Muggleborns and the Hat RE: [the_old_crowd] Re: Prophecy Pub/Less Than The Meanest Ghost/Black Family Tree

[Talisman]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "Eileen Rebstock" 
<erebstock at c...> wrote:
> Can the hat detect blood? Can anyone? Is there actually an 
objective
> difference between Muggleborns and not? Or do you mean it would 
detect
> thoughts? 
> 
> As far as Tom had evidence when he came to Hogwarts, he *was*
> Muggleborn. He was convinced, however, that he was magically 
descended.
> Did that belief get him into Slytherin, or just his blood itself? 


Talisman:
Riddle did have all the *characteristics* that comport with 
Slytherin house.  He came to Hogwarts full of magical pride, desire 
for domination, and hatred of Muggles. He was single mindedly 
ambitious for power.  No other founder's criteria matched Riddle's 
personal characteristics as well as Slytherins.

He was certainly exponentially more ambitious than the shiftless 
Gaunt household, notwithstanding their claims of purity.

Rowling didn't give the most satisfying answer one might have hoped 
for, but perhaps the interviewers were on the right track in the 
July 16, 2005 Mugglenet interview, Part 2:

ES: Has the sorting hat ever been wrong?

JKR: No.

ES: Really?

JKR: Mm-mm. Do you have a theory?

ES: I have heard a lot of theories.

JKR: [laugh] I bet you have. No. [laugh] Sorry.

MA: That's interesting, because that would suggest that the voice 
comes more from a person's own head than the hat itself -

JKR: [makes mysterious noise]


Talisman:
Sure Salazar was all whipped up about pure blood, but it was 
Godric's hat, afterall ;).

And if the hat is any evidence (say in OoP), Godric knew that 
balancing the houses was key.  I.e. It's the qualities represented 
by the houses, and balance among these, that will restore the ideal 
state of harmony. Not blood, per se.

JKR: ...It is the tradition to have four houses, but in this case, I 
wanted them to correspond roughly to the four elements. So 
Gryffindor is fire, Ravenclaw is air, Hufflepuff is earth, and 
Slytherin is water, hence the fact that their common room is under 
the lake. So again, it was this idea of harmony and balance, that 
you had four necessary components and by integrating them you would 
make a very strong place. But they remain fragmented, as we know.
Muggelnet part 3

Talisman, humming a little tune to the lyrics of, *There's nothing 
hidden in your head / The Sorting Hat can't see, / So try me on and 
I will tell you / Where you ought to be...*(PS/SS 117).