[HPforGrownups] The Sorting Hat (Was: The permanent problem with Slytherin House)

[Saitaina]

No: HPFGUIDX 99429

Silverthorne wrote:

<we're to
believe that this *is* one of the absolute
criteria the Hat is using for
Slytherin...>

But we're not sure if this IS criteria the
Sorting Hat has.  It's mentioned in a song,
far removed from the time the hat was
created.   And considering the times the
Founders lived in I can understand that
Salazar would only want to teach the purest,
but it's never mentioned that he specifically
told the hat that this was an absolute (and
not just a launching point), nor is there any
talk of what happened after he left.  For all
we know, Godric, Rowena and Helga could have
talked the hat into lessening that
requirement after Salazar left.

JKR can't understand her fans identifying
with the house because she herself doesn't.
It's rather hard to understand traits in
others that we don't share (Just like I can't
understand some people who would lean toward
Gryffindor or Hufflepuff).

Besides, is there any doubt that Tom M.
Riddle, a half blood, was in any other house?
I mean really, he has Slytherin written
across his forehead.  And Harry, who would be
by Salazar's standards, a half blood also has
Slytherin qualities (and not just those he
got via The Curse That Failed).

Lady Macbeth wrote:
<would YOU want to hang around with someone
who, for all practical purposes,
acted like a total arse to anyone who was
different than them, made
prejudices based on name alone, randomly
attacked people for no apparent
reason and belittled weaker people?  Probably
not.>

Actually, I would.  We only see the public
faces of the Slytherin's, and not what
they're like away from the other houses, or
even their dormates.  When your main traits
are ambition, cunning, manipulation, ect, you
learn very quickly to hide behind whatever
mask you need to.

The students expect certain things from the
Slytherins and the Slytherin's in turn give
it to them.  They've been classified as evil,
cruel and bastards for so long that it's
easier to just play along then to go against
the tide.

I've been in their shoes, heck, I still am in
those shoes.  I've worn whatever mask I could
to get me where I needed to go.  I've been
cruel, I've been a jerk, and I even took
pleasure in it at times.  But that wasn't who
I was, not really.  It was just a part to be
played.

Any evil that does come from the house
(Voldemort) is not the result of him being in
Slytherin.  He could have been a Gryffindor
or Hufflepuff and I still think he would have
choosen to go down that road. The seeds of
who he is were sown long before he came to
Hogwarts, the school just helped him release
it.

Any trait from any house can be used for to
disadvantage or ill, often more so then the
Slytherin traits because Slytherin is always
looking out for themselves, and often can see
the personal danger (unless of course you
become immune to even your own failings).
And I don't see how emulating some of the
surface aspects of Slytherin's would be all
that dangerous of turning someone into the
public face (or crappy person) of a
Slytherin.  Each house has something to be
desired, and each has something to be
ignored.

Saitaina
who hopes that lot made sense
****
"Potter, if a sixteen year old has perfect
skin, that's a pretty good indication that
he's dabbling in the Dark Arts."

http://www.livejournal.com/users/saitaina

"No, one day I'm going to look back on all
this and plow face-first into a tree because
I was looking the wrong bloody way. And I'll
still be having a better day than I am
today."