[HPforGrownups] Draco's potion making skills WAS: Scary Teachers - Good Teachers

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 153053

 Alla:
>
> Let's talk some more about Draco's cutting skills. I am really not
> sure that Snape is being truthful here or that Draco is always a
> perfect cutter ( meaning an "O" level cutter).
>
> Remember Draco showing up after his injury in Potions class and
> making Ron cutting his ingredients for him? I mean, Snape made him
> on Draco's request, but that is not very relevant for my purposes.
>
> Now, if Malfoy was truly unable to cut here, that would be a
> different story, but we KNOW Draco is faking and he does not hide it
> from Harry or the reader.
>
> So, that tells me ( IMO of course) that Draco is not really
> comfortable in his Potion making or cutting skills if he is so glad
> to make Ron do it.


>
> I mean of course Draco is glad to make Ron do it out of malice, but
> would he risk to let someone who is obviously beneath him to make
> preparations for his Potion?

Magpie:
Yes, he would risk someone beneath him doing his preparation in this scene, 
because it's all about the malice and bugging Ron and he's not losing 
anything by it.  The scene never brought any doubts about Draco's cutting 
skills to my mind.  Anything wrong with Draco's Potion is going to be blamed 
on Ron.

Neri:
I've just now remembered - stupid of me to forget it - in fact the narrator 
shows Draco to be sucking up not only before the OWLs to Snape and after the 
OWLs to Slughorn, but even *during* the OWLs:

*******************************************************************
OotP, Ch. 31:
Meanwhile, Draco Malfoy had found a different way to induce panic. "Of 
course, it's not what you know," he was heard to tell Crabbe and Goyle 
loudly outside Potions a few days before the exams were to start, "it's who 
you know. Now, Father's been friendly with the head of the Wizarding 
Examinations Authority for years - old Griselda Marchbanks - we've had her 
round for dinner and everything..."
*******************************************************************

Now, I know about this "unreliable narrator" argument that can be used to 
contradict practically anything, but this is too much. Are you saying that 
Harry just imagined that he heard these words? Ron, Hermione and Neville 
hear them too, and they discuss them. Are they too unreliable?

Magpie:
No, they're not unreliable.  That's not Draco sucking up that's Draco doing 
exactly what the text says he's doing.  He's finding a new way to induce 
panic in other students.  In case a reader actually thought Draco's boasts 
were actually true here, Neville's line about Marchbanks is there to 
indicate he is lying.  Draco does that.

Neri:
The fact is, the narrator (not Harry) very consistently characterizes Draco 
throughout the series as the sucking up student. Not just to Snape. Also to 
McGonagall (when he frames the trio in SS/PS), to old Marchbanks, and to 
Slughorn.

Magpie:
Draco has never been shown to get any advantage in his grades due to his 
behavior towards any teacher whatsoever.  Hermione's a brown noser.  Does 
that indicate that she didn't get her grades fairly?

Neri:
In fact, this characterization is so consistent that if I were *explicitly* 
told in canon that Draco has an O in his Potions OWL, my first and automatic 
thought would be that his father indeed managed to bribe someone in the 
Examinations Authority.

Magpie:
Well, you've made it pretty clear that you're opposed to the idea of Malfoy 
getting an O on his OWL and fanwanking a bribe isn't much more difficult 
than fanwanking a secret announcement to get the result that fits the 
conclusion you want.

Neri:
Had the narrator made any attempt to show us, just once, that Draco is 
indeed good at potions *independently* of his sucking up relationship with 
Snape, I would be ready to consider it.

Magpie:
So, had the narrator made any attempt to show us, just once, that Draco is 
any good at Potions outside of the number of suggestions he's good at 
Potions that are actually in canon you'd be ready to consider it. But as it 
is, we're stuck explaining away everything that's there because Draco 
shouldn't be good at Potions.

Neri:
But as it is, the narrator practically prevents me, with Draco's words 
above, from believing that he could have achieved an O in his OWL in any 
fair way.

Magpie:
Are you honestly telling me that you didn't get that that line of Draco's is 
about Draco blowing hot air to scare other students?  Even with Neville 
following it up by saying that his family is friends with Marchbanks and she 
never speaks about the Malfoys?  You think Marchbanks was in the Malfoy's 
pocket?

Neri:
I'm not challenging that, although I'd say you still need to explain what 
does Snape have against Hermione, the best student in his class.

Magpie:
That she's a know it all with a personality that annoys him.  I believe he's 
said as much.

Neri:
What I do challenge is the claim that Snape's style of teaching, while being 
very nasty to some students, at least produces results. I don't see JKR 
suggesting it in regard to Snape, nor in regard to any other teacher. If at 
all, she suggests the very opposite.

Magpie:
You're free to challenge it as a teaching style in the real world, and I 
don't think JKR is particularly promoting Snape's style of teaching, but I 
don't see any evidence that Snape is a complete failure at teaching within 
the books. He's not teacher of the year, but he gets the results he gets.

-m