Was Harry cheathing in Potions in HBP WAS: Re: Bathroom Scene

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 165222

> Alla:
> 
> On that I disagree. I am thinking that Slughorn's play over 
Snape's 
> line ( point for your cheek) makes us think that karma is involved 
> here and heavily. Does not make what Harry does a good thing, 
sure, 
> but does not make me over concerned about it either.
> 
> As Neri said, life is not fair. Draco had a teacher on his side 
for 
> five years, this year it is Harry's turn to have something on his 
> side.
> 
> It is not fair, no, I am not arguing that, but I am also 
disagreeing 
> that Harry will not learn anything. He after all did those potions 
> even with Prince instructions, something may stay in his head.
> 
> I am also laughing over every kid knows what is wrong with 
cheating.
> 
> Trust me cultural differences on that are big, but I will offlist 
> you, since it is OT, I guess.

Magpie:
I think the karma thing is there if we want it--let's face it, 
everyone always enjoys Snape doing a slow burn! (Oddly Snape doesn't 
tell Slughorn that Harry is using his old textbook or demand any 
proof of his skill.)None of the kids should be prevented from using 
better instructions--I think Hermione's an idiot for not using the 
book herself. (And I'm amazed she's not interested in comparing to 
see what the Prince is thinking.) The advantage Harry has could have 
happened to anyone. Maybe another kid would have shared it with 
friends who appreciated it, I don't know. But it could have happened 
to anyone. Old textbooks with notes were fairly common in my school.

And I think there are things that do stay in Harry's head about the 
book--he remembered the bezoar. He remembers the spells.

However, the part I'm interested in is where Harry is where Harry is 
presenting himself as coming up with this stuff himself because he 
understands the laws of Potions when he isn't--not because I think 
it's so terrible that Harry would do that or I need Slughorn to know 
that Harry isn't so great in Potions. But just to say that's clearly 
what's going on--not Harry's getting extra tutoring when Harry 
himself couldn't make it any clearer that his success in Potions is 
being misunderstood by Slughorn as something other than it is, and 
that his success disappears when he's not following the 
instructions. 

He hasn't, for instance, learned enough from the Prince that when 
stuck back with the "official" instructions he can say, "Hey, the 
Half-Blood Prince noted that when you're dealing with an herb in 
this family, if you're using it for strength, it's better to slice 
the plants to the northeast--of course, because that direction won't 
disrupt the flow of strength in the leaf!"

Or whatever.

He's not gaining any *understanding* of Potions from the Prince. 
He's learning certain spells from him, but the experiments the 
Prince is doing in Potions are beyond him. The book in itself is 
very valuable--he's just lucky to have it. In the hands of another 
student it might have made a great study tool. It's not bad that 
Harry has it--it doesn't seem like Snape's Potions improvements are 
meant to be a big secret. But he is using it to pretend to 
understand exactly those things that he doesn't to Slughorn. He 
knows he's not better at Potions than Hermione (or probably than 
most of the rest of the class), he knows he hasn't added peppermint 
because he thought it would help with the nose-tweaking side-effect. 
He knows his own joke about the bezoars is masking his own lack of 
understanding of Golplott's Law and not making a clever in-joke 
about it. That's where Harry is just happily letting someone keep 
their wrong impression.

It's fine that Harry does that, and I think if someone feels the 
need to turn it into something else, something less dishonest, that 
indicates they have more of a problem with what Harry is doing than 
I do.

-m