Which House were James, Sirius, and Remus in?

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 88761

 
> Carol:
> I agree with you. I also think the advocates of MWPP being in
> Slytherin are going out of their way to reject the two pieces of
> canonical evidence we have: Harry's view of his father as a 
Gryffindor
> quidditch player and JKR's answer to which position James played for
> Gryffindor. Harry is often wrong, but there's no reason to assume 
that
> he's wrong this time (he's seen photos of his parents, which 
probably
> include photos of James in his quidditch robes), and JKR would have
> corrected the person asking the question if James were not in
> Gryffindor. We also know from interviews that Gryffindor is her
> favorite house and that Lily was "in Gryffindor, naturally." I think
> she would have given the same answer if asked about James.

Marianne, here;

Just to play devil's advocate - Harry assumes that James the 
Quidditch player was in Gryffindor.  He has identified with his 
father so strongly over the years that he will naturally assume he, 
like many of his fellow students, has followed his father into the 
same house.  Whether or not any of his photos show James garbed in 
Quidditch robes is not something we've been privy to.  As far as the 
JKR quote goes, the questioner asked whether James, like Harry played 
Seeker for Gryffindor.  JKR promptly answered the main thrust of the 
question, which was about the position played. "No, he was a Chaser."
The reason JKR may not have either corrected or reiterated the 
questioner's assumption that James was in Gryffindor could be that he 
wasn't, and she did not choose to reveal that at the time.

Carol:
> We also have Lupin in POA wanting Gryffindor to win the quidditch 
cup
> (and apologizing for favoring a particular house) and Sirius's
> reference in OoP to the juvenile Snape as being part of "a gang of
> Slytherins, almost all of whom became Death Eaters"--not the
> way he would refer to members of his own house, IMO.

Marianne, again:
The Lupin thing is more problematic.  The only explanation I can come 
up with is that he was simply being supportive of Harry.  As far 
as "the gang of Slytherins" - I can imagine Sirius referring to 
members of his own house that way, especially if he hated being in 
that house and felt just as out of place there as he did within his 
own family. However, I think this would only work if Sirius' 
estrangement from his family and all they held important started 
after he entered Hogwarts.  If he was already starting to feel 
alienated from his family and pure-blood society before being sorted, 
I'd think the chances were good that he'd not have been sorted into 
Slytherin.  But, we don't yet know for sure.

Carol:
> In addition, people keep referring to Sirius and James as being
> "cunning and ambitious," but were they? They were both intelligent
> (not the same thing as cunning, which implies craftiness and 
deceit),
> but the only deceit they engaged in was becoming animagi to be with
> Remus and sneaking around in the invisibility cloak--as Harry and 
Ron,
> quintessential Gryffindors--also do. Nor are they ambitious. Sirius 
is
> lazy and a bit spoiled (James caters to his whim to be entertained 
at
> Severus's expense) and James is egotistical and rich. Neither of 
them
> seems to take any thought for a future career, or for fame or glory 
or
> whatever motivates the truly ambitious students (Snape's DADA exam
> indicates a clear desire, to be somebody, to know as much as 
possible
> about the Dark Arts and to be recognized for that knowledge; 

Marianne again:
I don't know that you can say, from the little we've seen of James 
and Sirius as students that they were not ambitious or that they had 
no thoughts of the future.  We saw them as students for one scene.  
And, while they certainly showed deplorable behavior I'm not sure 
that this negates any particular Slytherin-ish qualities they may 
have had.

<snip> 
Carol:
Both boys are adamantly
> opposed to the Dark Arts, which they (rightly or wrongly) associate
> with Slytherin. I think the Sorting Hat put them in Gryffindor not
> because they were good boys (they aren't) but because it saw their
> chief trait as a reckless daring that it interpreted as courage and
> therefore appropriate to Gryffindor.

Marianne:
I wonder at what point Slytherin became the "House of the Dark Arts?" 
Could it be that there was always a thread of dark magic among *some* 
of the people sorted within that house, but it only became more 
prominent through the rising influence of those who sought to force 
their views on the rest of the WW?  What I'm thinking here is, what 
it, at the time of MWPP, there was a struggle for the soul of 
Slytherin?  Some Slytherin kids were those who became  DEs and others 
were those who hated the dark arts, but were, perhaps, in the 
minority, and eventually fewer people who opposed the dark arts ended 
up in Slytherin.  Did that make any sense?

Carol:
> Another thought--McGonagall, the head of Gryffindor House, is the 
only
> professor to show up at 4 Privet Drive after she hears that the
> Potters have been killed. (I don't know who the head of Slytherin 
was
> at that time--certainly not Snape, who was only 22 and had only 
been a
> teacher for about a month--but whoever it was did not show up with
> McGonagall.) Her reaction when the rumor is confirmed shows a real
> affection for Lily and James, which she probably would not have felt
> had they not been in her own house. I very much doubt that she would
> have shed tears over the death of a Slytherin, even one who died
> fighting Voldemort, but she cries for James as well as Lily. 

Marianne:

Oh, come on, that Minnie is a softie underneath her stern exterior!  
If she worked with anyone throughout the struggle against Voldemort, 
and if they died fighting him, I think she might have shed a tear for 
them.  

Anyway, I'm not completely wed to this idea of MWPP as Slyths.  
Really.  I'm not.  I guess I see it as one of those little twists 
that would be somewhat unexpected, and which would also surprise the 
pants off Harry.

> Carol, who thinks that JKR likes Sirius and James and sees no reason
> why she wouldn't have put them (along with Lily) in her favorite 
house

Marianne, who thinks JKR likes Sirius and James, too, but who thinks 
JKR might have saved membership in Gryffindor for the characters she 
LOVES  - Hermione, Hagrid, Dumbledore.