What's Your Favorite Book?

Hello internet! So I know last time I mentioned that I was going to write this week on Umbridge, but I decided to save her for later. Instead, I wanted to talk about the Harry Potter books, what makes each one great, and what makes the series great as a whole.

So we all know just how brilliant J.K. Rowling is with her writing. I am not really here to discuss in depth of the character development and the symbolism and whatnot. I could sit here and tell you about the magical number of seven and color choices and all that jazz. But, to be perfectly honest, I am no expert on that, and I certainly am not majoring in English or anything that would make me an expert in that. So, I'd rather just talk about what exactly these books have that makes us all want to read them so much. What to Rowling do to make us want to read them over and over again?

One of the best things and worst things about the Harry Potter books was the ten year stretch between the publication of the first and last books. From the time Harry first captured our hearts, we had to wait years to find out what his fate would be. And, if you were like me, the last book's mysterious end was ruined before you could even get to it. I was at a summer camp the week Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out, and, within good reason, the counselors decided to ban the book to keep campers from staying up all night reading or ruining it for others. So I had to wait until I got home to read the book. But as I got home and called my best friend at the time for the first time in two weeks, before even cracking the spine on the book, the first words out of her mouth were, "I told you Harry was a Horcrux."

That just about made me not even want to bother with the last book. But, of course, I was too invested to actually not read it. But why? Why was I so interested in sticking this series out even though the ending was already pretty much ruined for me? Was it because I'd been waiting ten long years for this? Was it because I felt such a connection to Harry? Had I created a bond with a character in a book that was so strong, he felt like he was my oldest friend?

And that's the real magic of Rowling's books. It's the fact that she can reel us in with not just a great story and interesting characters, but she is able to keep us there by really making us feel for each and every one of them. How many times did you have to put down the last book the first time you read it because you were crying so hard? I just remember that by the time I got to Fred's death, I wanted to throw the book across the room and never look at it again. I don't think a book, a movie, or any other make believe world has made me feel that strongly. My heart was actually broken over losing all these people I had grown up with. But they weren't even real. Yet they were, in my heart.

Each Harry Potter fan has a special place in their hearts for a specific character, or a specific book. I was personally always a fan of the Chamber of Secrets. I don't know why, but it was always the most adventurous, the most exhilarating. Yet, because I read the books as a child for the first time, I could still relate to Harry in this book. He hadn't quite grown up yet.

Now, of course, I like each book for a different reason. The Chamber of Secrets still has a special place in my heart. Sometimes, I'll read it twice on my rereadings of the series. But now, I really couldn't tell you what my favorite book is.

The first one is the beginning, like the first movie in a trilogy. You kind of have to like it the most because it is the first. Yet, the characters are still young, magically unexperienced, and naïve, making the reader feel the same way.

The second does not seem like a super important book in the series on the first read. It just seems like Rowling threw in another adventure that ends in defeating Voldemort. But, all of us who have read the series countless times realize that we first glimpsed one of the most important pieces to the Harry Potter puzzle in this book. The diary.

A lot of people that don't know Harry Potter that well tell me the third one could just be taken out of the equation, tacked on to the end of the second one of something, because it is a waste of a book. Sure, it is the only book that doesn't end with a fight with Voldemort of some kind. In fact, it is the only book that Voldemort really never makes a physical appearance in. Personally, I think this makes it a refreshing read. I mean, we get it, Voldemort is the bad guy. But there are so many bad people and experiences out there, like Pettigrew, who you never even expect to be bad, and the Dementors. And then there are people who you think are bad that are actually the most amazing people you will ever meet, like Sirius and Lupin. The third book is more of a display of Rowling's great plot twists and story telling than anything else. And no one can deny that the information discovered in this book was important to the rest of the series. Just because Voldemort's not in it, doesn't make it a waste of a book. He's not the main character.

