Death / Is Snape unfair with House Points?

[maria_kirilenko]

No: HPFGUIDX 56689

I wrote:

> *Lucius* would murder Harry's *owl* in order to get to Harry? Er. 
> First, I have difficulty imagining Lucius to honestly think that 
> someone would care about a pet all that much. And secondly, IMO 
> that's not his style either. Sort of... small, low-scale for him. 
All 
> IMHO of course.

Cassie replied:
I agree...not Lucius. 

However, I actually CAN see Draco being involved in the death or harm 
of Hedwig. At least indirectly. Lucius might not understand about 
someone loving a pet, but Draco would. Case and point: Beaky and 
Hagrid. Draco knew how much Hagrid loved the Hippogriph and how much 
it would hurt him when Beaky was excecuted. He (and possibly even 
Lucius and others) may think it is stupid to 
love a pet, but they do know that people love them. 

Me:
Well, I'm not sure that Draco knew that Hagrid loved Buckbeak. I 
think that the whole Let's-execute-the-hyppogriff affair was a 
natural extention of Draco's quest to sack Hagrid. It was a side 
effect. *But*, OTOH, he *saw* that Hagrid loved Buckbeak very much 
later on in PoA. So you have a really good point. 

But I just *can't* see Harry angsting over Hedwig's death so much 
that it would actually make a difference to Voldemort. I am sure 
he'll be brokenhearted. At first. For a while. He'll probably be more 
upset than Lavender Brown. But I can't see JKR making a huge point of 
it all, unless it ties in with a plot twist. Like, for example, 
Hedwig is murdered as she's trying to deliver a letter from Sirius. 

++++++++++END THIS PART++++++++++++
Lynn wrote:

As for Harry not respecting Snape, well, if I
entered my first class with someone and got
treated as Harry did by Snape, I'd have no
respect for that teacher either.  Harry did
nothing but take notes.  Gee, call me thick but
isn't that what a student is supposed to be doing
when a teacher lectures?  Harry had done nothing
to indicate that he thought he was some type of
celebrity or that he was better than anyone else
and yet Snape made a point of targeting Harry.

Me:
Actually, he wasn't even taking notes. I believe that's movie 
contamination. And I think that makes Snape even nastier in your 
book. <g>

But I am prepared to cut Snape a break when we're talking about his 
treatment of Harry, and especially when we're using it as evidence of 
his incompetence as a teacher. Snape's problem is that he's unable to 
act differently in the classroom than he does outside of it. He's not 
a pleasant person, but he never pretends to be. He's honest, as 
someone said. I like that.

Instead, we should deal with other evidence, IMHO.

Lynn:
As for Dumbledore awarding ridiculous points, I
don't see them as ridiculous.  He awarded HRH the
points in PS for doing what the teachers couldn't
- keeping Voldemort from getting the Philospher's
Stone.  I think that was a pretty significant
thing to do.  As for CoS, well, gee, they found
the Chamber of Secrets, killed the basilisk and
saved Ginny Weasley.  Hermione didn't get any
points, Harry and Ron did.  Hmm, you would have
awarded maybe 10 points for that?  Again, they
did what the teachers couldn't do and because
they did it, Hogwarts didn't have to close.  No,
I don't see the points as ridiculous at all.

Me:
I am of the opinion that the whole Philosopher's Stone adventure was 
set up by Dumbledore. 

As for the basilisk - they rightly, IMO, got those points. 

My whole problem with giving out the points is how Dumbledore does it 
in PS. Not delving deeply into the problem, I believe that the way he 
did it was just plain wrong. The timing and the exact number of 
awarded points were awful. Dumbledore Dissed the Slyths. If that's 
not favouritism, I don't know what is.

Maria, who has a slightly milder form of Snape for a teacher, and 
hated his lessons, but learned a lot from them.