On lying and cheating

[M.Clifford]

No: HPFGUIDX 165398

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Magpie" <belviso at ...> wrote:
> I honestly don't remember what Carol said,
> but I didn't think there was any question that Harry
> was making his life easier in terms of fighting Voldemort. I 
> thought he was facing a very limited situation--a regular class in 
> school--and in that situation he's blatantly choosing easy over 
> right by giving himself a secret advantage over other kids.

Valky now:

It is here that you have narrowed down my point for me. This
perspective of this being a very limited situation, whose perspective
is that ? Harry's ? 

No. It's not.

Is Harry in a regular class in a regular day at school each day he
grows more attached to the HBP's textbook? 

No.

To say he is is just blinkered thinking. To say an academic advantage
over other kids is anywhere near foremost on Harry's mind is just
bogus. He admits it feels good to outdo Hermione for once in his life,
 yes, and then shortly after goes right back to thinking about things
like; Whats Malfoy the DE up to? What's Dumbledore going to teach me? 
Everything is in terms of fighting Voldemort, that is the reality of
Harry's situation, and the only reason he even stays at school in
sixth year IMHO. 



> Magpie:
> I think I'm not getting what you're saying. Here it seems like 
> you're saying that Harry's getting an undeserved reputation in 
> Potions is somehow a sacrifice as the Chosen One, because by having 
> his class taken care of he can concentrate on Voldemort. 

Valky:
No I'm saying that an undeserved reputation in Potions class is a feel
good side effect of Harry trying to focus in on what he believes is
right and more pressing and important than Potions Marks. 
He doesn't see it as an ultimate advantage to be in the Slug Club or
to get the best marks in the class work, with the exception of
competing for the Felix Felicis (something that *can* be used for a
purpose that will really matter) he isn't concerned if he gets NO
Marks. Isn't this evidenced by him experimenting with the potions
notes to begin with?  How was he to know that they would work so
brilliantly? The fact is he didn't know they would produce a work of
genius, all he knew was that they presented an option to explore in
the course of his day, and that is what appealed to him from the
start. Options. Not advantages in situations that don't ultimately pay
any dividends in his life, just options in a life that doesn't seem to
have any.

 

Magpie:
> But I don't think Harry ever presents the 
> situation to himself like that, or that it ever has that effect one 
> way or the other.

Valky:
I'll have to find the quote, but IIRC, Harry says to Ron and Hermione
at some stage that it would be a good idea to keep the HBP's text just
in case it has something extraordinary in it that will help him
against Voldemort. 


Magpie:
> It sounds like you're saying 
> Harry's difficulties in life put him above right and wrong, or turn 
> everything he does into something right.

No, that's not what I am saying, it's missing the point completely.
I'm saying he makes his choice from his perspective, and his
perspective is that he's probably going to die before he's an adult.
He can't escape that to care about whether he is being Percy Weasley
perfect on his way to the gallows. It seems to me that both you and
Carol think somehow he must be psychologically above the pain of
facing this reality at sixteen years old. How can he be? Would you be?
Why is it such a bad and wrong thing to have empathy with Harry's
situation? It's a bleak day the kid faces, why is it so hard to just
consider his attachment to Snape's notes as a blunder made by a child
under enormous pressure rather than some plan he concocted for an end
that doesn't even matter to him. 

Is that a clearer explanation of my position?