Academic dishonesty

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 139441


Lupinlore:

> The tragedy in HBP is more subtle, but still 
> profound.  HBP gives us a window into another, 
> better world that might have been, if things had 
> gone differently long ago.  In that alternate 
> reality the pureblood prejudice did not work 
> its way so deep into the social fabric of the 
> Wizarding World, Dumbledore was wiser in the 
> way he dealt with a young Tom Riddle, and the 
> Marauder's generation was not so riven with 
> jealousy and hatred.  In that world it is easy 
> to imagine a healthier and happier Severus Snape, 
> still sarcastic and cynical but without the cruel 
> edge, growing very fond of a certain brash, energetic, 
> dark-haired Gryffindor, and said Gryffindor finding 
> that his favorite professor is not a passive, 
> emotionally repressed werewolf but his dry-witted, 
> irreverent potions master.  Perhaps Dumbledore hoped 
> that Occlumency would, among other things, allow some 
> dim shadow of that better world to be salvaged.  But 
> the deep tragedy is that the better world is only 
> a dream -- a dream that was rendered impossible 
> years ago by prejudice, blunders, hatred, and death.

houyhnhnm:

Beautifully put, and consistant with statements by Rowling which
indicate that the Wizarding World is not the escape it first appears
to be, either for Harry or for the reader.

As for Harry's use of HBP's book, I agree that it may not be academic
dishonesty in a strict sense, but it is unethical.  The dishonesty is
not in accepting a better *grade* by using someone else's notes, but
by accepting *praise* for skill and originality which Harry doesn't
really possess.