The fourth one, to me, is not a huge favorite, but I know that, to many people, it is the best book of the seven. The fourth and the fifth one, for me, were just dragged out for far too many pages, but, thank goodness, it didn't make the story any less appealing. I always classify this book as the turning point in the series. This is where the innocent magic and adventurous storytelling of the first three books turn into the epic battle between good and evil displayed in the last four books. It's when the books get longer, the stories more complex, the plots more sinister.

The fifth one is the book I struggle through at times because I really have to be in the mood to read it. Between Umbridge, the Ministry's insistence that Voldemort was not back, Sirius's death, Harry's angst, and Dumbledore not talking to Harry through the whole book, it makes me just want to jump into the pages and strangle everyone. Yet, no one can deny that the conclusion of this book gives us one of the most important pieces of information in the series. Before this, you don't know why Harry's parents were killed or why the Potters were targeted in the first place. Even when I reread the books, I take for granted what I already know. That Harry himself was targeted by Voldemort and his family was just in the way. But, of course, you don't actually know that until book five. It wasn't exactly a shocking reveal for me. It was more of a confirmation that the series was going to come to the big conclusion of Harry killing Voldemort, or the other way around.

The sixth one, in all honesty, seems to be the most important book when it comes to information and understanding behind Voldemort as the antagonist. You learn about his past and you learn about the Horcruxes. Voldemort's past make him that villain that you still hate and despise and want dead, but you also feel slightly bad for, in one way or another. The Horcruxes, however, seem to be one of the biggest reveals in the entire series. These are how Voldemort stayed alive all these years. This is what the diary back in the second book was. These are what Harry must destroy in order to kill Voldemort for good. The sixth book seems to be a treasure trove of understanding. Like all the little questions and concerns you have had throughout the series are pretty much answered here. There were only a few questions left. Would Harry destroy these Horcruxes? Would he destroy Voldemort? Or would Voldemort get to him first?

Then comes the last book. This is more of the wrap up to the series than anything else. It is like the final way Rowling can get any information she wants us to know out to us. Because of this, there is a ton of information jam packed into the 700 pages of this novel. No wonder they made two movies. It was the place where all questions were answered, all the plot twists untwisted. And then, just like that, it was over. Reading the seventh book always gives me a kind of sad joy. I get to reread Harry going on his last great adventure to rid the world of Voldemort, but after that, there is nothing left to read. It is like your best friends that you've had for the entire duration of the reading suddenly disappear, or else freeze in time, stuck in the last moment you read about them, never knowing what was going to occur in their future.

All in all, every book in the series has its merits. To me, the books with the most important information reveals are the second and sixth ones. The Horcruxes are the piece of the puzzle that makes everything else easily understood, and these two books reveal those Horcruxes. In fact, the Chamber of Secrets and Half-Blood Prince have numerous parallels besides just Horcruxes. What about Aragog? The importance of parseltongue? Ginny and Harry's relationship growth? Memories of the teenage Voldemort? The list goes on. But these two books just hold the most significance to me. I love them because they have so much in common compared to the other books in the series. However, like I said before, each story has its merits and I would never imagine taking out any of the books in the series and thinking it would flow the same way. That's the point of a series. Each individual book is different, but together, they make up something bigger, something much more important.

In this case, each individual Harry Potter book makes up the series that changed millions of lives and will continue to change lives in the years to come.

So, that's it for this week. I hope you enjoyed my ramblings, oh internet. I'll be back next week with a new topic. Maybe I'll actually discuss Umbridge next week....or I could do something else. Regardless, I'll see you later.

~The Fifth Marauder

Image found at: http://www.thedigitalshift.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/harrypotterEbks1.jpg

The Four Hogwarts Houses

I wanted to start this new blog with a topic that has always interested me. The Four Houses of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter books.

Before I get into my long babbling about the four houses, I want to introduce myself and this blog a little bit. I am a 19 year old college student living in the United States, and I just can't seem to find a friend who is as interested in Harry Potter as I am. Therefore, a lot of the ideas and discussions that I want to make about these seven magical books that changed my life have been pretty pent up for the last thirteen years. I decided that a good outlet to this was to post on a blog to random strangers that might take some interest in what I have to say. It might be better than the awkward silences and confused stares I get when I try talking Harry Potter to my friends and family, anyway.

