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

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 163329

In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67"
<justcarol67 at ...> wrote:
>
 I agree
> that the zero for the broken flask was unfair and that Snape's
> gloating over it was petty revenge for the violation of his privacy
in
> Harry's Pensieve visit, but it does Harry no more long-term harm
than
> Harry's fantasies of crushing Snape like a dried beetle do to Snape.


And yet, had it not been for a heavy-handed plot intervention on
JKR's part -- i.e. switching the rules at the last moment -- Harry's
career prospects would have been ruined, as Alla quite rightly points
out.  And even under a DDM scenario, Harry's fantasies about Snape
are hardly harmless.  After all, even the mythical St. Severus Snape,
totally innocent and aggrieved in his DDMness, would find it hard to
get Harry to pay any attention to him -- at least in part, and I
think VERY large part, due to his abuse of Harry.  Not an example of
something not doing long-term harm.

> Snape is, unfortunately for both of them, fanning the flames of
> Harry's hatred with such pettiness, but he isn't ruining Harry's
> career prospects, which depend on his OWL and NEWT scores, not the
> marks he earns (or receives, earned or not) in any particular class.

And yet, as Alla points out, Harry's prospects would have been ruined
save for the heavy-handed plot manipulations mentioned above.  And
Snape's "fanning the flames" is yet another example of Dumbledore's
contemptible incompetence.  If he really needs the two of them to
work together, then letting Snape abuse Harry constantly is the
height on ineptitude on fronts other than "just" the moral.


Lupinlore, who is wondering how long the last book will be, but
unfortunately suspects most of the time will be wasted on a MaGuffin
hunt