Prefect choice

[David]

No: HPFGUIDX 27966

Just some general stuff on how prefects might be chosen.  I wrote 
most of this before Jenny did hers

It strikes me that past rule breaking and good grades are only weakly 
correlated with being made a prefect.

Prefects will be chosen:

a) to help uphold school rules
b) to take some routine administrative load (such as telling house 
members what the password is)
c) to give selected students the chance to carry responsibility

It might be imagined that the fact that Draco ot Harry have broken 
school rules would count against them.  But rulebreaking, as 
Dumbledore implies in his talk about Slytherin, is just leadership 
material still in immaturity.  I'm sure that the professors are used 
to the spectacle every year of the Year 3 and 4 tearaways mutating 
into responsible young men and women; they will expect the same of 
this crop.  Furthermore, there is the old adage about employing a 
poacher as a gamekeeper.  Not only do rulebreakers have the best idea 
about what their successors might be up to, it helps with objective 
c) above to give them a chance to redeem themselves.

Secondly, good grades have little to do with this.  *Very* bad grades 
might disqualify a person; mediocre ones would not as long as they 
are not a sign of idleness.  Prefects are supposed to be an example, 
but only in behaviour, not talent.  Very good grades might be 
considered a slight disadvantage if they were perceived as being 
associated with a withdrawal from student life into study.  Hermione 
has clearly not so withdrawn.

Some prefect duties are clearly house-based, so it's likely that they 
are chosen by the head of house, or at least names submitted by 
them.  Dumbledore makes clear that most disciplinary issues are a 
house matter so it's not unreasonable to suppose that in practice 
prefect choice is also left to the house.  But since we don't know 
the total number of prefects we don't know how much flexibility there 
is provided there is at least one from each house.  If Snape 
recommended Draco I really doubt anyone would argue - the teachers 
respect Snape.

Harry as a special case.  I think there would have to be a specific 
reason (such as being sent away from Hogwarts on a mission) that 
would make him unable to do his prefectly duties.  Merely being at 
the centre of the storm would not be enough.

Finally, choice.  Are students able to refuse if they don't want to 
do the job?  I suppose a sensible teacher would realise that an 
unwilling prefect will be a bad one - I'm not altogether sure how 
much 'sensible' applies at Hogwarts.

My own limited predictions are in Amy's polls

David