So now on to what I really want to discuss today. The four houses. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. I have decided to first break down the attributes of each house according to J.K. Rowling's Sorting Hat.

Gryffindors are known for their bravery, courage, and chivalry.

Hufflepuffs are known for the loyalty, kind hearts, and hard working attitudes.

Ravenclaws are known for their intelligence, wit, and creative thinking.

Slytherins are known for their ambition and cunning.

These seem to be pretty broad descriptions to me, and I feel like we could delve a little deeper into each house and figure out what exactly each one looks for in its students. Gryffindors are not just brave, Hufflepuffs not just loyal, Ravenclaws not just smart, and Slytherins not just self-centered. Gryffindors don't use brawn over brain, Hufflepuffs aren't a "load of duffers," Ravenclaws aren't always bookish, and Slytherins aren't always evil. All these houses seem to have their own brand of intelligence, their own brand of loyalties, and their own brand of self-worth.

To me, Gryffindors are not only brave and courageous, but also stubborn and always willing to put their family and friend's needs ahead of their own. They often seem to act first and think about the consequences later on. They have to be pretty quick on their feet which requires just as much brains as being top of the class in Ravenclaw. Also, to care so much for friends and family shows their loyalty and caring. They put others first instead of setting out for a goal for their own benefit. Gryffindors are probably the most easily understood because many of the major characters in Harry Potter are in Gryffindor. Therefore, you can really see the different aspects of a Gryffindor displayed in all the different characters.

Hufflepuffs are probably the most misunderstood house besides the Slytherins. Everyone always takes that one line from the Sorting Hat that states that "Hufflepuff took the rest and treated them just the same," to mean that Hufflepuffs were just the kids that didn't fit in anywhere else. I feel like this isn't true. You need a certain something to be in Hufflepuff, just like any other house. Hufflepuffs need that kind heart, that hard working attitude, that want to help all creatures because everyone is important. Helga Hufflepuff displays this attitude by saying that she'll take everyone and treat them the same. To be that accepting and willing to believe the best in everyone are qualities that all members of Hufflepuff seem to need. However, the loyalty of Hufflepuff needs to be understood too. Hufflepuffs are loyal to their friends and family, and this is especially pertinent in the Chamber of Secrets book when Justin Finch-Fletchley is attacked and Ernie and the rest of the Hufflepuffs seem to gang up on Harry. Their loyalty lies in their friend, and when all the evidence points in the direction of Harry, they are quick to want justice for their friend's fate. Yet, as soon as Hermione is attacked, Ernie accepts that Harry is not the heir of Slytherin because he sees the best in Harry and knows Harry would never attack Hermione.

And on to the Ravenclaws. Everyone always assumes that Ravenclaws are smart. That's it. Just smart. But they are so much more than that. They are witty, naturally good at everything, creative, open-minded, willing to take on new points of view. My friends have always identified me as a Ravenclaw because of the singular category of being intelligent. But I don't believe I possess all the attributes of a true Ravenclaw. Although I pride myself in being pretty open-minded, I don't have the wit and creativity found in most Ravenclaws. I also was never as severely book-smart, relying more on my hard work than my natural brains to get me ahead. Ravenclaws seem to come in a dual spectrum. They seem to be either those people that you hated in high school because they were so good at everything they did, or else the slightly weird people that you never really understood. Take Cho Chang and Luna Lovegood. The two opposite ends of the Ravenclaw spectrum. Cho is the popular, pretty, athletic, and obviously smart girl (since she is a Ravenclaw) while Luna is nicknamed Loony and seems to be thought of as odd by almost, if not everyone, in the series. However, Luna also has that willingness to accept the impossible as possible. This takes the open-mindedness and creativity of a Ravenclaw to an extreme, but it makes the point all the same. Hermione would never have matured as well in Ravenclaw as she did in Gryffindor because she lacked that willingness to understand that anything is possible if you put your mind to it. However, on the other side of the spectrum, there seems to be some Ravenclaws that are, indeed, like Hermione in that they want the facts in front of them. That's not to say that they still aren't open-minded. They would just rather have something firm to work with before they get caught up in an idea.

