A VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION

[custardpringle]

hhertzof and I have been debating in circles around this question for at least half an hour now; we both have opinions on it and perfectly good arguments for 'em, so I am solving this sensibly by making a poll. (I will still probably go with my answer, because it's my damn story, but I can see arguments for the other three Houses well enough to wonder what

Comments

[hhertzof]

I has voteded.

[custardpringle]

And so has I!

[hhertzof]

YAY!

[lilyayl]

He sounds like he came into his own later in his school days, which negates all my arguments for Gryffindor. Also, while you say he 'contrived,' you don't make it sound like he was particularly ambitious/sly/etc, so no Slytherin.

He sounds like what I could imagine an arc for Cedric Diggory might have been, but the emphasis on his intelligence, passion for books/music, and lack of connection with his classmates makes me tend more toward Ravenclaw than Hufflepuff.

Hence my final vote.

[custardpringle]

(That isn't mine! It's a biographical note from the front of Unnatural Death, purportedly written by Peter's uncle.)

I honestly think the word "contrived" is important there; that, and the intelligent sort of pluck that sees the risk before it takes it. There's a lot in those two paragraphs-- and even though I'm trying to consider him as he was at eleven, basically the entire canon is about this-- about how careful he is in managing the way people see him. I wouldn't call that sly necessarily, but I think it's a very Slytherin trait.

[lilyayl]

Yes, but it does seem like something that developed over the course of his school years. And the 'intelligent sort of pluck' could really go either way Ravenclaw/Slytherin.

I think the battering one could receive in Ravenclaw (ala Luna) could lead to either being very careful with how one is seen or not caring at all.

Also, while I could be letting personal fanon influence me, Slytherin seems like an insular house that hangs together (the cohesiveness of the House, the larger number of Slytherins within Voldemort's ranks, etc, despite the house trait of ambition, they network and keep close), versus Gryffindor and Ravenclaw both of which seem far more individualistic. We see horrible teasing and industrializing in Gryffindor (early Hermione) and Ravenclaw (Luna), but not really in either Hufflepuff or Slytherin.

[custardpringle]

I hadn't thought of drawing a parallel between bb Peter and Luna! Huh, that's really interesting. :|a

I see what you mean about Slytherin being insular. On the other hand: Peter would have been sorted in 1901, and I don't know if Slytherin would have been associated as heavily with pureblood snobbery that far back; I've just been running on the assumption that casual prejudice of that kind was more commonly and overtly expressed in general pre-Voldemort. But in Potterland he's a halfblood, and I'm sure that would make a difference in the way people responded to him.

[the_antichris]

the intelligent sort of pluck that sees the risk before it takes it.

I think this argues more strongly for Ravenclaw than Gryffindor. He can be crafty like a Slytherin, but he's not ambitious, which lets that house out.

[custardpringle]

ET TU, CHRIS ;________; no that's a lie this post is the most fun I've had in like hours.

Ravenclaw is my very, very close second choice after Slytherin, tbh, and I may yet be swayed to Lily's argument that he was a Ravenclaw child who grew up to be more Slytherinish. Hufflepuff is in there third, because while I was just telling Lily above you that certain Etonian values strike me as very Slytherin, I think there's a good bit of Hufflepuff in there as well. (HH's case for Hufflepuff involves Peter putting on an act of harmlessness, which turns right back round into an argument for him being a Slytherin if ever I heard one.)

Gryffindor came in last, somehow, because I think Gryffindor courage is of more of a reckless kind and I can think of like three things Peter does ever without at least a little forethought. I put St. George and Lady Mary in Gryffindor, because they're both so impulsive and heart-driven, but I just think Peter is too calculating.

[the_antichris]

Hm. I'd go for Hufflepuff before Slytherin, tbh, because he's all about ~giving back to society (not that he'd put it like that) and not about personal ambition, and he doesn't even care all that much about the Snobby Honour of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Denver. Witness hooking his sister up with a cop and marrying a disreputable writer. I agree that Etonian values are Slythy, as is Toriness generally, but he isn't the usual sort of Etonian or aristocrat, although I do try very carefully not to think about who he votes for. He's friends with people who wear the old school tie, but he values people more on what they have to contribute than on their membership of a favoured group. The craftiness is the only Slythy quality he has, and it's something Slyths share with Ravenclaws. Plus. You don't get first-class honours in Modern History without being a Ravenclaw.

St George and Lady Mary Gryffindors, definitely.

[custardpringle]

I laughed pretty hard at the Noble and Most Ancient House of Denver, and would like to humbly suggest that if Nineveh is writing crossover fic where the Wimseys are still all Muggles (to my knowledge of it), and I am writing crossover fic where some are and some aren't, clearly someone needs to write the other end of the spectrum where they are an old wizarding family. Anyway, though a lot of his values are more modern and permissive than Helen's and Gerald's, I wouldn't go so far as to say he doesn't care all that much about the family honor; a lot of aspects of tradition and the Wimsey ancestry clearly mean a lot to him, and one of the things that impresses him so much about Hilary is her determination to hang onto the family property and keep it going despite more practical concerns.

Overall, though, I think you and Lily are tipping me towards Ravenclaw :/

Hilariously, this discussion originally started because I couldn't decide where to put Mary, and then like five seconds after I mentioned it to HH I realized she was a really

[sienamystic]

I went Ravenclaw, although I could otherwise see Slytherin. Except I don't know how Slytherins would have been at that point in time...with eugenics and stuff out in the Muggle world, would they have been even worse about Pureblood stuff? I can't see Peter fitting into that sort of environment comfortably. If he landed there, I guess he could mirror the "we beat him up until he turned out to be the best Chaser our house has ever seen?"

[custardpringle]

Peter is small in physique and somewhat larger-than-life in character; I vote Seeker for him.

I assume everyone-- well, on average-- was worse about Pureblood stuff, but this post has made me wonder whether it was perceived to be as strongly a Slytherin-specific thing pre-Voldemort as post.

[snapples_apples]

Oh look, I can vote now. BUT ANYWAY HERE IS THE DISCUSSION BEHIND MY CHOICE, ANYWAY:

snapples-apples: Did he have a preference for house himself when he sat down to be sorted?
snapples-apples: The hat seems pretty groovy about letting kids pick their own if they've got strong opinions
custardpringle: HM
custardpringle: he is close to his mother, whom I have decided was a hufflepuff, and ino family tradition tends to be important thar-- but if it were a matter of choice he might've chosen ravenclaw anyway, being bookish and all
snapples-apples: Last question: what does he look for in friends?
snapples-apples: Not how he wants people on the whole to see him, but what he's really drawn to in the people he chooses to be close to?
custardpringle: Oooooooooo.
custardpringle: I can't speak to what he's like as a child, but in canon-- just thinking first of his wife and his best friend, because these are things he tells them both outright he admires them for, I think he tends towards people who are very plain-spoken and sensible and down-to-earth
snapples-apples: Hmm, that's pretty Hufflepuffy.
snapples-apples: I vote for that, then.
snapples-apples: He is the Cedric Diggory sort of Hufflepuff
custardpringle: