The House Cup

File:House Cup.png
Just as it was in Harry Potter's time, the House Cup is an annual competition between all four houses, the prize being a grand trophy held by the head of whichever house happened to score the most overall House Points the prior year.

## How are House Points Earned?

House Points are allocated at the discretion of Hogwarts Professors and Prefects, and can be earned in a variety of ways. Just a few ways that students have earned House Points can be seen below!

* Attending classes and completing homework.
* Asking teachers good questions and showing interest in your studies.
* Reporting suspicious activity around the school.
* Being an exceptionally good friend to those in need.
* Saving the school from a rampaging spirit of great power!

## How are House Points Lost?

Just as points are awarded to encourage students to work hard, they can be taken away for particularly poor behaviour. Some examples of behaviour that can lead to point deduction are listed below.

* Disrupting class by misbehaving or otherwise showing thoughtless behaviour.
* Using magic in the halls of Hogwarts without good reason, particularly combat magic.
* Causing injury to your fellow students.
* Going into restricted areas such as the Forbidden Forest.
* Breaking the wand of another student (an especially severe crime, one always punished extremely harshly regardless of the circumstances).

## IC versus OOC

In Model Hogwarts, house points are an in-character (IC) only system. This means that house points will not be given or taken for any out-of-character (OOC) actions such as helping other players, or receiving a warning from the moderators. Points are given and taken exclusively by characters - not by the players playing them.

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 give or take, and their reasons. Just like, for example, Severus Snape or Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter books and films, characters may be biased towards or against individuals or entire houses. It must be remembered that these are **solely in-character actions, and do not necessarily 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, such as professors. Whether these authorities take any action on the issue is, of course, just as much up to their discretion as points are.

As always, remember: hate the character, not the player.

## Past Winners

**Year 2016-2017:** Ravenclaw

**Year 2017-2018:** Hufflepuff

**Year 2018-2019:** Ravenclaw

**Year 2019-2020:** Gryffindor

**Year 2020-2021:** Ravenclaw

**Year 2021-2022:** Hufflepuff

**Year 2022-2023:** Slytherin

**Year 2023-2024:** Ravenclaw

**Year 2024-2025:** Hufflepuff

**Year 2025-2026:** Ravenclaw

## Useful Information

In order to check the points while in Discord, you can use the command **k!housepoints** while in either **#info-and-spam-1** (OOC) or **#entrance-hall** (IC).