Finally there is Slytherin. Slytherin, the house that people who aren't interested enough in really understanding the four houses believe are just full of evil little tools like Draco Malfoy. But Slytherins are much more than that. First, Slytherins are very good at getting out of sticky situations. They have that kind of smart cunning that makes them adept at wiggling free from any sort of trouble they might find themselves in. Along with this, Slytherins can also be brave, they can be loyal, they can be smart. They have all the qualities of the other three houses, but there lies one little difference that really makes them a Slytherin. That one thing seems, to me, to be the idea that they are more self-inclined than the other houses. Not that they are selfish, although this quality is seen in many of the members of their house. Instead, they seem to keep the qualities of the other houses dormant until it benefits them. This can be seen in the bravery of Snape being a spy for Dumbledore because of his love for Lily. No matter what people say about how wonderful Snape is, I still believe that his reasoning in being a good person was pretty selfish. I mean, he hated Harry, and really the only reason he cared was because he was Lily's son, and Snape loved Lily. But my opinion of Severus Snape is really a story for another day. The ambition of getting themselves ahead seems to go above anything else. This is a quality opposite Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. Instead of doing for others, they really do for themselves. But don't get me wrong, this doesn't make Slytherin horrible people. It doesn't make them selfish. It makes them pretty smart, in my book. The selfish qualities do, in fact, come out in many of their members, and because of their self-centered attitudes, they are much more likely to produce evil witches and wizards, but not all of them are bad. Caring for yourself and putting yourself above others isn't always a bad thing. I mean, there's only one you. And Snape wasn't terrible. And neither, really, was Draco.

So now that I've babbled about the four houses and their qualities, I want to talk about what house I fall in to. When I first read the books, of course, I was only a little kid. So, naturally, I wanted to be a Gryffindor like the three protagonists. However, as I got older, everyone told me I would be a Ravenclaw, as I said before, because I was smart. I thought this was a pretty good answer because I really had never thought about it at that point. But then, in high school, when I really started to reread the books and read online comments about the four houses and their qualities, I started to change my idea. I honestly didn't know what house I was in. Was I a Ravenclaw since I was so smart? But I was ambitious like a Slytherin and hard working like a Hufflepuff. And I also cared deeply for those around me, like a Gryffindor. So what was I? I took a closer look at the Sorting Hat songs in the various Harry Potter books and annotated, wishing to put all the major qualities of the houses into one list, so that I could choose. I began to self-identify as a Hufflepuff, believing my hard work to be my biggest and most important attribute. Yet, I was still unsure. Well, then Pottermore came to my aide the summer before my junior year of high school. I was sorted into......HUFFLEPUFF. Well there was the answer. That confirmed my hesitant ideas of being a Hufflepuff. My hard working qualities and loyalty to my friends, my willingness to see the best in everyone and give second chances, all answered in the wonderful house of Hufflepuff. I started collecting all the Hufflepuff memorabilia and really told myself: this is where I belong.

