House Qualities (Was: Re: Slytherin Purebloods?)

[severelysigune]

No: HPFGUIDX 88187

Erm - I may be straying even further off topic, but I thought you 
made an interesting point, Meri.

Meri wrote:
>snip snip snip>
<< 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.>>
<snip snip snip>

This is clearly becoming an ever more important theme in the books: 
Dumbledore seems to be one of the very few wizards who actually 
realise that the rivalry between the Houses plays into the hands of 
Voldemort - it sows discord. And as you say, they all represent 
valuable qualities that need combining in order to really work. If 
the magical community is to be harmonious, there is to be a balance 
between the Houses and the qualities they represent.

What bothers me, though, is that even the staff at Hogwarts are 
liable to increase the rivalry between Houses, and time and time 
again we witness "All against Slytherin and Slytherin against all". A 
witch like McGonagall, who seems so competent and clever, seems 
incapable to overcome her prejudice against Slytherin. Quidditch, for 
that matter, is a horror - the competition is past sport, and 
everyone sets high store by it. I think Snape has quite an heroic 
task to perform, trying to support his House against so much enmity; 
though he does seem up to it, seeing the Slytherin results in both 
the Quidditch and House Cup competitions prior to Harry's arrival. In 
any case, as is clear from the PS passage where Snape decides to 
referee a Quidditch match in order to prevent Quirrell from playing 
more tricks, all of his colleagues thinks he is just trying to be 
nasty to Gryfindor - after having worekd with him for more than ten 
years they still don't trust him at all!! 
In fact, the whole Hogwarts system turns on competition. The Houses. 
The House Cup. The Quidditch Cup. It might be useful if Dumbledore 
just started a School Reform instead of forcing rivalry on his 
students and then asking them to be nice and friendly with each 
other. Well, I guess a really wise person should be able to overcome 
these obstacles, but not all witches and wizards can be expected to 
become Dumbledores, can they?

Yours severely,

Sigune