House Qualities (Was: Re: Slytherin Purebloods?)

[meriaugust]

No: HPFGUIDX 88156

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "severelysigune" 
<severelysigune at y...> wrote:
Many people who theorise about the Harry Potter universe and who 
write fan fictions seem to assume that students who get sorted into 
Slytherin must necessarily be purebloods...

minor snips... 

In the days of Salazar Slytherin it might still have been possible 
to select Slytherins on blood basis only, but surely it cannot be 
the case anymore now?

But being a pure-blood fanatic or an anti-Mudblood isn't the only 
quality that Salazar Slytherin used to choose his students: there is 
also cunning and ambition (two of the more negative house 
qualities), and resoursefullness and determination (two of the more 
positive house qualities that, unfortunatley we haven't seen too 
much of). IMHO, every house posesses qualities that can be both 
positive attributes and negative ones. Take Gryffindor for example: 
bravery is of course a highly valuable quality, one to be admired 
even, but take bravery too far and you end up with recklessness. In 
fact, I think that it can be argued that the houses represent 
qualites that each individual should have, even in small amounts, to 
make up a balanced person. For example, Hufflepuffs are hardworking, 
but what good is hard work without the ambition (from Slytherin) to 
apply it or intellegence (from Ravenclaw) to focus it? Conversely, 
what good is bravery without intellegence behind it, or ambition not 
backed up by hardwork? I think that the Sorting Hat had Harry right 
all along, especially when it told him that he would be hard to 
place because he does posess such a variety of qualities: a good 
mind (as evidenced by his solving of the sphinx's riddle in GoF), 
resourcefullness (as we see when he successfully navigates the third 
Triwizard Task), loyalty (especially to Dumbledore and his friends). 
But his overwhelming quality is bravery. So while clear he belongs 
in Gryffindor, I think he also represents a balanced person, who 
displays the qualities of all the houses well. 
Meri (with many apologies for straying off topic)