The House Cup and the Tragedy of Slytherin

[pippin_999 <foxmoth@qnet.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 51290

I would like to address the idea that Slytherin was humiliated by 
their defeat in the House Championship.  First of all, there is 
nothing -- nada--  humiliating about being defeated because you 
weren't the best. That's why there are three losers for every 
winner in the House Championship--to teach that defeat is 
nothing to be ashamed of. *That* is the warrior ethos, not simply 
taking your lumps, but realizing there is no shame in taking 
them. There is shame only in failing those who depend on you.   

 The tragedy of Slytherin or at least of Draco's faction, is that
their racist notions  prevent them from recognizing superior merit 
in anyone but purebloods. This is the reason Dumbledore 
cannot simply "reach out" to them. No amount of reaching out is 
going to convince Lucius Malfoy that Hermione Granger is simply 
more capable than Draco. It's only because the Slytherins 
consider themselves naturally superior to everyone else that they 
suffer shame in their defeat. 

If they lose, it must mean that they aren't applying themselves, as 
Lucius believes, or they were the victims of favoritism, as Draco 
argues, or they wuz robbed, as some of our listies are arguing 
here. This, in turn, leads to the moral corruption of Slytherin. 


Even Harry has trouble seeing what's wrong with cheating if the 
contest is fixed.  So Slytherins see nothing wrong with gaming 
the system--too bad  the Gryffindor Seeker and his pals were off 
saving the world instead of playing Quidditch, and we're *so* 
sorry nobody thought of giving them points for that, but it's too 
late now, mwahahahaha. 

Maybe Slytherin didn't learn anything from their disgrace. The 
trouble is, they wouldn't have learned anything by being saved 
from disgrace either. If anyone had saved them but themselves, 
they would only have thought it happened because they were so 
specially worthy of consideration. I tend to think that Dumbledore 
was hoping they *would* save themselves, but that's just me.

The tragedy of the Slytherins is thus the tragedy of Dumbledore, 
too. His goodness is lost on them. There is nothing 
Dumbledore can do to cut them a break. Any concession of his 
will be read as weakness rather than grace.  

As to the idea that Slytherin had the right to think they had won 
because all the points were in and they had more of them, well, I 
have to ask, what do people think that points are awarded for? 
What is the House Championship supposed to be about? Is it 
about which House scored more points, or is the Cup supposed 
to go to the House whose achievements during the term merit 
the most honor? The latter, I think. The points are made for the 
honor, not the honor for the points.

 Each of the Tri-wizard champions is shown to value honor more 
than victory, and everyone understands immediately that this is 
the way a champion is supposed to think--well, everybody but 
Clueless!Ron, I guess. Come to think of it, he's also the one who 
tells Harry that Slytherin has the championship sewn up. It's 
possible  he doesn't know as much as he thinks he does. 

Term was certainly not over when Harry and co went through the 
trap door. That they were entitled to the points and the Gryffindor 
victory  is beyond question-- **Snape shakes McGonagall's 
hand.** Snape has certainly never hesitated  to point out, 
sometimes at the top of his lungs, when he thinks Potter and 
his friends are getting away with something. Not that time. It may 
be unusual to award points at the Leaving Feast, but it can't be a 
violation of the rules. As we learn from QTTA, wizarding contests 
do have obscure  rules that no one knows about. Barking, but 
there you are.

It doesn't really matter whether the points weren't awarded 
immediately because what happened in the dungeons was 
originally supposed to be kept secret, or because nobody knew 
whether Harry would live or die, or because Dumbledore was 
busy, or because he thought, haha!	let's teach those kids a 
lesson. It doesn't matter why the banners went up, either. If 
anyone has a right to complain about them, it's Quirrell's 
relatives <g>. No black banners for him, poor soul. 

The lesson was for the whole school. Worthy deeds are worthy 
of recognition, even if it comes a little late. Slytherin had no 
reason to feel humiliated, any more than Ravenclaw or 
Hufflepuff,  except that they took their victory for granted and were 
smug about it.

Pippin