House Choice doesn't Equal Personality for Life

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 85510

> Jen R wrote: It's not that I don't think MWPP have characteristics of 
> Gryffindors, I just wouldn't be *surprised* to find out they were 
> Slytherin. Slytherins are resourceful, determined, and have "a 
> certain disregard for rules" as DD tells Harry in COS (US, chap. 18, 
> p. 333). Becoming illegal animagi certainly fits that description. 
> Making a complex Map of Hogwarts was certainly resourceful.
> 
> And the Order is, if nothing else, full of resourceful people with a 
> certain disregard for the rules! <snip>


Jen, I know you are only considering the possibility that MWPP may
have been in Slytherin and that you also see the evidence that they
may belong in Gryffindor, so I just want to add a few points to
Huntergreen's argument (which I snipped but agree with).

The people we know best who have "a certain disregard for rules" are
Harry himself and Ron (now joined by Hermione)--all Gryffindors. I'm
pretty certain that Sirius, who empathizes so strongly with Harry and
sees him almost as a reincarnation of James, would not feel that way
if he and James (and Remus and Peter) had not also been Gryffindors.
The member of the Order with the highest regard for rules is, of all
people, Snape, that notorious giver of detention to rule breakers who
happens to be Head of Slytherin.

Also as Huntergreen said (and as I noted in another post), we see no
evidence of the quintessential Slytherin trait, ambition, in Sirius or
James (both of whom are rich--JKR has said in interviews that James's
wealth is inherited). Unlike Snape, who put everything he has into
that lengthy response to the DADA exam, James, Sirius, and Remus take
it almost as a joke (the werewolf remarks, remember?). And poor
Remus--what kind of ambition can he have, given the universal (and not
entirely unjustified) prejudice against werewolves?

Anyway, I sympathize with you in wanting to clear up the misconception
(which is partly the result of Harry's POV) that all Slytherins are
evil, but I don't think that the MWPP are Slytherins. They're somewhat
recklessly brave and not at all ambitious. Their disregard for rules
doesn't automatically put them in Slytherin any more than it kept
Snape out. His ambition (and perhaps his fascination for the dark
arts) put him in Slytherin; their courage (and perhaps their antipathy
to the dark arts) put them (almost certainly) in Gryffindor.

I think putting them in Gryffindor would actually help your argument
that Gryffindors are not necessarily "good" and Slytherins are not
necessarily "evil." Who better than MWPP to show that imperfect people
("arrogant little berks"!) can be assigned to Gryffindor? (Percy, too,
but that's a whole 'nother thread.) And Snape, for all his faults,
shows that it's possible to be a "good" Slytherin. I'm still holding
out for Theodore Nott to follow his lead--or possibly the mysterious
Blaise Zabini. (Draco, I fear, will follow in his father's footsteps
and quite possibly come to a nasty end.)

But regardless of whether we find another "good Sytherin" or not, and
despite my hope that you're right about the houses not being innately
good or evil, MWPP, as far as I can tell based on logic and the
available evidence, belong in Gryffindor.

Carol