The Virtues of Hufflepuff House and Cedric Diggory (Was: Snape and . . .cour

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 106336


HunterGreen:
> The sad thing is that Cedric was always looked upon as such 
> a "surprise" in a way to the Hufflepuff house (which as its said over 
> and over again in GoF, hardly ever gets any glory). The general 
> attitude in the books is that being a Hufflepuff is nothing to be 
> proud of. And I wonder how much of that is JKR's intention. 

Del replies :
Well, she's the one who had a kid (Neville ?) say that "Hufflepuff
wouldn't be too bad", and Hagrid call the Hufflepuffs "a load of
duffers" (might not be exact quotes, but I'm sure I'm not very far),
right back in PS/SS.

Then in CoS, Ernie's bunch of Hufflepuffs appear quite stupid, coward
and even ridiculous for believing so easily that Harry is the Heir of
Slytherin and for making up huge stories about Harry and Justin.

Then of course there's simply the way the few Hufflepuffs we know are
described : Justin the bubbling Muggle quasi-aristocrat or obvious
queer figure, Ernie the New Percy, Hannah Abbott and her pigtails.

And of course Cedric "pretty boy" Diggory. We readers might be aware
that Cedric is really a neat person, but Harry's (and the other
Gryffindors, in particular the twins) constant dislike of him is
*bound* to have an effect on our judgement after a while.

And then in OoP, we get Zacharias Smith !

So yes, I think it is quite obvious that JKR intended for us to have
little consideration for the Hufflepuffs. Now, why ever she would do
that, I have no idea, but the proofs are there.

Del