Phoenix Fire? / Tonks

[aceworker]

No: HPFGUIDX 154213

<<houyhnhnm:

<<I take Rowling at her word when she says, "Harmony is the
<<word." And I take her at her word when she says, "Gryffindor
<<is fire, Ravenclaw is air, Hufflepuff is earth, and Slytherin is
<<water."

<<The question then for me is, since she has said straight
<<out (black letter cannon) that the four houses correspond
<<to fire, earth, air, and water, and since she has given us
<<respresentations of three of the houses that tally so well
<<with the traditional meanings associated with those elements,
<<why is it that the fourth house doesn't fit?

<<I, too, think of shrewdness, cleverness, cunning, and being
<<out for themselves when I think of Slytherins. That is all
<<we have seen of them so far. But that is not the whole
<<picture if you are talking about the characteristics of
<<water. Where is the sensitivity? Where is the emotional
<<depth that is also supposed to be associated with water?
<<Did Rowling just get tired of the conceit when it came to
<<delineating the qualities of Slytherin House, or did she
<<leave those positive traits out on purpose?


DA Jones

The one word answer to houyhnhnm question about where the sensitivity
is in Slytherin is prob: Tonks!

We don't have in canon anwhere that I'm aware of a statement of what
house she was in and since her mother was a Black there is a very good
chance that she is a Slytherin. In OOP of the Phoenix isn't something
stated to the effect that the blacks have all been Slyutherins for
generations, except for Sirius. JKR hasn't shown us much of the female
side of Slytherin's. Females are usually more sensative. Pansy is the
only female Slytherin we know much about and hasn't she been shown to
always be sensitve to Draco at least. Slughorn has some sensitivity
too. He is not a total cold fish.