Peter + Sorting Hat

[catherine at cator-manor.demon.co.uk]

No: HPFGUIDX 19083

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., rja.carnegie at e... wrote:
Rita wrote:
> > There has been much talk of why Hermione isn't in Ravenclaw. It 
is 
> > generally agreed that, much as she loves books and loves to just 
know 
> > stuff, she loves even more to use her knowledge to save the 
world, 
> > and that Ravenclaws tend to be more passive than she is. Who else 
> > do you think is in the wrong House? Btw, Hermione wanted to be in 
> > Gryffindor (she said so on the train) and Draco wanted to be in 
> > Slytherin, and I suspect that the Sorting Hat takes the student's 
> > desire into consideration as well as personality.

Robert wrote:
> On reflection, you're right.  The hat does conduct a dialogue with
> each student; it pointed out to Harry the advantages of Slytherin;
> it took a long time over Neville - he was my other misplacement,
> I'd have put him in Hufflepuff.  I'd guess that while the hat has
> the final say, it probably lets everyone into the house that they
> want to go in, unless the candidate is totally unsuited to the House
> ethic.  Let's say that the hat decided to give both Harry and 
Neville
> the chance to try to live up to Gryffindor standards.  And before
> hat, it gave Pettigrew a chance, too, but in the end he flunked.
> 
> And the difference it makes to Neville, I suppose, is that he's
> encouraged by the others in PS to stand up to Malfoy's gang.  That
> probably wouldn't happen if he was in Hufflepuff.
> 

I think that it's slightly more complicated than that.  I think that 
the hat only has this dialogue with students it finds harder to 
place.  For instance, it considered Harry for Slytherin, and Harry 
made it perfectly clear that is not what he wanted. But I think that 
the Hat would surely override the wishes of the students if they are 
unsuited to the house they want to be in.  Otherwise, Hufflepuff 
would probably be empty, as not many people seem to want to be in 
it.  I also don't think that we have seen enough of Neville yet to 
establish whether he belongs in Gryffindor or not.

BTW: it has been suggested that Neville has had a memory charm 
performed on him.  I had never really thought about this before, but 
it makes sense.  I am listening to the audio versions a lot, and 
whenever Neville is described, JKR always draws attention to his bad 
memory.  Perhaps Neville is only an ineffective wizard because he has 
this memory problem - and perhaps the hat can see the potential in 
him ie. see beyond the reality of Neville the forgetful boy and see 
what he was truly like.  

Catherine