Sorting Hat

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 115975


> Kethryn wrote:
>  
> > If the Slytherins love purebloods so much and you can't hide
> anything from the Sorting Hat, why oh why do halfbreeds end up in
> Slytherin?  One would think that, since ancestry is what caused
> Salazar to split from Hogwarts, the Hat would know better (or be
> bewitched) than to put people into Slytherin that aren't pureblood. 
> Of course, the Hat does take it upon itself to occasionally teach
> object lessons...
>  
>
Tammy (I think) responded: 
> Well, the supply of purebloods is probably getting a little thin,
> there's a reference to that in SS/PS. 
> 
> But more importantly perhaps the Hat has taken it upon itself to
look more at attitude than actual blood. For example Millicent
Bullstrode is a halfblood (at least according to that book that JKR
showed on TV), but if Millicent doesn't know it, and the family
doesn't acknowledge it, then perhaps it doesn't matter much to the
hat. Tom Riddle was a halfblood and was a Slytherin. Not just because
he was the heir, but he had the attitude of a Slytherin, that wizards
are better than muggles. He hated muggles, and perhaps that's more
> important to the hat?

Carol agrees with Tammy and adds:
The hat received "brains" from all four founders, though it was
originally Godric Gryffindor's hat and may lean just a bit toward his
views. Nevertheless, I think that, much as it regrets having to
"quarter the students every year" (probably not exact quarters--I
don't like the idea of its having a quota to fill), it seems to have
its own criteria for a house, based partly on what the founder wanted
and partly on where it feels a student belongs. So a student with
ambition and an interest in or talent for the Dark Harts (sheesh!)
Dark Arts, whether it's Tom Riddle or Severus Snape, will be placed
there because he'll feel at home. Students whose parents have raised
them with Slytherin values, especially purebloods like Draco Malfoy
and Theo Nott, will be placed there as a matter of course. And whether
Crabbe and Goyle are purebloods or halfbloods (they're certainly not
Muggleborns), their fathers are Death Eaters and they, too,
undoubtedly expected and wanted to be placed in Slytherin. (The
Sorting Hat seems to think Harry would have done well there. Does it
think that Snape might have mentored Harry rather than resenting him
if he'd been made a Slytherin? If so, Harry's prejudgment of Slytherin
combined with the Hat's awareness of his potential for courage,
overpowered that hope.)

On a side note, JKR doesn't use the term "halfbreeds," which is rather
politically incorrect and would, if used, apply to half-giants like
Hagrid, Centaurs like Firenze, and other "half-humans" (including,
possibly, werewolves like Lupin). The term for witches or wizards with
one Muggle or Muggleborn parent is "half-bloods." Oddly, though JKR
says on her site that terms like "half-blood," "pure-blood" and
"Muggleborn" are used by people like Lucius Malfoy who care about such
distinctions, Dumbledore also uses those terms and has not discouraged
Harry from using them. 

Carol, with apologies if I misattributed the unsigned post