The House Point System (test)

The House Cup is, as seen in the Harry Potter books, a yearlong competition between the four Hogwarts Houses to see who can win the largest number of house points. Points can be awarded or taken away by professors, prefects and students as a result of your character's actions. At the end of the year, whichever house has the largest number of points is awarded the house cup, and will have the Great Hall banners changed to reflect their house colors at the Leaving Feast. House points reset with each new school year.

Winning House Points:
House points are a common way for Head Students, Prefects, and Professors, to reward good behavior. They are frequently given out in class for things such as successfully answering a question correctly, successfully casting a spell in class, or assisting in the Professor in some way.

Losing House Points:
House points are, alongside detentions, a method for Head Students, Prefects, and Professors to punish students for poor behavior. Common examples of this might include disrupting a class, bullying another classmate, or violating curfew or other Hogwarts rules.

In-Character:
In Model Hogwarts, house points are an in-character only system. This means that house points will not be given or taken for any out-character actions such as when you get a poke, formal warning, or help another player. What this means is that points are taken by characters - not by players.

This means that characters are free to use their own discretion when they decide what kind of punishment to inflict or reward to give, including how many points will be involved. As a result, there can be differences in how many points characters tend to take, and what they take points for. In some cases - like Severus Snape or Albus Dumbledore - characters may even be biased when taking away points. However, as always, it should be remembered that these are solely in-character actions, and likely do not reflect the views of the character's player. As such, if your character feels that they are being unfairly treated, complaints should be made to in-character authorities - though whether these authorities take any action on the issue is, of course, just as much up to their discretion as points are. And as always, remember: hate the character, not the player.