Apropos of nothing - a random HP thought.

[ridicully]

Where does half the fandom get the impression that Harry is cheating by using a book with notes in it?

They are allowed to use their book while brewing and are supposed to have read up on the potion they are preparing in class.
And in written tests, I doubt they are allowed to use their books anyway, so the notes won't be any help to him there.
The only difference I see between Harry and a Ravenclaw (in this instance) is that the Ravenclaw would have made the notes himself - and probably not in the book, but on a spare bit of paper.

Having better reference material is rarely considered cheating. No matter how much of an advantage it gives you.

Comments

[bluemeanies4.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's cheating but I can see why Hermione disapproves of it and calls it cheating. She does all this hard work and then Harry just breazes through.

I would kind of compare it to how a student who actually read the novel and studied feels about the kid who aced it using Cliff Notes. In fact, the way Harry seems to have not improved when the book is removed makes the Cliff Notes comparison more accurate in a scary way.

[arclevel.livejournal.com]

Yes, except that all the students are doing the potions straight from a set of instructions. Harry's just using a different set. Also, the Prince doesn't include any theory behind the modifications, although they don't seem to study actual theory much, in general. I would agree that Harry was doing the Cliff Notes version if the other students had to come up with their own recipes or examine all the theory and then figure out how to improve the recipes. No one is really doing the "full" set of work except for Snape, originally, and in a different way Hermione, who seems to do extensive work whether or not it's actually necessary.