Sportsmanship in Harry Potter

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 151766

Geoff wrote:
<snip> 
> He took an independent decision to save Gabrielle as well as Ron;
OK, you may say that the danger was percieved rather than real but
Harry didn't see it in that light.
<snip>
> I believe that he showed cunning and resourcefulness. I agree that
he did not know that the tournament was being manipulated but the fact
still is that, outside of Crouch!Moody's machinations, he did actually
achieve some results on his own. Let's give a little credit 
> where credit is due.
> 
> Harry needed a push to get him going but he didn't get the whole
thing handed to him on a plate... That is an oversimplification of the
events.
>
Carol responds:
I'm not sure where I stand in this debate or how this point relates to
the original question of sportsmanship, but Harry not only needed help
on the egg clue but never did figure out a way to prevent himself from
drowning in the Second Task. It was only through Crouch!Moody's
staging or feigning a conversation with McGonagall about gillyweed and
making sure that Dobby overheard it (after his original plan of
lending the book on magical water plants to Neville failed) that Harry
knew to take gillyweed and only Dobby's stealing the plant from
Snape's "stores" that made it available to him just minutes before the
task began. If it weren't for Crouch!Moody's manipulations and Dobby's
eagerness to serve Harry and help his save his "Weezy," Harry wouldn't
have had the opportunity for heroism and resourcefulness (or whatever)
in the task itself. 

In contrast, both Cedric and Fleur performed the Bubblehead Charm on
themselves and Viktor a half-shark, half-human self-transfiguration.
Even if they didn't come up with these solutions on their own (and we
have no canon evidence that they didn't), they did at least perform
the necessary spells themselves, and in Viktor's case, this seems to
have been a rather complex and impressive bit of magic. (All Harry has
managed as of HBP in terms of self-Transfiguration is turning a single
eyebrow yellow. Viktor, admittedly a seventh-year as of GoF, is much
more proficient if he can give himself a shark's head, whether the
incompleteness of the transfiguration was deliberate or not.)

In any case, regardless of what Harry did once he was under the water,
all he did to enable himself to compete in the task in the first place
and prevent himself from drowning was to chew on and swallow a rubbery
plant suggested by a DE in disguise and provided by a house-elf. No
resourcefulness on Harry's part is involved. Surely any credit for
resourcefulness here belongs partly to Dobby but mostly to
Crouch!Moody, who despite being a fanatic and a madman is apparently
also a brilliant and gifted wizard like his father.

Carol, who hopes she doesn't sound like a fan of Crouch!Moody as she's
 nothing of the sort