Rowling's Roster System (Was: Re: "Good Slyth" (was: stereotypes)

[rachelbeth007]

No: HPFGUIDX 57616

serenadust wrote: 
<in the "Harry Potter and Me" screen captures in 
> the Photos section, the first symbol after each students' name is a 
> circle or a square, which is either left white, or blacked out.  
> Unlike either Crabbe or Goyle or Tracey Davis (whose squares are 
> blacked out) Millicent's circle is left white>
> 
> JKR stated that the entries by the names in her notes indicate the 
> students in Harry's year, their backgrounds, and allegiances.  The 
> last column obviously indicates the house the student is sorted 
> into, the second symbol seems to indicate parentage (ie; pureblood, 
> half-blood, muggle-born), but it's unclear what the first symbol 
> means.  I think that it's a hint as to where the various student's 
> loyalties will lie.  Following this theory, Millicent (and one other 
> Slyth whose name is unclear and hasn't been mentioned in the books, 
> yet) could very well end up supporting the good guys.

I'm not theorizing on the "good slyth" topic; instead, I've taken a closer look at 
the screen grabs mentioned by serenadust above.  I believe the first symbol 
merely indicates gender (hollow circle=female, filled in box=male).  Looking 
at the two pages shown in the screen grabs, this theory holds.  Thus, the first 
symbol is not indicative of loyalty. 

 Another reason to throw out this symbol=loyalty theory is the fact that while 
Millicent's is hollow and Crabb and Goyle's are filled in (makes sense if 
Millicent is a "good slyth), but Seamus Finnigan and Justin Fitch-Fletchley's 
symbols are filled in squares as well.  Is it likely that a half-Muggle and a 
Muggle-born would side with Lord Voldemort, given his hatred of Muggles?  I 
honestly think not.  Sorry serena, but I think its back to the drawing board 
(though Millicent may be good, who knows?)

I will say that it does appear the middle symbol indicates birth.  A square with 
and "N" inside seems to indicate being Muggle-born (Hermione and Justin 
are both known to be Muggle born).  A lone star seems to indicate half and 
half.  Seamus is proof (I believe Rowling scratched out the circle around his 
star), for he admits to being half-Muggle (PS/SS).  Finally, a star with a circle 
around it means pure blood.  Crabbe and Goyle both have this symbol, and 
we can assume they're pure bloods because they hang with Draco and at 
least their fathers were DE (GoF).  

To sum up.  First column indicates gender.  Second indicates parentage.  
Third indicates house.  Back to studying for me.

Loving this whole HP for Grown-ups thing,
rach