
lately - 6th - 12th grade US), they are very frequently the
last ones left working in Gryffindor's common room, and they do
an extensive amount of outside work - learning spells for the
Triwizard Tournament, doing research on hippogriffs for Hagrid,
looking up Nicholas Flamel.   Harry also learns the patronus
charm as an extra curricular activity and spends hours with
Hermione mastering Accio.   

True, we see Harry and Ron both goofing off in Divination
and History of Magic.   But with the latter, they make up for
it by copying all of Hermione's notes (a monumental task)
and studying them rather hard.   With Divination, they are
actually prepared to work at it, until it becomes clear that
Trelawney really doesn't know how to teach it, because,
while she has a bit of the power, she doesn't know that she
does and she mistakenly thinks that her spooky voice and
other mannerisms will make up for her lack of understanding.

We see examples of where both Ron and Harry goof off, but
I think these are notable because they ARE exceptions to
their normal hard work.   

I don't fault Harry, or anyone for that matter, for not being
able to make potions just right.   The recipes for them look
like they are amazingly complicated.   And Harry definitely is
NOT the only one who doesn't get them just right.   Hermione
is actually the only one we see who consistently does better.
Potions class is much like what I remember of chemistry.   It
is much harder to actually do it right than you might imagine
from just looking at the directions.   

If you think Harry is a goof off, you should see most of the
kids I taught last year.   

Laura Walsh    LWalshETAL at aol.com




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]