Eileen Pince

[zgirnius]

No: HPFGUIDX 156263

> > Joe: I know a lot of people aren't going to get this but James 
> Potter was behaving like all most all boys do as they grow up.
 
> wynnleaf
> I'm not going to disagree with you on that Joe, since I can't speak 
> from personal experience.  But I'd like you to clarify your comment 
> a bit.  I see the actions of James as very similar to a real life 
> situation where one boy attacks another without provocation, gets 
> his friend to hold the kid down, and hits him repeatedly.  That's 
> the physical, real-world equivalent as I see it. Is that the kind 
of 
> behavior that you meant when you said it was common behavior for 
> boys? 

zgirnius:
I, too, am interested in Joe's answer here.

Having read a lot of the Twins/Mugglebaiting thread, I tend to think 
that, in addition to the differences about what Dudley deserves, and 
liking/not liking the Twins, and what consititutes Mugglebaiting, 
another source of disagreement there was just how people 
conceptualize magic. (For example, people who think of the toffee as 
like a Muggle joke shop novelty, vs. people who refer to the toffee 
as 'poisoned'.)

Based on Joe's original post, I don't think he agrees with you in how 
he views the scene. He refers to Snape as being 'humiliated', but 
also states that James did not try to 'hurt' him.

I would point out that Snape was dropped on his head once, and thrown 
to the ground at least one other time, and had his mouth washed out 
with soap, which caused him to gag and choke. All of these are 
physical (and painful) effects of the magic that was used, so I tend 
to see it more your way than his.