CHAPDISC HBP 15, The Unbreakable Vow

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 152073

Let me add my voice to the admiring chorus! Brilliant synopsis and 
really thought provoking questions, Carol!

Carol:
3) Harry expresses real interest in the Prince's notes on Everlasting
Elixirs and defends his book against both Hermione's aspersions and
Madam Pince's grasping hands. Is he just using the Prince's notes to
get marks he doesn't deserve, or is he really learning more from the
Prince than he ever learned from the adult Snape or Slughorn? How
might this new interest in Potions, if it lasts, play out in Book 7?

a_svirn:
That's just what has been bothering me for some time. It seems that 
with magic you can acquire the skill mechanically, without properly 
understanding what is involved and what it is all about. And it's 
just doesn't seem right somehow. OK for potions, you just have to 
follow the recipe to make one. As with cooking it is possible to 
make an edible dish this way, even if you'd never make a great chef 
(or even a decent cook) if all you do is forever following 
instructions to the letter. Of course you'd need to understand the 
underling principles of Potions to *create* something, but not 
everyone is supposed to be creative. 

With spells, however, it seems that all you need is to know the 
incantation and to be powerful enough to pull it off. And it simply 
doesn't make sense to me. In the earlier books it seemed that your 
*intention* was the hub of the matter. "You need to mean it" as 
Bellatrix put it. And it wasn't only about the Unforgivables. You 
need to imagine something ridiculous in order to defeat a boggart. 
You need to focus on a really powerful memory to banish a Dementor. 
You need to concentrate hard of the thing you want to summon with 
Accio, etc. Yet in HBP it is enough for Harry to say an incitation 
and to wave his wand – et voila! Mission accomplished. This is 
something inherently wrong about this sort of thing, I feel. 

And it brings us back to the question of leaning from the Prince. I 
suppose Hermione, should she were a fortunate owner of the Prince's 
book would have indeed learned something useful. I wouldn't put it 
past her to use it in order to get better marks. In fact, she would 
have probably feel entirely justified to do so, since *she* would 
not simply follow the instructions. *She* would be using it as a 
source of learning, not just some sort of a crib sheet. But Harry 
did not *learn* anything, in a sense that he did not gain any 
*knowledge*. He just memorized incantations and didn't even bother 
to look the words up in a dictionary. That kind of cheapens the very 
idea of education. If you don't need skill and understanding, then 
you don't really need to learn.