Scene with likeable James WAS: Re: Eileen Pince

[Joe Goodwin]

No: HPFGUIDX 156351


IreneMikhlin <irene_mikhlin at btopenworld.com> wrote:
Do you thing that Dudley is a perfectly normal teenage boy as well? If
no, can you please provide a definition of "bully" that includes Dudley
but excludes the Pensieve scene?

And I'm going to repeat it again: "everyone is doing it" is a silly
justification, that a bully himself can use. But unworthy of a grown-up
person. In a group of 30 teenagers only 1 or 2 can be bullies. There
will be one or two victims, and the rest will be neutral. Enablers, if
you will. *Not everyone is doing it*.

Joe:

  If everyone is doing it then it isn't bullying it is normal behavior dictated by the society at large. If it is so horrible and abnormal where are the Prefects? It was a large crowd surely there was one near by.

  Maybe a school that lets Peeves run loose making students set their pants on fire knows that students hex each other as a matter of course.

  I'm not even saying that James and Sirius should have done what they did. I am saying that I suspect and canon supports that their grudge with Snape went a lot longer and deeper than one scene. If Snape(and other Slytherins) hex James and Sirius at times and get hexed at times then it isn't bullying it is fighting. I suspect from the way Snape is surprised that he and the Gryffindors are in a state of semi-open battle and he got distracted by their OWLS and wasn't paying attention to where he was at. They got the jump on him. I am willing to be that book 7 shows us times where Snape(and maybe others) got the jump on them.

  Bullying has become a buzz word for any times a "misunderstood", unpopular person has any altercation with a popular, athletic type person.

  My wife says I should stop posting about it because as she says "People who had certain experinces at school will see it one way and others will see it another," So I'm just going to go with that.

  Joe