Potions, the Book, and a New/Old Perspective

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 165284

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboyminn at ...> wrote:
>
> Regarding the 'Harry Cheated in Potions' threads that are 
> in progress. The discussion is too deep and complex to
> find a place to reply, so I'm starting this little thread.
> 
> Some say that Harry is cheating in Potions by using the
> annotated HBP book. The implication is that he is 
> cheating because he is taking credit for work that isn't
> his.
> 
> But isn't that exactly what all the students are doing?
> Aren't they all working from Snape's instructions written
> on the board, or following a formula and procedure 
> written in their own textbooks? How is what Harry doing
> any different than what all the students are doing, other
> that he is simply taking his formula and instructions
> from a different source.
> 
> This is not a math or history test. This is analogous to
> a high school Chemistry or Physics experiment. The book
> gives you a set procedure, and everyone who follows the
> procedure is expected to have the same result within a
> normal range of variation. Would it be cheating for a
> student to look at their older brother's college Chem-Lab
> book and find better more detailed instructions and
> explanations, and then to apply that information in 
> class? I just don't see how. Would that /really/ be
> a case of a student taking credit for someone else's
> work? 

Magpie:
Agreed. Harry *does* cheat when he pulls the bezoar trick, of 
course, not doing the work. He does that publicly.

Harry's isn't somehow not doing work by following a different 
formula. That's like saying you're a bad cook if you follow a better 
recipe. He's dishonest by letting Slughorn think he's a Potions 
genius. He didn't add peppermint because it cut down on nose 
tweaking or because he had a good idea about Potions, he added it 
because it was in the directions.

However, "cheating" is not always a word that's used for specifics, 
but more of a feeling. It feels like Harry's cheating because in a 
general sense he is. He's in a class of students who are all working 
out of the same book with their different skill levels to guide 
them. Harry finds himself with a leg up. He's always going to come 
out ahead because he's working with better formulas. If Harry were 
being strictly fair, he'd tell everyone, or the teacher, or tell the 
teacher he's got a better recipe so he doesn't really deserve to 
always be called the best student in the class--it's his recipe 
that's the best in the class. 

So he may not be cheating the way you'd cheat on a test but he does 
have a secret advantage that puts him ahead of the class every time. 
It would be easy to imagine, for instance, Blaise Zabini 
thinking, "No way Potter's suddenly better than everyone. He's got 
to have a secret." And then finding the textbook and saying, "I knew 
it. Potter's not the best in the class--he's the only one with the 
corrected formulas!" 

Is it cheating in school to use the corrected formula? No--why not 
learn the Potion the right way? Is it cheating to get the title 
of "best in the class?" Sure--because Harry isn't, as Slughorn 
thinks, acheiving his better results through anything to do with 
himself. Is it dishonest? Only when he allows himself to be seen as 
making the improvements himself.

Steve: 
> Another little side point, if Harry were using this book
> in Snape's class, he would essentially just have his own
> personal copy of what Snape wrote on the board. We 
> wouldn't say he was cheating then would we? It is not
> Harry's fault that Slughorn has chosen an outdated 
> Potions textbook. 
> 
> I suspect if other students went to the bookstore  or 
> the Library and found their own preferred Potions 
> Reference book, one that was up-to-date and reliable,
> there wouldn't have been a problem with them using it.
> That is, Slughorn wouldn't have minded.

Magpie:
Nope, it's not Harry's fault at all. But it is a secret advantage to 
getting his Potions better than everyone else's in faster time that 
doesn't have to do with himself. And in guarding those instructions 
for himself and his friends (if they were smart enough to use them, 
duh, Hermione!) Harry is obviously guarding that advantage. He wants 
to be that good.

It's of course valid to ask why Harry should share his corrected 
text--and he doesn't. But it's also valid to ask why he wouldn't. 
Potions class isn't supposed to be a competition. If you actually 
care about learning Potions and have an interest in the subject, why 
would you want to keep this sort of thing from your fellow students? 
Why keep your fellow students working with inefficient formulas? 
Snape seems to have wanted them all to have them, writing them on 
the board. I think many students wouldn't have thought twice about 
being open about the better formulas--if you care about Potions as a 
subject that seems like an obvious thing to do.

