Broken potionvial and Harry expectations WAS: Re: Bad Writing?

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 163327

> Carol responds:
> 
> I agree that there's nothing wrong with Harry's expecting a fair
> grade, but I wonder if perhaps, because of your personal 
experience,
> you're reading more into Snape's zeroes than is warranted by the 
books
> themselves. <SNIP>

Alla:

No, I do not think I do. We all bring up our personal experiences in 
reading the books and bring them up to intepret them, but we do not 
know what is warranted by the books itself exactly. JKR said that 
she is writing about degrees of evils and for all I know, she means 
to show that everyday evil of Snape unfairness may harm the person 
just as badly as evil maniac Voldemort can.

Carol:
Both of the zeroes that I recall occurred in Harry's fifth
> year, OWL year, and neither affected his final mark in the course 
for
> that year. Granted, Snape would not have allowed Harry into his 
NEWT
> Potions class based on his E, but that E nevertheless indicates 
that
> Harry was learning Potions in Snape's class in spite of both Snape 
and
> his own inattention (for example, when he's more interested in the
> conversation between snape and Umbridge than what he's putting into
> his cauldron). <SNIP>

Alla:

You said it - Harry gets an E with all crap Snape throws at him, so 
for all I know with different teacher, whom Harry would not hate so 
much and was more motivated, he could have gotten an O. If DD did 
not bring Slughorn, Harry carreer prospects could have been 
effectively ruined.


Carol:
Snape passes Harry every year up until OWL year, and in
> OWL year, its his OWL score, not the marks he earns in Snape's 
class,
> that determine whether he will be in Potions the next year. 
<SNIP>

Alla:

Actually in Harry's third year ( or was it GoF?) narrator thinks 
that DD has to interfere to make sure that Snape did not fail Harry. 
I will take the narrator's word for it.


Carol:
> Sweet are the uses of adversity. It strengthens character if we 
allow
> it to do so.

Alla:

Yeah, or it can hurt us so badly, that we will deal with the 
consequences of emotional abuse for years and years. Have you read 
Sherry's post about her experiences with RL Snape like teacher, who 
targeted her? Highly recommend.


> Carol, who agrees that Snape is unfair but thinks that it's 
possible
> to exaggerate the significance of such incidents by reading too 
much
> into them or relating them to RL experience
>

Alla:

Or it is possible to decrease the significance of those incidents by 
not seeing what harm can be done to the young people by teachers 
like Snape both in fiction and RL.