[HPforGrownups] Digest Number 1279

[Allyse]

No: HPFGUIDX 27065

At 05:51 AM 03/10/01 +0000, you wrote:
>--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Rowena Grunnion-Ffitch
><rowena_grunnion_ffitch at y...> wrote:
>
> >    Giggly adolescents or not it would seem Lavender at
> > least, (and probably Parvati) has her share of
> > Gryffindor guts.
> >
>I'm glad you mentioned that, because I have been unable to justify in
>my mind the reason for many of the other Gryffindors to BE
>Gryffindors.  We've had the Neville apologists (and I'm one of
>them ;) ) explaining why Neville should be a Gryffindor, and there's
>still, evidently, an ongoing debate about why Hermione is not in
>Ravenclaw (I think she's where she belongs), but I could not recall
>something that supported Lavender or Parvati being in Gryffindor
>until you mentioned the Blast-Ended Skrewts.  (Which is still
>somewhat tenuous, IMHO.)

How about this, then? Before Hermione became part of the triad, Lavender 
often served as the female foil. Case in point: Her angry defense of 
Neville when he fell off the broom, which was met with Pansy's scathing 
question as to whether she prefers chubby crybabies. Hermione was busy 
muttering scandalous asides at the time. :)

A person can possess certain personality traits without necessarily 
displaying them. The important thing, I think, is what that person values. 
Harry, for example, is ambitious, and wants to prove himself; but since 
ambition isn't a personality trait he values, the Sorting Hat understands 
that he doesn't belong in Slytherin. In the same way, Lavender, Seamus, 
Parvati, etc. seem to value the Gryffindor traits over those in other 
houses. It doesn't tell us the degree of those traits in themselves.

Allyse