OOP: Housing MMWP, 'Dung' and Crookshanks and names of places

[nevilles_mimbulus_mimbletonia]

No: HPFGUIDX 65672

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Kirstini" <kirst_inn at y...> 
wrote:
> 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.

It is canon that James was in Gryffindor, but all else is speculation.

> 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 .

I agree that from the Marauders, Lupin was the only prefect, but it 
doesn't necessarily mean that they were all in Gryffindor.

> 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?

Hermione, the Sorting Hat and Dumbledore voice those concerns about 
16-17 years after the Marauders were actually in Hogwarts.

When you say PP you mean Peter Pettigrew, right? I recall him sitting 
there and doing nothing while James and Sirius went to pick on 
Severus.

> 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?

Look at all the girls in Harry's year that he doesn't know well. The 
only girl that he does know well from his own year is Hermione.

> 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.

JKR has never mentioned the Marauders' House(s), except for James', 
and that was in an interview (IIRC).

> 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 think that he's supporting Harry. I think that after witches and 
wizards grow up and graduate from Hogwarts, all those House-rivalry 
issues matter less.

In any case, I don't think that they are all either Slytherins or all 
Gryffindors. I think that each Marauder is from a different house.

(The quotes here are from OotP, Chapter 28 - Snape's Worst Memory, 
unless I mention otherwise).

Now, in the post-OotP world, we know that James was as arrogant as 
Snape said he was (my opinion on this is that what probably changed 
him was The Prank, but that's a different story).
"...James seemed to be enjoying the attention. Harry noticed that his 
father had a habit of rumpling up his hair as though to keep it from 
getting too tidy..."

We also know that Remus is a book-worm.
"Lupin had pulled out a book and was reading."

Peter acts like a plebe-y fangirl.
"Wormtail was watching him with his mouth open. Every time James made 
a particularly difficult catch, Wormtail gasped and applauded."

Sirius, as a friend pointed out to me, acts very much like fanon!
Draco.
"Sirius stared around at the students milling over the grass, looking 
rather haughty and bored, but very handsomely so."

*sniggers at Harryissogay!subtext*
(that was slasher!me poking through *s* btw, I don't think that H/D 
is dead. On the contrary. So much more angst and hostility for them 
to work on ^-^)

My own, personal opinion is that Lupin is in Ravenclaw. In fact, just 
now I had the thought that instead of just laying on the grass and 
relaxing, he immediately pulls out his book and starts reading, and 
that sort of reminded me of Luna.

I think that Wormtail is in Slytherin. Like the Sorting Hat says in 
PS/SS:
"Or perhaps in Slytherin
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folk use any means
To achieve their ends." (PS/SS, The Sorting Hat)

And Peter *is* cunning, isn't he? One has to be very cunning to avoid 
being outed as the spy-for-Voldemort for one whole year (according to 
Sirius in the Shreiking Shack in PoA), while you were under 
Dumbledore's nose who, in the end of OotP says that he is "a 
sufficiently accomplished Legilimens [him]self to know when [he is] 
being lied to" (OotP, Chapter 37 - The Lost Prophecy).

Also, I don't think that capturing Bertha Jorkins and bringing her to 
Voldemort is a once-in-a-lifetime stroke-of-brilliance like Voldemort 
says. We know that Animagi are either really rare or else not too 
inclined to register themselves at the ministry. If we go by the 
theory that they are really rare, then even if Peter *is* a bit slow 
according to James-and-Sirius standards, he is not slow enough that 
he can't learn to become an animagus.

Sirius, IMO is in Hufflepuff. The sorting hat says about Hufflepuff: 
"You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true
and unafraid of toil[.]" (PS/SS, The Sorting Hat)

We know that Sirius is *very* loyal:
" 'THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED! roared Black. 'DIED RATHER THAN BETRAY 
YOUR FRIENDS. AS WE WOULD HAVE DONE FOR YOU!' " (PoA, The Servant of 
Lord Voldemort).

If Sirius says that he would rather die than betray his friends, than 
that makes him, in my book, a very, very loyal friend indeed. 
Besides, what is his animagus form? A *dog* - which are often sappily 
described as the most loyal friend a man can have (or a woman, for 
that matter).

A friend of mine pointed out to me that she would hate to see Sirius 
in Hufflepuff, since they are "a lot o' duffers" to quote Hagrid in 
PS. But I think that the same way that one of the things that 
separate the school houses are all those House-prejudices. If you are 
in Slytherin, than that makes you very, very bad. If you are in 
Hufflepuff, then you're a 'duffer', to be in Ravenclaw means being a 
walking encyclopedia and to be in Gryffindor means that you have to 
be very, very brave.
So untill (or unless) JKR will decide that Sirius is in 
Gryffindor/Slytherin/Ravenclaw, I'll continue waving a banner saying 
that he was in Hufflepuff.

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In a different subject, did you notice how Crookshanks and Mundungus 
Fletcher are very similarly described?

A description of 'Dung':
"He had short, bandy legs, long straggly ginger hair..." (OotP - A 
Peck of Owls)

A description of Crookshanks:
"but it was only Crookshanks, Hermione's bandy-legged ginger cat..." 
(OotP - The Order of the Phoenix)

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You know how "Diagon Alley" is a street that goes diagonally?
and "Knockturn Alley" is a street that you wouldn't want to go 
to 'nocturnally', the "Knight Bus" is a Night Bus, etc, etc, etc.

Well, "Grimmauld Place" sounds to me like 'grim, old place', 
and "Kreacher" sounds a lot like 'creature'.

- + - + - + - + - + -

Mimbulus Mimbletonia (who is posting here for the first time and 
hopes that the post is ok).

"Listening to the news! *again*?"
"Well, it changes everyday, you see."
~OotP~