A teenage boy sneaks through his bedroom window which he had just pried open. The lights flip on and his Dad stands there glowering. "Where have you been?" he says. According to the TV shows the purpose of living with an adult is so there is someone older there to fix your problems for you, and supposedly so someone knows where you are and cares where you have been. I say these people do not live in the real world and this is not the way things really work.
One of the main benefits of living with adults is food. Unless a child has inherited money or is old enough to have a job they cannot afford to buy their own. The advertisements indicated that money is the cure all and that if there is enough money available food will be provided and no one will go hungry. I really don't understand this. Through most of human history food was not bought; it was hunted, gathered and grown. Why not move the people in the starving people ads to places where food exist in nature? If any of the parks in Surrey had apple trees I would have picked and eaten them. But then whoever owned the tree would probably get mad at me. I suppose that may be why the starving people don't move; no one wants to share their apples, even when they have a surplus. I lived in a house with money, but still often went hungry because they didn't want to waste money on me. There were also days I had to complete endless hours of chores to earn food. But if the TV shows are to be believed, most families provide sufficient food to their children as long as they are financially able. I'm not sure the shows can be believed, some adults can be incredibly selfish.
The second benefit of living with an adult is shelter. Like with the food, unless the child somehow has access to money, they require an adult to provide them with shelter. I understand this need for anyone underage who doesn't have money. I found it a bit confusing that so many series portrayed adult children living with their parents. Why would the adult allow that? Why would the kid want it? The Dursley's would never allow me through the front door a day past when I come of age and I would never purposefully choose to return. Though I suppose it is easier to imagine Dudley slothing around the house in Surrey for the next forty years rather than actually having the ambition to get a job and live on his own. Who would deliver his food to him? buy his games? pamper him to stop the fake tantrums? I suppose he could try for a girlfriend/wife to do such things for him, like how Aunt Petunia is always pampering Vernon. Is that why people get married? Back to the shelter issue. In the shows each of the kid adults living with their parents were going to college, had made poor career choices or had chosen to have children of their own before they could afford to do so. Most of these people would never had needed to move back home if they had planned better or made better choices. But I suppose it would be nice to have an adult you could live with if you screwed up or made poor choices. No one wants to live on the street or in a car, yet many people do because there are a lot of people who don't have an older adult willing to take on their problems when they mess up. I can't imagine I will either, which is why I am learning to handle money now, 'cause even people with lots of money can end up broke and living in a car if they're idiots about how they spend it. One of the famous people on a gossip show I watched today told of an actor that had just happened to.
Harry paused in his writing, "If I wanted to start investing how would I go about it?"
Snape turned down the top of Magical Digest and looked at Harry, "You are too young to invest."
"But shouldn't I learn now so I don't make my first investment when I'm on my own as an adult?"
"Perhaps."
"So how would I go about it?"
"You'd consult with the goblins at Gringots. But you must make objective decisions when investing, don't just invest on whims."
"Huh?"
"The goal of investing is to make money. Don't invest in something because it "looks cool" invest in things people will buy."
"Oh. Like food?"
"Indubitably"
Snape returned to his article and Harry to his essay.
The third benefit to living with an adult is that they seem to clean up all the messes. The adults have more experience and want to give kids advice. The kids never seem to want to take the advice, so they end up failing anyway; then the parent is left dealing with the mess. That's why I'm taking advice from an adult now, because there won't be one around when I'm older to clean up my messes. The parents on TV also seem to spend a lot of time cooking, cleaning, doing laundry and transporting kids to and fro. On some of the shows the families even had butlers and maids! Do homes like that really exist? I doubt it. Sometimes it seemed like I was the only one doing chores at the Dursley's, but at Ron's last summer everyone seemed to do a little, then no one was doing too much. So I guess spreading out chores between several people is an okay reason to live with others. All of that stuff can be done by one person, but it's not easy.
