To think Dumbledore was a massive cheater?

[Slytherine]

Just finished watching the first Harry Potter film on TV and forgot about the injustice for the Slytherins at the end. I have changed my name in solidarity.

So the Slytherins get the most House Points (presumably fairly as most of the professors at Hogwarts could barely hide their disdain for Slytherin House so wouldn’t have been dishing out points to them for no reason) and are sat there enjoying their win of the House Cup, and celebrating with the room decorated in their House colours, and then former Gryffindor Dumbledore just decides (even though the school year was officially over!!) to throw out an unreasonable amount of points to Harry, Hermione and Ron drawing them level with Slytherin, and then a further 10 points to Neville pushing Gryffindor over the edge and into the win. And then, just to rub salt into the wound, publicly humiliated them by casting a spell to replace all the Slytherin colours with the Gryffindor colours and gives them the award instead and they all celebrate, including him and most of the teachers, and Slytherin has to sit there and just accept it??

AIBU to think WTAF and that was very unfair and he was biased by doing this and it’s no wonder the Slytherins were openly hostile and dismissive of him after that!? I’d be fuming if I were a Slytherin student and if I were a parent of a Slytherin student I’d be marching up to the school myself and having a word with the head.

Isn't that why the books are so good?

James was raised to be arrogant as a pure blood but through his love for Lily, became a decent person.
Dumbledore was manipulative and cruel but came up with a strategy to save the world. Interesting parallels with Grindelwald's 'for the greater good' in terms of motives as Dumbledore definitely fits with that overall but Grindelwald is 'evil' and Dumbledore is 'good'.
Snape was bullied, traumatised and excluded by everyone. He was 'sorted too soon' according to Dumbledore and effectively groomed by Malfoy within Slytherin into being a Death Eater. He wasn't a saint; he had one redeeming characteristic - his weird, obsessive, almost stalker-like love for Lily - and he spent 17 years trying to avenge her death.
Ron has an inferiority complex which is exacerbated by being the useless one of the three main characters and his mum giving him the least attention because he wasn't a girl (he saw himself being better than his brothers in the Mirror of Erised). He was clearly a young seventeen year old in the last book compared to the other two who had been treated poorly previously and were used to it.
Harry was admittedly a git but given the circumstances...

All of them are flawed. That's the point.

@Glassofshloer Mrs Weasley had more kids than she could care for (both with time and money) just to get a girl. All Rons fears of being insignificant and unspecial are because of how little attention he got from her - she showed more love to Harry. She discounts the twins by saying "everyone's been a prefect". She doesn't respect her adult children's choices - over who to date or how to style their hair. She was mostly good but she could be a bit crap.

Poor Ron never gets any love on these threads. He was the youngest son with 5 dynamic older brothers and a younger sister who he felt his mum wanted more. No wonder he was a bit insecure. And a bit of an idiot. But if you can't be an idiot when you're 13-16 when can you be?! That's what being young is all about

@Showercurtainofdoom I wouldn’t call Percy (or Fred and George) dynamic If I’m honest.

Fred’s death was awful.

[quote Lillith111]@Glassofshloer Mrs Weasley had more kids than she could care for (both with time and money) just to get a girl. All Rons fears of being insignificant and unspecial are because of how little attention he got from her - she showed more love to Harry. She discounts the twins by saying "everyone's been a prefect". She doesn't respect her adult children's choices - over who to date or how to style their hair. She was mostly good but she could be a bit crap.[/quote]
Oooo another interesting and eye opening opinion! Hadn’t thought of any of that!

@Glassofshloer It's what the horcrux preys on him with!

@SecretSpAD

At risk of derailing....It has always irritated me somewhat that Hermione wasn't in Ravenclaw.

But the Ravenclaws were the dreamy intelligentsia (like Luna). Hermione was steely and ambitious.# What really got my goat was Ron Weasley being Gryffindor and Cedric D a Hufflepuff! Shoukdve been the other wya round

They may not be dynamic to older readers, but to a young Ron they would be!

Also, its never confirmed that Molly wanted a girl and so kept having babies; that's revealed as one of Ron's fears via the Horocux. Haven't we all thought that our parents' have favoured another at some point?

Team Ron! (Book Ron, not film Ron!!)

@User27569

Isn't that why the books are so good?

James was raised to be arrogant as a pure blood but through his love for Lily, became a decent person.
Dumbledore was manipulative and cruel but came up with a strategy to save the world. Interesting parallels with Grindelwald's 'for the greater good' in terms of motives as Dumbledore definitely fits with that overall but Grindelwald is 'evil' and Dumbledore is 'good'.
Snape was bullied, traumatised and excluded by everyone. He was 'sorted too soon' according to Dumbledore and effectively groomed by Malfoy within Slytherin into being a Death Eater. He wasn't a saint; he had one redeeming characteristic - his weird, obsessive, almost stalker-like love for Lily - and he spent 17 years trying to avenge her death.
Ron has an inferiority complex which is exacerbated by being the useless one of the three main characters and his mum giving him the least attention because he wasn't a girl (he saw himself being better than his brothers in the Mirror of Erised). He was clearly a young seventeen year old in the last book compared to the other two who had been treated poorly previously and were used to it.
Harry was admittedly a git but given the circumstances...