This isn't an additional reference book, but a corrected, better 
formula. (And I'm totally with Steve on thinking Hermione is crazy 
and pig-headed for not using them. I wouldn't be surprised if the 
other students in the class wouldn't have demanded they all get 
copies if they found out about it. If I were Harry's friend I'd be 
sure to be using it with him in class. You don't gain anything by 
doing the Potion in a less efficient way.)

I think this also speaks to something larger in the series, though. 
I said cheating was not so much always something that followed rules 
but more of a "feeling" you got. I've noticed that comes up a lot in 
canon and in fandom. Take Quidditch, for instance. I've often picked 
up on a sort of understood idea that there are "pure" winners, or 
someone whose winning isn't really pure so doesn't count. One of the 
things that makes Cedric a good guy is the way whenever his dad 
brags about him beating Harry he says no, he didn't feel like he 
really beat him because he was unconscious.

Like, just recently someone mentioned in passing that Malfoy 
was "afraid" of facing Harry on an "even playing field" in Quidditch 
because he wanted a Nimbus 2001. The word cheating wasn't used, but 
clearly there was a feeling that Malfoy's wanting this fast broom 
came from feeling he couldn't really beat Harry fairly--on an "even 
field." People often refer to the Slytherins' 2001s as an advantage 
that shows they can't really play as well. Though of course there 
was no mention of the fact that usually it's Harry himself who is on 
the faster broom. In fact, in another Quidditch conversation years 
ago I remember someone who seemed very put out by Harry's canonical 
broom advantage--they weren't angered by it, they just didn't want 
it to be there. If canon said Harry was on a faster broom they 
instead insisting he maybe just "flew more aerodynamically."  

Even more interestingly, on the subject of flying, I remember I used 
to often hear that if Malfoy flew well it didn't really count 
because he probably had "lots of lessons" and "practiced all the 
time." Now, leaving aside that we don't know how Malfoy learned to 
fly (perhaps if he'd had lessons he wouldn't be told he was holding 
his broom wrong first year, to the delight of Harry and Ron), it was 
interesting what this seemed to imply, that learning something and 
practicing all the time meant you'd learned your skill *less* than 
the person who had it gifted to him by blood or fate. Harry was 
the "real" talent because it came to him easily. Malfoy was less 
deserving in this scenario because of his study and practice.

Clearly when it comes to Potions Harry's fine at it, but is 
completely not the Potions natural Slughorn thinks he is. He isn't 
getting his results the way Slughorn thinks he is, so can be said to 
be "cheating" to get his reputation as a natural and better than 
everyone else in the class. (Btw, Carol mentioned Hermione never 
uses the word cheating--she does once refer to 'cheats' before Harry 
pulls the bezoar trick by saying he's being asked to something where 
he has to understand the principles so 'no cheats or tricks.' This 
is presumably ironic since it's Harry's most blatant cheat yet.) 

Btw, that is perhaps Slughorn's fault too--he seems kind of 
incapable of creating a non-competitive environment where he's not 
looking for the best and playing favorites. He likes to have people 
working for his praise. I can't imagine that if Lupin were teaching 
this class the book would be such an advantage. Wouldn't be 
surprised if Lupin attempted to get "natural" Harry to help others 
and quickly realized there was something else going on here, at 
which point he'd probably study the HBP's book himself and teach 
from his improved formulas after testing them himself. 

Anyway, that's why I think there's a reason this subject is so up 
for debate. Harry's obviously not "cheating" in the sense of having 
the answers to a test written on his hand. He's usually doing 
exactly what every other kid is doing in the class is doing in terms 
of following a formula from a book to make a Potion. But there are 
many ways that validate the feeling that he's cheating--ways that I 
think Harry would feel were cheating if Theodore Nott were doing it, 
let's say. In fact, he already seems to feel that way about himself. 
I wonder if that vague feeling of wanting talent or skill to be 
honestly earned or a sign of some inner talent hangs over this 
discussion as well, and is behind wanting Harry's use of the book to 
show an interest in Potions, or like getting tutoring, or looking up 
books in the library, or doing experiments on his own. The kind of 
stuff the real Prince probably did.

When he doesn't want to get rid of the book there's a lot of things 
he'd miss--his "friend," the advice, the many spells. But he's also 
not ready for Slughorn to struggle in class or have Slughorn find 
out about the reason for his success. When it comes to the Potions 
notes he wants the *advantage*, not just the better Potions. 

-m