[HPforGrownups] Re: CHAP. DISCUSSION: CHAP 11 The Sorting Hat's New Song

[Elihu Falk]

No: HPFGUIDX 91177


--- Arya <dequardo at waisman.wisc.edu> wrote:
> I answered (stupidly):
> >>3.	What does the Hat do with a pureblood child who
> is brave,  cunning and 
> >>intelligent?  Is this child a Hufflepuff?
> 
> Er, you mean like Hermione?  She went into
> Gryffindor.  
> -----------
> IObvioulsy, I'm an idiot.  She's soooo not a
> pureblood.  Duh.  I *meant* to 
> bring up Sirius.  I just had a brain lapse from
> brain to keyboard.  Er...yeah.
> 
> And now that I think on it more...even James seems
> to fit this bill. 
>   
> Percy, too (He's brave in a way because he rebelled
> against his family, 
> cunning because he's only two years out of school
> and shadowing the 
> Minister, ane intelligent because we all heard how
> he got 12 OWLs, which 
> was superb.  He just doesn't seem very wise....)

She obviously was claiming that James and Sirius were
in Gryffindor. But were MWPP in Gryffindor? I don't
think so. I have no real proof, but I found varius
indicatins in the Harry Potter books that they were in
Slytherin:

1) Wormtail doesn't seem brave ("The Dark Lord... you
have no idea... he has weapons you can't immagine... I
was scared, Sirius" [PA19]. On the other hand, he
always wanted to be with the strongest wizards around
(first James and Sirius, later Voldemort).

2) Tom Riddle comments, about himself and Harry
Potter: "We even look something alike" (refering to
the likeness between Harry and Tom Riddle)[CS17].
Harry looks almost like his father. ("Harry... you
look just like your father" [PA19]). In fact, the
discription in OP28 says that the only differences
between them, as of age 15-16, were eye color, shape
of nose Harry's scar. The only description of Tom
Riddle we get mentions only his black hair; this is
mentioned a number of times about James.

3) Dumbledore says that 3 of 4 qualities which Harry
had and Salazar Slytherin had are "resourcefulness -
determination - a cirtain disregard for rules"[CS18]
The last probably is an understatement; looking both
at Slytherin, who placed the Chamber f Secrets, and at
his heir, Voldemort, shows us that. What about James
and his friends resourcefulness in finding the
animagus transformation to join Lupin, determination
in doing it ("Your father and Sirius here were the
cleverest students in the school, and lucky they were,
because the animagus transformation can go horribly
wrong"[PA18]), and ignoring the laws which require
them to register?

4) "Those cunning folk use any means to achive their
ends"[SS7] In addition to the above, James had to buy
a cloak of invisibily. He probably realised Dumbledore
would figure out about it, so I think he came up with
a "reason" - to steal food from the kitchens.

5) Snape noticed that Lupin was missing once a month;
this is most likely if Snape was in the same house as
MWPP. Snape was definitely a Slytherin [GF27].

6) Are families sorted in to the same family? Hermione
said no, and mentioned the Patil twins [GF12]. The
Patil twins are probably identical twins ("they're
identical" [GF12]). In the real world, identical twins
tend to emphasize their different personalities;
probably Parvati emphasized her Gryffindor-ness, and
Padma emphasized her Ravenclaw-ness. All other
examples of families where we know for sure what house
varius members belonged to, it was always the same
house: All the Weasleys were Gryffindors, the Malfoys
were Slytherins etc. Even the Creeveys belong to the
same house. If several Blacks were Slytherins, why not
also Sirius?

7) MOre along the line of personality being emphisized
or rejected... Harry had already rejected Voldemort's
way when he was sorted. On the other hand, he
considered his father "a source of comfort, of
inspiration" [OP29]. Maybe the reason the hat wanted
to put Harry in Slytherin was that the Potters were a
Slytherin family, and not Voldemort? 

8) "There is not a single witch or wizard who went bad
who wasn't in Slythern"[SS5]. Although this may be an
exageration, I find it hard to believe that Hagrid
would have told Harry Potter this if Black, in
particular, wasn't.
                                 Elihu

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