Sorting Hat/Moaning Myrtle/ More Fun With Neville/ etc etc

[Fyre Wood]

No: HPFGUIDX 44704

Pippin kindly stated:

> 
> That's not exactly what Binns says. He says that Slytherin 
> disliked taking Muggle borns as students. But if Slytherin was 
> absolutely opposed to it from the beginning, it seems unlikely 
> that he would have ever formed a partnership with the other three 
> Founders at all. More likely his position hardened as he got 
> older. His earlier thinking was preserved in The Sorting Hat, in 
> the same way that Voldemort's sixteen year old mind was 
> preserved by the Diary.

<snip> 

Fyre Wood (ME) Replies:

I agree with you here. Salazar Slytherin might not have liked 
Mudbloods in the beginning, however he went along with the other 
three founders in a sort of compromise. Perhaps that compromise 
wasn't ever made--and was one of the factors that eventually made him 
leave.

It's not just purebloods who are in Slytherin. After all, Riddle was 
a halfblood (Muggle father, witch mother) and he still made it in. 
Perhaps it's the interest of ambition,  power-stiving, etc that makes 
students like Riddle go into Slytherin. Mudbloods aren't exactly 
welcomed there, but they do some times get sorted.


Pippin Continues:
> I have a new theory about the Hat. Its task is "to educate young 
> sorcerers."  I think  it initially offers each student  the House 
> where he/she will learn the most magic. The Hat never promises 
> that it will put you in the House where you'll be happiest, or even 
> where you'll find your friends. It only says, "perhaps."

<snip>

>  Neville would no doubt have learned more magic in Hufflepuff 
> (probably even Snape understands that you have to be patient 
> with the Huffles) but it seems Neville wanted to be a Gryffindor, 
> based on his family's expectations, and the Hat puts him there, 
> evidently with some reluctance. 
> 

Fyre Wood (me) replies:

The sorting hat did take a long time with Neville, and you could be 
right here. Though, Snape *might* not be any better with the 
Hufflepuffs than he is with Neville. Maybe he just hates all students 
that aren't Slytherins; he could just be a mean, nasty old man with a 
grudge =p

Pippin also states:

> As for Myrtle, with her sly and controlling nature (tears and 
> tantrums are a method of control,  though seldom effective 
>  for anyone over the age of two) and that "certain disregard 
> for rules" it seems as if Slytherin were made for her.
> 
> She might have been happier in Hufflepuff, but she probably 
> learned more magic in Slytherin. She seems pretty 
> accomplished. She even has some power over material objects, 
> such as the water in her toilet, which none of the other ghosts 
> display.

Fyre Wood (ME) Replies:

She also has the ability to sneak through pipes and watch Harry 
undress, not to mention make it out to the lake. She pretty much has 
an entire room to herself. Sounds pretty impressive to me =)


--Fyre Wood, who really wants to know what becomes of Myrtle in the 
next few books--if they *ever* get published.