House points and Dumbledore

[Steve <bboy_mn@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 51062

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "sophineclaire
<metal_tiara at h...>" <metal_tiara at h...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Maria Kirilenko 
> <maria_kirilenko at y...> wrote:
> > 
> > Tom wrote:
> > > I mean, come ON: Dumbledore PERSONALLY overturned
> > > the official results of the House Cup in PS/SS. Sure,
> > > WE know why that happened, and as readers who identify
> > > with Harry, WE'RE glad to see him win, but let's face 
> > > it - that is concrete and indisputable favoritism. 
> > 
> > 
> > Alla answered:
> > So, Harry and Co did not deserve the points for defeating 
> > Quirrelmort? I think that this was justice, not favouritism. 
> > 
> > Me:
> > 
> > I really have to agree with Tom here. HHR and Neville did deserve 
> some sort of praise, maybe even in the form of points, but I think 
> that assigning the exact number of points needed to win the House 
> Cup was extremely blatant favouritism. 
>
> ...edited...
> 
>  But of course, look at all those points Slytherin had. As a 
> House, they won because their house worked for those points. Some of 
> them had to give the right answers in class and do extra credit 
> assignments and win at Quidditch, only one student got caught out of 
> bed and was punished for it. ...edited...
> 
> Well, that was really disconnected
> 
> sophineclaire 

bboy_mn:

Perspective-

Playing a trick on Draco (from McGonagall's perspective) and being out
after curfew. MINUS 50 points each (Harry, Hermione, Neville = -150)

Ron-
The significants of Ron's chess game was not that he beat one of the
best chess players on the staff (McGonagall, it was her enchanted
chess set), and although we can't prove it, we would assume that
McGonagall played to her strengths in choosing a chess obstical to
guard the stone. It was in Ron Sacrificing his own life for the
greater good of all. Although, Ron didn't die, when he sacrificed
himself to the towering merciless solid stone Queen, he had every
expectation of dying.

Summation -
Beat the best chess player in the house. Sacrificed his life for his
friends and for the greater good of all including the great good of
all Slytherins.

PLUS 50 points.

Oh sure, that seems fair, out of bed MINUS 50 points, sacrifice your
life for the greater good, show courage, bravery, selfsacrifice and
heroism beyond what most adult wizards could muster; PLUS 50 points.


Hermione-
Well, she did the least, but she was brave enough to attempt to save
the stone, when most students would have stayed safe in bed. I
seriously doubt that any Slytherins would have put the good of the
world over their own safety. Draco certainly wouldn't have.

The very first thing she does when they enter the enchanted chambers
is save Harry and Ron's life. 

Next, she assist in capturing the Key. Harry would have had a hard
time, without Ron and Hermione running interferrence and herding the
key toward him. 

Then we come to Hermione's own shining moment; the Riddle of the
Potions. I suspect that most adult wizards and witches couldn't solve
the Riddle even if they started out with the answer. A stunning
achievement of intelect and logic. And let's remember that a lot hung
in the balance, not just did access to the stone, but some of the
potions were poison, one drink and you are dead, then the walls of
flame, one misinterpretation of a phrase and either she or Harry were
torched.

She didn't have to be down there. She could have said, it's not my
problem. But she didn't, she put her life on the line and show bravery
and courage equal to the rest, and display intellect and logic beyond
most living wizards and witches. Of all the obsticals leading up to
the final chamber, I would say the Riddle of the Potions was the most
ingenious (I bow to Snape). Very very few in the wizard world could
have passed that obstical.

Summary-
Out of bed after hours and assumed to be in on playing a joke on Draco. 

MINUS 50 points.

Loyalty, courage and bravery equaled by very very few, logic and
intellect of genius caliber. A selfless effort for the greater good,
and an unyeilding desire to what is right rather than what is correct. 

PLUS 50 points.


Harry-
At 11 years of age, with the help of his friends, defeated the best
protections the staff of Hogwarts had to offer, not to mention solving
the mystery to the extent that they were even able to get down into
the enchanted chambers. 

He displayed a selflessness beyond measure. A higher morality,
unblinking courage, outstanding bravery, and again a selflessness and
selfsacrifice that is equalled by very very very few in the wizard
world. Harry was 11 years old, 11 year olds throw spit balls in class,
play in the mud, make 'can I see Uranus' jokes. That Stone didn't
belong to Harry, why should he care if someone stole it? But he did
care, he cared because he knew caring was the correct moral choice.
His own life meant nothing along side doing what was right. He didn't
ask for help, he knew what had to be done, and he choose to do it. He
neither asked for nor expected anyone else to risk themselves for his
choice.

Then in the final chamber, we have a determined 11 year old boy with
hardly any training, against a full grown and powerful wizard who also
had Voldemort's power backing him up, and even knowing all this. Even
knowing the overwhelming hopeless situation he was facing, he chose to
stand and fight what was surely a battle lost before it began. 

But that is what brave and noble men do, they defend themselves even
when no defense is possible, they fight the battle even knowing that
the battle is lost. Brave and noble men like 11 year old Harry Potter
don't weigh the personal cost, they choose to fight for what they know
is right, and they do so for no reason other than it is the right
thing to do. He chose to sacrifice his own life in an effort to save
the stone. He knew to do otherwise would bring to immortality the
greatest force of evil in a hundred years.

And for this... for all this... PLUS 60 points

PLUS 60 points

For his willingness to sacrifice his life, for nerve, courage,
nobility, and bravery, for daring to face a force of evil so strong
that most wizards won't even speak it's name, for having the moral
fiber to put the good of the world above his own life, for being an
eleven year old boy with a heart and soul greater than most living
wizards, for all this....

PLUS 60 points?????

And people think Dumbledore was being overly generous? Slytherin won a
few Quidditch matchs and answered a few questions in class, Harry
Potter sacrificed his own life to save the wizard world from a great
force of evil, and he did so with no desire for or expectation of a
reward.

If anything Dumbledore made a major effort to restrain his handing out
of points. He gave the trio a modest... an extremely modest under the
circumstance, award of point, just enought to tie with Slytherin, then
 is a gesture equal to the great man that he is, he gave a small award
of points, hardly more than a token, to Neville, and did so in a way
that made it seem as if Neville's points had won them the House Cup.
For one brief shining moment, he made Neville a hero, and he did so
with a mere 10 points. 

Harry, Ron, and Hermione achieved something, they achieved something
that even the best of wizards were not likely to achieve. They
demonstrated courage, skill, and logic beyond what any one could
expect from anyone, and for this, a mere 160 points.

No, I think Dumbledore greatly restrained himself. 200 or 500 points
each would have been more like it when you consider the magnitude of
what three 11 year olds were able to accomplish. Along side this, what
did any of the other houses accomplish? He gave them the bare minimum
points to equal a tie for the cup, then gave poor Neville who had
never so much as won a single point, the decisive points to assure an
EXTEMELY MODEST victory. One that was well earned in view of their
nearly impossible achievement.

Sorry, but you will never convince me that evil Dumbledore snatch an
undeserved victory from the hands of the poor hard working deserving
Slytherins and gave it to Gryffindor. They deserves three times the
point that he awarded them, but he chose to be very modest about it.

That is my story and I am sticking to it.

bboy_mn