Houses / Chapter 11

[Catlady (Rita Prince]

No: HPFGUIDX 188420

Zanooda wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/188385>:

<< How about Tonks :-)? JKR said she was in Hufflepuff, but we know that to become an Auror you have to get at least five NEWTs with Exceeds Expectations or higher. Snape only takes those with an "O" into his NEWT class, so Tonks probably had an "Outstanding" OWL in Potions to be there. >>

Imagine Tonks's clumsiness in Potions lab! She must have got the rough side of Severus's tongue as much as Neville did, and possibly Severus petitioned Dumbledore to remove her from Potions as a public danger.

Alla wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/188391>:

<< Well, of course this is what Founders wanted, to divide students equally that is, the thing is they decided to divide the students not based on the letters of alphabet (yes, I know, how boring the story will be), they decided to put brave students in one house, smart in another, ambitious in third and hardworking and loyal in fourth, instead of mixing them all together and finding some less innate qualities to divide them upon. >>

The Sorting Hat's song in GoF said:

"While still alive they did divide
Their favourites from the throng,
Yet how to pick the worthy ones
When they were dead and gone?

'Twas Gryffindor who found the way,
He whipped me off his head
The founders put some brains in me
So I could choose instead!"

It seems to me that while the Founders were alive and each chose the students they would teach, they were choosing based on what they could see of the  student's whole personality, appearance, and family background. If the student showed the virtue they most valued along with traits they despised, they wouldn't have accepted the student. If Godric was drawn to trouble makers who talked back to authorities and were always being punished for breaking the rules, he wouldn't like an equal risk taker whose response to a crazy dare was 'What's in it for me?' Someone who does the stunt for 'I bet you fifty Galleons you can't do it' but not for 'I dare you'. 

So if they put enough of their 'brains' inside the Sorting Hat for it to choose students based on what each Founder would have wanted, then it isn't really choosing based on does this student have only one of these four traits.

Altho' I admit that the mind-reading Hat sorts a little better than the Founders did. I believe that the Hat wisely insisted on putting Neville into Gryffindor even tho' Neville kept saying he was only suitable for Hufflepuff. Godric wouldn't have been insightful enough to choose this quiet, shy kid. I don't know whether Godric would have accepted that tight-ass swot, Percy, because of his family connections, because Percy did not make it obvious that he had enough courage to break up with his family -- and enough courage to admit that he was wrong.

SSSusan discussed PS/SS Chapter 11 in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/188395>:

<< As the term moves into November, the weather becomes chilly >>

Good match of text to reality, altho' I wish the weather *here* would make up its mind to *stay* chilly instead of alternating days with highs in the high 60s with days with highs in the high 80s.

<< Harry decides, that evening, to ask Snape to return QTTA. He heads to the staffroom, assuming Snape might be there. >>

A brave but unreasonable act. Why would Harry think that Snape was more likely to give him back the book than to take away more points for disturbing him and assign a detention? That I would have been scared to seek out Snape to ask him for something shows that I don't belong in Gryffindor, but Gryffs aren't supposed to cost their House points by foolishness either.

<< feels somewhat better seeing his friends' "Potter for President" banner. >>

I've always wondered why Brits would have So and So for President banners when, as far as I know, they don't have a President.

<< Harry recovers and soon has caught the snitch... in his mouth. Gryffindor wins! >>

Do you think Rowling had already figured out that thing with "flesh memory" when she wrote this scene? I know she left out stuff so that this volume could stand on its own if the rest of the series wasn't published, but I don't think the stand-alone-ness would have been harmed by mentioning the Snitch's flesh memory among the many things Harry learned from reading QTTA. she could have illustrated it with an amusing story about the two Seekers crashing into each other and knocking each other unconscious (or dead, if she can make that funny) with the Snitch crushed between them.

Pippin wrote in <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/188406>:

<< If safety was important to you, would you want your child to play Quidditch? >>

School Quidditch, with adults present who know how to slow the player's fall so he/she floats to the ground like an Autumn leaf, and Madam Pomfrey available to quickly cure broken bones, lost teeth, and concussion? Sure. Quidditch in the back yard at home, even without Bludgers? Not if I were concerned about safety!