Academic dishonesty (was "Apologies and responsibility")

[zgirnius]

No: HPFGUIDX 139456

> Valky:
> The
> fact is Harry is a highly skilled potions maker, Snapes notations 
did
> not control his hands his eyes and his ability to discern the stage 
of
> the potion using his own senses. Those things he did himself. 

zgirnius:
I agree entirely about Harry's skills/accuracy in Potions making, 
they are good. This is why he got an E in the subject on his OWL, 
IMO. The whole "cheating" argument, though, is that since he had 
better instructions, he could achieve better results than other 
students who are even *more* accurate/skilled, but were following 
less useful instructions. (Note Hermione was doing better than Harry 
in the first class, until Harry switched to the HBP's instructions, 
for example.)

Valky:
> I'd like to add another thought to this. I wonder if the Potion
> Recipes in Snapes textbook are the same recipes that he would have
> been casting onto his blackboard for the class to follow, had he 
been
> a NEWT potions master. If it were the case, then it is possible that
> Hary's potions performance in HBP is actually representative of what
> he would always have been capable of with Snape lessons but no 
actual
> Snape in the room sabotaging him every few minutes. I think this 
might
> be a Theory, you know, even Hermione didn't do all so well as usual
> without Snape as her teacher, I noticed.

zgirnius:
I second the motion...I noticed in OotP that Snape always had his 
instructions on the board, something I might never have noticed, had 
it not contrasted so with "Wands away, books out! Please read Chapter 
X, Ignoring Hexes" by everyone's favorite DADA teacher. I wondered 
why at the time (I mean, is anyone going to forget to bring their 
book to Snape's class, and if they did, wouldn't that just be the 
perfect opportunity to be nasty?) I was sure I had my answer the 
moment I guessed who the HBP was on my first reading of that book.