Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows review (Spoilers ONLY behind the cuts)
ABOUT SPOILERS: This post starts out with a general, spoiler-free review. I have tried very hard to put anything that might be considered a spoiler underneath an LJ-cut ( click here if you don't see the cuts). I've even used fake LJ-cuts below so I don't give away where the film ends. However, if you consider discussions of the film sets,
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That was in his OWLs, though, and the DA discussion took place before then. And I don't think the examiner fed him points. The only thing the examiner did was allow him to cast a patronus for extra points. I'll agree with you there that it wasn't exactly fair to offer him the opportunity for extra points and not offer that chance to the others. Of course, to be fair to the stupid examiner, he had no clue that Harry had trained the DA to be able to cast it, and I'm sure he thought that such a skill was impossible for anyone at that age except the great Harry Potter. *eye-roll*
But I do agree with you that Hermione was the one who propped Harry up throughout his school days, forcing him to learn to "Accio!" his broom, etc. I've always wondered, though, how much of Harry's lousy study habits and academic approach had to do with the fact that he would not have been allowed to excel at home. From an early age, he learned that the best way to stay out of trouble and avoid being bullied was to keep his head down and be mediocre. I'm not excusing his behavior; just saying that as much as he was constantly being ridiculed and hurt at Hogwarts, I'll bet he was subconsciously falling into the habits he had developed as a small child. Hermione had learned that working hard allowed her to succeed in spite of people's low expectations of her or denigrating behavior toward her. Harry had learned that over-achieving just attracted more attention, and attention had NEVER resulted in anything positive in his life. So there would be no motivation there for him to overcome his natural laziness in this regard.
All of which reminds me of how much I snicker everytime I come across a fanfic in which Harry suddenly becomes a hard-working student, learning all sorts of powerful spells, in order to become a super!Harry. Um, not going to happen.
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It's a good point. Harry was raised by wolves, no question that had an effect.
But regardless of why, my point is for that very reason, I wouldn't necessarily go to Harry if I had a magical problem that needed solving, or a spell that needed casting. Now, if I needed an expert broom flyer....
And so actually, in Harry's defense, I'm not so sure superstudying Harry is much of an oxymoron. When Harry *does* want something, he is capable of knuckling down--like with the Patronus spell. I betcha that if it meant he couldn't get into the Auror program without it, he'd have applied himself to get top grades--and succeeded. The problem is according to interview canon, he didn't have to--didn't even have to finish school.
Harry got a truly horrible beginning those first 11 years--but from Hogwarts onward, not to sound like Snape *cough* but Harry got special favors and breaks left and right thereafter no one else would have and didn't *have* to apply himself as a result. Usually that isn't really doing a kid a favor.
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