PS/SS Chapter 07 Summary - The Sorting Hat

[Sarah Waggott]

No: HPFGUIDX 27942

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Amber ?" <inviziblegirl at h...> wrote:
 
> Questions:
> 
> 1) Do you find it odd that the first years aren't given any 
explanation of 
> the four houses except for a quick song sung by the Sorting Hat? Do 
you 
> think it matters that the students (particularly ones from Muggle 
families) 
> have nothing to go on except a quick rhyme and rumor from others?

I would put the question the other way round: does it matter that 
students from magical families know about the other houses? The 
sorting hat is supposed to sort you by your character. If like Harry, 
the choice came to Gryffindar and Slytherin and you had no knowledge 
about either, would this be better or worse than knowing where you 
wanted to be? I would say better, because the *sortee* is making a 
decision that the hat should be making. What about a clear Ravenclaw 
who wants to be in Gryffindor because of what he's heard? Are there 
often students who could be in two houses or was Harry an exception? 

> 2) Did you wonder, when you first read this chapter, about the 
Sorting Hat's 
> thought to put Harry into Slytherin? Certainly it becomes part of 
the plot 
> in COS but did you pick up on it when you first read it?

I thought that Harry would turn out to be ambitious. I still refuse 
to believe that all Slytherins are nasty and horrible. On a note kind 
of relating to q1, do students from Muggle families ever get sorted 
into Slytherin? This would be very unpleasant, since Slytherins are 
supposed to be "Mudblood haters".

> 3) Why do you think that Harry experienced a sharp pain in his 
forehead when 
> Snape shoots him a piercing look?

I think this is a red herring to make the reader go "ooh, Snape, bad 
guy". If V is under Quirrel's turban and Snape is looking past 
Quirrel to Harry, I think Harry would be looking at the back of 
Quirrel's head. Therefore the pain could be caused by V.
 
I return to lurkville where I have been for the past few months :)

Sarah