Academic dishonesty

[lady.indigo at gmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 139535

On 9/4/05, eggplant107 <eggplant107 at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>Hermione knew a spell that would tell her what was in a mixture of
poisons and had memorized the antidotes to the individual poisons and
knew how to mix them together, but there is no evidence she had the
slightest idea why any of it worked.<<

Hermione knew (and, I'm assuming, understood) the basic principle of how 
antidotes needed to be mixed, which had nothing to do with a spell. Just 
because she's bound by the recipe doesn't mean she doesn't know why that 
recipe is how it is. Instead I think she's rulebound and, I agree with 
whoever said this before, has some trouble thinking out of the box. She may 
not even see the need to do so; she's never had a problem until now.

>>Following lousy instructions will not give you a better understanding
than following excellent instructions.<<

The instructions aren't *lousy*. They create the potion they're supposed to 
create, just a weaker form of it or with some mild side effects. I disgree 
with the idea that the book is outdated altogether. Slughorn takes too much 
time buttering students up to be the most effective teacher he could be, but 
if the textbook is updated regularly then he must have had the option of 
changing the edition he recommends in the 30+ years he's been teaching. And 
he just seems way too flexible and intent on showing off his bright young 
stars to handicap them like that. (Plus, every other student save Ron and 
Harry had to buy that book in the store. Wouldn't it have been replaced with 
an updated edition? Based on what I know of textbooks, anyway, which I admit 
isn't all that much.)

>>And suppose your debating skills were such that you
actually convinced me that it was a tad underhanded, what would I do
then? I would have kept on reading the notes in the margin and kept my
mouth shut about it.<< 

But the debate is whether or not Harry is wrong, yes? Not whether or not 
he's only human, or entitled to shaky ethics if it actually were the wrong 
thing to do. If we've gotten into 'it's cheating, but come on, the kid's 
gonna save the world' or whatever your justification is then I almost feel 
like we're done here.
And to answer your question, if I were Harry I would never have done it in 
the first place. Maybe if the second or third lesson was the first time I'd 
discovered the Prince's writing...but the first time was a CONTEST, and none 
of the other students had the time or opportunity to research a better 
method like mine. That makes the advantage I got unfair. And even if I'd 
wanted to win the Felix Felicis so badly that I was tempted, I'd probably 
have been far too scared of getting caught. In a contest environment I'd 
have been worried of getting suspended for it, or at the very least kicked 
out of Potions which I needed for my ambitions of becoming an Auror, etc. 
(Paranoid of me, yeah, but I tend to be sometimes.)
If it had been the other incidents, where there's no prize but teacher's 
favor at stake, I'd have done it only for the sake of getting the memory. 
(Which I think had been asked of Harry by then, yes?) If the memory wasn't 
at stake then I'd have shown Slughorn the book as soon as I got praise for a 
potion that wasn't my idea. I doubt the book would have been taken away; 
instead he'd have tested those modifications and probably shared them with 
the whole class so we could all test our ability and understanding on the 
same terms.
That's not even totally because I feel cheating is wrong, and that at the 
time Harry had no justification for doing it - he didn't yet need to butter 
Slughorn up to get the memory, he probably would've gotten good grades 
without it if he'd just read the additional theories and theorums in the 
textbook. It's also because my own personal pride wouldn't let me take 
credit for something that was someone else's idea. When I pose a theory on 
here, for instance, if I know I'm saying it because I've seen it elsewhere I 
give credit to that source. If I overlook doing that, I definitely do it 
when someone says 'interesting idea!' or whatever. I don't deserve that 
praise. Whoever I read it from does. I feel like a fraud even in an informal 
environment when I take credit for what's not mine.

- Lady Indigo