How the houses overlap, was: Re: Does the sorting hat sort?

[nibleswik]

No: HPFGUIDX 84873

> > Based on qualities alone, I think Harry would still have been a 
> > Gryffindor.

Berit: 
<snip> And on the question of Harry's qualities alone... The Sorting 
> Hat is, according to itself, never wrong, so I believe that based 
> on Harry's qualities alone he could very well have been put in 
>Slytherin... The hat saw something in him and wanted him there... 
><snip> The Hat actually repeats itself when Harry asks it again in 
> CoS...He would have done well in Slytherin! Very intriguing!

Me (Cheekyweebisom):
Hmm. I think my original comment must have been unclear. I'll 
explain just what I meant.

First, when I said the Hat was a Slytherin, I didn't mean it 
literally. :) I was joking. As for the rest of it, this is what I 
was trying to say:

The Hat is influenced greatly by the students' choices. A good 
example of this is Harry. Harry could have done well in either 
Gryffindor or Slytherin, but he chose Gryffindor. If the Hat placed 
students SOLELY on their qualities, without considering the 
students' wishes, we don't know that Harry would have necessarily 
ended up in Gryffindor. Yes, the Hat hinted at Slytherin to him, but 
that does not mean it would have placed him there. It could have 
said that to elicit a response from him; had he said, "Goody! 
Slytherin!", he'd have gone there, but since he said, "Not 
Slytherin", he went to Gryffindor. If it were going to place him 
simply on qualities, I think Gryffindor makes a lot more sense, as 
he's amazingly brave but tends to be (imho) quite the dunce. He's 
not cunning, though he is ambitious. Hence, I think he'd still have 
ended up in Gryffindor.

Now, as to what the hat says in CoS, that's fine. "You would have 
done well in Slytherin" is not mutually exclusive with "you're a 
Gryffindor"; in fact, that quote perfectly illustrates my next 
point -- that the houses overlap. I do not believe there is the 
harsh division between them that the students like to think there 
is. This is yet another part of JKR's world that can be applied to 
the RW. Humans like categories. We like being able to go, "Oh, 
you're this, and you're not." But really, the fact that Harry really 
could have fared well in each house says something about how 
meaningful those barriers are. I think even Draco has Hufflepuff in 
him; we saw his loyalty to his father in OotP. Luna is brave, 
Hermione smart, Ron loyal, etc. Gred and Forge would have been 
excellent Slytherins; they're both ambitious, pureblooded, and 
cunning as can be.

I believe the need for unified houses will become greater and 
greater in the last two books and worry that Harry's stubbornness 
and hatred of the Slytherins will hurt him. The houses are all 
different, but, I think, also all the same.

Cheekyweebisom