The unfairness of Hari Kumbhar
Disclaimer: I haven't read Harry Potter. I do not really know the plotlines of the other Potter stories. The following comments are based on the film version

. Was watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and the scenes of the end-of-term banquet compelled me to yell Nahi! Yeh Anyay Hai!. What happens is that Potter-bhaiya is in Grifendore (pardon misspelling) House whose arch-rivals are Slytherin. During that scene, it is first announced that Slytherin are currently ahead of the rest of the Houses in points, while Grifendore hold the wooden spoon, being about 160 points behind the leaders. Suddenly the Princi decides to award certain arbit bravery points to Potter & Co. for battling the bad guys. And voila! their House is first.

Really! This tendency of fiction creators to be unfair to the non-heroes is really deplorable. I was reminded of Gaurav's article on match-fixing esp. w.r.t to Karna. Also in this case, the poor guys in Slytherin had a sizeable lead indicating a decent allround excellence in comparison to the others, they were not really the villains in the story, and their master, Prof. Snape who was suspected of evil-doing turned out to be one of the nice guys: another classic case of assuming things about morose-looking characters. So, Prof. Dumb-ledore, why the largesse? Can you show us on what basis and on what measures did you award those points to House G? Why can't you let the poor guys from House S win? Smacks too much of Speakers in Indian Legislative Assemblies or of Goering in the Reichstag. Misuse of discretionary powers is the name of the game.
This kind of unfairness is what leads the losers away from the mainstream. I mean, that kid who is supposed to be a rival of Potter might as well say: "Screw them, I'm not going to win anything as long they're favouring him because he is the *hero*. I have feelings too. Why not cross over to the Evil Side, where I'd get more footage and am guaranteed to win till the last reel?" And thus are born the Satyas, the Karnas and the Tessios.
Just apply this to all the villains' sidekicks, dancers in the background, the Namibian & Holland teams, the other kids in school stories, the other competitors in fictional competitions, the other audience members who sit in the back seats allowing the hero to sit in the first row: they ought to win too, for a change...

Case in contrast: In the now-forgotten Billy Bunter series, Bunter & Captain Marker had the heroes lose an important cricket match, have their main bowler unable to continue his education, thus not ending on the triumphant note. Not bad for a change.