Can Students Switch Houses?

[ghinghapuss]

No: HPFGUIDX 90104

Robert Jones wrote:
> <snip> In PS/SS, in the night after Harry is sorted, he 
> has a dream about Quirrell' turban telling him he must switch to 
> Slytherin immediately.  Well, can the students switch like that?  
> Didn't the Sorting Hat say he never made a mistake?  But if 
students can switch, James or Sirius or Remus might have started in 
one House and ended up in later years in another.

Mandy here:
In my school in England, yes, you could switch Houses after appealing 
to the Head boy/girl, then the Head of House, and finally, to the 
Headmaster himself, but it was extremely rare.  Extremely!  I never 
knew anyone who did, or even knew a friend of a friend who did.  It 
was a rumor that a boy had switched years before because of bulling.  
But it could have been a just a rumor.  It was a complicated process 
and any kid who considered it seemed to have an easier time solving 
their problem than starting the process to switch houses.  It is a 
bureaucratic nightmare for the teachers so they would do anything to 
prevent it.
 
In my school it was considered a terrible disgrace to switch houses.  
Your fellow house members would consider you a traitor of the worst 
kind and no one, and I mean no-one, would trust you again.  Not even 
your new housemates.  Remember this is my experience though, and 
other schools might be different.

However, in reference to the Potterverse, even if Hogwarts has 
something like my experience, I could see someone like Sirius Black 
switching without too much difficulty.   He was the sort of rebel who 
could pull it of with out a scratch, and being in such a position of 
power in the school with James to begin, with I would imagine that 
the other kids wouldn't dare to question his decision.

Cheers Mandy