Regulus and Sirius WAS :Re: Slytherin's Horcrux (was:Hogwarts Houses Unite!)

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 163773

 
> Jen: McGonagall is not known for praising a person's abilities if she 
> sees nothing to praise. If she said Sirius and James 
> were 'exceptionally bright' then Rowling intends us to believe her 
> comment.  And when Dumbledore later called Sirius 'clever' and 
> Slughorn called him 'talented', that's more direct canon that people 
> other than McGongall saw Sirius as a skilled wizard. 

Potioncat:
At the time McGonagall was talking about Sirius, it was in the context 
of 'James and Sirius as mates', so to speak. She was describing the two 
of them. She wasn't so much comparing them to anyone else...except to 
say that Peter wasn't in their league.

It might be interesting to see what she thought of the young Severus. I 
imagine both Slughorn and his 7 DADA teachers would have praises. I'd 
even guess his Herbology teacher would think highly of him. I was going 
to make the point that as Deputy Headmistress McGonagall would have a 
good over view of how the students of that generation compared, but it 
dawned on me that we don't know she was the Deputy at that time. It's 
just as likely, maybe more so, that Slughorn was Deputy.


> Jen:
> Sirius being talented doesn't exclude Snape from being talented or 
> vice versa, they aren't an either/or proposition, there's plenty of 
> skill to go around in Potterverse <g>.

Potioncat:
I'd like to add that based on what canon has offered, we can believe 
that Sirius, James, Lily, Severus, Barty jr, and Regulus were all 
bright, tallented students. There's also some Wizard's of the month who 
seem pretty bright from this age group.

Of course, we Muggles are easily impressed.