Neville Longbottom and the Philosopher's Stone -- 1

[elizabeth_hoot]

A/N: I've always thought Harry had a good chance of being decent at Potions. I revised 'decent' to 'excellent' in OOTP, and even more so in HBP, where he shows that he is fully capable of performing brilliantly in a subject he does not remotely understand. I'm operating on the conceit that Harry has the same sort of potential as his mother --

Comments

Teaching at Hogwarts -

[nestashouse]

Frankly, a lot of it is appalling. Snape is a cruel bully, Hegrid is incompetent and the only DDA teacher who was any good was, of course, Lupin. The whole school set up is awful, too. Cheating at games is the norm, and the games themselves are highly dangerous. Amounts of homework are ridiculously excessive and pupils are subject to endless harassment and prejudice, both from above and among themselves. And that's in normal circumstances, before all the danger sets in, or the school goes into total meltdown under Umbridge. Give me the local comprehensive school any day; it may be mediocre, but you stand a fairly good chance of surviving it.

Re: Teaching at Hogwarts -

[nestashouse]

...oh, and I forgot Trelawney: a non-teacher teaching a non-subject.

Re: Teaching at Hogwarts -

[elizabeth_hoot]

At least a quarter of the teachers seem there for their own protection. Not exactly a good idea. I cheered for the Trio when they all chose to drop Hagrid's class...

Re: Teaching at Hogwarts -

[elizabeth_hoot]

A lot of the teachers are iffy -- I think it goes back to the loyalty question which bothers me. Dumbledore surrounds himself with people who are not just personally loyal to him but absolutely dependent on him. They've got nowhere else to go. Of course, Snape might be much better when Harry and Neville (the 'prophecy boys') aren't in the room; he's not half so awful to anyone else.

I suppose danger just isn't the same when you've got Potions and spells that can fix just about anything. Except bad eyesight and broken noses, obviously. It's pretty strongly implied that wizards don't take damage as easily as Muggles, though -- when Neville falls what, forty feet off a broomstick and crashes on the ground, he breaks his ankle. Hagrid is shocked at the idea that Lily and James could be killed in a car accident. So that's probably part of the reason for it.

I have to admit that I adore Professor McGonagall, though.