[HPforGrownups] House Sortings

[MB1984]

No: HPFGUIDX 48356



-----Original Message-----
From: Darla <Talkative_alien_4000 at yahoo.com>
But why does Hufflepuff seem to stand so alone from these three houses?
<snip> it still seems very much the isolated and almost disprespected house.
Can anyone come up with a plausible purpose for/behind this? :-(



I'm not sure there's necessarily a purpose behind it per se, but I think
there are some reasons why the House has the image it does:

1) It/its founder has a silly name.  Sillier than the other three, at any
rate, and the name itself brings to mind some rather lame ideas (huffy,
puff, pouf as opposed to cooler words/ideas such as slither, claw, raven,
griffin).  Even the mascot is sort of uncool, at least compared to those of
the other houses.

2) The house is associated with characteristics (loyalty, kindness, hard
work) that are sometimes considered weakness by more aggressive, assertive
types.  Draco's comments to Harry in the Robe shop in book #1 come to mind.

3) The house members can be seen in negative terms - they're not brave
enough for Gryffindor, not smart enough for Ravenclaw, not ambitious/cunning
enough for Slytherin... From this perspective Hufflepuff could be looked at
as the "leftover" house.

On the other hand, I wonder if there won't be some expansion of Hufflepuff's
image in future books as Harry gets older and wiser.  I think it's pretty
telling that not only was Cedric Diggory smart, handsome, and decent, but it
was he amongst all the eligible Hogwarts students who was actually chosen by
the Goblet to be the Hogwarts Champion.

Millefiori