Potions, the Book, and a New/Old Perspective

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 165309

bboyminn wrote:
> > This is why Herione infuriates me so. She knew there were better
formulas, yet doggedly sticks with formulas she knows are bad. That's
not the 'run to the Library' Hermione that I know and love. If she
hadn't been so stubbornly /against/ that book. She would have gone to
the Library and found a real authorized official book to help her
rather than relying on some dodgy notes written in the margins of some
old book.
> 
> Magpie:
> It's crazy. I'm not even Hermione and I wouldn't accept working with
inferior instructions. It's common sense. But then, Hermione's idea of
genius often seems foreign to me.
> 
Carol responds:
Yes, but what Hermione does is a side issue. It has nothing to do with
the rightness or wrongness of Harry's behavior, and she's absolutely
right that Harry is getting credit for someone else's work, for
Potions brilliance he doesn't have, and that it's unfair to the
students who *do* know what they're doing and work hard to achieve
their results. It's also unfair to Harry's dear friend (or future
friend, if we look at the first lesson), the Half-Blood Prince. Harry
is accused in GoF of stealing Cedric's glory, Snape in the HPB of
trying to steal Draco's. What else is Harry doing if not stealing the
HBP's glory, taking credit for his experiments, his research, his
brilliance? Granted, Slughorn's favoritism makes this false view of
Harry's genius possible, but Harry is still a fake. (BTW, Slughorn's
glorified view of Harry makes me distrust his memory of dear cheeky
Potions natural Lily as well, but now I'm the one who's sidetracked.)
Harry is not a Potions genius. The Potions genius is Snape, pure and
simple. No wonder Snape called him a liar and a cheat. He knew exactly
where those brilliant ideas came from, and it was not from Harry's
head or his experimentation. He did no research. He only used the
HBP's notes to get better results than everyone else.

As for Hermione, her hesitation to use the HBP's notes probably stems
from the fact that she doesn't know who he is, and the incident with
the diary and Ginny may have something to do with it. But I think that
Hermione simply believes that the official instructions are correct.
She trusts published books (with the partial exception of the "Revised
History of Hogwarts"). She looks up *facts* and *information* in the
library. Hermione easily follows instructions, memorizes information,
understands theory. But she isn't creative. She doesn't research
potions *improvements* or (IIRC) invent spells. She's very by the book.

At any rate, I think it's odd to judge Hermione for not doing what she
perceives is dishonest. But it's also beside the point. If Harry
really cared about Potions and about learning and about intellectual
honesty, he'd share those marginal notes with Slughorn, who in turn
would share them with the class. Then they'd all be working with the
improved directions, and those who followed the directions exactly
would get perfect results. It would even be a lesson to the class to
show them that someone had worked outside of class to improve the
directions in the textbook, encouraging those who really cared about
Potions and learning (Hermione, perhaps, or Ernie Macmillan?) to do
the same.

Carol, who sees no advantage for Harry in using the HBP's notes except
*unearned* high marks since he still doesn't understand the theory and
can't attain the same results when the book is hidden in the RoR