Is Snape unfair with House Points? (WAS Re: Teacher Ratings (Was: Why I hate Hag

[Tom Wall]

No: HPFGUIDX 56417

Bill wrote:
Snape - Potions - 0 points 

(grossly unfair with house points, minus 3 points, cruel to targeted 
students, minus 4 points, undercuts other teachers, minus 1 point)
END QUOTE.

I reply:
There is absolutely zero canon to support the notion that Snape is 
unfair with House Points.

We have never seen him give any Slytherin student any points at all, 
never mind excessive and undeserved points, which is a very common 
idea around here. Now, to be fair, while I can't recall him actually 
*taking* any points from a Slytherin, we have seen him take points 
from the other three houses.

And if Harry, Ron, and Hermione get more points taken from them than 
the others, don't you think that it might be the result of above 
average rule-breaking on the part of the Trio? Or above average 
rudeness to and disrespect for a teacher on the part of the Trio? In 
other words, if Harry, Ron, and Hermione lose lots of House Points 
for Gryffindor, it's not the fault of the teacher who takes the 
points away - it's the fault of the students who continuously 
disregard the rules.

And besides, it doesn't matter how many points the three lose for 
Gryffindor - canon has established a very clear trend of Dumbledore 
rewarding them with unbelievably unbalanced amounts of points at the 
end of the school year (for instance, Ron's two-hundred points 
awarded at the end of CoS for doing absolutely nothing) which 
results in Gryffindor unexpectedly winning the House Cup over, and 
over, and over again.

I think that we, as a readership, are annoyed when Snape targets 
Harry et al, I mean, I know that I am. But I'm trying to be more 
conscientious about this - after all, Harry is an over the top rule 
breaker, so in many senses, he deserves to lose his points. And 
again, it's not Snape's fault he catches Harry breaking the rules. 
It's Harry's fault for breaking them.

-Tom