Apologies and responsibility

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 139342

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, <lady.indigo at g...> wrote:

> 
> 
> Let's make this very simple. <snip>He 
> breaks the rules because of, using your example, Umbridge - because 
Umbridge 
> is taking so much abusive power over the school that the rest of 
the 
> teachers encourage poltergeists and Fred and George throwing people 
into 
> closets. Any idiot from age 10 to 100 can see she's bigoted, 
sadistic, and 
> any other number of things; she needs to be stopped.

And yet, Umbridge is the legal representative of the Ministry, 
endowed with all the legitimate power of Wizarding Society.  
Furthermore she is the legitimate and legal Headmistress of 
Hogwarts.  Her legitimacy and claim to obedience puts makes that of 
Snape, only a potions teacher, seem paltry indeed.  Why now, should 
Harry be respectful of Snape or Sluggy, people whom he does not trust 
and who have never given good reason to be trusted or respected, when 
he is positively encouraged and rewarded for not being obedient and 
respectful to Umbridge?  Because Dumbledore says so?  Yeah, right.  I 
wouldn't buy that one, either.


> 
<SNIP> 
> 
> How does he not know the difference? I should think it was obvious. 
And if 
> he honestly *doesn't* understand the difference by this age, even 
with 
> Hermione looking over his shoulder and telling him all the time, 
I'm more 
> than just worried about him.

Hermione forfeits much influence she might wield by proving herself a 
shrill, unhelpful nag whose attitude sometimes (particularly in OOTP) 
approaches the reprehensible.  Nor does anyone else have much right 
to pat themselves on the back in this regard.  The Dursleys gave 
Harry absolutely no reason to feel that obeying rules and being 
honest with authority would garner him anything but unjust 
punishment.  As for the Wizarding World, he has plentiful evidence 
that his attitude and practices - most of which are vastly magnified 
and blown totally out of proportion in fan discussions - are not only 
condoned but expected, anticipated, and rewarded.  His attitude 
toward Snape not only does not garner him severe punishment, but is 
tacitly supported and approved by Dumbledore who calls Occlumency a 
fiasco, who informs Harry Snape only helped him in PS/SS because he 
owed it to his dead father, who undoubtedly blocks any attempt by 
Snape to garner greater punishment for Sectumsempra, and who 
publically goads Snape into an impotent fury when Harry snatches 
Sirius out from under his nose.  As far as Sluggy goes, any worry he 
might have on that score is settled once again by Dumbledore who 
frankly orders him to use every dirty trick in the book to secure 
what is needed from the potions teacher. Never once is he instructed 
by Dumbledore to "buckle down because his lessons will be important 
for fighting Voldemort."  Far from it, Dumbledore seems not to think 
that any sort of systemic or formal preparation for facing Voldemort 
is particularly important, and seems to be totally satisfied with 
Harry's grades and his methods for obtaining them.  Nor does 
McGonagall, his head of house, usually express a great deal of 
concern over these matters -- although she has given Harry no 
particular reason to listen to her or feel that he should pay a great 
deal of attention to what she has to say, especially since her 
handling of him in OOTP was spectacular in its stupidity.  Lupin, 
meanwhile, is passive and emotionally distant, while Sirius out and 
out calls Harry a prude and killjoy. Given those types of attitudes 
and maladroit handling, at Harry's age I would have readily realized 
I had practical carte blanche for rule breaking and enjoyed it to the 
fullest.  I have to say, considering the situation he has been a 
veritable model of rectitude, honesty, and restraint.

> 
> Oh, and Lockhart didn't *need* anything except to be taken to the 
> authorities. The only reason I'm not completely freaked out that 
they 
> basically used him as a meatshield (I'm remembering mainly by the 
movie 
> here, but still) is because there was probably no time to do 
anything else 
> under the circumstances.

The very authorities that Harry had just seen throw Hagrid into 
Azkaban for no other reason than that they feared public pressure and 
had to have someone to blame?  The very authorities that yielded to 
blatant bribery from Lucius Malfoy?  Yeah, right.


Lupinlore