Ah, the Ever So Contentious PS/SS Point Award!
Steve/Bboy (which do you prefer?) wrote a summary of the last-minute points awarded to Gryffindor at the end of PS/SS, and then demanded:
And people think Dumbledore was being overly generous?
Er, no. The problem that many people have cited in the past, at any rate, with the infamous "Dissing the Slyths" scene is not their feeling that the point award was unduly generous.
Rather, the objection is usually that the Trio and Neville earned those points long in advance of the Leaving Feast. This meant that Dumbledore had ample time to award them before the very last minute. Instead, however, by allowing Slytherin colors to be displayed in the hall, he chose to convey the impression that the contest was already closed and that House Slytherin was in possession of the Cup, before pulling what I must say has always come across to me as a rather childish and unwarranted "nanny-nanny-boo-boo" on a group of students whose House already has a long-standing enmity to Dumbledore's own, and who therefore already likely had strong reason to suspect their Headmaster of bias against them.
Those who object to 'Dissing the Slyths' feel that even aside from all questions of fairness or maturity, this was also rather a serious tactical error on Dumbledore's part, as it seems so very likely to encourage Slytherin students to turn against Dumbledore and all he represents, which in turn means towards Dark Magic and Voldemort.
This has, however, been a somewhat contentious issue in the past. :->
Maria wrote:
But I am not sure it's wise to compare academic success to the displays of courage, bravery, etc (you list 'em in full). Tom Riddle got a trophy (or whatever that was, my memory has just stopped functioning) for exposing the Heir of Slytherin, so why not do the same for HHR&N? But instead, Dumbledore just jumbles it all together with rewards for good behavior and good grades.
Yes, but the point system is just completely [expleted deleted] anyway, isn't it?
The points are allocated for athletic prowess (winning the Quidditch Cup is also worth House Points), for academic prowess, for comportment issues, and sometimes just for annoying Snape *g*. Furthermore, even the Prefects are allowed to mess around with the house points: in CoS, fifteen-year-old Percy is taking points off from Gryffindor and threatening to penalize Draco, Crabbe and Goyle with them.
So no, they're not fair in the slightest. The entire system is completely arbitrary, which is one of the reasons that I always find it so very amusing that the students seem to be taking that silly House Cup so very seriously. To Harry's credit, he rejects its importance altogether at the end of PS/SS. A nice moment, that.
And then he's rewarded by winning it anyway.
Something that not only the Trio and Neville, but also we the readers, do indeed seem to be expected to read as a terribly exciting victory.
::groans and rolls eyes dramatically::
But I digress. When it comes to the point system itself, I don't know to what extent I feel we can really lay that one at Dumbledore's feet (although I confess that I'm often tempted to do it as well). I tend to put it in the same mental category as the House system itself: something that Dumbledore probably couldn't get rid of even if he wanted to. I doubt that even Dumbledore could get away with mucking about too much with wizarding Britain's hoary, venerable, and amazingly self-destructive old traditions.
—Elkins
who believes that it is the author's choices, not her intentions, that make her works what they are
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