Apologies, CarniverousPlant. My response was way snottier than intended.
I can’t stand it when people pop into book discussion threads and sneer at the discussion with the lame “It’s just a book” or “It’s just a movie” crack and that’s how I read your response at first.
Yeah, if it had anything to do with reality, Umbridge would have been sacked the second she meddled with Quidditch. Meddle with academic programs all you want. Mess with sports, though, and you are guaranteed a firestorm from the parents/alumni. 
For that matter, if it had anything to do with reality, Quidditch would never be popular as a spectator sport. Who would want to watch a game where 90% of the action on the field is irrelevant, and the only really important thing is two guys going after something that the spectators can’t even see?
My apologies for an apparent drive by post.
The books (indeed all childrens books) are sucessful because of the conflict the kid has. Hogwart’s was first an escape for Harry from his nerdy existence. He was a wizard, a way of being better than his associates in the muggle world.
To continue conflict, Hogwart’s can’t be a “real” school. If there were no Snapes, Hogwarts would continue ot be an escape for Harry, and there would be no conflict.
Ron the prefect provides new conflict in a new tale.
Dumledore (sp?) can’t make Harry the teacher’s pet, but only adults can do something in children’s books, like off the bad guys. 
I wonder if discovering that his father was an ass is an adolescent conflict for Harry?
I hated Mrs. Z, my third grade teacher. She was a viscious, nasty, ogre with favorites.
Today I suspect she was a fairly normal person who was angry that I couldn’t learn the multiplication tables.
I think Snapes is seen from a child’s perspective.
I suspect Snape pushes Harry very hard in Potions class for more reasons than personal dislike. Snape lets Malfoy get away with murder: how much do you really think Malfoy is learning? Harry, on the other hand, is the focus of constant attention.
FISH
Yeah, but “Oops, Potter” and trashing his work ain’t teaching anything, either.
Since when do teachers get fired for making nasty remarks to kids? Particularly in their own classrooms, out of earshot of administrators?
I've never bought that theory, I think what JK is showing is that Snape is an ass, but he still good, you know, not everyone who is a jerk is also evil.
I like Snape, as do other people but I bet if we met someone like Snape we'd all hate him. I can understand why people like Snape, but what's with all the people who like Draco. He's a bigot, and has shown no redeeming characteristics, I was surprised by the amount of people who love the guy.I’m not even sure this qualifies as a spoiler.
In OotP, it’s hinted that Draco gets at least one poor grade in potions class (he makes a snide remark about how anyone could score low, but is noticed quickly hiding his own grade).
Remember, this is set in the present, not a 19th century boarding school!
Today, if a teacher made a horrible remark about a student’s personal appearance, they’d be, if not fired, given a stern warning, suspension, etc. Imagine a teacher calling a kid “fatso” or “ugly”
I wish this were true, but I don’t think it is. I’ve heard of some pretty horrible modern American public school teachers.
In Snape’s case, he may have an advantage in that Hogwarts seems to have a difficult time finding good teachers. There seem to be some real flakes amongst the faculty; all more pleasant as individuals than Snape, but many who are even less competant as instructors.
But perhaps most importantly, Hermione did not report Snape for his inappropriate remark. Something I remember well from my years in school is that the administration will never do anything about unreported problems, no matter how bad they are. Heck, they generally won’t really do anything about reported problems either, but if you don’t make an official complaint they won’t even bother to have the Assistant Vice-Principal call you to his or her office and assure you that things will be “looked in to”.
Even the author herself doesn’t seem to understand the appeal. I read an interview with J.K. Rowling where she said she was rather disturbed to see so many people dressed up as Draco at book signings.
Well, I don’t think Hogwarts is set in the present. It’s in a time warp all its own, with a PG Wodehouse/Stalky & Co./Edwardian view of boarding school life. (The entire Wizarding world seems to be stuck somewhere between the Middle Ages and 1914.)
I personally am not particularly fond of Draco but I do see the appeal. I think it’s the “bad boy” thing… he just MUST be cooler than Harry because he’s so bad. Also the suspicion (which for me is getting smaller and smaller) that somewhere under there lurks a heart of… well maybe not gold, but at least something better than evil. Also, many people tend to blame what he is on his parents, which has some backing.
BTW, the plot point that has always bothered me is why Hermione’s folks, who seem to be loving parents, are willing to let her spend most of her vacations at Hogwarts or visiting friends from the wizarding world. It’s got to be hard enough to send your eleven-year-old kid off to boarding school for nine months out of the year; wouldn’t they want to see her the rest of the time?
I’m really hoping Rowling will do something with this in the last two books; Muggle-born wizards must face an interesting set of conflicts as they prepare to leave their parents’ world for good.