The fourth benefit of living with an adult is that you'll have a nicer place to live (assuming they didn't completely screw up their own lives). On one show the adult kids kept trying (and often succeeded) at moving in with their parents because all they could afford were tiny, dirty apartments in noisy neighborhoods. I can understand wanting to live someplace nicer, but it is not always an option and sometimes you just have to deal with what you get. Walls can be improved with some hand drawn pictures. I used to draw on the walls in my cupboard, when I could manage to sneak in a broken crayon. I have a bigger room now, but the Dursley's still often refer to it as Dudley's second bedroom rather than my room. Sometimes this makes me angry, other times it makes me feel like an intruder in their space and makes me miss the cupboard. Not because I'd want to live in it again, you'd have to be nutters to want to live in a cupboard. But it was the only thing in the house that belonged solely to me. It's hard not having a place where you feel like you belong. But those twinges pass quickly and I appreciate having a space that is big enough for me to walk around in, even if the Dursleys hate having me there. So I do get the desire for not just shelter, but nice shelter. But any place can be cheered up with a bit of art. Art is a way of claiming a place as your own, a way of making it a home. I suppose that is why so many of the kids at Hogwarts put posters up in the dormitories.
Harry paused again, "Does Hogwarts have art classes?"
"No. Why?"
"It'd be fun to make pictures that move."
"How does art pertain to your assignment, aren't you supposed to be writing about the value of living with adults?"
"Yes, sir. But isn't part of that having a place that is decorated to look nice?"
Both Snape and Harry glanced around the dreary sitting room. "I wouldn't know."
"Maybe if there were art classes at Hogwarts you could buy some of the students' art."
"Buy?"
"Yeah. We could have an art show or an auction or something. Maybe that is how we could get the funds for Fast Food Night."
"Potter, there is no art class at Hogwarts."
"There used to be wasn't there? It'd be fun if there was again!"
"School isn't supposed to be fun. It is supposed to be educational."
"But isn't it also supposed to prepare you to be on your own?"
"How exactly would art classes help with that?"
"You could learn how to make a house look nice. If wood working was taught you could learn how to build things for your house." Harry recalled an add for a documentary, maybe he could use a quote form the ad to convince Snape Hogwarts needed art classes. "Isn't art supposed to increase cultural awareness and acceptance of others?"
Harry finally had Snape's full attention.
Harry continued, "Art and music are the thread that unite us all, the cord that can draw people of varying backgrounds together," at least that is what the ad for the documentary had said, and if repeating it made Snape more likely to try to get an art class at Hogwarts then Harry would say it. Magical art would be a really interesting class. Harry had enjoyed art class in elementary school. He even occasionally managed to sneak a picture into his cupboard without Dudley destroying it.
"Interesting, how cogitated of you."
"Huh?"
"Aren't you supposed to be working on an essay?"
"Yes, sir," Harry bent to his task.
Snape began to cogitate the benefits of the arts for his Slytherin's. Could that be the element that was missing to derail his Slytherins from their beliefs of pure blood superiority? Could it in turn make the other House's more accepting of the Snakes? His yaw toward The Dark Side had been due to a lack of acceptance. His drunk father hated him. His mother's spirit had been worn away by his father. Lily had turned her back on him. That left him with the sibilant tongue of the leader of Those Who Follow Blindly.
The Dark Lord would have made a wonderful Cub Scout leader if it weren't for the sadistic nature of their activities. They had uniforms (mask and black robes), and badges (tattoo) to make them feel accepted as part of a group. They were taught new skills (torture spells). They were given task (bribe him; hurt them) and were praised for their successes. They even went on fieldtrips (raids). Their scout leader may be on hiatus at the moment, but he was trying to return and many former members would flock to him upon his return, seeking acceptance and the feeling of being part of a group that acted as one. It was a seductive feeling to be part of something.
As head of Slytherin, and pseudo parent to the teens in green, it was his job to sidetrack them into a less violent group. Perhaps it was time for the arts to return to Hogwarts.
Snape took up a piece of parchment and began to compose a letter for the Daily Profit. It was time for L. Grant to pick up his quill.
Author's Note: The shows "Harry" was thinking about as he wrote the essay were The Cosby Show and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, because those were the shows I was watching back then. Were those shows on TV in the UK in the early 90's?