OotP Harry not a prefect & his Inner Voice

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 115656




> bboyminn wrote:
> 
> Never said Harry was the only choice. I'm sure all the students were
> considered including Neville who on the surface seems the least
likely candidate. None the less, I'm sure Neville was given a fair
> evaluation. In fact, a very good case could be made for Neville, but
> in the end, I'm sure we all agree that this was not Neville's time
to shine.
> 
> As far as Dean and Seamus, I'm sorry but I have to say that if they
> were outstanding in any way, they would have ...well, you know...
> stood out. If Seamus or Dean were academically excellent that
> outstanding quality would have rated at least a small casual
mention; Harry would have noticed. If Harry noticed then we would
notice. If they were outstanding in their participation in any
extracurricular activities, then again, they would have stood out and
been worthy of at least a minor casual mention.

> Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to diminish Dean and Seamus, but
> leaders are not those who are good and capable. They are those who
> take initiative and are decisive. In a tough situation, the majority
> of people sit and wait to be told what to do. Good leaders are the
> ones who step up and create a decisive course of action. Harry, more
> so, but Ron too, has demonstrated this.
> 
> Give all we DO know, once every candidate had been evaluated, and a
> fair case made for each of them, the only remaining likely
candidates were Harry and Ron. They have proven themselves repeatedly,
and that ability to act while others wait is what narrowed the field.
Finally, down to those two, we know that Dumbledore decided that Harry
was already carrying too much weight to have one more thing added.
That leaves Ron.
> 
> Once again, no one has said anything that even remotely convinces me
> that Ron was anything less than a typical normal Prefect. We can't
> judge him by either an idealized Prefect, or Hermione or Percy
because those are unrealistic standards. Judged against a typcial
Prefect, Ron was just as good as any. 
<snip>
 When trouble comes, who do you want standing
> between you and trouble; Dean and Seamus, or Harry and Ron? Me,
> clearly, I prefer to put my faith in the proven skills of Harry and
> Ron. And, personally, I think Dumbledore agrees with me, which is
why the only two realistic candidates were Harry and Ron. Then given
that Dumbledore had his reasons for eliminating Harry, who is probably
> everyone's first choice, that left Ron as Prefect.


Carol responds:
Sorry to jump into the debate in midstream, but I think your point
about Harry having (in DD's view and JKR's) too many other things on
his plate is indeed the true reason why he wasn't chosen. (I don't
think he'll be Quidditch captain or Head Boy, either, even if he
qualifies, which is a bit doubtful, because the fight against
Voldemort is much, much more important.)

As for why DD chose Ron rather than Seamus, Neville, or Dean, I think
it was important for DD (and McGonagall, who surely had some say in
appointing the prefects for her house) that the prefect be
unquestionably loyal to Harry. (No doubt they both knew about the
breach between Harry and Ron early in their fourth year and knew it
had healed--otherwise, why choose *Ron* as the person for Harry to
save in the second task?) And Ron *has* shown remarkable
resourcefulness and courage (the chess game in SS/PS, confronting
spiders despite being terrified of them, entering the Chamber of
Secrets with Harry with the intention of saving his sister, etc.), so
surely he deserved some reward other than house points. And Harry
himself says that Ron must have some quality that he, Harry, doesn't
have or DD would not have chosen him. That quality, IMO, is loyalty.

Maybe DD was operating to some degree on intuition here, but he was
proven correct in not giving the prefect position to Seamus when
Seamus believed the Daily Prophet articles about Harry. (Nor to attack
Seamus--the person who defended him by saying that Harry's response
was unreasonable and reinforced Seamus's suspicions is correct, but my
point is that DD wanted someone who would believe that Harry had truly
confronted Voldemort--someone who had very nearly confronted Voldemort
with him on more than one occasion, and would have done so if
circumstances had not prevented him.

It's also possible that DD wants to prepare Ron for a future
leadership role, one that he was not really ready for in OoP but may
do a better job of filling with the twins gone from Hogwarts. I think
we'll see Ron come into his own in H-BP. (And Neville will, as well,
but without the burden of being a prefect. He needs to deal with his
fears and self-confidence without worrying about whether others obey him.)

Someone has said recently that Draco is more Ron's nemesis than
Harry's, and being a prefect puts Ron on equal footing with Draco.

To get back briefly to Dean and Seamus, I'm not sure that we've seen
Seamus display any particular talents, but Dean's skill at
drawing/calligraphy/forging has been mentioned several times, maybe
not in every book but in most of them. I have a feeling that
particular talent will come in handy at some point.

Carol