Bathroom Scene - A Different Perspective.

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 165185

Vexingconfection wrote:
> Pardon my ignorance on this and understand-ignorance never equates
to an absence of opinion as much as one might appreciate that to
be.... Harry did not steal work as much as perform his own
experimentation. He demonstrated both irreverence and irresponsibility
but not in my opinion dishonesty. IMO he was using the potions class
to further his investigation into the HBP's book. He did not take
credit for any work professionally. He did not know who the Prince was. 
> 
> <snip> A better question would be, if Snape knew there were easier
and more gainful methods to produce the same or better results in the
spells or potions he was teaching, why did he not instruct his
students on their use?  What was Snape's motivation to not give his
students the fullest and most useful understanding and application of
the craft? If it was because they were not MoM approved, he could 
> have had them approved or gone through the Headmaster to instruct
them. I am sure we have all had classes on evolution in which the
teacher first issues the statement or disclaimer, "This may or may not
be in your belief system but it's part of science and has not yet been
proved or disproved. It is here for evaluation." Many of the notations
made were simply how to extract juices. These were simple tricks that
could have been taught.  <snip>
> 
> 

Carol responds:
The only "experimentation" that Harry did was to try out the Prince's
notes to see if they worked. The Prince (Snape) had worked out those
experiments on his own and jotted down the results of his research in
the margins of his book. Harry is taking credit for work he did not
do, receiving praise from Slughorn for being a Potions "natural," when
he doesn't even understand the theory behind the Potions. (See his
confusion over Golpalott's Law.) All he's doing is following the
Prince's directions, not working things out on his own. And he knows
it--which is why he's afraid that Snape will tell Slughorn how he's
"earning" those marks.

As for Harry's not knowing that the book is Snape's, of course he
wouldn't use the Potions hints if he knew whose they were, but how is
that to his credit? It's okay to use someeone's ideas unless those
ideas are Snape's? That makes no sense at all. Had he used and taken
credit for those in Snape's class rather than Slughorn's, he'd have
been caught and punished immediately. Snape would have known that
those improvements were his. It is intellectual dishonesty to use
someone else's ideas without crediting them, whether it's to receive
higher marks or a research contract. The fact that Harry is not a
professional researcher doesn't make what he's doing right.

As for Snape's not making his ideas public, when have we ever seen him
assign potions directily from the book? He always writes them on the
board with his wand. It's extremely likely, then, that the potions
directions he assigns are his own improved versions that he's
memorized (note that he knows exactly what can go wrong at every
step). Hermione and Draco get better marks in Snape's class than in
Slughorn's because Slughorn teaches from the book. Harry alone has the
advantage of Snape's superior knowledge and experiments, but he's not
sharing with anyone, not coming clean that his brilliant inspirations
are not his own.

The whole reason that civilized countries have copyright laws and
punishments for plagiarism is that intellectual dishonesty--taking
credit for someone else's work--is wrong. It's stealing ideas. Try
taking an essay from the Internet and presenting it to your English
professor as your own and see what happens.

Carol, who wonders if certain posters will now argue that Harry didn't
lie to Snape in saying that his nickname is Roonil Wazlib and that he
found Sectumsempra in a library book