Snitch I may be, but at least I'm fluffy
The Introduction
1. What is your name, and what do you prefer to be called?
Melissa, but I go by Mel mostly
2. How old are you?
Ancient ;) I was pegged as 23-24 the other day and it made my year!
3. How did you come across our community? (If you were referred by a member, please mention them so we can give them credit!)
Surfing and looking for sorting communities
The Canon
4. Choose a character not from Harry Potter (ie: from Lord of the Rings, House, etc) and explain what house (Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin) you think they would have been in and why.
Going with Jaenelle from the Black Jewels trilogy by Anne Bishop; I think she would have been a Gryffindor. This is somewhat surprising given that her direct circle consists of the Lord of Darkness and his sons, but she, although all-powerful, uses her power only to do good, but can be ruthless when punishing evil. Part of the reasoning is also that she is not quite aware of just how awesomely powerful she is, she takes the status quo for granted without giving it too much thought, and doesn’t spend overlong reflecting on her place in the power structure; doesn’t want to accept it even. She is capable of incredible magic feats, but never lets it get to her head, and never loses sight of her humanity. And when punishing those who mean harm, there is always a sense of poetic justice.
5. What character do you most relate to?
Draco Malfoy in book six. I can really understand his struggle to uphold his family’s values during a time when he is trying to assert his own identity, and is finding out that his parents’ point of view, and the things that really matter to them may not be his. Because his father has always made it abundantly clear that people with differing points of view are not acceptable company, choosing to uphold his own standards if they diverge from Lucius’ carries immense consequences, and he therefore struggles for the entire year to commit to a task he does not believe in, only because he is not ready to lose the comfort of his family. I have the t-shirt, so all this is slightly projectionist, but I can sympathise with the struggle.
6. Choose one aspect of the story as told by Rowling that you dislike, and tell us how you would change it. (Please avoid the subjects of romance and shipping.)
Harry’s attitude in book five, and especially his constant head-in-the-sand attitude whenever someone wanted to help with an actual useful suggestion. Biggest change: make Harry open his present from Sirius. That made me scream at the book, because Harry had the solution for the whole problem he was faced with in his own hands, and he never used it. Such a waste!!! I can understand why he didn’t but man did that part frustrate me!
The Person
7. If you could put a memory in a pensieve for the specific purpose of viewing it later, what would it be and why?
My little white cat chucking lighters off my desk on the morning of January eleventh. This because she did not live to see January twelve, and that playfulness in what we both knew was to be a very fateful day is the most precious memory I have, and one I don’t want to lose ever.
8. What are three traits that define you? How has each trait had positive impact and negative impact on your life?
Snobbery. Like I said in the Draco answer, snobbery is something I grew up with intimately, but also something I learned to totally reject and abhor. It can be hard to totally shake off a trait that dominated your life for such a long time, but I do think I have managed to become very open-minded and open about people, and have come to regard the notion of thinking less of others because their family/language/colour of their socks/hair length is not like ours, totally ridiculous. Some people are different than others, but never more equal!
Hyperactivity. I would consider myself the White Rabbit and Tigger rolled into one, and go slightly bananas if I don’t keep myself constantly busy. Would love to be able to just sit in the grass for half an hour listening to the blackbirds sing, but would start to fidget within five minutes. A good example is also my diary for last weekend, which consisted of work (10-14), a housewarming on the other side of the country (18-01 with cleaning after), leaving friend’s house at ten next morning, and helping out with a launch party at another friend’s house from 12 to 23 hrs. If I had not done those things, there was an entire weekend back-up plan of movie on Saturday night, and going to a pop festival with friends on the Sunday. Was sorely tempted to find a way to fit everything in (the idea of missing something is atrocious).
Colleagues have banned me from drinking coffee, and seriously, valium should be my friend ;)
Chaos. I am quite unorganised, and definitely lack discipline. So far I have managed to get away with living from day to day without planning, but it can‘t last that much longer, I fear. Or maybe it will (here‘s hoping). This also entails my weakness in following something through; I love organising things, but the part where you have to report back about the event and evaluate is something I tend to skip wherever possible. Bureaucratic blah (except it‘s not, but I need an excuse why I don‘t do that).
9. What is one specific thing that you have never done but strongly wish to do sometime in your life?
Go on a long solo trip of Australia or New Zealand. Have the total liberty to organise the entire journey myself, and just drift about seeing interesting things and meeting a large variety of different people. Alternatively a wish is to just go to the airport with suitcases packed with both cold- and warm weather clothes, and seeing what last minute flights are available, and just taking off totally without a plan and seeing where I will end up.
The World
10. What is your biggest pet peeve and why?
At the moment: fans! They’re evil and they’re draughty, and I have to endure them every spring-summer ALL spring-summer because some people consider themselves in danger of melting without them, and the fact that draught bothers me is a secondary concern for them; no compromise possible on fixing them, no they have to be full blast and swirling round, and “the first person to turn the fan off gets their hands chopped off”. Summers indoors in other words. Evil.
11. Describe the people you admire most. What do they have in common with each other? How are they different?
People with high self-esteem who are relatively uninhibited and don’t care what the outside world thinks. Being highly self-conscious I really admire the ability to just freely be yourself and not try to second-guess others’ reaction to everything you do. The difference I think lies in the fact that one can be that way irrespective of background, but it has to be said that there is a dark side to this trait, and that is people who don’t care what others think because they consider themselves superior. So being self-assured without being self-absorbed.
12. How do you think people see you? Does the person you show to the public differ from the person you are on the inside? Explain.
Question 12 B: Oh totally! It surprises me highly most of the time how I am perceived, as I don’t see myself like that at all! Two good examples: I’ve always seen myself as a behind-the-scenes worker, not someone to take the limelight, but recently learned that I am seen as someone who will take to the forefront and get things moving wherever possible, and have to concede the point somewhat. Flipside: seen when I tried to apply to Hogwarts Elite, when I had thought I’d written a balanced account of myself, where all the bad points were demonstrably countered with good traits, but the good traits didn’t quite come off as strong as intended. Judgement in the eye of the beholder here, as what I’d intended to show was apparently not what ended up on display.
12 A: I don’t think there is one way in which people see me; but self-assured seems to play a part (not how I see myself at all; am always surprised when people whom I admire for their self-assuredness like me, can often not quite figure out why). Then there are those who see me as boundlessly arrogant, , who sadly have a slight point, because I do want to perform to the best of my ability and have the feeling they don’t, and that doesn’t inspire warm fuzzy feelings (NB this is only in a work-sphere, in my free time I can’t give two figs about one’s personal drive, motivation and output-see point above re: open-mindedness and thinking everyone equally valuable).
The Community
13. Which hybrid house do you believe you are the most like? Make a case for and a case against your placement there.
Ravendor: I think, a lot, about everything, but that doesn’t stop me from barging into situations without having fully considered the consequences or taken the time to cool off to behave in a more rational manner. Against: not brave enough to boldly go into the fray, and my ratio of diverting versus edifying books sadly veers towards the mindless entertainment rather than the stimulation of intellect.
14. Which hybrid house do you believe you are the least like? Make a case for and a case against your placement there.
Slytherpuff: Not quite universally friendly enough to be a Puff, and not cunning and prudent enough to be a Slytherin; I am boundlessly loyal to my friends and have been friends with most for well over a decade, and I can exhibit the haughtiness I would think Slytherins possess.