[HPforGrownups] Re: The Virtues of Hufflepuff House and Cedric Diggory (Was: Snape and . . .cour

[Janet Anderson]

No: HPFGUIDX 106561

"dcgmck" <dolis5657 at yahoo.com> said:

>True, their Head of House, Professor Sprout teaches Herbology, but I
>would hardly call the subject less taxing than Transfiguration,
>Charms, or Potions.  Whoever says so clearly slept through botany, a
>subject that calls for not only academic acumen but at least as much
>continual alertness as Care of Magical Creatures (remember those
>Blast-Ended Skrewts?).

Yes, and the plants in the wizarding world can be as dangerous as the 
animals.  The mandrakes can knock you unconscious (and that's just the 
babies), that thing they fell into at the bottom of the tunnel in PS/SS 
could have strangled them, and let's not forget the plant that killed Bode 
in the hospital.

>Finally, we are reminded that the Hufflepuff mascot is the badger.

An animal about which C. S. Lewis, in one of the Narnia books (I think it 
was *Prince Caspian*) has a talking badger say, "I'm a Badger, and we hold 
on."

And am I the only one who, when hearing the name "Hufflepuff," is reminded 
of The Little Engine That Could, which we all read in school as an example 
of persistence and determination as traits for success?

>Through these these enumerations I intend only to refute the
>accusation that these other houses are racist or otherwise biased.
>The founders, I think, are remembered for valuing and encouraging
>particular traits, but that does not mean that they necessarily
>rejected others out of hand.

Certainly.  After all, if they'd all been bigots, Salazar Slytherin's 
theories would have been either argued over ("Muggle-borns are inferior! No, 
people who aren't smart are inferior! No, it's people who aren't brave who 
we don't want!) or not even noticed as an aberration.


Janet Anderson

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