The cookie jar no longer teleports into different rooms; the milk jug doesn’t mysteriously become empty; the broccolli no longer morphs into cotton candy; your GWTW video tape doesn’t become The Lion King;
Need I go on?
As its been pointed out in nearly all of the books, with the exception of Snape, no one else has any interest in teaching DATDA, hence Gilderoy Lockhart, and anyway, yes Dumbledore was a brilliant wizard, doesnt mean he had any reason to doubt Lockhart, it was all right there in his books. All the other teachers were good at there job, dispite there personal problems, except book five, but that wasnt Dumbledores fault.
And During the confession scene, does Dumbledore actually say, I chose Ron over you because… etc? I dont remember that he did, but I cant check, someone has my copy. Whats to say that he wouldnt have had them both?
I admit to liking Draco after seeing the first movie (my intro to the Potter world), but it’s definitely worn off since then.
At first I liked him because he seemed to be this kind of cool, totally evil counterpart to Harry’s ho-hum chosen one good guy angle. But Draco’s been revealed to be more or less a whiny, cowardly little brat and Harry a lot more interesting than I originally gave him credit for, so I’ve gotten over that.
Incidentally, my little sister has a crush on the kid who plays Draco, so that could be where a lot of his popularity stems from, too. After all, no way would I like Snape so much if it wasn’t for Alan Rickman.
I, too, enjoy the books – but I have several nitpicks. Some are minor, and some are major believability issues, in my mind. Not believability in terms of “oh, magic isn’t real…” but believability in the sense of how things would happen and motivation of the characters, etc.
HP1: Sorcerer’s Stone – Wandering around at night after bedtime is forbidden, and the kids get caught in Hagrid’s hut (reported by Draco), so they get detention. Doing what? Running a little errand in the Friggin Forbidden Forest… AT NIGHT… AFTER BEDTIME. Hello?
Just a wee bit hard to believe that a school will punish kids by sending them out to do more of the things that are forbidden and what they are getting punished for in the first place.
HP2: Chamber of Secrets – my main one is about Hermione, and how she “solved” the mystery of the creature, before getting petrified. Yes, she’s very smart. Yes, she does all her reading assignments. Yes, she reads everything else she can get her hands on, too. Yes, we get it.
Hermione figures out what the creature is because of something she remembered reading in the library. Never mind that early in the book, when I first saw that victims were being petrified, my first thought was “basilisk”. My believability issue here comes from the fact that Hermione figures it out so easily, but it’s stumped Dumbledore and other teachers for 50 years! Dumbledore, who is certainly as well-read as Hermione, if not more.
HP3: Prisoner of Azkaban: I have a couple of major ones here. And most of it revolves around the Marauder’s Map.
I really like the idea of the Marauder’s Map. I really do. I think it’s clever, and fun, and I love that Fred and George have been using it to assist in their mischief for the last couple of years. BUT… it causes some serious believability issues for me.
Here’s the big one. Remember how Lupin was looking at the map and realized something, and came after the kids (under the invisibility cloak, getting ready to head to the secret door under the whomping willow…)? He followed them because of something he SAW ON THE MAP – Peter Pettigrew’s name. Remember, of course, how the map tracks the location of people on the map boundaries and lists their NAME. That’s how Lupin realized that Pettigrew was an animagus (hiding as Ron’s rat, Scabbers).
SO… Am I supposed to believe that Fred and George, who possessed the map for two or three years before giving it to Harry, NEVER noticed the name of Peter Pettigrew on the map – and the fact that this person’s name always appeared next to Ron’s name – and never once wondered who the hell this Peter guy was?
The map is great, but remember, Fred and George have been using it a while – they would SEE some secrets on the thing.
Another issue with the map. Harry and Hermione time travel back a bit, so for a few hours, there are TWO Harrys and TWO Hermiones in the area. I do like how she treated the time travel – not the Star Trekky changing the timeline notion, but rather the idea that the events happen the same both times, and the characters are just experiencing them from different perspectives. HOWEVER… Won’t both copies of Harry and Hermione show up on the map? And Lupin, who was looking at the map around the time, didn’t notice this? And SNAPE, who came in and saw the map after Lupin left, didn’t notice this and wonder… “What the F…?!”
HP4 – my main nitpick for this is the obvious one. Why the elaborate charade of the tournament, when fake Moody could have just made something else (besides the cup), into a portkey and get Harry to touch it after class…?
When I played hooky, they expelled me.
**
This one kind of makes sense, if you think of it as a “scared straight” sort of thing.
“So, You kids like sneaking out after dark? Well, maybe you’d like to spend a little time doing chores in the big scary forest! Let’s see if you feel like wandering around at night after that!”