Academic dishonesty

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 139593

Lady Indigo: 
> The Harry apologists are sounding suspiciously like the Snape
apologists  again. Not that Snape has been through nearly as 
much, or that Harry's crimes are anywhere near Snape's magnitude, 
but just what is the appropriate  ratio of personal trauma to 
completely unrelated moral error,exactly?
> Can we please call a spade a spade here? Harry did a bad thing and
never  regretted it, trying to cover it up further and getting upset
when he was  caught and punished for it. People, including Harry, '
make  mistakes, but I'd  like to see the indication that these *are*
mistakes be delivered out of a mouth that isn't Snape's.

Pippin:
I think there's a deliberate  parallel between Harry's misuse of the
book and Snape's misuse of his authority. Regardless of whether you 
think the methods themselves are legitimate,  Harry failed to use 
the book  for the reason he was allowed to have it: to enable 
the study of  potions. He used it to get the edge in a contest, 
to underline his dominance, to settle some old scores, 
and for the gratification of being compared to his parent, whether 
he deserved to be or not. 

Sounds like Snape's treatment of Harry, no?


That Harry allowed these reasons to undermine the legitimate one is
shown by his problems with Golpallot's Third Law.
It doesn't look  right now as if Harry will ever take his NEWTs, 
but he'd be up a tree without a broomstick if the practical
exam was "Construct an antidote for the given poison" and 
there was no bezoar handy, or the given poison happened to 
be one for which a bezoar won't work. Slughorn did indicate,
gently, that the study of antidotes would be worthwhile.

It's not entirely Harry's fault that he's unfamiliar with it. IIRC, 
he missed most of the lesson on antidotes in fourth year when 
he was called out for the weighing of the wands. Under ordinary 
circumstances Harry could have asked either Hermione or 
Slughorn (who's the most approachable teacher he's had since 
Lupin) to explain it to him. But Harry's trapped by the image he's 
created of an instinctive understanding of potions, and Hermione, 
who knows full well he has no such thing, is understandably 
disgusted with him. 

(Not that she handled it very well. This was Hermione's year to
be a trial to her friends, just as it was Harry's last year, and
Ron's the year before.)

I'm not saying for a minute that Snape's behavior is morally
equivalent, but it may be psychologically so, perhaps in the
same way that Voldemort's collecting is a malignant version
of Slughorn's. For both Snape and Harry, I think the underlying
problem is not  so much sadism ( though surely Harry
smirked to see Hermione and Draco struggle)  as a deep 
underlying insecurity. 

I think that is what Dumbledore, if he and I are not completely
deluded about Snape's nature, was trying to help Snape and
Harry  see.

Of course it could be we *are* deluded, and Rowling has got
tired of writing a bildungsroman and turned the whole thing
into an Italian revenge tragedy. But  I have Faith <veg>.

Pippin