[HPforGrownups] Sorting hat must be broken

[A. Green]

No: HPFGUIDX 14905

>From: gregg_baeckler at yahoo.com
>
>I apologise if this has been raised already... I didn't find it in
>the archives.
>
>In the first book the sorting hat sings a little song before sorting
>the 1st year students.  It lists the house virtues...
>
>Gryffindor = brave at heart
>Hufflepuff = just and loyal
>Ravenclaw = ready mind
>Slytherin = cunning, willing to use any means
>
>Consider the personalities of Harry, Ron, and Hermoine through the
>four books and match them with houses.
>
>Harry could be G (obvious) or S (considering his willingness to break
>the rules and wander under invisibility cloaks).  No problem there.
>
>Ron is Harry's faithful sidekick and belongs in Hufflepuff.
>
>Hermoine is the ultimate brainiac... and belongs in Ravenclaw.
>
>Why on earth are they all in Gryffindor??  I understand that they are
>all brave, but I would be hard pressed to list bravery before
>academic talent as Hermoine's chief virtue.

I think you're looking at it and considering what they are right now, not 
what lies at the core of their capabilities.  The sorting hat figures out 
"everything" that's in your head (and heart, I imagine) -- not just the 
behaviors you display right now, but all the things you've done and thought 
that point to exactly what you are at heart (I won't say, "what you'll be 
when you grow up).
Right now we see primarily Hermione - the bookworm - but that's just what 
she does (reading/research), not who she is.
Consider Neville as well.  Not a likely character for bravery at first 
glance, but he was brave enough to stand up to his friends in PS/SS, and who 
knows what else is going on inside him?  We know about his parents now, but 
there's so much we don't know about all of the characters that it's hard to 
judge where they've been placed based on what we know.
Except for the really obvious ones, like Draco and crew- then again, if 
Draco hadn't been so determined to go to Slytherin, might the hat have put 
him someplace else.  I don't remember - I think it was CoS - when Dumbledore 
told Harry that the difference between going to Gryffindor and going to 
Slytherin was choosing to go to Gryffindor.  I don't know if that only 
applied to Harry, or to anyone wearing the Sorting Hat.
As for seeing Harry in either ... Ron is often the leader in rulebreaking 
ideas -- come to think of it, if it were just about current actions, Fred 
and George might've winded up in Slytherin, too.<g>

a.
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