House points and Dumbledore

[Steve <bboy_mn@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 51232

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "firekat482 <firekat482 at y...>"
<firekat482 at y...> wrote:
> 
>
> ...Substantially edited...
> 
> Now me again:
> 
> ... This awful, obvious show of  favoritism really grates on my 
> nerves. By awarding the points this way Dumbledore shows a total 
> lack of respect for the Slytherin house and Snape as well. I would 
> imagine that it was a few weeks before Snape felt like talking to 
> the Headmaster again. 
> 
> What Dumbledore should have done IMHO (as the impartial Headmaster 
> that he is supposed to be) was award those points as soon he became 
> aware of what the Trio had done. By waiting until the last second 
> the only thing he accomplished was the further alienation of the 
> Slytherin house. And these are the people he cannot afford to 
> estrange.
> 
> ...EDITED...
> 
> ~Jean

bboy_mn:
I've already had my say on all aspects of this so I'm going to refrain
from getting into this any deeper, BUT....

Favoritism? How is it favoritism? If I accept the argument that
Dumbledore's timing stinks, I still don't see favoritism. You,
yourself acknowledge that they deserved the points. So how do you
favor someone by giving them what they earned? Perhaps, I'm taking
'favoritism' too literally. Perhaps there is a metaphorical reference
that I am missing. Dumbledore's timing stinks, but I don't see the
connection to favoritism.

Now, let's talk about Dumbledore's timing. He had one student, a very
famous and important student, near dead. Another student had been
injured (Ron). He had a dead teacher, and Voldemort was inside the
school building. Plus, he had to secure the Stone. Plus, contact
Flamel. Plus, destroy the Stone. Plus, run a school. Plus, prevent a
panic. PLus, explain to the Ministry and Board of Governors. I have a
feeling that at the moment House points were way way down on his list
of priorities, and rightly so if you ask me. A dead teacher and a
nearly dead student, certainly distracted him from pondering the
appropriate House points. It was FOUR days from the Chamber of the
Stone to the Leaving Feast. The feast was probaby the first time in
all that four days that Dumbledore has a minutes peace. 

I can understand why Dumbledore thought the feast was as good a time
as any to deal with it. But I will agree it was a bit excessive and an
unnecessary degree of let down for Slytherin. Once he knew in his mind
that the points were going to be assign, he should have had the totals
boards, which I believe are out in the hallways in the school common
area (school common, not house common). That would have at least given
people some advanced notice, however, Gryffindor victory would have
still been as sweet, and Slytherin defeat would have still stung.

But the fact is, Slytherin didn't win. When the feast started,
Slytherin HAD NOT WON, they were simply in the lead, and had an
/assumed/ victory. When justly deserved points were finally tallied,
Slytherin came up short. They lost. As someone else pointed out, it's
highly unlikely that this was the first time in 1,000 years that last
minute point shifted the victory to another house.

Conclusion, I think Dumbledore was pretty busy during those four day.

Just my opinion.

bboy_mn