Alternative Houses for Harry Potter characters
I have been thinking about this for a while since my last poll. This thread is for discussion on the alternative house for the character where we pick them and discuss the other house they could've been sorted.
Let's start with hn... The Trio:
Harry Potter: Slytherin
Ron Weasley: Hufflepuff
Hermione Granger: Ravenclaw
What are your thoughts about this?
I agree with you on Harry and Ron. However, and I think I might be in a minority here, I believe Hermione would fit in Hufflepuff just as much as Ravenclaw due to how hard she works (you can't tell me she isn't a workaholic) and how much value she places on justice (SPEW).
Yeah, I ultimately put her in Ravenclaw due to her nature for putting studies first. She as a first year thought she had an equal chance to be in Ravenclaw but chose Gryffindor hearing that it was apparently best house.
Her social justice conscience developed after her exposure to issues like house elf rights, werewolf rights and inherent blood related prejudice in wizarding world.
She certainly has Hufflepuff traits like hard working and loyalty but ultimately for her intelligence, wit, creativity and pursuit of knowledge for her interest, I scale her higher for Ravenclaw in alternate house.
Now the next batch of characters: The bloody marauders
James Potter: Hufflepuff
Sirius Black: Slytherin
Remus Lupin: Ravenclaw
Peter Pettigrew: Slytherin
What are your thoughts about houses of these douchebags?
James Potter: Not gonna lie, I'm struggling. I need to bullet-point this, but only for James:
- Hufflepuff: -2
- Loyalty: loyal to his friends and his cause. +1
- Just: Not very, he relentlessly bullied Snape for seven years because of House preferences, jealousy over Lily's attention, and because it was fun. -1
- Hard-working: selectively, but I won't deny this point. It takes work to become an Animagus and create the Marauders Map, and he fought against the Death Eaters.
- Patience: selectively, see point above.
- Fairness: Not very, see point on Just. -1
- Modesty: ... no. -1
- Ravenclaw: +2
- Wit: +1
- Learning: +1
- Wisdom: he has severe lapses in judgement regarding the Secret Keeper. -1
- Acceptance: accepting of a best friend from a Dark wizard family, a werewolf, and... well, Pettigrew. However, very intolerant of Slytherin House because Slytherin. Overall, -1
- Intelligence: noted as one of the best wizards of his year. +1
- Creativity: +1
- Slytherin: +3
- Cunning: able to deceive Lily and prevent her from finding too much about his continued behavior against Snape. +1
- Ambition: +1
- Resourcefulness: has all the resources. +1
- Determination: grinds towards a specific goal once he sets his mind on it. +1
- Pride: +1
- Self-preservation: throws himself at Voldemort to save his family. -1
- Shrewdness: selectively.
Sirius Black: has the same scores as James, but I would weigh him in favor of Hufflepuff. He's diehard loyal to James, and the fact that he hates Slytherins would be enough for the Hat to not consider that an option for him.
Remus Lupin: I think that overall, Remus is pretty balanced between the three other Houses; Hufflepuff's loyalty, patience, and modesty, Ravenclaw's wisdom and acceptance, and Slytherin's cunning, self-preservation, and shrewdness. I'm conflicted.
Peter Pettigrew: 100% Slytherin, no contest.
I don't care about the others, but I have to jump in here and say a hard "fuck NO" to Peter Pettigrew in Slytherin. All that does is reinforce the idea that "Slytherins are the bad guys" while portraying Gryffindor as even more heroic. I think the fact that he was a Gryffindor is a good thing – it shows that Gryffindors can turn dark, too. That is so important for fairness and realism, and in my opinion, there already isn't enough of it in the series.
If we're basing it solely on the stated values of the Houses, Peter has minimal Gryffindor traits, only enough for being eligible. My opinion that he would be sorted into Slytherin has to do with his cunning, resourcefulness, and self-preservation.
Fair enough, and I certainly wasn't ranting at you. It's just a frustration I have with the house system, which more often than not, pigeonholes people (little kids!) in shitty ways. It wouldn't bother me so much if the distribution was relatively even, but yeah… I just hate the idea of Slytherin being the bad house where all the "bad" people go.
On don't worry, I'm with you on the Slytherin bias angle. I think all four houses have their virtues and vices, i.e. Gryffindor recklessness.
My reasons for the alternate houses: While technically each character can qualify for other houses, I am choosing their alternative house based on their defining traits.
James Potter: Hufflepuff because he was often defined by his loyalty and trust for his friends. Perhaps the only good thing Harry got from his father.
Sirius Black: Slytherin because he was vindictive and cunning as I covered in Snape and Sirius meta. His adult virtues were Slytherin traits. He would've went to Slytherin if not for his meeting with James Potter.
Remus Lupin: Ravenclaw because of his intelligence. While he does qualify for Hufflepuff, his self-loathing negatively impacted his loyalty thus he is Ravenclaw in my opinion.
Peter Pettigrew: As @thegestaltprince said, he had Slytherin traits like cunning, resourcefulness and self-preservation. He was also hatstall between Slytherin and Gryffindor.
I agree that just because Peter is an Alter Slytherin doesn't mean Slytherin is evil. These traits themselves are not bad, it is the person's character that defines their morality.
