On lying and cheating

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 165412


> 
> Valky:
> 
> This is not how I had read the post I initially was answering, but I
> see what you're saying and how it is relevent. 
> 
> In this, I guess, most simply I see 'credit' as a loaded word, it's
> just academic credit. The word credit has positive connotations, but
> to the Harry Potter of sixteen years old, that *Academic* credit is
> the currency of kids with "Normal" lives. Its the positive
> connotations that don't apply to him, not so much the rules of
> attainment. He offers no defense for having it, and he knows it's not
> rightfully his, but that doesn't wipe out the fact that no matter how
> much he has it's ultimately a useless attainment, he doesn't really
> intend to use the academic credit for anything.  
> 

Pippin:
Academic credit and academic responsibility aren't as important as
saving the world -- until they are. Do you want your kids' meds
prepared by somebody who faked their way through
Chemistry the way Harry is faking his way through advanced Potions? 

Somebody who's just pretending they know about side effects and 
interactions, or how to prescribe antidotes? 


Harry *did* intend to use that academic credit for something. He
 wanted  to be an Auror, and Aurors are required to have
a NEWT in potions. Harry thought at first that becoming
an Auror would help him against Voldemort. By the end of the
book he had realized that probably wasn't true. But 
his knowledge at the end of the book doesn't apply to his motive
at the beginning. If  Harry had felt that way in the first place 
he would never have signed up for NEWT potions at all. 

The mature, honest, fair and productive thing to do  would have 
been to drop the course if he thought he didn't need it, or
if he did, to admit that he had a weakness in the subject and 
could use some help beyond the Prince's notes. 

I'm sure Slughorn would have been delighted to help. He could 
have explained *why * the recipes were better and Harry would 
have benefitted far beyond the praise he received for his 
so-called genius.

But that would have been the hard way, because Harry doesn't 
respect Slughorn and wouldn't have liked feeling indebted to him. 

Pippin