Protego/McGonagall/Ships/Tobias/HarryRelatives/Kreachur/MaterialThings/DH

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 164605

Carol earlier: 
> > << and [McGonagall] develops an equal fondness for Harry, revealed
by her buying him an expensive racing broom and allowing him on the
Quidditch team in his first year when other first-years aren't even
allowed their own broom >>
> > 
catlady reponded:
> > I agree that McGonagall is very fond of Harry, but I don't think
the Quidditch stuff is evidence of her fondness for him. It can all be
so well explained by her fondness for Gryffindor winning Quidditch
matches.

> bboyminn added:
> 
> Pure speculation but I don't think McGonagall actually bought Harry
a broom. Nor do I think the charged Harry's own vault for it. I think
it is much more likely that the school bought a broom for Harry to
use. That is, not only was the broom paid for with school funds but
was technically considered school property. I do think however that if
Harry did well at Quidditch, when it came time to leave Hogwarts, they
would have allowed him to keep the broom. 
<snip>
> Technically the broom belongs to the school but has been given to
Harry not only for his use, but has be placed in his keeping.
Dumbledore and McGonagall being the old softies that they are, would
certainly let Harry keep the broom after having successfully used it
for 7 years. <snip>

Carol again:

Regardless of whether she's favoring Harry specifically or Gryffindor
in general (she certainly wants very much to have the Quidditch Cup
transferred from Snape's office to hers), McGonagall is bending or
even breaking the rules to get herself a Seeker, as she herself admits.

First years are not allowed to have brooms, as we're informed in the
supply list enclosed with Harry's Hogwarts letter (since the letter is
signed by McGonagall, it's likely that she also wrote the list and
certainly she enclosed it in the letter). The list states in
all-capital letters:

"PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN
BROOMSTICKS" (SS Am. ed. 66). That being the case, it's no surprise
that Harry is the youngest Quidditch player in a century. Probably
they're not allowed to try out for Quidditch for the same reason
they're not allowed to have brooms (it's too dangerous), or surely
Draco and Ron would have done so (and Draco, at least, might have made
the team, at least as an alternate). Instead, even those first-years
who can already fly are required to take flying lessons on rickety
school brooms, and we never hear of a first-year other than Harry
either being on the team or being allowed a broom.

Harry, like Draco, has disobeyed Madam Hooch's specific order not to
fly while she's taking the injured Neville to the hospital wing:

"None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing.
You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts
before you can say 'Quidditch'" (147). As it happens, neither Draco
nor Harry is thrown out of Hogwarts, and Harry is not only unpunished
but greatly rewarded for disobeying her. 

True, Harry's motive for disobedience is better than Draco's, but is
going after Neville's Remembrall (and threatening to knock Draco off
his broom if he doesn't give it back, p.149) sufficient reason to
disobey a teacher? Madam Hooch could easily have retrieved the
Remembrall herself after class. There's no need for Harry to do it
except to get back at Draco. It seems to me that Harry, who has never
flown before, is taking an unjustifiable risk worthy of MWPP (who
broke more than a few rules themselves).

Even McGonagall says, "How *dare* you? [You] might have broken your
neck!" (149), and Harry expects McGonagall to expel him ("Now he'd
done it. He hadn't lasted two weeks," 150) or beat him ("Was Wood a
cane she was going to use on him?" 150) for his reckless disregard of
Madam Hooch's warning. Instead, McGonagall makes Harry the Gryffindor
Seeker. I'm sorry, but this action looks like hypocrisy and favoritism
to me, not to mention undermining another teacher's authority. And she
herself says, "I shall speak to Professor Dumbledore and see if we
can't *bend the first-year rule*" (152).

Ordinarily, McGonagall enforces the rules regardless of the reason
they are broken or the House of the student breaking them. She later
gives Draco detention along with HRH for being out of bed despite
believing that they've tried to trick him with "a cock and bull story
about a dragon." Even the innocent Neville gets detention (and fifty
points from Gryffindor) because "*nothing* gives you the right to walk
around school at night, especially these days. It's very dangerous"
(243). Of course, flying on a broom when you've never done so before
despite a teacher's direct order is also very dangerous, and allowing
first-years to have brooms is against the rule she emphatically states
herself in the supply list enclosed with the Hogwarts letter, but, oh,
well. The Quidditch Cup is at stake.

As for the broom itself, Wood says, "We'll have to get him a decent
broom, Professor, a Nimbus Two Thousand or a Cleansweep Seven" (152),
but it's unlikely that Wood, a student, pays for the broom, and a
Nimbus 2000 is not just a "decent" broom, it's a state-of-the art
racing broom (Firebolts and Nimbus 2001s having not yet been
invented). Harry overhears another boy in Diagon Alley referring to it
as the "fastest ever" (72). Ron taunts Draco after harry receives the
broom, saying, "It's not any old broomstick. It's a Nimbus Two
Thousand," and Draco retorts, "What would you know about it, Weasley?
You can't afford half the handle" (165).

And this expensive racing broom, the best available at the time, is
clearly given to Harry by McGonnagall herself, not for his use while
he's on the team but as his own to keep:

"DO NOT OPEN THIS PARCEL AT THE TABLE,"  reads the note. "It contains
*your* new Nimbus Two Thousand, but I don't want everyone knowing
you've got a broomstick, or they'll all want one. <snip sentence on
Oliver Wood> Professor M. McGonnagall" (164)

Not a word about the broom being for Harry's use at Hogwarts, to be
returned when the seven years are completed. (And note that Harry
takes it home during the summer; he doesn't leave it at school.) So
whether she bought the broom with her own money or with school funds,
she's responsible for giving Harry the most expensive broom available
at the time--a gift to a first-year student in her own house that she
doesn't want anyone else to know about so that her team can have a
gifted Seeker and win the Quidditch cup.

Carol, conceding that her rule-bending favors Gryffindor in general
rather than reflecting the fondness for Harry she later develops but
nevertheless considering it favoritism rivaling if not exceeding any
favoritism that Snape shows for the Slytherins