[HPforGrownups] Clash of Heirs

[Kathryn Cawte]

No: HPFGUIDX 53106

Stacey wrote -

Okay, so I need some help fleshing out a theory.  In the Chamber of 
Secrets we find out that Voldemort is the heir of Slytherin.  Salazar 
was pushed out originally by Godric, Helga, and Rowena.  Is it 
possible that we may have a drawing of the three?  That is, the three 
decendents of Godric, Helga, and Rowena?  Now, their is a decent 
amount of evidence that Harry is the heir of Gryffindor (living in 
Godric's Hollow, pulling out Godric's sword in the chamber, etc.)  
Any thoughts as to the other two?  It's interesting that Hermione 
embodies many of the ideals of Ravenclaw and Ron many of the ideals 
of Hufflepuff.  However I would suspect that their placement in 
Gryffindor would indicate that they are not the heirs.  Though it 
would add a great nuance to the triumverate.  This is of course just 
postulating...
 
Now me -

I don't know whether there's been any significant amount of study about the
idea of heirs in the WW - there could have been. It would after all be a
sensible idea since there was a prophecy floating around about the CoS being
opened by the Heir. But if there has been a reasonable amount of research
done by scholars then either it's not common knowledge *or* which House you
are in is not necessarily important to whose heir you are. 

Why do I say this? Well until the grand finale of CoS the staff and/or
students have accused two different people of being the 'Heir of Slytherin'
- Hagrid (who was after all expelled for opening the CoS and releasing the
monster within) and Harry (while there was circumstantial evidence for it
being Harry you'd think at least *some* of the students would have wondered
if maybe a Slytherin was trying to frame him, especially if the house had
any bearing on the heirs) both of whom are Gryffindors. Surely if the house
was at all important as a clue to who is the heir of whom then the *least*
likely house for the Heir of Slytherin to be in is the house of the person
who reputedly drove Slytherin from the school in the first place.

I quite like your theory of the heirs and agree that there has been quite a
bit of circumstantial evidence that Harry is the Heir of Gryffindor -
although imho it's no more convincing than the circumstantial evidence that
led the student body to believe that he was the heir of Slytherin, so maybe
JKR is paralleling the way the students were fooled into believing that
Harry was the Heir of Slytherin by fooling her readers into jumping to the
conclusion that Harry is the heir of Gryffindor. Personally I would be
happier making Ron the Heir of Gryffindor. If courage is the biggest
defining characteristic of Gryffindor then I truly believe Ron is the
bravest of the trio. Harry doesn't usually seem to really recognize how much
danger he is in till after the event and I don't believe you can claim to be
brave without experiencing fear. Ron strikes me as the true hero of PS
because he willingly sacrifices himself for his friends. Also in CoS he
faces something he is terrified of in order to help Harry and Hagrid. But
then I may well be biased because Ron is one of my favourite characters.

K