BookwormByNight - Ao3

an hour into wee harry’s freedom from the dursleys’ clutches, his newfound riches barely warm in his pockets, and he’s decided on a solid gold cauldron

and what are all his riches good for if not treating himself and his new, first ever friend to every kind of sweet on the trolley?

third year, he ponders the wisdom of splashing out on a firebolt and solid gold gobstones, but very admirably chooses to be a responsible spender

harry spots shiny gleaming metal, and he makes a beeline for it. then he proceeds to shell out thirty galleons without blinking an eye because niffler he may be, he also has a heart of gold

“What’s up?” said Hagrid. “Nothing,” Harry lied. They stopped to buy parchment and quills. Harry cheered up a bit when he found a bottle of ink that changed color as you wrote.

(PS, Ch5)

It's not just things made from gold and silver, he likes nice, fancy little luxuries he never got to have. Harry probably has some nice fancy quills, I mean, Hermione gets him one for Christmas:

The rest of Harry’s Christmas presents were far more satisfactory. Hagrid had sent him a large tin of treacle toffee, which Harry decided to soften by the fire before eating; Ron had given him a book called Flying with the Cannons, a book of interesting facts about his favorite Quidditch team, and Hermione had bought him a luxury eagle-feather quill.

(CoS, Ch12)

Some argue that it was justified because of Snape, it was to apologize to the trio for taking away so much points, and he didn’t have enough time to reward them points earlier because Harry was injured.

While others point out that Snape wasn’t the one who took the 150 points, The Trio + Hagrid really did commit a dangerous crime so why should they be given an apology when Draco wasn’t given one for being punished for doing the right thing, and Dumbledore did not to tell the Slytherins they won first.

Dumbledore gave the trio points for doing a good job getting through his obstacle course. And then gave Neville the points that put them over the top, in order to teach a lesson about different kinds of bravery etc. I'm not even sure Dumbledore's even aware that McGonagall took away all those points after the trio get caught wandering around at night doing dragon-related activities. He doesn't seem super locked in when it comes to that nitty-gritty day-to-day stuff.

The Doylist answer behind the question "Is it good that Dumbledore gave them all those points" is *hell yes,* Philosopher's Stone is a children's book, and the Slytherins are all meanies. We don't want the meanies to win! We want the good guys to win! And Dumbledore's this wacky "mad" guy who does chaotic unpredictable things, which makes him fun and relatable... but also gives him juuuusst enough edge to be interesting to a young reader. He's not a goody-two-shoes, and we like that. He's the sort of adult who's cool with breaking the rules, and letting Harry get into trouble.

The Watsonian answer is that Dumbledore seems to run Hogwarts as an independent fiefdom, and he does whatever the hell he wants... in a way that low-key freaks out both the ministry and Lucius Malfoy. He's not all that interested in a fair/good experience for the students, he's a light-coded dark lord who is using the cursed position to bump off people he doesn't like, hiring people because it's a convenient way to protect/control them, training up Harry to defeat Voldemort, and sort of take over the word without anyone noticing. Dumbledore wants Harry to be loyal to him, and wants Harry to see him as all-powerful. So of course he'll pull a stunt like that, even though it's massively unfair. (Basically, he gave the trio and only the trio an awesome extra credit project.) He's also really, really dramatic.

And I am SURE that after Dumbledore did all that with the points, Draco went home FUMING over Dumbledore's BULLSHIT, and Lucius was like "'he thinks he can get away with this? Merlin, this school really is going to the dogs. Don't worry Draco, I have a plan. He won't be able to do this to you at the end of next year, I can promise you that much..."

and then, of course, we see how Lucius' plan to get rid of Dumbledore actually goes.

Like was it mildly exclusionary? Yes. But I don't think it happened because Gryffindor. I think it happened because Harry.

While Dumbledore is often referred to by people who don't like him as a "muggle-lover" and a "fool", I can't actually remember places where people complain about him favoring him own house, and this is evidenced in the text. The other teachers - you know, the ones interacting with students, and teaching - usually handle the points. In PS, we know that Slytherin had won the house cup seven years in a row prior to Harry's arrival. I think, if Dumbledore showed house favoritism that he's often accused of, this wouldn't have happened. He would have pulled out the million-points-to-Gryffindor trick and they would've moved on. This was a very one-time thing, and it was intended to be a reward (and a reminder of his supposed omnipotence, and an opportunity for a lesson on moral fiber) to the prophesied Chosen One and the coincidental people around him who acted in ways that he was proud/approving of.

And on that note, I don't think he's a Slytherin Hater either. Whenever he makes speeches to the houses of Hogwarts, his emphasis is very much on unity. Not "Gryffindor, be brave", and not "the three not-evil houses need to unify against the evil house". It's everyone. Everyone needs to love each other. Unfortunately, Slytherin doesn't really take to this (because JKR and Dumbledore differ on this point), but it's still what the guy was hoping for. On top of that, he's not even concerned about parselmouths really, which is something very, very odd in a world where there is a huge cultural bias against them. He expresses empathy for Merope. He thinks that Tom's reveal of his ability is a "huh, interesting, definitely not a muggleborn then" sort of brush off, AFTER he's decided for entirely different reasons that he's concerned about Tom. He expresses that to Harry as well.

Listen....I get why "cold, apathetic, unemotional TMRJ, learning about feelings from the 'How to Emote For Dummies' " book, stereotype is so popular, but in my HC, Tom's a feral, dramatic, little shit, frightened at how emotional he is. He would love to be a cold, distant, unattached, Spock like individual but he isn't.

Guys can't you see he's glass pretending to be stone? Glass is razor sharp yes, can cut you till you bleed to death, absolutely. But so fragile and breakable too. That's probably his biggest secret- how in need of validation and support he really is.

Unemotional my foot. Which unemotional person you know curses a teaching position just because he was denied for the same? Which detached individual carries cold, venomous rage against his father for leaving his mother for 15 years, and as soon as he's legally able to use magic, goes and kills him?

Tom admittedly has low reservoir of empathy and nil moral filter. But that doesn't make him unemotional.

The emotions he experiences probably ranges from incandescent rage to seething resentment, but negative emotions= still emotions.