What the Sorting Hat REALLY Said, and The Good Slytherin.

[annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 84999

Berit wrote:
> 
> I think your answer makes sense Annemehr :-) But, the reason I think 
> Rowling makes Harry only hear the first part of the Hat's "speech" in 
> CoS is not only because he needed to experience firsthand that he is 
> a real Gryffindor, but also because Rowling leaves a lot of clues in 
> CoS about Harry's connection to the Slytherin house in general and to 
> Voldemort in particular. The book is just littered with hints that 
> Harry is not ONLY a true Gryffindor... He seems also to have 
> inherited something from Voldemort, whether only accidental or not I 
> don't know, but I don't think parseltongue is the only thing that 
> makes Harry "equal" to old Voldie...

Annemehr replies:

I think we are just down to discussing matters of degree! :-) If I
read your previous post right, you said that it may be true that Harry
was evenly balanced between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and it was only
his refusal of Slytherin that tipped the scales.  I don't think that
is the case, and I don't see that the clues add up to quite that much.

I do agree that what Harry received from Voldemort is very important,
and we have seen that it's much more than parseltongue and a scar that
twinges when Voldemort is near (the extent of what Harry found out by
the end of CoS, though DD hinted at more).  I'll even go farther and
say that there's probably even more to it that we haven't learned yet.
 I just don't believe it is enough to make Harry's Slytherin traits as
strong as his Gryffindor ones.  Though Voldemort did mark Harry as his
equal, Harry still has the power that LV knows not, the power in his
*heart,* where he is, I'm sure, very much a Gryffindor.

As a measure of how important I do see this connection to be, I'll
note that I once posted a variant to the Stoned!Harry theory in which
Harry became a living philosopher's stone the moment LV bounced an AK
off his head -- but that is another theory entirely!

Annemehr