Sorting Hat (was: muggle baiting...)

[dungrollin]

No: HPFGUIDX 155419

Sydney, post 155397
So, what I wonder is, why didn't JKR put [the twins] in Slytherin? 
As I see it, either the point is that Slytherin IS the universal 
house of vileness and of course no one with a trace of okayness 
would wind up there; or, as I think more likely, there's something 
hinkey with the house system. As in, it's actually pretty 
meaningless and only an artificial source of division.

Sydney again, post 155418
I'm not sure why you are so certain that [the twins] would [help 
Harry rather than save their own  skins]. I'm not going to assume 
they would just because 'they're in Gryffindor', or because they 
show up in the first reel wearing a white hat. First, Pettigrew was 
in Gryffindor too. Second, I don't think these books are about how 
it would be great if there was some magical hat you could put on 
everyone when they are 11 that would sort the good people from the 
bad and never had to think about them individually any more.

Dungrollin:
This has undoubtedly been suggested before (and possibly even by me, 
and been forgotten), but hey-ho...

I suspect that the groups the hat sorts students into are not 
meaningless, however, neither can you judge a witch or wizard by 
which house they were in.

If it is our actions that show what we are, far more than our 
abilities, how on earth could the sorting hat know where we would 
fit best? All it has to go by are the memories of actions which are 
already in the head of an eleven-year-old. It would be judging an 
entire life on the basis of eleven years of childhood.

If, on the other hand, the hat separates students on the basis of 
the virtues *the student values most*, which presumably would be 
relatively easy to pick out of somebody's head (and, incidentally, 
less likely to change much over the course their life), it all 
begins to make a bit more sense.

It gives us a nice explanation for why Pettigrew, despite being a 
coward, ended up in Gryffindor – because he admires bravery in 
others (fawning over James and Sirius), and wishes he had the 
courage to do what's right instead of what's easy himself ("I was 
never brave, like you and Remus and James.") This also explains why 
the twins are in Gryffindor – they're ambitious and cunning, but 
when the chips are down, they think the most important thing is 
being brave and fighting for what's right. And Hermione, of course, 
highly prizes books and cleverness, but freely admits in book 1 that 
there are more important things like friendship and bravery (don't 
have the quote on me), which is presumably why she ended up in 
Gryffindor.

I imagine that a lot of the time people will prize the character 
traits that they exhibit themselves, so we should often see that 
brave people *do* end up in Gryffindor (except when the brave are 
humble, and care more about fair play, like Cedric, then they end up 
in Hufflepuff), and cunning people end up in Slytherin (except when 
they have an overwhelming desire to right the wrongs of the world 
and fight for the underdog, when they end up in Gryffindor, like 
Dumbledore).

On this basis, considering her prizing loyalty to the Ministry, I 
could easily envisage Umbridge being in Hufflepuff, even though 
that's traditionally viewed as the 'nice' house, and Umbridge is 
anything but 'nice'.

Dung