Standing up to bullies WAS: Re: Which Harry Potter character

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 186006

> jkoney:
> But Zach doesn't know how good anyone else at the tryouts were. Ron had ended the season on a high note, playing a great game. He performed well at tryouts and won the position. As the person who held the position it was up to someone else to prove they were better than him. Even without Hermione's help the best that McClaggan would have done would have been to tie Ron. At that point I would still go with experience. Add in McClaggen is a jerk and it isn't really a hard decision.

> Zach's comments don't show any inside information that Ron actually performed poorly they are just cheap shots. 

Magpie:
Cheap shots or no, it's the type of thing I hear said about sports players all the time. Regardless of having a final good game, Zach saw him play last year and that's what he references, isn't it? Zach is being obnoxious, taking a cheap shot and what he sees as the Inner Circle of Harry Potter. I just wouldn't call it bullying.

> jkoney:
> I think it's the fact that McGonagall didn't force him to retract his statements like she did with Lee that makes it look like she is bending over backwards.

Magpie:
I can't remember all the commentary we've ever gotten off-hand, so I'd probably have to re-read them all to see if I had the impression she was bending over backwards specifically, or if JKR just didn't happen to have her do anything because it wasn't about Zach vs. McG but Zach annoying Harry (I say Harry because it's Harry whose pov we're in, not Ron's) and then Ginny his ideal girl taking him out for it.

jkoney:
> 
> If you don't think it is bullying than do you believe that verbal insults are a prelude to bullying behavior?
> 
> After all if you can get away with insulting someone the next step is verbal or physical intimidation.

Magpie:
Sure, they can be. I think when Draco teases Ron about his Quidditch playing in class in OotP he's bullying him. I didn't say that I didn't believe it could be bullying without physical aggression--of course you can bully using only words and psychological intimidation. That's more often the way girls do it IRL. What I said was that I didn't automatically think that made every insult bullying.

I don't know what Zach expected to be thrown back at him. He'd have good reason to think he'd get physically attacked since Ginny had already hexed him on the train for asking her questions about the MoM (not suggested to be bullying by anyone). He wasn't necessarily saying what he said to provoke anybody to attack him at all. Maybe he was just saying it because he thought it was true and should be said. Ginny finishes and starts things throughout HBP (though nobody ever finishes anything with her, of course). I can certainly identify with not having a problem with Ginny's actions. If Zach seen Ginny coming and thrown up an invisible shield so that Ginny ran into it and broke her face I would have been great with it.

-m