Changes: House points

Revision as of 19:11, 17 March 2015

House points hourglass — The hourglasses tallying the house points for Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff.

"Your triumphs will earn you points, any rule-breaking and you will lose points."

House points are awarded to students at Hogwarts that do good deeds, correctly answer a question in class, or win a Quidditch Match. They can also be taken away for rule-breaking. The points are stored in House point hourglasses that show the point totals at the bottom with stones the main colour of their house (rubies for Gryffindor, sapphires for Ravenclaw, emeralds for Slytherin, and yellow diamonds for Hufflepuff). Each student earns points for his or her House, and at the end of the year, the House with the most points is awarded the House Cup. Teachers, as well as librarians^[1] have the power to award or deduct points from students. Prefects, the Head Boy, and the Head Girl can deduct points as well, but not from other Prefects. During the 1995–1996 school year however, members of the newly-formed Inquisitorial Squad were permitted to do so. The squad was stopped after Dolores Umbridge's departure from Hogwarts.

Significant point gains/losses

In the 1991–1992 school year, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Neville Longbottom get fifty points deducted from each of them for being outside of their common rooms at night. Despite being involved in the same incident, Draco Malfoy is only docked twenty points.^[2]
In the 1991–1992 school year, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger each won fifty points and Harry Potter won sixty points for their performance in the Philosopher's Stone Chambers from Albus Dumbledore, which tied them with Slytherin for the House Cup. Neville Longbottom won ten points for standing up to his friends, when he tried to stop them from leaving the Gryffindor common room after hours. These ten points broke their tie with Slytherin, so Gryffindor won the House Cup for the first time in over seven years.
In the 1992-1993 school year, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley were awarded two-hundred points each by Albus Dumbledore for saving the school from the Basilisk, which won the House Cup for Gryffindor for the second year in a row.
In the 1995–1996 school year, Gryffindor house was quickly stripped of all points following the introduction of the Inquisitorial Squad.
In the 1995–1996 school year, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, and Luna Lovegood received fifty points each for their participation in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. Prior to this, the Gryffindor hourglass had been empty.

1991-1992 school year

Student	House	Authority	Points gained/lost	Date	Reason
Harry Potter	Gryffindor	Severus Snape	1 point deducted	1 September, 1991	Cheekiness
Harry Potter	Gryffindor	Severus Snape	1 point deducted	1 September, 1991	Not correcting a mistake of Neville Longbottom's in Potions
Hermione Granger	Gryffindor	Minerva McGonagall	Several points awarded		Knowing about Switching Spells in Transfiguration
Hermione Granger	Gryffindor	Minerva McGonagall	5 points deducted	31 October, 1991	Hermione claimed to have gone looking for the troll
Harry Potter and Ron Weasley	Gryffindor	Minerva McGonagall	5 points awarded each	31 October, 1991	For saving Hermione from the troll
Harry Potter	Gryffindor	Severus Snape	5 points deducted		Taking the library's copy of Quidditch Through the Ages outside of the castle
Ron Weasley	Gryffindor	Severus Snape	5 points deducted		Attacking Draco Malfoy
Draco Malfoy	Minerva McGonagall	Slytherin	20 points deducted		Wandering the corridors at night
Hermione Granger Neville Longbottom Harry Potter	Gryffindor	Minerva McGonagall	50 points deducted each		Wandering the corridors at night
Ron Weasley	Gryffindor	Albus Dumbledore	50 points awarded		For winning McGonagall's chess game in the underground chambers
Hermione Granger	Gryffindor	Albus Dumbledore	50 points awarded		For correctly solving Snape's potion riddle
Harry Potter	Gryffindor	Albus Dumbledore	60 points awarded		For defeating Quirrell
Neville Longbottom	Gryffindor	Albus Dumbledore	10 points awarded		For standing up to Harry, Ron and Hermione

1992-1993 school year

Student	House	Authority	Points gained/lost	Date	Reason
Hermione Granger	Gryffindor	Pomona Sprout	10 points awarded	1 September, 1992	Correctly listing the properties of Mandrakes
Hermione Granger	Gryffindor	Pomona Sprout	10 points awarded	1 September, 1992	Correctly identifying the danger of handling Mandrakes
Hermione Granger	Gryffindor	Gilderoy Lockhart	10 points awarded	1 September, 1992	Getting full marks on Lockhart's quiz
Ron Weasley	Gryffindor	Percy Weasley	5 points deducted		Accusing Percy of ranking Head Boyship above their sister
Harry Potter and Ron Weasley	Gryffindor	Albus Dumbledore	200 points awarded each		For saving Ginny Weasley, slaying the Serpent of Slytherin and defeating Tom Riddle

