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
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