But this year, after my first year of being an adult in the "real world" and changing my perspective a bit, after several more readings of Harry Potter, after reading different opinions online, I began to second guess myself again. I haven't been on Pottermore in a few years, and have unfortunately forgotten my password. Therefore, I created a new account a few months ago and took the quiz again. And I got....Gryffindor? So I went online and found the full quiz on a random website I google searched and took it. 78% Gryffindor, 75% Hufflepuff, 60% Ravenclaw, 58% Slytherin. I never thought of myself as a Gryffindor, in all seriousness, besides the times long ago when I was just a child and wanted to imitate the main characters of the novels. I am not brave. Not courageous. I honestly think of myself as a worrier, and I really hate scary movies (which totally matters, of course). So how in the world was I a Gryffindor? I took another online test that seemed to be pretty good and got....Hufflepuff again. What was going on? 50% Hufflepuff, 47% Gryffindor, 46% Slytherin, and 42% Ravenclaw. This seemed to be pretty close to my Pottermore scores except with Hufflepuff and Gryffindor switched. For the longest time, I had really, truly believed I was a Hufflepuff, and nothing else. That was were my loyalty lied. So I thought about it, and I took a closer look at my percentages. This, along with a blog post I read on Mugglenet the other day, made me realize that maybe I did not belong to any specific house. I recently read the book series Divergent, which is a good parallel here. One main idea of this book series, if you haven't read them, is that the society is split into five different sections based off of their morals and personalities. But in the end, it is realized that every person who is "divergent" has a little bit of every section's ideas and personalities. This can be applied to the four houses. No person is going to fit any one house perfectly, and a lot of people are going to fit two, three, or four houses. To be honest, I am really surprised there aren't more hatstalls in the books. As Dumbledore says in the Deathly Hallows, sometimes Hogwarts might sort too early. People can have attributes of any of the houses depending on the situations they are put in.

For me, I am as open-minded and book smart as a Ravenclaw, as loyal and hardworking as a Hufflepuff, as willing to help a friend as a Gryffindor, and as ambitious and self-assured as a Slytherins. So where to put me? That's the question isn't it? And, to me, the answer lies in what Dumbledore stresses to Harry in the Chamber of Secrets. Harry chose to be in Gryffindor, which had just as much to do with the hat's decision to sort him there as the attributes he actually had. Harry's choice mattered much more than the qualities that the hat saw within him which could have made him a Slytherin. So my choice matters as much as these sorting quiz answers. Because I seem to have enough qualities to belong to any of the four houses, especially Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, it now remains up to me to decide where I really want to be. And that choice is all that really matters. Because Neville was a hatstall for Gyffindor and Hufflepuff, but was chosen as a Gryffindor because he wanted to strive to be like his mother and father. Harry had a choice between Gryffindor and Slytherin and was chosen as a Gryffindor because he had heard bad things about Slytherin and would much rather be in Gryffindor. Hermione was almost a hatstall for Gryffindor and Ravenclaw but was chosen for Gryffindor because she believed it was the best of the four houses. Your own choices seem to make the difference in where you want to go.

So don't ask the online sorting hat quizzes or Pottermore or your friends and family where you ought to go. Ask yourself. Look inside you and pick which one you think you would do well in. Because your choice is all that matters.

And in case anyone cares about my choice, I choose Hufflepuff because, to me, I would always feel like I wasn't living up to the expectations of being a Gryffindor, but I can certainly be everything Hufflepuff wants me to be. And, of course, Helga would treat me just the same anyway.

So there it is, my long musing on the four houses of Harry Potter. These are honestly just my personal beliefs and opinions based off of things I've read and seen. I am not an expert, but merely interested in writing out the ideas that have been forming in my head for all these years. Also, for anyone who cares, I made a third Pottermore account very recently and was placed, once again, in Hufflepuff. It just goes to show that once you know where you want to be, it is always your choice that matters in the end.

I think I am going to try and post about once a week. We will see how that goes. Next week the topic will be Dolores Umbridge. See you then!

If you are interested in taking a sorting hat quiz:

http://www.gotoquiz.com/pottermore_sorting_hat_quiz_2 (This is the complete Pottermore quiz)
OR
http://www.helloquizzy.com/tests/the-sorting-hat-a-comprehensive-harry-potter-personality-assessment-testquiz (This is the other decent sorting hat quiz I mentioned)

Where I got some information:

The seven Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling
The Divergent series by Veronica Roth
http://blog.mugglenet.com/2014/06/the-problem-with-hogwartss-house-system/
www.pottermore.com
http://api.ning.com/files/qjHJEwgclBQh2uE8h03UHxFPyu8olOESmR3dzKBPA61rjocisCPoExysXbDOVibBgXgSanTI8viENpf5UuJJsR*D*333Lo9-/houses.jpg