[HPforGrownups] Mrs. Norris/Sorting WAS Lucius taking over, etc.

[Laura Huntley]

No: HPFGUIDX 35084

Some thoughts on Mrs. Norris a



TABOULI SAID:

"I want to know what happened to Mr Norris. I want to know why Mrs. Norris (apparently a cat) is such a crafty, baleful ally of Filch's, and why she shows up on the Marauders' Map, and why she's the only creature that Filch seems to call "my sweet" and care for enough to stroke and cry over when he thinks she's dead (instead of plot to torture).  I'm sure that Filch being such an anguished Squib and so determined to learn how to do magic must have some significance.  Could the cat shape be a curse Mr. Norris put on his cheating wife, which he maliciously set up so that it could only be broken by Filch himself?"



I think this is an awesome theory, except that Harry specifically sees Mrs. Norris show up on the map as..(dun dun dun) well, *Mrs. Norris*.  It seems as if the map generally gives the full name (or at least first and last names) of everyone it shows, even if they are in animal form, etc. (for example, Peter Pettigrew didn't show up as "Scabbers" or "Wormtail"). Therefore, Mrs. Norris should show up as "Sally Norris" or "Annie Norris", if she were indeed a human in cat form. The fact that "Mrs. Norris" shows up suggests that this is indeed, the cat's full - if weird - name.



Interestingly, I wonder what the map does when a woman gets married.  Since powerful magic transformations have no effect on the names shown on the map, it seems unlikely that a legal bonding/religious ceremony would have much effect on it either. I mean, it doesn't seem as if simply changing a person's legal name would fool the map, you see what I mean?  Therefore, a human "Annie Norris" mightn't show up as "Annie Norris" at all, but "Annie Smith" or "Annie Miller".


TABOULI AGAIN:

"It's an abusive childhood making him bitter and vengeful, it's being victimized in high school, it's being sorted into Slytherin and feeling alienated from the Good Side, it's joining the DEs and building up to a moral crisis, it's feeling marginalised and betrayed and self-loathing and jealousy, etc.etc.etc.!!!"

 

The "being sorted into Slytherin" comment really got me thinking.  It seems as if there is allot of sentiment on this list that the sorting is an inherently flawed system.  Most people express concerns that students are judged unfairly, or that they are not given the chances they deserve when they are sorted into a certain house.  However, there is one thing we must remember - the Sorting Hat is *not* some puny, biased human.  The students are not sorted according to how they act, how others perceive them to be, etc. etc.  They are, indeed, sorted by *who they are*.  In effect, no one "chooses" for them which houses they are sorted into more than who they are themselves, deep down.  A case in point is Neville, who has all the outward earmarks of a Hufflepuff (to the point of being good in Herbology, which seems to be the magic most associated throughout the books with Hufflepuff house. e.g. slytherin=potions, gryffindor=transfiguration, ravenclaw=charms).  I'm sure that his family, friends, and even he himself thought him bound for Hufflepuff.  Yet the Sorting Hat saw through all this to something *deeper*.

 

The point is, that someone who is in Slytherin probably *belongs* there, and is most likely happiest there, among people who are most like themselves on some innate level.  I have a hard time seeing Snape as disappointed with his assignment to S. House, neither do I see him feeling alienated or among the minority there.  Keep in mind that the qualities associated with the house (cunning, ambition, etc.) are all qualities that Snape has in spades - and are also NOT inherent "evil" qualities, to boot.  He would not have enjoyed being a Gryffindor anymore than Ron would have enjoyed by a Slytherin.  Or, imagine Snape in Hufflepuff - surrounded by cheery, friendly types - *talk* about bitter. ^_~ He would have been miserable.

 

laura 



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