Query about Neville

[devonturcotte]

No: HPFGUIDX 55050

Quote from Briony:
"I keep wondering as to why Neville was sorted into Gryffindor.  
Since herbology is his best subject, he would be more suited for 
Hufflepuff. Is there some potential about Neville that the Sorting 
Hat picked up, but Neville hasn't found yet?"

I think that part of the Sorting Hat's job is to identify the 
potential in the individual.  There has been some discussion about 
Peter Pettigrew's house placement as of late, and I think that the 
same answer applies in both cases, if you want to argue that 
Pettigrew was in Gryffindor.  (This is the argument I side with,  
because I don't believe that the rest of the Marauders would have 
spent any time with a Slytherin.  They were all very adamantly 
fighting Dark magic, and Voldemort, of course placed in Slytherin 
House, would have been gaining power while they were still in 
school.)  

Neville certainly has come from the right gene pool to be a 
Gryffindor, given his parents' careers as very successful Aurors, so 
perhaps the potential is there.  I think the point made in another 
reply (I'm sorry, I don't remember who it was now!) about Neville 
possibly "asking" the Sorting Hat to place him in Gryffindor is 
probably the other part of what the Hat is looking for--the balance 
between genetics and circumstances that makes up the individual 
personality.

Devon :o)