Sorting Hat (was: muggle baiting...)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 155424

> 
> 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:
> 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.

Pippin:
Exactly. What matters to the hat is not what you are but what you
want to be. As Harry thinks to himself, the only House he's really
equipped for at the moment of Sorting would be the one for the
slightly queasy. But he very much wants to be brave.

Of course people who want to be something for 
which they are not naturally well-equipped are going to have a
struggle ahead of them, and indeed, Harry isn't terribly popular
in Gryffindor during his first two years. He's shunned 
in PS/SS and suspected of being a dark wizard in CoS. Hermione
is teased for being a swot, which surely doesn't happen in
Ravenclaw. Her two friends constantly get her into
situations where, at first, her courage fails.  Neville, whose hard work
seems to get him nowhere at first, would probably have been more
popular in Hufflepuff. 

I've often thought that Moaning Myrtle, who can't seem to 
to accept the reality of her situation, was that way  in life and
insisted on Slytherin despite being Muggleborn. It would
explain why she was so unhappy.

The Twins want to be  chivalrous. They help Harry with
his trunk before they know who he is. Most of their pranks are
against authority and so defend the weak against the strong, which
is the essence of chivalry. But the categories are blurred with Dudley--
the Twins see him as a bully  and a glutton who is fair game, but 
to their father he's a Muggle, a child, and a victim of temptation.
Readers seem to be similarly divided.

I think if the Twins had been in Slytherin they would have become
more cautious. I doubt 7th year Slytherins with their intelligence 
would have tossed Montague into the cabinet without considering the 
consequences. Recklessness is the downside of Gryffindor courage,
as patronizing is the downside of the desire to protect the weak.

Pippin