Slughorn favoritism/ Snape as Neville's teacher LONG

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 168582

> Alla: 
> > Where I differ I suspect ( I can be wrong) is I also think that 
> > Slughorn does not want just **any** people in the position of 
power. 
> > He wants talented, skilled, gifted, pick your word kids in the 
> > position of power, who will of course remember his networking 
skills. 
> 
> Pippin:
> Actually, Harry notes that everyone who's in the train compartment
> party seems to have been invited because they were well-connected
> except Ginny and Harry himself. People like Arthur, who aren't
> connected and don't have "flair" but do have talent (flying car) are
> overlooked. What talents do  Cormac and Blaise have aside from
> their connections?
> 
> While Neville, who is worth ten of Blaise and Cormac, gets an
> invite because of his famous parents, but is then snubbed for his 
lack
> of flair, despite his outstanding talent in herbology.

Alla:

In the part you snipped I asked whether the interpretation is that 
Slugghorn's collection is **only** about the right people in power.

There is that part, no question about that. I am just yet to see that 
he wants not skilled people in power - not that he not overlooks 
people who deserve it as well, if that makes sense.


 
> Alla: 
> > I did not see him asking Crabbe and Goyle to join his club for 
> > example.
> 
> Pippin:
> It is implied that their fathers were outed as DE's in Rita 
Skeeter's 
> article in OOP. By the way, what we don't know is what Slughorn
> would have done if Voldemort's servants had found him. 

Alla:

Okay. We don't know that, I agree. How is this relevant?


Pippin:
And
> we know that people who secretly served Voldemort in VW I,
> such as Malfoy and Nott,  were part of the Slug Club and must 
> have found it very useful.

Alla:

Eh, sure, okay. They may have or people whom they met there may have 
been disgusted by them and their values eventually.


Pippin: 
> For each of Snape's faults as a teacher, which I admit he had, we 
have
> been shown a respected teacher at Hogwarts who had the same
> faults, only more so. There are teachers who were scarier, crueller
> and more unfair than Snape was, only not to Harry.

Alla:

No, that is your interpretation, **not** a fact. I am **yet** to see 
a Hogwarts teacher who did the same things to **any** student as 
Snape did to Harry starting with the first lesson. So, I am sorry but 
I disagree.


Pippin:
 If Harry can
> fix the whole culture, more power to him, but punishing Snape
> alone would be like Hermione punishing the master of the one slave 
> whose problems touch her most and thinking she has solved the 
> House Elf problem.

Alla:

I absolutely think that we will see at least the beginning of Harry 
and his friends starting to fixing this culture, but I hope 
wholeheartedly that Snape will be punished as one of the most 
scariest representatives of that culture.


Pippin: 
> Like it or not, Snape was  behaving as well as most Hogwarts
> teachers.

Alla:

That is a very **categorical** statement, Pippin. Like it or not, I 
**disagree** that Snape was behaving as well as most Hogwarts 
teachers. I think that there are teachers who behaved worse than him, 
certainly. But I also think that there teachers with whom Snape is 
not worthy to be in the room, if we were to put the good teachers in 
one room.


Pippin:
 I'm not going to claim he showed maturity or moral vision
> on any absolute scale, but he had as much as most of his 
counterparts.

Alla:

Yes, in your opinion, I think. In mine, he did not show one tenth of 
Lupin's maturity or moral vision or fairness of Mcgonagall or 
kindness of Sprout, etc.

Pippin:
> This is, after all, a culture where practical joke shops are a 
roaring
> success, a public official writes laws with intentional loopholes 
> favoring his own interests, and 'proper wizard feeling'  is a 
synonym for
> anti-Muggle sentiment. 

Alla:

Okay.

Pippin: 
> I  think Snape has a moral vision that could be summed up in the
> royal Scots motto "Nemo me impune lacessit," roughly "No one 
provokes
> me without harm."  He seems to make no allowances for 
> provocations that are unintentional or may not exist anywhere 
> except in his own mind,  and that, I am sure, is deficient in 
Rowling's 
> world view. But what amuses me is that those who want to see Snape 
> suffer for his treatment of Harry and the murder of Albus Dumbledore
> seem to be adopting the same standard.

Alla:

Since I wholeheartedly wish Snape to suffer for his treatment of 
Harry and murder of Albus Dumbledore, I think this question is 
applicable to 
me. So, I am asking what standard do you think I am adopting, 
standard of what I am adopting and  how is this relevant to this 
discussion?

Thanks.