The Sorting Hat

[prlrocks]

No: HPFGUIDX 88147

Not as bright as you all and not nearly as good with words so I hope
this doesn't sound completely stupid. :) 

 Arianna said:
> 
> This is part of the hat's song in OoP
> "though condemned I am to split you 
> still I worry that it's wrong, 
> though I must fulfill my duty 
> and must quarter every year"
> 	It sounds as if it is dividing the new students fairly close to 
> evenly.
> 
> 	Wouldn't it be cool if the big red herring is that the Sorting Hat 
> just *randomly* splits the children into houses?  

me (prlrocks):

I found the first line, "though condemned I am to split you" very
interesting. Not in the sense of the hat splitting them into different
groups, but in the sense the hat may be splitting each individual
person up in relation to their own characteristics. Most agree that a
good deal of the characters don't fit completely into their said
houses. Maybe the hat realizes this and sees choosing one part of
someone's personality over another as wrong. People, I do think, are
bound to play up characters of their house after all. They fit in
better that way. 

Harry is a case in point. He seems ashamed of anything that may make
him seem Slytherin so instead of just being himself, he seems to hide
parts of himself away. He tries to be the best Gryfindor he can be and
tries to 'kill' parts of him that are Slytherin. He does this out of
fear of being too much like Voldemort, I believe. In doing this there
may be some benefits, but there are also a lot of down sides. One
alone being doubt in himself when Slytherin characters show up
(COS)and another perhaps is him not using all his strengths (Harry not
thinking to use Parseltongue in COS). I doubt Harry would be alone in
this.

prlrocks