House Moving and Sorting

[natalka57]

No: HPFGUIDX 39888

Felicia wrote, referring to darrin_burnett's theory:

>Much detailed discussion has taken place about The Prank and if 
there was
>something earlier e.g. The Incident, say, a house move *might* not 
be out of
>the question, given Snape's gift for potions. There may be no 
canonical
>evidence for house changing but it can't be completely unknown - 
just out of
>Harry's sphere of knowledge. (I am always puzzled why Neville - a 
gifted
>herbology student - was placed in Gryffindor. I know his Mum and Dad 
were
>attached but.....)

I think it would be all but unknown. If you fell out with everyone in 
the house, tough, you had to work through it, people would not have 
been thrown out of one house because they were being a nuisance or 
not getting on with the others, or because all their friends were in 
other houses. Simply a case of numbers and fitting people into rooms 
meant that people would not have gone running round changing places, 
it would not have been thought of – at least not seriously. [No 
canon, but I went to a UK boarding school and that was how it was.]

Leading on from that, although it's obvious the Sorting Hat simply 
dictates where the students go without their agreement - Harry is 
thinking desperately "Not Slytherin", and Hermione says "I hope I'm 
in Gryffindor" – probably a thought she would have reiterated when 
she got the hat on her head. (Though I do wonder, why would oh-so-
studious Hermione not have been instantly attracted to Ravenclaw and 
what makes her think that Gryffindor "sounds by far the best"?) And 
these two have Muggle upbringings and know far less about the 
school's traditions and the different houses, but even they have 
gained some strong impressions by the time they get to the Sorting.  
Most of the children from magical families probably already know 
where they want to go and if their feelings are strong enough, they 
might well be the most influential point in the hat's decision. This 
could well explain Neville's sorting, and also the reason why I feel 
that Snape would not originally have been anywhere but Slytherin – if 
he knew all those Dark Curses, and probably comes from a Wizarding 
family, he would have known the reputations of the four houses and 
would most likely have been thinking about Slytherin most of all on 
his arrival at Hogwarts.

The hat though, does need to decide for those who are undecided as 
well as ensure that the houses are all roughly equal, as they seem to 
be. Sometimes the hat takes a long time to make a decision – I don't 
think the hat is taking a long time, it's merely embroiled in a long 
conversation with the student about relative merits of one house over 
another.  What it is doing is giving the students the chance to 
indicate a preference. No guarantee, but I would bet that the 
majority of them did get into their first choice. Which is then why 
the traditions of these houses get perpetuated.  I'm convinced the 
hat, had it not consulted Harry at all, would have put him in 
Slytherin. (I don't unfortunately, have my books with me, so I can't 
back this up with exact quotes, but that was the impression I got – 
as well as when it tells him, later, "I was right, you would have 
done well in Slytherin.")

While I'm on the subject of schools and houses, recently there has 
been some kind of argument over Hermione's age as well as when she 
got her letter to Hogwarts.  I find it very strange that Harry only 
got his letter six weeks, more or less, before he started at 
Hogwarts. If Wizarding families are waiting for these letters, it 
doesn't give them much chance to sort out an alternative if that 
letter doesn't come. The opposite must be true of those coming from 
Muggle families, they would already have had a school sorted out, 
maybe as much as four or five months before.  How does McGonagall go 
about convincing Muggle parents in such a short time? 

Natalka (who has been lurking for a while, and finally decided she 
needed to waffle. Hi!)