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

[maelwaedd.livejournal.com]

What I don't understand is why the text books are so wrong that Hermione can't get the potion right. I mean, cheating aside, if Hermione-Sue couldn't have done something, and Harry could, I think Snape should have written the text book.

[grrliz.livejournal.com]

The textbooks aren't so wrong that Hermione couldn't get it right, it's that in comparison to Harry's her Potions do not look nearly as good. In the first lesson, their Potions should be a light lilac colour by the end and only Harry's achieves this; Hermione's ends up purple and not nearly as pale as Harry's, but she still gets an "approving nod" from Slughorn as he passes, so clearly she's doing something right. As someone mentioned above, Potions is a lot like cooking, and there's more to being a brilliant chef than being able to follow a recipe (as Snape demonstrates by his various adendums to the instructions).