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

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 163333

> Alla:
> 
> Well, OK, you do not blame him for that, but you still think that 
> his behaviour is wrong, yes? I mean **not constructive** is close 
> enough to **wrong** in meaning, yes?

Pippin:
Er, no. **Not constructive** means it's not helping. Harry's not
under an obligation to be helpful in solving this problem, so it's
not wrong that he isn't helping, it's just not getting him anywhere.

Harry knows there's something wrong with the system, and he
knows that fuming about Snape isn't going to change it. Frankly
I'm not sure that he'd want to change it, since he laps up 
teacher favoritism whenever he's "lucky" enough to get it. 


Harry's experience in Slughorn's class shows, IMO, that he isn't 
O material in potions. He isn't curious about why the Prince's 
recipes work better. He doesn't have the talent or the interest that 
manifests in DADA.

You compare Snape to an anti-Semite. I think I've said this before,
too, that Snape and Slytherin seem to me to occupy a cultural niche 
analogous to European Jewry: accepted as part of the founding 
story but villified for their role in it, constantly
suspected of dark and morally dubious practices, and always 
automatically the first to be blamed for anything that goes wrong.
And now a Slytherin stands accused of murdering the most beloved, 
morally perfect wizard who ever existed. Yeah, that fits.

Funny how people's minds work :)

> > Pippin:
> > 
> > And this right is worth dying for, as long as it's Snape who has
> > to do it?  YMMV, but as people have only one life to give for
> > human rights, I would prefer that it be spent on the big
> > ones,  especially when there are killers on the loose.
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Huh? Worth dying for? No it is not, but certainly worth IMO fighting 
> to change the system and if it was a different story certainly worth 
> trying to make sure that Snape changes his methods or say good bye 
> to Hogwarts.

Pippin:
Well, that's it, you want a different story, because in this story, if
DDM!Snape said goodbye to Hogwarts he'd be dead along with
a lot of other people. In this story, some of the people who are putting 
their lives on the line to oppose a genocidal murderer are, 
unfortunately, guilty of discrimination themselves on a
lesser scale and not at all prepared to see the error of their
ways.  Life's not simple.

If Dumbledore withholds his protection from anyone who doesn't
meet his moral standards, then it has the effect of punishing only
those people who are helping him oppose Voldemort (because 
they are the ones who need it) while  those who are  just as bad but 
aren't involved in the struggle can tell DD to take a hike. Doesn't
work for me, I'm afraid.

Pippin