Rowling's Pottermore Notes
I'm not a member of Pottermore, so I'm glad that some bloggers have been collecting Rowling's notes from the site. The notes don't have that many surprises, but a few things did jump out at me.
( Spoilers Ahead, Obviously )
( Spoilers Ahead, Obviously )
Comments 40
AHEM.
I think that it's JK who made the mistake, not the sorting hat. A person can be ambitious and cunning, but be selfless.
A person can be brave, but cowardly at times.
There isn't only one type of smart.
Hufflepuffs are also loyal and fair, which have no bearing on laziness. In fact, a flunking Ravenclaw could be lazy.
She's just now realizing how many "Slytherpuffs" and "Ravendors" there are, and that people don't just fall perfectly into four categories. If she'd back off of her universe a little bit and just say "the hat puts you where you'll do best, and nobody is good or evil" then there'd be no problem.
Again, Jo, very creative, entertaining writer, but you ruin it when you grip your darlings too tightly and refuse to admit your own fault. Nobody's going to hate you for saying you made a mistake/weren't clear/thought better of it on careful examination. Just own up.
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Similarly, once can be loyal to a group who is doing evil.
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I'm kind of disappointed that this possibility is dead. It was my favorite of the options.
I wonder if Dippet taught defense as well as being headmaster between 1945 and 1956, so, when he died, that left both the defense and the headmaster positions open.
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Kinda reminds me of what she said about Dumbledore when she discussed him and Grindlewald. She's good, really! She just fell for the seductive wiles of an evil man once- 'cause she's totally good but all fallible and stuff....
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Oh, you mean like Snape and Voldemort? At least Snape never plotted to torture and enslave millions, unlike St. Albus. As for Snape's alleged Dark Arts practice, IIRC, the only people who accused him of that were his enemies, who had every reason to lie about him.
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Oh, and how James would make fun of Vernon to his face, but it's all cool, because later he'd feel slightly guilty. (Story of James' life - mocking the inferior, then demonstrating his superiority with mild flashes of conscience.)
Also interesting that apparently McGonagall was married at one point, but kept her own name being 'something of a feminist' - Rowling wading into new waters...?
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Oh, and how James would make fun of Vernon to his face, but it's all cool, because later he'd feel slightly guilty. (Story of James' life - mocking the inferior, then demonstrating his superiority with mild flashes of conscience.)
But he's not superior enough to actually apologize because that would mean acknowledging it's not okay if a Gryffindor does it.
I love the way James is supposed to be so brave, but he completely lacks the moral courage to ever admit he's wrong. Unlike that other guy Lily hung out with--uh, what was his name again? You know, the greasy sleazeball?
Apparently this site should have been called, "For JKR Ass-Kissers Only." But I guess that would have been too long a name, not to mention the naughty language involved. ; )
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Maybe "Slytherin" was once a generic term for Parselmouths which was later confused for Salazar's surname due to his fame and the epithet's strong association with him.
The thing that caught me about the McGonagall backstory was that it said she was offered a Transfiguration job under the head of the department, Dumbledore - which makes it sound like at this time Hogwarts was doing the sensible thing and having more than one teacher per subject. Maybe they did have a population crash at some point, although I'm no longer convinced it was war-related (since it doesn't seem to have been much of a war). Old inbred Pureblood families declining in fertility and dying off?
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Maybe "Slytherin" was once a generic term for Parselmouths which was later confused for Salazar's surname due to his fame and the epithet's strong association with him.
I once suggested Slytherin might originally have been the highest-status house because it carried on the spiritual legacy of the Druids, who were called "adders." Pre-Christian Britons considered snakes symbols of wisdom and fertility. It wasn't until Christianity took over, with its inherited prejudices against snakes, that snakes came to be seen as negative.
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"Salazar" was a Basque surname. The Arabs called them "majus," wizards, and they apparently had some sort of snakey deity called Sugaar and a sea serpent deity called Herensuge. So maybe our Salazar Slytherin's father was a Basque priest/wizard who moved to Britain and married into a family with equivalent status to his, one of those Slytherins/Druids.
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Re Sugaar, this is from Wiki: In one myth Sugaar seduces a Scottish princess in the village of Mundaka to father the mythical first Lord of Biscay, Jaun Zuria. This legend is believed to be a fabrication made to legitimate the Lordship of Biscay as a separate state from Navarre, because there is no historical account of such a lord.
So there's a Scottish connection there already. Interestingly enough, Sugaar is a fire deity who makes thunderstorms with his mate, Mari. Since they combine fire and water, they're sort of a Gryffindor/Slytherin hybrid.
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