Which house did Moaning Myrtle belong to?

[nibleswik]

No: HPFGUIDX 84495

> I like to believe she was a Slytherin.

Me:
The basilisk only attacked mudbloods. Do you really think a mudblood 
was in Slytherin? Moreover, do you think Salazar Slytherin's 
creature would attack someone from his master's house? I don't see 
that at all. I don't think she can be a Slytherin. 

Erin:
> This makes sense to me for two reasons.  I know a lot of people 
think 
> of her as Hufflepuff from her appearence, and the fact that she 
was 
> picked on, but I think that her behavior after death negates 
that.  
> Namely, the way she haunted Olive Hornsby, the girl who had teased 
> her while she was alive.  The absolute pleasure she takes in 
telling 
> Harry of her revenge definitely points towards her being placed in 
> Slytherin IMO.

Me:
I'll say it again. Mean behavior =/= automatic Slytherin. It really 
doesn't! I mean, of the "taunters" in HP, whose taunting made the 
biggest impression on you? For me, it was James, a Gryffindor. 
Slytherin is not the house of the mean! Cunning and ambition have 
absolutely nothing to do with teasing Olive Hornby. Furthermore, if 
she's just getting back at Olive for teasing her, that's just like 
Harry! Harry, Ron, and Hermione relish opportunities to make fun of 
Malfoy because of how he treats them. And they're all Gryffindors. 
Ron took "absolute pleasure" in recalling Malfoy's experience as a 
bouncing ferret. I don't believe Myrtle's behavior points toward her 
being in any particular house.

Erin:
> The second reason that if she were a Slytherin, she could be THE 
good 
> Slytherin that many people on this list believe in. 

THE good Slytherin? Well, I haven't been on this list for that long, 
so I may just have missed these discussions, but I believe there are 
many more than one good Slytherin. Just as in the RW, you're bound 
to notice the extremists of a given group more, I think the 
Slytherins JKR highlights are the wacky, ESE ones. That doesn't mean 
that they're all like that. And if there is only one good Slytherin, 
if there is THE good Slytherin, might I hazard a guess that said 
Slytherin would be Snape? Seeing as how he's good and all? Like I 
said, I really don't think Myrtle's a Slytherin.

Erin:
> We know (from a couple things JKR has said) that ghosts will 
figure 
> in book seven.  I think Myrtle will be the main ghost character 
when 
> we get there.  Lots of reasons for that.  She's really quite 
> different from the other ghosts we've met in many ways.  She's 
> younger, for instance.  Both in years since she died, and her 
actual 
> age at time of death.  She's a kid, like the trio and friends, and 
so 
> she really fits better into their world than any of the adult 
ghosts 
> do.  <snip> 
> The other ghosts seem to have made peace with their existence, 
while 
> Myrtle is very unhappy about being dead.  I think that if there is 
> going to be a ghost who gets to "move on" to the next plane of 
> existence, it will be Myrtle.

Me:
I completely agree with you there. I think those are great points, 
and I hadn't thought about it. Thank you for bringing that up.

Erin:
> Also, it seems suspicious to me that so many of the people who are 
> now at Hogwarts, namely Dumbledore, McGonagall, Hagrid, and 
Myrtle, 
> were all there when Tom Riddle was.  <snip>

Me:
I don't think that suspicious at all, honestly. I mean, there are 
natural time progressions -- it's not suspicious if the student at a 
university in 2000 is a tenured professor there in 2040, or even if 
that's true of ten students. I imagine JKR arranged the timeline so 
LV's second coming would be aligned with a time when lots of his 
classmates and professors would be at Hogwarts. Why do you think 
it's suspicious?

Cheekyweebisom