[HPforGrownups] Re: Special treatment - yes or no

[Magda Grantwich]

No: HPFGUIDX 146050


> > 
> > Magpie:
> > 
> > No, I emphasized that they [Slytherin] had officially won the
> > contest (which is why the banners are hanging), and that the
> > winning was fair because they won. There's no subplot about a
> > fixed house contest suddenly being made fair. ...edited...
> 
> bboyminn:
> 
> So, Slytherin came into the Leaving Feast with a strong lead 
> and the /assumption/ that they had won. This logical and 
> reasonable /assumption/ was re-enforced by the fact that there 
> colors were flying. Further, at that point in time, it was 
> logical for their colors to be flying on the /assumption/ that 
> their strong lead made them the clear winner.
> 
> However, Dumbledore, as well as all the other professors, were 
> well within their rights, to my way of thinking, in awarding 
> and taking points at that time. So, in my view, the game 
> wasn't over, and we and
> they had only assumed who the winner would be.
> 

Well, yes, but....

Who put up the Slytherin banners and colours in the first place?  Did
Slytherin do it out of a sense of entitlement or because they were
cocky?  Does every house that is in the lead happen to have the hall
decorated in their colours every year and then hold its collective
breath hoping that no last-minute points are handed out that might
jeopardize its victory?  I don't think so.

Slytherin was poked in the collective nose - collateral damage in
Dumbledore's efforts to reward the Trio and Neville for their
actions.  I don't think Dumbledore did it maliciously - or even
pointedly (or if he did, the message was aimed at Snape, not the
Slyths).  The issue - as Magpie has eloquently stated in her posts -
is not that the Trio and Neville didn't DESERVE the points.  They
certainly did.  The issue is the last-minute-ness of the whole thing,
the stripping of the hall of Slytherin colours.  The Slyths are a
proud house; it was unnecessarily humiliating.

But I think Dumbledore also worked to take as much of the sting out
of it as he could:

1.  The Trio's 150 points simply brought Gryffindor up to a tying
position with Slytherin; it's was Neville's points that sent them
over the top.

2.  The reason for Neville's points was the courage he showed in
standing up to his friends.  Something that has a lot more power
after we read OOTP than before.  And I'm sure Snape got the point -
Dumbledore is saying that this klutzy cauldron-melting first-year
Neville kid has more guts than fifth-year prefect-badge-wearing Remus
Lupin did.  

And of course, if it turns out that in turning against Voldemort and
becoming a spy for Dumbledore that Snape betrayed his own friends
like Barty Jr. or the Lestranges or Lucius Malfoy, then it might also
be Dumbledore's way of giving Snape some subtle props too.

I clipped the rest of Steve's post because I thought it sounded very
unSteveishly harsh.  I think we all understand that disappointment
happens in life.  But it's also understandable that people want to
know why they were disappointed.

Magda

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