OOP: Housing MMWP (WAS Sirius)

[Kirstini]

No: HPFGUIDX 63896

Erin:
My first reaction after reading about Sirius's home and family life, 
etc. was, "Gosh, maybe he was a Slytherin afterall." >snip< I 
suppose that begs the question... were the other Marauders also 
Slytherin?


Me (Kirstini), adding my "hem hem"'s worth:
Hey Erin. I thought you made a really good case for the narrative 
implications of Harry's role models/mentors having been Slyth, but I 
don't think it's going to happen. I think they were all in 
Gryffindor, and I think the evidence we had before has been pretty 
much proven by what we see of them in OoP. Here are some bullet 
points (although everytime I try a post like this Yahoomort nicks it 
off me. Must not like the layout):
1.) JKR confirmed that James was a Chaser on the Gryf Quidditch team.
2.)Lupin was made "the prefect" in an effort to influence the others 
for the better. Only one fifth year boy is made prefect from each 
house, and the way this passage was worded (my boyfriend has a very 
tight grip on my copy at the moment, so I can't quote) made me 
assume that only one of MWPP could have been made "the" prefect .
3.)In the Pensieve, they are shown banded together against a boy who 
a) is a Slytherin, b)believes in purity of blood, which they don't. 
Not conclusive, I know, but could PP have achieved such popularity 
coming from a house which stood against their ideals? Would they be 
picking on someone from their own house to such an extent in a book 
where the concerns raised by Hermione and the Sorting Hat about 
inter-house rivalry dividing pupils were constructed as a central 
theme?
4.) Bellatrix Black was a Slytherin, and in Sirius's year. We know 
this from his conversation about Snape with Harry in GoF: "He was 
part of a whole gang of Slytherins who nearly all turned out to be 
Death Eaters...the Lestranges - they're a married couple" (GoF, 
Bloomsbury p461). Sirius doesn't know her that well - would this be  
likely if they had been in the same house all through school?
5.)Something about the tone of this quote - if the speaker was 
himself a Slytherin, why would he bother with the house distinction? 
The narrative voice, particularly when focalised through Harry, will 
give a character's house along with name and often instead of 
personality* - "Bob Jones, a scrawny looking Ravenclaw", when those 
characters are non-Gryffindors.
6.)In PoA, Lupin says "Well, let's drink to a Gryffindor victory 
against Ravenclaw! Not that I'm supposed to take sides, as a 
teacher..." (PoA, Bloomsbury, p182). This suggests to me that were 
Lupin not a teacher, he'd still be supporting Gryffindor - just to 
support his friend James' son? Or because he was one himself? Former 
Hogwartians are notoriously partisan.

There you go, my argument. Let the picking commence.
Kirstini

* I'm thinking particularly here of "the curly-haired third-year 
Hufflepuff who asks Harry to the ball and isn't even accorded the 
dignity of a *name*!" to whose plight we were alerted in the Amy Z 
and Hagridd FILK "Couldn't it be Hufflepuff"...