(Untitled)

[ledbylove]

I really want to know where it states In canon that Hufflepuffs are mothering and family oriented. And nice.

Zacharias Smith was a Hufflepuff. He was also an asshole. The only Hufflepuff we ever saw who was a mother was Tonks and we didn't really get much first hand knowledge of her in that mother role. The most prominently featured family oriented

Comments

[rhye]

The cheat sheets were made via a Sorters' Anon discussion activity so it's a list of traits the HiH members of each house see in themselves and each other. I don't think anyone will fit 100% into any of the houses (God how boring if there were only four types of people in the world) but I don't see anything that diverges wildly from canon.

While it is never said that Slytherins as a whole are subtle, I think that characterization comes from the fact that Slytherins think before they act, making their actions by default less brazen, and they plan things out thoroughly, meaning they have the ability to be subtle-- an ability a Gryffindor, who doesn't plan things, might be lacking. That doesn't mean they always use that ability, of course. Again, whenever talking about house characterization we are making generalizations so there will always be characters that defy the generalizations. But Draco was subtle in bringing Death Eaters into Hogwarts, as an example.

As for Bellatrix, she always struck me as more of a Gryffindor-- passionate, unyielding in her beliefs, doesn't think much before acting, will always act to defend her beliefs-- but she's a "bad guy" and by default JKR puts all bad guys in Slytherin*.

*Which is probably another reason Slytherins are seen as subtle. Most Death Eaters were Slytherin and most Death Eaters were subtle i.e. in their takeover of the Ministry. Is this a Slytherin quality or a Death Eater quality? JKR doesn't make much of a boundary between the two.

[romani_blood]

Well no-one would deny Bella has Gryffindor traits. But don't forget that JK's canon Slytherin traits include ambition and to a certain extent blood purity - as well as belief in the whole pure-blood ideology - and Bella has these in spades. She would settle for nothing less than to be Voldemort's right hand and I could imagine her seeing herself as the most likely candidate to lead the DEs if Voldemort was taken out of the picture.

I don't think JK put her 'bad guys' in Slytherin by default. I think that House affiliation tends to run in families - witness the Weasleys ALL being in Gryffindor despite some of them (notably Percy) having traits of other Houses - and it's partly because of that that most of the pureblood fanatics tend to land themselves in Slytherin. The Hat does take individual choices and desires into account after all. Take Draco for example. The one thing he was likely thinking as he sat on that stool in the Great Hall was, "My father was in Slytherin. All my family's been in Slytherin. All the best pureblood families go into Slytherin. I don't want to be in any other House."

As for subtlety, well, it's true Gryffs have a tendency to rush in where others might hang back and think - but subtlety doesn't necessarily have to be associated purely with Slytherins. I bet the average Ravenclaw would think before they act too - think at some length in fact - and since they're likely to, well, work smart...

And Puffs would probably put some thought into the consequences of their actions, too. So subtlety is a trait at least three of the Houses could reasonably be said to possess.

And finally, we do know of one Gryffindor who was probably the sneakiest and most subtle of them all: Peter Pettigrew. He was so successful at pulling the wool over everybody's eyes that he was able to become James and Lily's Secret-Keeper and subsequently sell them out to Voldemort - and the only reason Sirius figured out who was responsible after the fact was by the very nature of the Fidelius Charm, ie, only Peter could have been the traitor. That's subtlety right there.