1993-1994 school year

Student	House	Authority	Points gained/lost	Reason
Hermione Granger	Gryffindor	Severus Snape	5 points deducted	For helping Neville Longbottom with his Shrinking Solution
Kellah Lavender Brown Fay Dunbar Seamus Finnigan Neville Longbottom Parvati Patil Dean Thomas Ron Weasley	Gryffindor	Remus Lupin	5 points awarded to each (10 for Neville)	For combating a Boggart
Hermione Granger and Harry Potter	Gryffindor	Remus Lupin	5 points awarded to each	For answering Lupin's questions in class
Harry Potter	Gryffindor	Severus Snape	10 points deducted	Arriving late to Defence Against the Dark Arts
Harry Potter	Gryffindor	Severus Snape	5 points deducted	Not sitting down when asked
Hermione Granger	Gryffindor	Severus Snape	5 points deducted	"Being an insufferable know-it-all"
Ron Weasley	Gryffindor	Severus Snape	50 points deducted	For throwing a crocodile heart at Draco Malfoy
Vincent Crabbe Marcus Flint Gregory Goyle Draco Malfoy	Slytherin	Minerva McGonagall	50 points deducted	For dressing up as Dementors to sabotage a Quidditch match

1994-1995 school year

Student	House	Authority	Points gained/lost	Date	Reason
Harry Potter and Ron Weasley	Gryffindor	Severus Snape	50 points deducted		Shouting at Snape after he remarked that he saw no difference to Hermione after Densaugeo was used on her
S. Fawcett	Ravenclaw	Severus Snape	10 points deducted		Being caught in the rose bushes with Stebbins

Behind the scenes

House Points — Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

It is stated that prefects are allowed to dock points from students in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. However, this idea is diminished in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix when it is stated that prefects are in fact not allowed to do so. In later editions, however, it seems that, with the exception of the Inquisitorial Squad, prefects can dock points only from their own house.
Exactly how points are tabulated and recorded is not explained in detail. It is implied in several books that simply stating the addition or subtraction of points magically adjusts the score accordingly. It's not certain if this occurs in all cases, such as when Dumbledore adjusts the scores at the end of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The four giant hourglasses, however, seemingly adjusts their contents accordingly to the house points granted or retracted by the teachers' wordings.
In the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Severus Snape takes 70 points from Gryffindor before term starts, saying that Gryffindor would have negative 70 points, but in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Snape was unable to take points from Gryffindor when they had no points left. It is possible, however, that Snape's next words after "In that case, Potter, we will simply have to..." would have been to send to Gryffindor into negative points, but he was unable to get them out before being interrupted by Professor McGonagall. It can also be assumed he was being sarcastic or joking cruelly about the situation.
In the films and video games from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the house points are earned and counted in the Great Hall to the right of the staff table. However in the first video games, they are also counted in the Great Hall, despite the hourglasses being located in the Entrance Hall.
In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Severus Snape deducts one point from Gryffindor for Harry's statement that Hermione could answer his questions and suggestion that he ask her. This, and the point that he takes for Harry's supposedly setting Neville Longbottom up for failure, are the only instances shown in the books of a single point being deducted for a transgression. They are normally deducted at either 5 or 10 points for small infractions, and multiples of these numbers for greater ones, though in the earliest Harry Potter video game, certain individuals, such as a particular Hufflepuff prefect, deducted them in unusual amounts, such as 6.
In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game), Hermione Granger, a first year at this point, awards Harry Potter 5 - 50 house points for learning the Alohomora unlocking charm.

Appearances

Notes and references

↑ Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game)
↑ Pottermore - From the Story: Harry Potter

[1] Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game)

[2] Pottermore - From the Story: Harry Potter

[1]

[2]

@@ Line 254: / Line 254: @@
 |
 |Shouting at Snape after he remarked that he saw no difference to Hermione after ''[[Densaugeo]]'' was used on her
+|-
+|[[S. Fawcett]]
+|[[Ravenclaw]]
+|[[Severus Snape]]
+|10 points deducted
+|
+|Being caught in the rose bushes with [[Stebbins (Potter-era)|Stebbins]]
 |}