The Sorting Hat: Weasley Courage (Was Re: Dolores Umbridge)

[hickengruendler]

No: HPFGUIDX 139037

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Derek Hiemforth" <derek at r...> 
wrote:
 
> 
> It's also distinctly possible that we're going to learn things
> about the Sorting Hat that affect our view of its decisions.
> In other words, if the Sorting Hat isn't "really" sorting
> people into houses based on their true nature, but is instead
> sorting them based on demeanor, their own desires, whim, 
> random chance, etc., then it may be that Percy was sorted into
> Gryffindor because -- like Harry -- he simply *asked* to be put
> in Gryffindor... not because he's the most suited to it.  Is
> Hermione really better suited to Gryffindor than Ravenclaw?
> She's at least as clever as she is brave, after all...

Hickengruendler:

Harry never asked to be put in Gryffindor. He just asked the Sorting 
Hat not to put him in Slytherin. The Sorting Hat than decided to put 
him in Gryffindor, because it was the house that fittet him best 
besides Slytherin. (And probably even better than Slytherin itself, 
too.) If the whole Sorting was all about asking the students where 
they want to go, than the Hat should have offered Hufflepuff and 
Ravenclaw as alternatives as well, but it didn't. I do think that 
when characters have strong abilities from more than one house, the 
decision of the characters where they want to be in plays a part. 
[And it could have been the case with Percy in this case. I would 
call him brave, ambitious, clever (well, book-smart) and hard-
working.] But this can't be all of it. After all, the founders also 
took their students by their abilities, and not by where the students 
wanted to go. And if it are parts of their brains that live on in the 
Hat, than the Hat should somehow follow this direction as well.