Happy international Harry
Potter day! May the Dark Arts never defeat you, and you lives be full of magic!
:) In honour of the occasion I’ve written a little piece on the Hogwarts Houses
for people who don’t know much about them, or for people who don’t understand
them properly, due to the fact they haven’t read the books enough times. I know
all real fans understand perfectly, but feel free to share with your
less-educated peers.
Hufflepuff
Quality 1: hard working
Quality 2: loyal
Quality 3: honest
Quality 4: patient
Incorrect negative stereotype:
stupid
Correct negative stereotype: weak
(personalities)
Ravenclaw
Quality 1: intelligent
Quality 2: love of learning
Quality 3: creative
Quality 4: witty
Incorrect negative stereotype:
none (assumption is correct)
Correct negative stereotype: arrogance
Gryffindor
Quality 1: brave
Quality 2: daring
Quality 3: bold
Quality 4: chivalrous
Incorrect negative stereotype:
none (assumption is correct)
Correct negative stereotype: reckless
/ attention seeking
Slytherin
Quality 1: ambitious
Quality 2: resourceful
Quality 3: determined
Quality 4: cunning (in a good
way or a bad way, depending on the person)
Incorrect negative stereotype:
evil
Correct negative stereotype: selfish
/ prejudiced
Qualities
Applies to all members of
house, though house members can have qualities from other houses, too. People
are placed in the house they have the most in common with. Example: someone can
be hard working, but they won't be placed in Hufflepuff if they are more
intelligent and creative than they are hard working (they go to Ravenclaw).
Exceptions happen when people are mis-Sorted (example: Wormtail, who wasn’t
brave, shouldn’t have been a Gryffindor)
Stereotypes
This is what people
automatically think of the house. Applies to some members of the house, but not
all; someone with one of the correct negative stereotypes will probably (though
not infallibly) be in the corresponding house. Example: if someone is arrogant,
they will probably be in Ravenclaw, but this doesn't mean all Ravenclaws are
arrogant. Exceptions are common.
Places
Hufflepuffs are the kind ones;
the loyal friends, the patient teachers… the ones you always turn to when you
have no one else.
Ravenclaws are the brilliant
ones; the scientists, the mathematicians… the cutting edge of academia all over
the world.
Slytherins are the successful
ones; the entrepreneurs, company owners… outstanding in their various fields.
Gryffindors are the heros; the
policemen, the fire fighters… always trying to save the world.
Everyone knows that Ravenclaw
and Gryffindor need no defence – the books showed them in a perfectly good
light. However, to this day, Slytherin and Hufflepuff get a whole bunch of
rubbish from ignorant people; here is what you can say to them.
Hufflepuff defence:
You’re right – we’re not the
highfliers, the ones in the spotlights. We’re the ones who fall through the
cracks. We’re the ones who do the little things that no one else has time for. You
may look down on us because we’re not as successful, smart or brave as you are,
but the world needs us.
You need us to teach those who
need help, you need us to accept those who everyone rejects, you need us to be
honest with you when everyone else shows you only lies. You need to be able to
rely on us, you need us to be loyal when you’ve been hurt and betrayed. You need
us in all the small ways. All the world sees is your splendour, but they don’t
see how close you were to failure, how you were once ready to give up and you
turned to us for help.
We are the ones who encourage
Slytherins when they are sure all their dreams will fail. We are the ones who’ll
sit with Ravenclaws for hours letting them bounce ideas off us. We are the ones
who comfort and heal the Gryffindors when they’re hurt and weary from their
struggles.
You may look down on us, but
you’ll turn to us when you need us. And when you do, we’ll be there, even if
you’ve hurt us, ignored us and abandoned us, because that’s what being a
Hufflepuff is. Maybe to the world it looks like nothing, but when you come to
us empty handed with no one else to turn to, for you, it looks like everything.
Slytherin defence
Do you like your life? Do you
like being able to flick a switch and have light? Do you like being able to
visit friends and family in other countries? Perhaps you would prefer to go and
chop up some wood every time you wanted light, to spend years on a journey to
see others in distant countries?
I think not.
Humanity has clawed itself up
from the dirt, one step at a time. Look at how our society has advanced – our technology,
medicine, increasingly equal rights for everyone, basic living conditions…
sure, there are loads of problems, but if you compare them to the problems of the
past? We’re coasting here.
We rode to where we are on the
backs of Slytherins. Slytherins are the achievers, the ones who’re always
trying to be better, bigger, always pushing for that step forward.
Sure, they may have gotten
some help from Ravenclaws, but Ravenclaws are interested in the intellectual;
it’s the Slytherins who take those findings and use them. Slytherins solve
problems; they are constantly trying to make things work better, because what
they see is bigger than what any of the rest of us can even imagine.
We could have been happy with the
first computer that fitted in a room. We could have lived with it. Slytherins were
the ones who pushed to make it better, faster, more convenient. Slytherins are
the ones who expand our economies and world trade. Slytherins are the ones we
look up to when we’re asked who we want to be like.
Perhaps you would prefer to be
living in a cave, warding the lions off with a stick and hoping you’ll survive the
winter. If you want a world like that, then take it. For me, I’d rather live in
a world where everything is constantly improved, tested, made better, ridded of
defects. I’d rather have a world with Slytherins in it. Some of the best people
you know are Slytherins, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
It’s been 17 years since
Voldemort was defeated, but Harry Potter still holds all of our hearts as it
did on that first day when we picked up book one. If you’ve read this post
right until the end, take a few minutes to do your part for Harry. Persuade someone
who hasn’t to read the books. Change a life.
