Sportsmanship/legitimacy

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 151918


> a_svirn:
> Again, it's not about Harry. There is no need to defend him at every
> turn. But the very existence of this magical contract into which one
> can be "unknowingly drawn" is a perfect example of cheating
> incorporated into the rules. In our world there is no shortage of
> individuals who cheat and trick people into unfair agreements and
> contracts, but if and once you prove that foul play was involved
> such contracts can be annulled. 

Pippin:
Foul play could not be proved, it was only suspected. There
was no proof that Harry hadn't got around the age line or asked 
someone else to put his name in the goblet. Harry was a victim of 
identity theft -- a crime of which wizarding law may not be 
cognizant.

In that case his situation might resemble mine a few years ago,
when my brother's crazy ex bought herself a Jacuzzi using my
credit. There was nothing in those days to stop the finance company 
from turning over the account to a collection agency which called me,
sent me dunning notices, and caused my hitherto enviable
credit report to break out in boils. When I reported all this
to the police, they told me no crime had been committed against
me. According to the law as it then was, my ex-SIL had defrauded 
the finance company, not me, and therefore I had no standing. 

It was up to the finance company to decide whether it
had been defrauded and  they were  within their rights to
presume that the contract was genuine and pursue their efforts
to make me pay off the loan. 

In Harry's case, there was no way to let the Goblet know it had
been defrauded, and therefore presumably no way to keep it
from enforcing the penalties on Harry. Possibly they could have
called off the whole contest -- but how could Dumbledore be
sure that wasn't what the enemy wanted? 

In any case, I think we are all on the wrong track in calling
the extra points for the second task any kind of evidence of 
favortism. All those points did was give Harry more time in  
the potentially lethal maze -- *not* what you would want
if you were convinced that someone was rigging the contest
to try to kill Harry. Dumbledore's fairness (and I do believe
he thought it was only fair to credit Harry in the spirit of the
rules) actually worked against his interest, assuming he
was more interested in keeping Harry alive than in having
him win a contest he didn't want him to have entered in the
first place.

Pippin