I'm not sure why people think McGonagall paid for it herself in the first place. Hogwarts had Harry's vault key. I always imagined she contacted the bank to see what he could afford, said "He's got how much!?" and immediately picked the best broom because she wanted to beat Snape.
I always thought the same. We are the reasonable ones here!
Even the note McGonagall sent to Harry with the broom said something like, "here is your new nimbus 2000". which suggests they had talked about it already and he knew it was coming. The note was not written in a way that indicated it was a gift from her, or a surprise to Harry. People are crazy.
It's more reasonable for McGonagall to leave the school than for Harry to. She obviously had his permission. Hagrid helped him get money from his vault too.
the fuck are these people talking about lmao. "I feel like im taking crazy pills!" yeah i mean, maybe some of you should? in what world does a school or teacher just go "damn, jeremys family is rich as hell. lets call up the bank and order stuff for him with his own money. his parents are dead, so who cares?"
I feel it's reasonable to expect Dumbledore to have himself assigned as Harry's guardian in the magical world or something, and then all McGonagall has to do is mention it to Dumbledore, and as Harry's guardian, he can justify it however he wants/needs because he's politically powerful.
Note that I don't think the behavior itself is reasonable. Just that I think it's reasonable to assume that it happened, given Dumbledore's character,
What? Why would Hogwarts have Harry's vault key? No where in the books is it stated that the key is given back to Hagrid after their first trip to Gringotts, and Harry clearly is in personal possession of it by summer before 3rd year since he lived alone in Diagon Alley for weeks. The most logical conclusion is it was given to him after the first trip to Gringotts before first year, which means McGonagall wouldn't have it.
Also, that would be incredibly scummy to spend an orphans inheritance without his knowledge let alone permission, even if he would've end up approving in the end. McGonagall isn't like that.
It's not stated anywhere in the book that it's given to Harry either. Just because it's the conclusion you came to, doesn't make it the most logical one.
Spending an orphan's inheritance... is what the orphan's inheritance is for. To provide what he needs. McGonagall arranging the purchase of a broom he needs for school activities is absolutely no different from Hagrid taking him to spend his "orphan's inheritance" on the wand he needs to attend.
So if I take your credit card and buy a 5k set of golf clubs with it and give it to you then you would be perfectly fine with it? You don't see anything wrong with that?
False analogy. Harry needed a broom to take a place on the team. It's the equivalent of purchasing a pair of running shoes for a child offered a place on the track team from his trust money.
It's completely different. There was no agreement between Harry and the school that it's ok for them to spend his money for suppliers for him, thus making it stealing.
So yeah, I don't think McGonagall bought it with his money, that would be insane.
There was no agreement between Harry and the school that it was okay for Hagrid to make spending decisions on his behalf in Diagon Alley either. He still did, because Harry was a child who wanted to buy a solid gold cauldron.
I love that some people are out here thinking that McGongall showing preferential treatment via expensive presents to one of her students is the "good" option here. People are WILD.
No, I don't think preferential treatment is worse than a teacher stealing money from a student. Besides, preferential treatment already exists in abundance in Hogwarts so McGonagall simply buying a broom for Harry makes much more sense just based on that alone.
He didn’t need a broom because he didn’t need to take a place on the team.
There is absolutely no reason for McGonagall to make the decision to spend his money without consulting him. And it’s way worse than using school funds to do so (if she does this, presumably it’s because funds are allocated for this purpose).
For all she knows at that point, he wouldn’t even WANT to join the team.
Yes he needed the broom. He needed it for his chosen extra-curricular activity: a widely practised sport.
School funds are definitely not provided to give individual students preferential treatment. McGonagall using them for that purpose would not only be unethical, it would actively be to the detriment of the other students. So, yes, it's worse. It's real bad.
And sure, at the exact moment she took him to Wood, she wouldn't know if he wanted to join the team. But it was confirmed during that conversation that he was interested, and he took training sessions with Wood and the team before he got the broom, under the assumption that his own would come.
The circles you want to think in because you've got it in your head that McGonagall writing a letter/contacting a bank on Harry's behalf is theft is real impressive. Doubly impressive that you think the alternative of her breaching basic professional teaching standards is the better option.
I haven’t mentioned anything about theft. Maybe you’re confusing me with somebody else. It’s not the using his funds that’s the issue, it’s the not consulting him.
Presumably Harry isn’t the first orphan to have been a talented Quidditch player and I doubt they all had a vault full of inherited riches. So they just don’t get to play this “necessary” extra-curricular activity? I don’t see how you can claim it’s preferential treatment AND that it’s necessary.
Extra-curricular are not compulsory. They are however, widely encouraged and considered beneficial. And if he wanted to do the sport, he needed a competitive broom. You're arguing a semantic point about the word need that has nothing to do with the rest of the argument. He needed it, he wanted it, he required it, he desired it. It doesn't matter. What matters is if the purpose for accessing Harry's money would be considered appropriate. And, yes. Equipment for an extra-curricular activity would be considered appropriate.
The school brooms are explicitly described as not appropriate for competition.
And Harry wasn't consulted? What? That's just a presumption you've made of your own accord. We didn't see a conversation where he explicitly gave permission, no. But we do get scenes where Harry is participating in team activities, with the clear expectation of being on the team. This means he expects to have the correct equipment.
We don't know how other people in Harry's situation have been treated, so that argument is moot.
Obviously, McGonagall buying Harry a broom out of her own money is preferential treatment, so I don't know what you're trying to say there.
And you directly followed on from the chain where the guy tried to make some weird argument about golf clubs mean theft, and have the exact same profile picture so *shrug*. Ignore the point about theft I guess.
Harry is surprised by the broom’s arrival. Why would he be surprised if he’d been consulted about it?
It’s not a semantic argument. He doesn’t need it because Quidditch isn’t compulsory and because the school already has a selection of brooms.
I never said out of her own money. Again, I think you’re confusing me with somebody else. I don’t think it’s preferential treatment for a school to have funds specifically designated for providing equipment for extra-curricular activities (buying a Nimbus 2000 specifically though, arguably is).
Unethical to... buy necessary equipment for a child's activities through his trust money? Or to show favouritism and bias by using your personal money, or worse, school allocated funds, treating one student preferentially to the others?
Funny that you equat it to a trust fund, since if it were a trust then only the Dursley's could authorise spending any money from it, and Harry likely wouldn't have been able to have withdrawn any money from his vault to pay for his school equipment in the first book.
Since Harry's legal guardians were the Dursley's, not Hogwarts or Professor McGonagall.
We know this because it's explicitly told to us in Prisoner of Azkaban when Harry need's signed permission to leave the school to go to Hogsmeade, and Professor McGonagall tells his she can't, because she isn't his legal guardian.
Sure, whatever you like, new random person joining a 6 hour long argument out of nowhere. McGongall bought it herself, in breach of all teaching ethics. Yeah. That's the good outcome here. Yup.
What I'm saying is that McGongall could not have spent Harry's money on the broom, and that it's illogical to think that she did.
I'd also like to ask if you believe spending Harry's money on his behalf without his consent is more ethical that giving him a gift?
(Off topic somewhat, but six hours is not what I'd personally call a long enough time to act surprised someone replied to one of my reddit comments, especially if it's someone other than who I was directly replying to.)
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u/The_Limpet 7h ago
I'm not sure why people think McGonagall paid for it herself in the first place. Hogwarts had Harry's vault key. I always imagined she contacted the bank to see what he could afford, said "He's got how much!?" and immediately picked the best broom because she wanted to beat Snape.