The Sorting of the Trio

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 40341

Although I yield to few in my admiration for JK Rowling, I do think that she
rather missed a bet in the first part of the books, when the Trio were
Sorted.  I could make a case that the books would be more evocative, and in
some ways more interesting, if they had all three been sent
into...Slytherin!

We have the Hat's own word, issued twice, that Harry himself would have done
well in Slytherin.  Ron has a burning desire to outshine his brothers, or at
least to be out from under their shadows---and they were all Gryffindors, so
how better than to be a Slytherin?  He also hates being poor, which has
often translated into ambition to better one's financial situation.  As for
Hermione, she's got drive and talent, and IMO shows incredible ambition to
be the _best_ witch she can be...which strikes me, at least, as far more the
sort of ambition that a Salazar Slytherin would have wanted to see in his
picked pupils.

So-o-o, how does this sound as a slightly-alternate Harry Potter storyline?
HP and his two pals are sorted into Slytherin, which has never recovered,
reputation-wise, from the Voldemort and Death Eater scandals.  They find
themselves rather on-the-outs with the rest of the school _just because
they're Slytherins,_ and vow to recoup Slytherin House's good name somehow.
Their adventures go about as they do in our own version, but Gryffindor
House is the big favorites for the House and Quidditch Cup, and is
distinctly favored over Slytherin by most of the teachers.  (If you think
Snape was bad, try being in Professor McGonagall's doghouse sometime!)  The
big change-of-decor at the end of PS/SS is because _Slytherin_ has won the
House Cup, thanks to the Trio, for the first time since the memory of man
(or at least student) runneth not to the contrary, and although the Slyths
are rejoicing and lionizing the Trio, the other houses just hate the Slyths
even more for "snatching it away" from Gryffindor at the last minute.

Draco Malfoy exists, and is in Slytherin, in this "alternate" version, but
he starts out as a friend and close associate of the Trio.  One of the
tragic aspects of the books is them having to watch helplessly as Draco is
drawn deeper and deeper into the bowels of the Dark Side, under the
influence of his father.  Besides having to fight the Big V, as well as the
other houses' dislike of their house, the Trio have to cope, somehow, with
the fact that not even everybody in _their own_ house approves of what
they're doing and wants them to succeed.  This would be an additonal
challenge to them---in our own version of the HP books, they can count
pretty closely on Gryffindor House being behind them.

So--comments?  Howlers?  Anything?  *dons Howler-proof armour*