Lying and Cheating & Potions!Genius....

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 165573

Carol earlier:
> > he just wants to finish his potions without losing his unearned
reputation for brilliance, which is why he switches the covers and
gives Slughorn the new book
> 
> Valky:
> And Magpie was just telling me how nobody was trying to say this at
all. 

Carol:
All you need to do to see that I'm right is to look at the text. Harry
unwraps the new book from "Flourish and Blotts:

"'Oh, good!" said Hermione, delighted. Now you can give that
graffitied copy back.'

"'Are you mad?' said Harry. 'I'm keeping it. Look. I've thought it out--'

"He pulled the old copy of 'Advanced Potion-Making' out of his bag and
tapped the cover with his wand. . . . There sat the Prince's copy,
disguised as a brand-new book, and there sat the fresh copy from
Flourish and Blotts, looking thoroughly secondhand" (HBP Am. ed. 220).

It's obvious that he wants to keep the book. The question is why. One
reason is clearly that it's the Potions text he's been using to get
better results from Hermione and unmerited praise from Slughorn. If he
used the new book, he'd get the same results as everyone else and lose
his reputation as a potions genius. Why else deceive Slughorn? "I'll
give him the new one. He can't complain. It's worth nine galleons" (220).

Harry is, of course, rationalizing. Money can't buy the HBP's
brilliant hints and improvements. Note that this incident occurs
*before* he has tried out any of the spells, though he has noticed
"*what looked like spells* that the Prince had made up himself" (195).
Harry has only, in his own words, "tried out a few tips written in the
margins" (192), and "for the rest of the week's Potions lessons." he
continues to follow the Prince's instructions, "with the result that
by their fourth lesson, Slughorn was raving about Harrry's abilities,
saying that he had rarely taught anyone so talented" (194). As far as
Harry is concerned, the HBP's book is what won him the bottle of Felix
Felicis, and for that reason alone, he doesn't want to give it up (193).

It's "halfway through October"--eighteen pages after Harry changes the
book covers, before we learn that he's actually tried out a few of the
spells, at the point when he's about to try out Levicorpus:

"Harry felt, however, that the Half-Blood Prince's copy of 'Advanced
Potion-Making' hardly qualified as a textbook. The more Harry pored
over the book, the more he realized how much was there, *not only the
handy hints and shortcuts that wer4e earning him such a glowing
reputation with Slughorn*, but also the imaginative little jinxes and
hexes scribbled in the margins, which Harry was sure, judging by the
crossings-out and revisions, that the Prince had invented himself" (238).

At this point, eighteen pages after he changes the book covers, he has
only tried out a few of the Prince's spells, including the toenail
hex, Langlock, and Muffliato, but the spells can't be the *primary*
reason that he wants to continue using the book, deceiving Slughorn by
changing the book covers. He hasn't even discovered Levicorpus yet. He
tries out the spells *after* he's changed the book covers, which he
does to prevent Slughorn from knowing that he's blindly following the
HBP's instructions instead of acting on his own natural Potions
instinct. And *all this comes long before the "Sluggish Memory."* That
chapter begins on page 349.

Carol earlier:
> > Look how desperate he is when he doesn't understand Golpalott's Law,
> 
Valky:
> He's about to make his first attempt to ask Slughorn about the
Horcruxes. 
> 
> "this was a moment for desperate measures" (377).

Carol responds:
You're taking this phrase out of the detailed context I provided
upthread, which I'll quote again in part:

"It took Harry only five minutes to realize that his reputation as the
best potion-maker in the class was crashing around his ears. Slughorn
had peered hopefully into his cauldron on the first circuit of the
dungeon, preparing to exclaim in delight as he usually did, and
instead had withdrawn his head hastily, coughing, as the smell of bad
eggs overwhelmed him" (376).

Granted, Harry is vaguely planning to ask Slughorn about the memory
after class, the memory he makes one feeble attempt to request at the
end of the chapter and then forgets about for six weeks or so, but
Harry's desperation has to do with his *reputation*, not with the
memory. Once he asks about it, Slughorn's expression is no longer
genial, and he looks shocked and terrified (379). Harry's being a
"Potions genius" has not helped him. 

Slughorn continues to think of Harry as a Potions natural after this
point, and Harry continues to hide the source of his knowledge from him:

"'I really don't know where you get your brainwaves . . . Unless--'

"Harry pushed the Half-Blood Prince's book deeper into his bag with
his foot" (475).

Now, granted, Harry is still hoping to soften Slughorn up enough to
get the memory from him, but that's hardly the only reason he's still
using the book and hiding it from Slughorn. Even after he gets the
memory, he wants to keep the book because it's useful. He even uses it
for its real purpose once, looking up the formula for Felix Felicis,
which turns out to be too complicated to be concocted quickly (518).
Shortly afterwards, he uses Sectumsempra on Draco and hides his book
so that Snape won't confiscate it and not only discover the true
source of the spell but reveal the secret of his Potions brilliance to
Slughorn:

"[W]hat had the Prince een thinking to copy such a spell into his
book? And what would happen when Snape saw it? Would he tell
Slughorn--Harry's stomach churned--how Harry had been achieving such
good results in Potins all year?" (525)


> Valky:
> Again the thing that 'nobody is trying to say'... 
> What does Harry want with a reputation Carol? I'm talking HP series
> Harry, here. The Boy who Lived, The Chosen One, DADA juggernaut,
> School Quidditch Star... He's got enough reputations already, and he
> doesn't want any of them, already, what's yet another reputation going
> to mean to this boy, honestly?  

Carol responds:

I don't know what he wants with the reputation. I'm just quoting
canon, which you snippped.

Regarding the confrontation with Voldemort as Harry's primary motive,
he doesn't even think about it, as far as we know, between the
conversation in the Weasleys' shed and the revelation of the
eavesdropper's identity, except in terms of the Horcrux lessons. He
realizes that he'll have to find and destroy them eventually, but that
realization has no more effect on his everyday life than the thought
that he would be facing three tasks in GoF. He always puts off
thinking about these things until he has no choice. He's much more
concerned throughout HBP with the book itself, Ginny, Quidditch, and,
near the end of the book, snape's detentions. He loses sleep over
Ginny and Quidditch. I don't think he loses a moment of sleep worrying
about Voldemort--until, of course, Snape kills Voldemort (Sorry.
Dumbledore, I mean. I *wish* he'd killed Voldemort!). And even then,
as JKR says, Harry vs. Snape is more "personal" (and consequently
occupies more of his thoughts and emotions) than Harry vs. Voldemort.

The Slughorn memory is one reason why Harry wants to use and keep the
book. It is by no means his primary motivation, considering how late
it occurs in the book and his continued desire to use the book (for
both spells and potions hints) and keep his reputation for Potions
brilliance after he's obtained the memory. 

Long before that, he has come to regard the book as his friend. And
really, IMO, that's what's important. Harry has made friends with and
learned from the teenage Snape, all the while hating and mistrusting
the adult Snape. It's deliciously ironic, especially when he's
unknowingly hiding snape's own book from Snape, who knows full well
where both the Potions improvements and the Sectumsempra spell came from.

Carol, who thinks that the upcoming confrontation with Voldemort is
far from being Harry's primary motivation for using and hiding the
HBP's book