[HPforGrownups] Broken potionvial WAS: Re: Bad Writing? (was: JKR and the boys)

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 163237

> Jen: I don't read Harry feeling cocky in this passage.  He talks
> about being able to perform better in potions without Snape's 'taunts
> and snide remarks', something he thinks about again during OWLS and
> which appears to have at least a grain of truth given his 'E' in
> OWLS.  Then he mentions feeling satisfied about 'scraping an E'--not
> a statement of overconfidence.  Harry doesn't say something
> like, "any other teacher might give him an 'O' but Harry just hoped
> to scrape an 'E' with Snape."  A phrase like that would place the
> blame for his grades soley on Snape instead of Harry recognizing he
> plays a role as well.  Instead Harry feels satisfaction that he can
> actually do well in potions when Snape is ignoring him and hopes that
> fact will translate into a better-than-normal grade (which is
> idealistic given how angry Snape is, but I don't read it as a cocky
> attitude).

Magpie:
Cocky was too strong a word--I didn't mean that Harry was being 
insufferable. As Ceridwen said, Harry knows a good Potion from a bad and if 
he thinks he's done well he probably has. I just meant that he gets through 
the whole class thinking it's okay and then Snape gets to take points from 
him because of this--and if Snape didn't knock the Potion over it's not 
direct enough for Harry to just go into "Snape's attacking me" mode, if that 
makes sense. It can just be a regular moment in class that's got tension 
underneath it instead of being a full-blown Snape/Harry confrontation.

When I think of it that way I also start leaning more towards thinking that 
Malfoy's laughter makes more sense if Harry dropped the flask. (Maybe 
Snape's "whoops" would have come before the shatter as well.) Wow. I started 
off sure Snape dropped the Potion on purpose and now I seem to be arguing 
the other side.

Potioncat:
But it is interesting that whoops and oops have both been used in the
HP series. Could that be the difference in copy editors, or does JKR
also see a subtle difference?

Magpie:
I would think it's just the way she "hears" it in her head, so it could 
relate even to some people using one word rather than another--though in 
this cases the different people are fictional characters.

-m