[HPforGrownups] Re: Am I the only one...

[Laura Lynn Walsh]

No: HPFGUIDX 134823

>shagufta:
>i personally wouldnt call Hermione mediocre, in all the potion
>classes we've seen she gets exact results, there are umpteen times we
>see that she is the only one who gets her potion the exact colour and
>texture that it should be. she even helps Neville on the sly and
>prevents his toad from getting poisoned. Afraid to experiment? this
>is the girl who brews Polyjuice Potion in her second year, by getting
>a restricted book out of the library. And to cap it all, the first
>time she is judged by an unbiased teacher she gets an an outstanding
>in potions (im referring to her OWLs)
>
>And as far as HBP is concerned, Hermione doesnt get anything wrong,
>her potions are textbook perfect, and thats really the best a student
>aims for.
>
>Hermione may be lots of things but mediocre.??. you got to be kidding.
>
>shagufta
>(long time lurker)

But it is interesting that Hermione doesn't experiment
with potions.  She follows instructions exactly and she
gets good results, but she doesn't come up with her own
formulations.  In fact, in the whole series, we see
remarkably few students experimenting with new magic.
Fred and George are arguably the most adept at it.  But
we don't see most students come up with new charms, new
ways to transfigure, new curses, new defenses, etc. 

It is curious to me that Hermione is so condemning of
the notes in the margins of the HBP's potions book.  It
is true that they may be dangerous, and she has always
been wary of the implications of anything unusual.  But
I would have thought that, once she sees how effective
they are, she would have wondered why they weren't
incorporated into the regular textbook.  It is clear
that they work, that Slughorn recognizes that they work,
that he can sometimes tell what was added to make them
work, and that he seems to have no fear of the results.
Yes, I know she is jealous of Harry's success, but why
is she so negative about the instructions themselves?
Why wouldn't she copy the changes that really work into
her own book?

The example of the Polyjuice Potion isn't really a counter-
argument to this.  She was willing to make it, and she was
very good at making it, but she didn't change it one iota.
She followed the instructions exactly.  The outstanding on
her OWLs is also not a counterexample, as, again, this simply
shows that she is excellent at following and remembering
instructions.  The OWLs didn't ask them to concoct an entirely
new potions that would make the drinker's hair turn into
feathers or something like that. 

I wouldn't call her mediocre for not experimenting - just
cautious.  It is probable that the first that students are
allowed or expected to experiment is when they are working
at the NEWT level.  Fred and George were simply precocious
in that regard.  And we do see Slughorn asking them to come
up with some new things in potions class.

Laura Walsh   lwalsh at acsalaska.net