OoP: Percy as a Slytherin? (Long) (Was: Re: OOP Percy is Not Evil)

[darrin_burnett]

No: HPFGUIDX 65356

 Valky:
> Quite right, Jens. Trying to second guess the sorting hat is almost 
> as hard as going after JK herself. The thing about the sorting hat 
is that it sees more in a second than we can read in so long.
> There may be more to Percy than ambition. Perhaps its just an 
unusual trait among Weasleys and thus stands outlooking to Ron etc 
like, for all the world, his strongest. When instead it is only, that 
it is the most idiosyncratic of his traits ,in comparison to his 
family, making it a stand out.
> And it could be That the Weasley family is a very unusual breed.
> 
> 



We have seen the hat make choices based on three criteria, so far:

1)Student traits
2)Student desire
3)Family history (not necessarily relations, as with the Patil girls, 
but bloodlines)

Percy, at age 11, would already be feeling the pressure of Bill the 
Wonder Student and Charlie the Quidditch God. By then, Fred and 
George would already be showing their class clownitis.

Percy would want nothing more than to please his parents just as much 
as Bill and Charlie did and to distance himself from Fred and George. 
I would say his desire, given a choice between Gryff and Slyth, would 
be, just as Harry's was, Gryff all the way.

Not only that, Percy and his "My Dad thinks Muggles are OK" routine 
would have likley gotten his head stuffed into a toilet in Slytherin, 
who are NOT welcoming of new ideas and people diffrerent than them. 
Perhaps the Hat took that into account as well.

Add in that the Weasleys are all Gryffindor, and I can see why the 
hat took him.

The biggest problem with the Hat is that it tries to search for 
qualities in 11-year-olds and takes into account the desires of 11-
year-olds, both of which can change drastically.

Darrin
-- At age 11, I'd have wanted to be wherever my best friend was.