CoS clues to Books 6 & 7 analysis

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 104701

David wrote: 
I'm leaning to GG being the half blood prince, or prince of half 
bloods, and Harry is a blood relative.

"erader45" responded: 
That sounds okay, but if GG is the prince of half-bloods, then why 
are all of the Weasleys (purebloods) and Hermione (muggleborn) in 
Gryffindor?


Carol adds:
I don't think GG is the prince of half bloods; IMO he is (or may be) a
(the) half-blood prince. In other words, JKR should have included a
hyphen and maybe her editor(s) will provide one.

But as someone else said, it was Salazar Slytherin, not Godric
Gryffindor, who was concerned about blood purity. A half-blood (unless
he's Tom Riddle) would tend to have sympathies with both Muggleborns
and purebloods (or rather with witches and wizards in general whether
they were raised in the WW or the Muggle world)--much as Dumbledore
does (which is why he's my other candidate for the title).

Besides, if Hogwarts had one house for purebloods (Slytherin), one for
half-bloods (Gryffindor), and one for Muggle-borns (Hufflepuff), where
would Ravenclaw fit in? Would it take the not quite purebloods with a
known but rather distant Muggle ancestor? What would happen to the
preferred personality characteristics on which the sorting is
supposedly based? Sorry, Sirius, but you're going into Slytherin
whether you want to or not? And the Weasleys, too?

Anyway, I think the ambition and cunning of many purebloods (Lucius
Malfoy, for example) predispose them for Slytherin, partly because of
"blood" (inherited traits) and partly because of upbringing. But I'm
not sure that's true for any of the other houses. Courage (or
rashness) is presumably equally common (or equally rare) among
Muggleborns as purebloods. If you're a pureblood and your courage
exceeds your cunning, you go to Gryffindor just as a half-blood or
Muggleborn would. If your cunning and ambition exceed your courage,
you go to Slytherin. Which brings me to Percy Weasley. Is he ambitious
but not cunning? Does he have courage that we haven't yet seen? Did
the Sorting Hat, which professes to have never been wrong, make a
mistake in placing him?

Anyway, Slytherin aside, I think that personality traits (and in rare
cases, the student's own preference) are more important that blood in
the sorting process, with one exception. I don't think the hat would
sort a Muggleborn into Slytherin. That would be relegating a child to
seven years of psychological torment.

With regard to Harry as a descendant of Godric Gryffindor, I wouldn't
be surprised if that's the case. It would be another parallel with Tom
Riddle, the last descendant of Salazar Slytherin. But it's also
possible that Dumbledore is the (spiritual if not blood) heir of
Gryffindor--same values, same greatness. He was once Head of
Gryffindor House and has a griffin-door knocker. As headmaster, he has
the Sorting Hat (once Gryffindor's) but he also has Fawkes (scarlet
and gold, the Gryffindor colors) and Godric Gryffindor's sword. I
don't think the last two items necessarily go with the headmastership.
I think they actually belong to Dumbledore himself. (If they belonged
to the head of Gryffindor House, they would be in McGonagall's custody.)

Carol, with apologies for rambling, but when I touch the keyboard, a
dozen untamed thoughts come flying at me all demanding to be put on
the screen regardless of their logical relationship to one another or
the post I'm responding to. . . .