Special treatment of Harry or not /Rules

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 146070

> Ceridwen:
> My gripe is with the rule-breaking in ordinary incidents.  Such as 
> talking in class, and wandering around after hours (with or 
without 
> cloak), sneaking into Hogsmeade despite warnings for his life in 
PoA 
> and suchlike.  While I do see the point of Saving The World, as in 
> entering the seven challenges in SS/PS, or the Chamber in CoS, I 
> don't think Harry should get a pass for ordinary infractions just 
> because he's The Boy Who Lived.  
<SNIP>

Alla:

I actually completely agree with you - I believe that Harry should 
NOT be given a pass for ordinary breaking of the rules AND I don't 
believe that he IS given a pass for the most part at least. IMO of 
course.

Take the earlier example with Remus lecturing him after sneaking 
into Hogsmead. As I said I think Remus' lecture WAS a perfect 
punishment, because it shamed Harry AND I think he took to heart 
Remus' words that it is a "poor way to repay Harry's parents for 
their sacrifice" (paraphrasing here, although I think it is pretty 
close). 

On the other hand, I totally think that if Snape gave Harry 
detention after this, Harry may have sneaked into Hogsmeade again 
just to prove to Snape that he could. :-)

Having said that, I think that JKR makes a clear distinction between 
breaking rules for fun of it ( which IMO she disapproves of, but 
acknowledges that children will do it anyway) and  the breaking of 
the rules for higher selfless purposes that may eventually lead to 
changes in corrupt society or simply save innocent lives.

Miles:
<HUGE SNIP of the whole post basically)
> Yes, sometimes it really is necessary to break the law or a rule 
to do the
> RIGHT thing. But even then you have to take the responsibility for 
it,
> because your decision can destabilize the society you live in.


Alla:

IMO, It depends on what kind of responsibility you are talking 
about. Because sometimes corrupted society should be a bit 
destabilized to initiate change ( no, I am not advocating revolution 
a la Russian Bolsheviks or something like that), BUT the acts of 
civil disobedience sometimes are a good thing if society is corrupt 
or some things in society are corrupt IMO. So, if standing up 
against bad things in society means that those people should give up 
themselves to the mercy of such society, I guess I disagree.

If on the other hand you are simply talking about taking 
responsibility in a sense of acknowledging that these "rebels" are 
doing those things, I guess I agree with it. I think I would look at 
it in context, depending on whether their life and liberty would be 
threatened, if they took such responsibility.  Oh, maybe sometimes 
one is prepared to have his life and liberty threatened for doing a 
right thing. Not sure, have to think about it.

So, going back to Harry Potter, if you are arguing for example that 
Dumbledore Army needed to come clean with Umbridge because their 
existence undermined her authority, I would disagree, because IMO 
Umbridge had the authority to do many bad things to the kids and 
them acknowledging their existence as defense club ( which 
eventually came out anyway as we all know) and what is the most 
important to me - her authority needed to be undermined  and again 
as we all know whole school eventually did it.

We see what Fred and George did, right? They took responsibility for 
their actions, but when they were out of Umbridge reach and I get a 
feeling that JKR REALLY approved of what they did in that scene. IMO 
obviously.

SPEW is another example of possible social change that dear Hermione 
advocates and (I know that opinions here differ widely) I think that 
JKR advocates it too.
She pretty much said it in the interviews that house elves equals 
slavery (if I remember correctly), so I think that the end 
resolution of the house elves situation would not be that "house 
elves only want to serve humans anyway and humans just need to treat 
them nicely", but " house elves can be free if they want to", or 
something like that.

Hermione takes responsibility for SPEW, but she is not going to be 
arrested or anything, she is just teased for this, so no 
disproportional harm could be done to her, so I think JKR thinks 
that this kind of responsibility kids should take - as in if you 
believe in something, say it.

Again, I have to think it over.


JMO,

Alla