[HPforGrownups] Re: The Code of the Schoolyard and Potential Surprises in Store ;)

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 168033

> Goddlefrood:
>> (vii) Never, but never sneak on fellow students. This one is
>> so fundamental it bears repetition. Draco has broken this on a
>> regular basis, and for that alone he deserves a painful death ;)
>
> wynnleaf
> You keep going back to this one -- sneaking on fellow students,
> ratting people out -- as though I or anyone has suggested that Lupin
> should have done that when in school.  Which I haven't.  Telling
> Dumbledore as an adult in POA is completely different.

Magpie:
Agreed that this has nothing to do with Lupin ratting on any of his friends, 
but also wanted to point out that Draco has never ratted on his own friends 
that I can remember. I doubt likewise that the Marauders had any such code 
to apply to Snape, frankly. They may have preferred bullying him to telling 
on him, but I don't think they'd lie to keep him out of trouble any more 
than Ron would lie to keep Draco out of trouble. Hermione not report Malfoy 
for something if she could? I doubt it. Harry spends all of HBP telling 
people --teachers included--that Malfoy's up to something and he saw him up 
to this or that--did the Code suddenly disappear? Does the Code not apply 
when it comes to people you dislike (or only Harry dislikes)? Or was there 
never any Code to begin with and of course Harry wouldn't think twice about 
telling on Malfoy.

It seems like the Code of the Schoolyard argument, which I've heard before, 
mostly appears when Gryffindors are doing things that some people--all 
former schoolyard residents themselves--think is a bit low. (At 16 I would 
have certainly considered myself capable of just saying "no" to regular 
activities that could easily have ended in death.) As has been said, Harry 
doesn't react the way Lupin does to the Marauders' bullying. I can't imagine 
Hermione would have stood for Harry and Ron roaming around with a werewolf 
for fun.

It seems to me to come down far more frequently to individual characters 
dealing with specific situations, period. Characters in canon disagree 
sometimes as to whether something was an awesomely deserved distrubution of 
justice or a dirty trick that ought to be avenged. That was also my 
experience at school. There was no code any more than there's a specific 
code for workers to deal with the boss at work. Sure there are certain 
things people assume that people who aren't jerks will or won't do for 
others, but it's still, imo, mostly about individual people doing what they 
think is right, and sometimes clashing with other people. There have always 
students who can stand up for what they think is right without being 
considered bad guys, and there are people who break rules who are considered 
pains in the butt that anyone would be happy to see get detention.

Actually, there was an incident in my town that involved kids and something 
deadly. The person who told the authorities was not considered to have 
broken any code at all. It was the other kids who were considered psycho.

-m