Slugghorn favoritism WAS Re: Snape as Neville's teacher

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 168519

Alla wrote:
> 
> I am not sure why is it surprising for you that Slugghorn may not be 
> considered not so bad because he is nice guy. I mean, **absolutely** 
> that is one of the reasons why I consider him to be not so bad.
> 
> He **is** practicing favoritism, who can argue with that - it IS 
> canon, but to me it is, I don't know, so much more **harmless** than 
> what Snape does?
> 
> But I am still yet to read about Slughorn being some student's 
> boggart, I am also still yet to read about Slugghorn breaking the 
> potion.
> 
> Oh, another thing - of course he picks whoever he wants in his club, 
> but I also do not remember him **grading** unfairly, which IMO what
I would consider truly ruining students career. <snip>

Carol responds:
Leaving Snape out of it for once, let's look at Slughorn. Is he really
a nice guy? He was charmed by Tom Riddle and treated him better than
he treated Tom's fellow Slytherins, all of whom appear almost as
nonentities in the Pensieve memory. (Two are addressed by their last
names, though Tom is addressed as "Tom" or "m'boy," and told they'll
get detention if they don't turn in their essays. Otherwise, they're
all ignored.) Of course, he regrets that particular incident later,
but he continues his favoritism, Slug Club and all, into later years,
always favoring students with connections or natural talent over those
who have neither. In fact, his treatment of Tom exactly mirrors his
treatment of Harry, who is still his favorite even after he asks about
 Horcruxes and whose slipshod performance after he hides the HBP's
Potions book he credits to young love.

He invites Ginny to his luncheon on the train based on her Bat Bogey
hex, but never bothers to ask her name. And once he learns that Marcus
Belby is not on good terms with his uncle, who invented Wolfsbane
Potion, he ignores Marcus, who doesn't get any pie. He fawns on the
arrogant Blaise Zabini, whose mother is notorious for being beautiful
and having had seven husbands. (Did she poison them all, I wonder?)

And while he initially rewards Hermione with house points for knowing
all the answers (probably a deliberate contrast on JKR's part to
Snape's view of Hermione as "an insufferable know-it-all"), she seems
to slip out of his awareness once he sees Harry's supposed natural
genius at Potions. All her efforts go for nothing. Even when she has
separated her blended poison into its ten constituent poisons and
added fifty-two ingredients to her antidote, Harry (who has no idea
what he's doing) outshines her because he "cheekily" hands Slughorn a
Bezoar. Fair? Not in my opinion. (He also calls attention to what he
evidently considers to be his own openmindedness in acknowledging
magical talent in a Muggleborn, as he did earlier in speaking of Lily.
He seems to consider an aptitude for potion-making in a Muggleborn
some sort of phenomenon.)

And poor Ron is even more of a nonentity than the Slytherins (other
than Tom) in the Pensieve scene. While Harry is "Harry, m'boy" and
Hermione is "Miss Granger," Ron is either ignored altogether or called
by the wrong name ("Happy birthday, Ralph," 397; "your poor friend
Rupert," 485). For example, in "Silver and Opals," he tries to
persuade Harry to join the Slug Club parties, speaks for "Miss
Granger" when he says that she loves them but interrupts her response,
then "with a regal wave, he waddled out of the shop, taking as little
notice of Ron as though he had been a display of Cockroach Clusters"
(HBP Am. ed. 244). Ron is understandably hurt and annoyed by this
behavior. Hermione hastily changes the subject away from Slughorn's
parties when she sees his expression, and he continues to look moody
and merely shrugs when she asks where he wants to go next (244). And
Ron seems offended by any reference to Slughorn's parties, from which
he is excluded. And, though Ron doesn't mention it, Slughorn falls
apart when Ron's life is in danger, not thinking to "stuff a Bezoar
down his throat."

Though this has nothing to do with his teaching, per se, Slughorn also
uses adults to achieve his own ends, not only former Slug Club members
but Hagrid, attending Aragog's funeral to obtain Acromantula venom and
plying Hagrid with drinks to obtain unicorn hair. We never see them on
such cozy terms again.

As for marks, are you sure that a student's marks in a particular
class have any bearing on his future career (as opposed to taking the
next year's class as opposed to repeating the same class)? It's the
OWL scores that determine whether a student can take a NEWT class in a
particular subject and NEWT scores which, as I understnad it,
determine career choice and whether a wizard is fully qualified. (I
wish JKR would clear that one up, but we know that Draco isn't fully
qualified yet and neither are Fred and George despite being of age, so
I think that's determined by NEWTs.)

As for grading fairly, I think that poor Hermione deserved the highest
marks in Slughorn's class, but Slughorn was blinded by Harry's
supposed genius and the resemblance of his eyes to Lily's.
(Just as Snape and Sirius Black see James in Harry, Slughorn sees
Lily, and treats him accordingly, favoring Harry as he favored Lily.
But that's all right, I suppose, because it enables Harry to be
rewarded for producing outstanding potions without understanding why
they're outstanding.)

Carol, wondering how Ron and Harry will ever learn enough about
Potions to become Aurors, assuming that they both survive DH