Bathroom Scene - A Different Perspective

[zgirnius]

No: HPFGUIDX 165162

> > Carol said:
> > No, no, no! Of course I'm not saying that Snape and/or McGonnagall
> > thought Harry deserved to be expelled for lying to a teacher. I'm
> > saying that he could have been expelled for using a curse that 
> > nearly killed another student, but Snape apparently didn't even 
> > raise the possibility, at least not to Harry. He punished Harry 
for 
> > lying to him, 

> Mike responded:
> I guess we're at another one of those agree to disagree times. I 
> think McGonnagall as much as confirms Harry is being punished for 
the 
> Sectumsempra when she tells Harry "he was lucky not have been 
> expelled" (p. 529). Because I don't think McG thought Harry was 
lucky 
> to not have been expelled for lying to Snape and the context of 
this 
> narrative passage is Harry's punishment from Snape that 
> McG "wholeheartedly" supports.

zgirnius chimes is:
It seems to me that you are both right. <bg>

Who is punishing Harry? It appears to be Snape. He's the authority 
figure on the scene. He tells Harry why he deserves to be punished 
(as the book says, because Harry is a liar and a cheat). He decides 
what the punishment will be. And, in fact, everything happens just as 
Snape says (though, based on CoS, it would seem McG needed to approve 
his decision, since Harry is in her House).

On the other hand, I don't think Snape ever told McG about Harry's 
use of Snape's Potions text and the assorted additions in it all 
year. He did, naturally, tell everyone what happened in the bathroom, 
including the fact that Harry nearly killed Draco with a Dark spell. 
So McGonagall, based on what she was told, confirmed Snape's decision.

However, Snape might have have dealt with Harry differently, had 
Harry levelled with him about the book. In particular, he might have 
left the matter in McG's hands, made a different recommendation to 
her, or presented the case to her in a different way, which might 
reasonably be expected to have resulted in a different outcome for 
Harry.