Prefects question.

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 86436

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Tanya Swaine <swaine.t at x> wrote:

> ... In the books it says that Remus was the prefect..., not James.
> However, ... Lily and James were head boy and girl. ...  I 
> assumed that the head boy and girl were chosen from ... prefects....
> ..., there is no mention ... that James was ever a prefect.
> 
> Thoughts anyone?
> 
> Tanya

bboy_mn:

This issue was addressed recently and I'm use you can search out the
more detailed discussion of it.

My theory is that Best Boy is not the captain of the prefects.
Although, some schools do work that way.

Best Person and Prefectship are two separate honors. Prefects are sort
of like school assistance. They assist in maintaining order, metering
discipline, and helping out in emergencies. Best Person is just that,
the best person in the school. I look at Best Person more along the
line of valedictorian (summa cum laude, magna cum laude); not exactly
the same, but similar.

Logically, you would want academically good students as well as
students with good discipline as Prefects. They need to be able to
keep up with their studies while performing their additional duties.
They also need to be trustworthy, reliable, and mature. 

These are also characteristics that you would look for in a Best
Person, so logically many Best Persons would come from the ranks of
Prefects. However, that is not mandatory. Since Best Person is a
separate honor, a student with outstanding academics, generally good
character, and marked improvement could be chosen even though their
disciplinary record was less than spotless. 

In some schools, Head Boy is really Head Prefect, but that doesn't
appear to be the case at Hogwarts. All indications are that Best
Person is an honor separate from Prefect.

It seems reasonable that Hermione will be Head Girl, but I'm not sure
who will be Head Boy in Harry's year. Remember that Prefects represent
their house, whereas Best Person represents the whole school. There is
only one Best Boy and Best Girl in the entire school. Give that, I'm
not sure if Harry will make it to Best Boy. There is a good chance,
but there are also a lot of students in the other houses that we don't
know much about. Certainly Harry is a great wizard, but his academics
are only so-so. At this point, I'm not sure I have enough information
to predict whether Harry will make Head Boy.

Just a few thoughts.

bboy_mn