Of course Snape is a dick, doesn't mean Dumbledore has to be a bigger dick in response.

If he wanted to correct Snape's behaviour, he might, idk, maybe correct Snape's behaviour? Cancel every point unjustly taken or given by Snape in the course of the year and tell him to stop being such a biased bastard?
You don't correct an injustice by piling up more injustice, it's a retarded way of thinking and completely averse to Dumbledore's character. "They are bad, so we should be bad too as compensation," said every populist and no Dumbledore ever.

The only justification I can see that doesn't make him a cunt here is if he simply didn't give a damn about the Cup and simply wanted to give a gift to Harry by having him present to see the students cheer him on (that would explain why he didn't award the points when he was in the hospital).

 

To be honest Snape's behaviour is Dumbledore's fault too. While he can't make him a nice person as the Headmaster it's his job to make sure that he at least acts professionally. That said, I doubt that Snape is actually completely arbitrary with points. If that was the case, the rest of Professors would adjust their points and then there probably would be a big inflation of them over the years.

By the way, maybe we should move this discussion to its own thread? It appears that everyone has something to write about it and this is a meme thread.

 

Yes, yes, well done, bloated thread. However.

 

I think there's a lot of fanon in the idea that Snape is unreasonably arbitrary with points. The only example I can find for him being truly unreasonable is when he took points from Harry for not stopping Neville from blowing up his cauldron - however, there's a strong argument to be made that the same points would otherwise have been taken from Neville for failing to follow simple instructions and causing a danger to his class mates. So the target and reason given were unreasonable, but the points themselves were not.

Similarly when Snape takes points from Hermione for being an insufferable know it all, he's really taking points from her for speaking out of turn - something that any teacher would take points for. His given reasoning is insulting, but the actual reason for the points being taken is valid.

 

That’s super charitable given he called a preteen girl out in that manner in front of her peers. I don’t think we can assume he was really taking the points for x reason at all, seeing how little Snape seems to know about teaching.

Snape was a simp and a cuck, change my mind.

 

The reason is clearly given that she's spoken out of turn a second time, after he's already had to take point off Harry for disrupting class by arriving late and refusing to sit down.

Should he have called her an insufferable know it all? Absolutely not. It was highly unprofessional of him.

Was he perfectly reasonable in taking points for her continuing to disrupt his lesson? Yes, he was.

 

I kinda feel like Snape just says what real life teachers wish they could say...

 

Nah, he’s just a shit teacher. The speaking out of turn is just an excuse, at least to my reading of it.

 

Pretty sure he took points from someone for breathing too loudly too. That's just a straight-up dick move, not to mention his remark about Hermione's teeth. The dude gets off on being cruel. He probably wanks every time he makes a firstie cry.

 

The breathing thing is fanon, I'm pretty sure.

I want to be clear, I completely agree that he's a shit teacher.

However in this instance he warns her (insultingly, but he warns her) a page earlier about speaking out of turn and doesn't take points. She then speaks up uninvited again and so he takes a small number of points.

The only thing he did wrong in the situation was insult her - his actual assignment of punishment was entirely appropriate.

I don't imagine you'll find very many teachers who wouldn't give a mild punishment like taking away a few house points to someone doing exactly what Hermione did there - continue to disrupt the teacher's attempts to teach the class after being told to stop.

 

Actually, do other teachers than Snape really take points in class? McGonagall takes points but that's only when Harry's gone off on another wacky adventure. Umbridge, maybe, but I don't think there's anyone else.

 

That was Filch.

Snape's blatant favoritism shows in other ways too, like letting Slytherins off easily while heavily punishing others.

 

I agree that while Snape's comments are unprofessional, he appears to take points only when he has an excuse that other Professors can't disagree with. They may say he's too harsh and could just give a warning, but not that it was unfair of him. It would explain why Dumbledore doesn't do anything about it. Snape is biased, but within the regulations. I wouldn't be surprised if he had many arguments with MacGonagall that ended with her admitting he could take these points, but should be more understanding and him accusing her of being too soft.

 

I mean, I don't think there really is much Dumbledore could do about Snape, even if he wanted to. Not only does Snape's knowledge of the Prophecy and role as a spy pretty much make him necesarry to keep around, but Snape himself is also a friend of Lucius Malfoy who was leading the Hogwarts Board of Governors for years and was still quite influential in the ministry afterwards.

 

Reasons Snape takes points -
Cheekiness.
Not correcting Neville's mistake.
Helping Neville with a potion.
Taking a library book outside the castle.
"Being an insufferable know-it-all"

 

My personal headcanon is that DD got just a flurry of owls from pissed off Slytherin parents after the Closing Feast in PS about the point bullshit.

That's why he gave Harry and Ron their 200 points apiece before the Closing Feast in CoS.

 

So:

• Cheekiness, a completely reasonable thing take points for.
• A Gryffindor's potion exploding (remember the points are taken from the House, not the individual). Neville failed to follow simple instructions and caused an melt down in the potions lab - a valid reason to dock points. Snape's only dick move is the accusation he made at Harry.
• The one for helping Neville with his potion could be a bunch of different things, but I'd go with "its not ok for students to be following instructions other than those given by the teacher, when you're doing something that can cause big explosions". The rules of the classroom will have been written with the idea that you'll go to the teacher if you need help, because asking another student is taking a massive risk that you'll get bad advice.
• Taking a library book outside is less reasonable, however I'd expect there are rules about having to be careful with school property and depending on the weather you could say that taking a library book outside is risking damage to it.
• As covered in previous posts, the actual reason what speaking out of turn for the second time in as many minutes, having already been warned not to do so.

There are so many, far better reasons to criticise Snape as a person and as a teacher than his approach to taking points.

 

Imagine defending snape at all, you’re just being contrary mord. He was a cunt an he took points because of that. That there was reasons he could use to justify it doesn’t excuse the fact that he was a shithead.

 

Yeah but Mord, you’re missing the most important part - the Slytherins deserved what they got.

 

I'm not defending him just to be contrary - I'm saying there's many valid, strong reasons to criticise him but you all are choosing the most ridiculous thing to attack him for. He is absolutely a shithead, as you put it, but not because he took House points away from kids who were stepping out of line.