The Sorting Hat

[Blair]

No: HPFGUIDX 87333

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Barry Arrowsmith 
<arrowsmithbt at b...> wrote:
> But, as you  may  have guessed, I've a very suspicious nature and 
>I have a theory that it may have been got at.

The suspicious nature is what I like best about you Kneasy...you can 
spot a conspiracy at 500 feet.

> OK, what are the characteristics of the members of the various 
>Houses at Hogwarts?
> 
> Gryffindor - Brave, courageous
> 
> Slytherin -  Ambitious, and not overly scrupulous about achieving 
> their ambitions
> 
> Ravenclaw - clever, clever, clever
> 
> Hufflepuffs - loyal and apparently not too bright; could even be 
>the remedial class

I agree about the first three, but I think there's more to 
Hufflepuff.  Anyone else see Scream 2?  Perhaps their bumbling 
lowers expectations, therefore enhancing their ability to 
effectively manuever within any given situation...

> By my reckoning Hermione should be in Ravenclaw and I'm not the 
>only one. She's questioned in canon about  why she's not  in 
>Ravenclaw, but it all  gets glossed over with a throw-away remark.  
>(Is there such a thing from JKR?). She's obviously one of the star 
>pupils; so why is she in Gryffindor?

Hermione would be a good Ravenclaw, but then there is the rule-
breaking part of her.  Remember the Polujuice Potion?  That actually 
had a little bit of Slytherin there to me...using any means to 
achieve their ends.  How fun would Slytherin!Hermione be?

> Neville is a Hufflepuff to the bone; poor scholar, not naturally 
> adventurous, basically good and modest. And he sticks with his 
>friends.

The Neville we have seen so far is the one described here.  I feel 
that Neville will become much more than we know...he'll become the 
man he's meant to be.

>Harry would be in Slytherin if the Hat had had its way, and why 
>didn't the Hat have it's way? Is it in the  habit of taking 
>seriously the uninformed wishes of eleven year olds? Hardly likely; 
>that'd be a recipe for chaos.

I don't think alot of the kids have the same desire that Harry did.  
Ooh...I think I might be suffering from movie poisoning, but didn't 
Harry know that all the bad wizards were from Slytherin before he 
went to Hogwarts.  (If this is movie poisoning, please send an 
antidote!)  The Hat has to listen to the kids to some extent -- 
can't have a school full of miserable kids. :-D

> The only typical Gryffindor of the four friends is Ron - a bit  
>rash, getting into  scrapes at home as well as at  school, but 
>willing to stick with Harry in his escapades even when he has 
>severe misgivings or even fear (remember Aragog and his 
>offspring?). What better definition of bravery is there?

I wholeheartedly agree.  Ron is the perfect example of Gryffindor-
ism (is that a word?).  When he goes with Harry to see Aragog 
(wow...I almost typed Shelob *grin*), that could be one of my 
favorite parts of the book.

> I reckon the sorting was fixed. Either the Hat, or more likely 
> Dumbledore, wanted  all four of them together in the same House - 
>and it had to be Gryffindor; it's the only House who's attributes 
>are flexible enough to accept all of them without questions being 
>asked.  Dumbledore (or  the Hat) was planning ahead. The four of 
>them form a little gang that is,  in effect, all four Houses in 
>one. A combining, a cooperation, just as the Hat advises in OoP. 
>And so far it seems to have worked as an alliance against the 
>baddies.

That makes sense to me.  Like the Captain Planet kids!  Um...did I 
show my age there?

> James - Gryffindor.  Up for anything;  rash; needed reining in.

Definitely.  He's the Gryffindor king (well, without a song of 
course).
 
> Sirius -  Slytherin. Brought up as a Black. Say no more.

I can understand that.  I'm of the opinion that Sirius didn't begin 
to reject his family's ideas until he got to Hogwarts and met people 
with different ideas.  It's rather hard to rebel from your family's 
ideas until you meet people with other ideas.  For example, I didn't 
know there were people not in Unions until middle school (I'm from a 
Pittsburgh Union family *grin*).  Also, until I know full details of 
the prank I'm sticking to my story that Sirius was using any means 
to stop Severus from following them.

> Remus -  Ravenclaw. Clever enough to become Professor Lupin.

Not sure how much his professorship has to do with it, but I agree 
that he was very smart.  I bet he's really hott too. *grin*

>The closeness of their friendship makes one suspect that they were 
>all in  the same House. It's intriguing that confirmation is so 
>hard to find - why? But if they were all in the same House the 
>alliance didn't survive into adulthood. It all fell apart with 
>betrayal and rash actions.

I think they were all in the same House, for the reason of their 
friendship.  I think the information is so hard to find as to keep 
us guessing.  Maybe Dumbledore sees the error of what he did then, 
and now he's going to try to put things right.

Oryomai
--I need to use binoculars to see the same conspiracy that Kneasy 
can spot.