All of them are flawed. That's the point.

Yes - it's not just a children's book. There are layers and the best part is re-reading it through adult eyes and doing a 360. I used to idolise Harry and thing Snape was a git but now as adult I can see why Snape had a thing for Harry given how much he looks like his father. And how James, the bully took away Snape's crush (but also the only person who had been kind to him, ever).

Lots to unpack really

*crush == only person who had been kind to him

It was always so considerate that Voldemort, Sirius etc waited until the end of the academic year before unleashing their dastardly plans. Such respect for young Harry's education should be applauded.

@TractorAndHeadphones you can see why he hates Harry but that doesn't justify the way he abuses his status as his teacher to bully him. Not to mention how he bullies other students, such as Neville and Hermione who've never done anything to him. He's an adult. And a teacher.

Also at the risk of major spoilering - the HP play which si the 'eigth' book. Not all of Harry's children end up in Gryffindor

@Willowowisp

Someone once pointed out to me that the best parents were the Malfoys. They were willing to put Draco above everything. Definitely, an interesting view.

And despite the baggage from being the sister of a Golden Child and then have the Perfect Sister being irreproachable because she was dead, the Dursleys did take the baby when they could have just said 'nope' and had him put into care, wanting to keep magic out of the equation so that he didn't get himself and others killed like his parents were. Seems like she needed therapy to be able to state boundaries, not another responsibility dumped on her in the dead of night by one of her sister's weird friends.

@NeverDropYourMooncup Harry would have been taken into care if he was raised that way now though. He literally slept in a cupboard under the stairs.

One thing I don’t really get is the whole ‘reformed character’ thing for James Potter considering how young him and Lily are, they are married and expecting Harry at the grand old age of NINETEEN.
So about 3 years on from him being a terrible bully and horrible person to her husband.
I don’t understand why they weren’t written as a few years older at time of marriage and having Harry.

Tbf though what self respecting slytherin would give a shit about house point anyway? I mean, the same goes for any student I suppose but slytherins are busy plotting useful shit like how to take over the world.

@Pinkbonbon

Tbf though what self respecting slytherin would give a shit about house point anyway? I mean, the same goes for any student I suppose but slytherins are busy plotting useful shit like how to take over the world.

That’s what I always think is funny in the films. Little grins to each other, and high fives for getting 5 house points. That would not have happened at my school.

Snape was the most noble and misunderstood character.

My heart truly broke for him as he held a lifeless Lily, his one and only love.

@Showercurtainofdoom

They may not be dynamic to older readers, but to a young Ron they would be!

Also, its never confirmed that Molly wanted a girl and so kept having babies; that's revealed as one of Ron's fears via the Horocux. Haven't we all thought that our parents' have favoured another at some point?

Team Ron! (Book Ron, not film Ron!!)

It's never explicit but it's very heavily implied. Six boys and the last one is a girl, plus "Not my daughter, you bitch!"

[quote whosaidtha]@TractorAndHeadphones you can see why he hates Harry but that doesn't justify the way he abuses his status as his teacher to bully him. Not to mention how he bullies other students, such as Neville and Hermione who've never done anything to him. He's an adult. And a teacher. [/quote]
Yes but it's not as simple as he's the bully and thefore bad. There are shades of grey, Like in real life.

@amatsip

Snape was the most noble and misunderstood character.

My heart truly broke for him as he held a lifeless Lily, his one and only love.

He wasn't as noble as he could have been, but that matters. Broken, damaged people are not their best selves.

@Waahingwashingwashing

If Harry was a horcrux - the one that Voldemort never meant to make - could the Dursley’s have been horrible because they were living with a horcrux? Look at what it did to Ron having the thing around his neck

This never occurred to me.

Wasn’t there a reason Harry needed to stay with Dursley’s, something to do with Petunia being a blood relative of Lily so whilst he stayed in her home he would be protected by the special magic of Lily’s sacrifice until he turned 17.

@phonetica

Wasn’t there a reason Harry needed to stay with Dursley’s, something to do with Petunia being a blood relative of Lily so whilst he stayed in her home he would be protected by the special magic of Lily’s sacrifice until he turned 17.

Yeah, it was the explanation as to why Voldemort couldn’t just walk straight into the Dursley’s house and finish him off and instead had to get at him in other ways.