The Profs and Which Houses They were In at Hogwarts+ Sorting +Patel/Patil Mystery

ronin_economist donotexist at aol.com
Thu Sep 26 02:01:46 UTC 2002


No: HPFGUIDX 44481

 
> Katherine Adams:
> >> Based upon current personality traits, which houses do you 
think 
> Voldemort, 
> > >Dumbledore, McGonaghal, Snape, Sirius, Hagrid, etc. did the 
Sorting Hat
> send 
> > them to while attending?
> >> ~Spookykat

Every time the question of which houses the adults were in comes up, 
I think of this objeciton, and now I think I'll finally post it.

The characters in question are adults, in some cases quite old 
ones.  But the Sorting Hat sorts children, little 11-year-olds, in 
fact.  Doesn't anyone thing that people's personalities and 
tendencies ever change as they grow older?  Their values certainly 
do (e.g. younger people tend to be more politically liberal, then 
get more conservative as they age,) and there is evidense that the 
Sorting Hat bases its choices on values held as much as personality.

Had I gone to Hogwarts at age 11, I would have certainly been sorted 
into Gryffindor -- I was a brave little thing, inspired by adventure 
books.  But now at twice that age, I am more ambitious and identify 
more with Slytherins, just to give an example.

So I do not think it's a good idea to try determining the Houses of 
the adults based on their adult behavior -- only their behavior as 
children is acceptable evidence.

Peter Pettigrew is certainly not very Gryffindor-ish as an adult: 
he's a traitor and abject coward, who prefers to run rather than 
fight.  But it's possible that he WAS brave as a schoolboy, and 
indeed we have canon evidence, such as his learning to become an 
Animagus and hanging out with a potentially dangerous werewolf 
during full moons.

Hope my bit of whining makes sense -- this is my first post, though 
I've been reading for a few weeks. :)  

Reene







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