[HPforGrownups] Re: House points and Dumbledore

[Scott Northrup]

No: HPFGUIDX 51191


Errol:
<<Yes, it is a moot point whether they had won it before. However, they
had not yet WON the cup this year. They were merely leading (yes, by
the school rules) the points race. It so happened that the trio won
more points for their house before the winner of the cup was
definitively announced. I agree that the timing of the announcement
was lousy. But it was lousy because the room was already decorated
and the Slytherins had prematurely congratulated themselves. My
question here is  -- Who decorates the hall for the feast? Did the
Slytherins put up the house colors anticipating the victory? If so,
it wasn't in the best taste to do it before the cup was
announced. I get the idea that traditionally the hall would be
instantly decorated with the winning house's colors the minute the
winner is announced. If the slyths jumped the gun, then they just
compounded their disappointment. They assumed they had an
insurmountable lead and started celebrating too early.>>

Me:
You know, it reading this, it occurs to me that Dumbledore never says who
wins the house cup before awarding points to HRH and Neville; He only says
that the "House Cup needs awarding" and preceeds to ramble off the number of
points each house has.  There is nothing in /canon/ that proves that
Dumbledore put up Slytherin's colors before the feast began.  Really,
there's nothing in canon that says who did it.  It could have been that
someone jumped the gun; it could have just been tradition that the hall was
decorated with whoever was in first place at the beginning of the feast.
But, once again, just in case you missed it the first time; Dumbledore never
said that Slytherin had won.

Frankly, all you people in the 'big bad headmaster' (or bad ol' headmaster
if you're Tweety-bird) camp are blowing this way out of proportion.  In a
thousand years, I doubt it was the first time points were awarded at the
leaving feast.

-Scott
(who will once again, for the record, state that he's not an idealist)