First potions lesson/Harry getting special treatment

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 145943

Potioncat: I'm going to slip my replies into the different comments 
of this post and also counter some points brought up in other parts 
of the thread.

> Magpie  wrote: 
> "I think the main point here that's getting lost here is that 
> regardless of whether Harry could have done this, the point was 
that 
> he wouldn't. I really don't think Snape was hoping Harry would have 
> the answer or was at all disappointed that he didn't. I think he 
> probably would have hated Harry all the more if Harry had answered 
> like Hermione."

Potioncat:
Harry did read over his books. He had them for about a month before 
school started. He and Hagrid went to Diagon Alley on July 31/Aug 1 
and school started Sep 1/2. I don't think Snape expected Harry to 
know the answers. Would he have been angry if Harry had? I'm not 
sure. Maybe he would have shown the same calculating look he gave 
Harry at the Parseltongue incident.

I've seen different comments, offering that Hermione had her books 
longer. Do we have canon that says the children are notified on their 
birthday? My take is that the letters for all the students go out in 
the summer before the school year starts. Harry's letters started 
coming before his birthday.

I think the main difference in our reactions to the first Potions 
class is determined by our view of Snape's motivation. Let me explain 
better what I mean. Some readers think Snape is only a bitter man, 
still carrying a grudge against James Potter. His only reason for 
attacking Harry is that Harry is James's son; and he attacks him 
although ignorant of Harry's true nature.

Other readers accept that Snape is a bitter man who still has a 
grudge against James and the Marauders, but that he is fighting Lord 
Voldemort and he has reasons to "test" Harry. His actions toward 
Harry range from unpleasant to cruel with an occasional neutral 
tossed in; but they are performed for a reason that have very little 
to do with James. 

But just as Slughorn thinks Harry is like Lily, gifted at potions; 
Snape thinks Harry is like James, a rule-breaker. Hmmm, which teacher 
is right? I'm not justifying Snape's methods, but rather looking at 
his reasons.
 
> 
> Betsy HP wrote: <SNIP>
> "Dumbledore didn't just reward Gryffindor, he punished Slytherin. 
It 
> was an odd choice, and it never sat well with me. (Personally, I 
> think he's trying to make up for the Norbert incident, and it does 
> win Harry back into Gryffindor's good graces, but at what cost?)"

Potioncat:
It made for a good ending, and had it just been between Harry and 
Draco, it might have worked. The image had punch, but it wasn't the 
right way for a DD to do things. It was more a Snape-type action. But 
I don't think we should blame DD. It was JKR's doing. I really don't 
think she looked at the effect as broadly as we do.

The other thing is that the way the points were handled, and the 
known McGonagall-Snape competition for the Cup it was made to be 
very, very important. Then the whole thing disappears in the other 
books. We're told one other time that Gryffindor won the House Cup 
and after that, nothing. Of course, more important things were going 
on. But I've missed the House Cup information.


>  Alla wrote: <SNIP>
> "Again, he awarded well deserved points. It may not have sit well 
> with Slytherin pride, but the point was made Gryffindor gets 
special 
> tretment here. To me special means undeserved, unless you argue 
that 
> Trio did not deserve those points, I don't see any special 
treatment 
> here. As to why awarding during the Feast. well, why not? They 
> behaved like Heroes and IMO School should honor their heroes."

Potioncat:
The points should have been awarded sooner. Or at the very least, 
before the current numbers were announced. But to announce the 
current numbers as if everything was finished and then change them 
was wrong. Again, I blame JKR, not Dumbledore.

Had the points been awarded sooner, the Trio could still have been 
honored at the Dinner. The precedent for awarding points at the 
moment earned was set earlier. When they saved the school from the 
troll, they were given the points on the spot, not at a dinner. When 
Harry and Ron were given points for the Chamber (next book, I know) 
it was in DD's office, not at a dinner.