Harry's celebrity status (Was: Special treatment )

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 146036

Carol writes:
Please note that I've changed the subject line and am not discussing
whether Harry received or deserved special treatment.

Alla wrote:
<snip>

> I completely disagree. Harry indeed got off without "Snape style" 
> punishment, IMO. And I so loved Remus for coming just on time. Remus 
> punished Harry and punished him VERY effectively IMO. So what if it 
> was just a lecture? It WORKED on Harry and that is what matters IMO. 
> Punishment should help student to recognize that his behavior was 
> wrong and not to do it again, punishment should not needlessly 
> embarrass student, making him be afraid for the life of his pet or 
> being humiliated in front of his peers (and yeah, before you ask, I 
> will say it again - that Mcgonagall did that to Neville was WRONG, 
> very WRONG) <snip>

Carol responds:
Or perhaps there's a difference between punishment (detentions and
point deductions) and discipline (teaching a lesson in hopes that the
student will employ self-discipline next time)?

Alla wrote:
<snip> Harry's celebrity status is mainly negative one IMO and 
> while Draco may think that it is cool to be in the newspaper,etc, 
> there is no escape from FACT ( IMO of course) that Harry is a 
> celebrity because he is marked either for death or for killing 
> someone ( well, we don't know how that will play out of course, but 
> that is how the situation stands right now, right? - to kill or be 
> killed) and I honestly don't see ANY reason to wish for being in 
> Harry's skin.
<snip>
> 
> I am not even saying that being celebrity does not have its perks, 
> but IMO "Harry as a celebrity" is a situation which every normal 
> person would not want to be in, unless such person has a death wish 
> of course.

Carol responds:
Again, please note that I'm not discussing special treatment here. I
simply want to respond to these remarks on Harry's status as a celebrity. 

If I'm not mistaken, Harry's celebrity status results from surviving
the attack at Godric's Hollow. He's the Boy Who Lived, the boy with
the famous scar. He's already a celebrity before he (re)enters the WW
because of events beyond his control that occurred when he was fifteen
months old. His celebrity status *at Hogwarts* is enhanced by his
performance on the Quidditch field and possibly to some extent by his
defeat of Quirrel and his saving of Ginny in SS/PS and CoS (it seems
clear that the students don't know the whole story in either case).
The events in PoA neither add to nor detract from his celebrity
status, but in GoF his celebrity status is enhanced in the WW at large
by his selection as the fourth Hogwarts champion and the articles that
Rita Skeeter writes for the Daily Prophet. True, these tasks involve
danger, but no more for the youngest champion than for the others
(until he and Cedric grab the portkey and end up in the graveyard with
LV and Wormtail, hardly an event that he or his fans or even DD
anticipated). In OoP, he's that mad boy who has fits, suffers
delusions, and claims that his scar hurts, a celebrity in the sense
that he's in the papers, but not because he's Voldemort's destined
nemesis or because he's in danger of murdering or being murdered.
Almost no one knows about the prophecy; even fewer know its full
wording. Even Harry himself is unaware of it until the end of OoP. Few
people even know that Voldemort is back. In HBP, finally, Harry
becomes the Chosen One as opposed to the Boy Who Lived, but even then
the Prophecy is only a rumor. Not even the kids who helped Harry
retrieve the Prophecy orb know what it said. They believe the Prophecy
is lost.

So I disagree that Harry's pre-HBP celebrity status has anything to do
with his being destined to kill or be killed by Voldemort. Only a very
few people, even at Hogwarts, know that he has faced Voldemort in one
form or another in his first, second, and fourth years, and fewer
still know the details. If they did, the DA members wouldn't be so
surprised to learn that he killed a basilisk and used Expelliarmus
against Voldemort (not exactly in the usual way with the usual
results, but they don't even realize that he duelled LV in the graveyard).

Since so few people know how dangerous Harry's life is, I don't think
it's unreasonable to imagine that certain people, perhaps including
Draco, do envy his celebrity status. Draco in CoS, IIRC, complains to
his father that Potter is famous because of a stupid scar. In fact,
he's famous because he survived an AK at Godric's Hollow. But there's
no indication in the WW at large that Voldemort will return or that
Harry will have to fight him.

Carol, who managed to get through a whole post without once mentioning
Snape (though the quoted portion does touch on him)