Perfect Slytherinjana_chOctober 29 2014, 02:04:28 UTC
Albus is such a perfect Slytherin that, if he indeed was a Gryffindor, he had to have been Sorted there at his own insistence. A cunning, ambitious Slytherin can get away with a lot if he’s publicly identified as a brave, bold Gryffindor. My story “Sal’s Hat” has been halted for a considerable time because I haven’t been able to write eleven-year-old Albus’s conversation with Salazar’s yarmulke when it, unlike Godric’s hat, refuses to accede to his request
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Re: Ravenclaw Manqueterri_testingOctober 29 2014, 03:38:32 UTC
As to Albus's sorting... it's totally obvious he should have accepted the Hat (or yarmulke's) recommendation and gone to his heart's home--well, his head's home--of Ravenclaw. He'd have done absolutely no harm to anyone continuing on getting more and mroe academic awards
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Re: Ravenclaw Manquejana_chOctober 29 2014, 20:09:23 UTC
Ravenclaw Albus?
Nooo, nasty evil Albus can’t belong to MY House! We’re all rational and abstracted and harmless. It’s true we never actually accomplish much, but we have such fun analyzing things. And we never mean it personally! Really, anyone who gets offended doesn’t have the proper perspective.
What's the difference between being pompous and being pedantic? If you're pompous, you want to be recognized as right, like a Gryffindor. If you're pedantic, you want to get the information right, like a Ravenclaw. If you're wrong and someone corrects you, you must grit your teeth and thank him politely, because it means you'll never make the same mistake again. No one likes being shown to be wrong, but Ravenclaw has its own rules.
You're right, of course, that us 'Claws make terrible Slytherins. When I was young I liked to imagine that I would be a Slytherin when I grew up, but I really don't have what it takes.
Re: the journey is a trialsweettalkeressOctober 30 2014, 18:16:01 UTC
It kinda begs the question as to how old/experienced the people entering the castle would have originally been. Because, in ancient martial-arts lore (and even modern-day martial-arts schools, in a way), there were (and are) ways to prove yourself and get recognition, but they all require(d) years of training beforehand. So...would future Hogwarts students be trained for this kind of trial since birth? Or would they start when they were older than eleven...?
Seriously, I think we'd have to say "Alrady vetted."
But, you know, the fact is we never once see a child in Hogsmeade. Not one. You'd have expected to see a herd running around playing pickup Quidditch, or gawking after the big kids on the Hogwarts weekends, or a baby's crying heard through a window, but.. no. Not one, ever. Nor do we ever hear of any students claiming to have been raised there.
So maybe it's a retirement community, really...
(But who the hell would set up a refuge and not bring in the kids?)
The goblins... well, after all, Hogsmeade was originally created as a refuge for magicals against Muggles, right?
Oh my god, the thought of Albus doing Tom's Career Advice talk--the mind explodes. In my 'verse, it would be post-blackmail, too!
Of course, that Albus might have been Head of Slytherin was rather a post-script--the rest of the essay works without. Still, it's a fascinating one....
Re: Hogsmeadeoryx_leucoryxOctober 30 2014, 04:48:22 UTC
Re: kids from Hogsmeade - whitehound uses that as an explanation for the mysteriously vanishing Gryffindor girls and other characters that should be there but never get mentioned - in her view they go home after classes, so never get involved in things like the DA. Maybe the under-11 kids from Hogsmeade avoid the Hogwarts students. They prefer to go out when it is quiet and relatively safe, without hordes of big kids out to get the newest items from the joke shop.
Truthfully, it isn't even necessary for the Hogsmeade kids to hide for them to never be mentioned. Harry has such blinders on that he doesn't even know the name of a kid whom he has had in classes (of only roughly 20 kids - or 18 if there really are only 3 gryffindor girls) for 5 years.
It is just about as likely that Harry merely never notices any younger kids in Hogsmeade - or for that matter those 3 roomies of Hermione - as it is that they are hiding. IF he can ignore the existence of 1 classmate, then surely he can be oblivious to others as well?
Just chiming in to say I love this essay! Of course the journey to Hogwarts is a (watered-down) ordeal! And Albus as a Slytherin does make sense. The only thing I don't like about the concept is that it supports the idea that Slytherin = evil. But really, the way that house is presented is quite inconsistent. Although I concede that ambition can lead to evil, malice, etc, it doesn't have to. Every human virtue has its downside. What gets me is the whole ambition = pureblood thing. Why? Wouldn't you think that, if it's really the house of ambition, Slytherin would be jam packed full of half-bloods like Severus and Muggleborns like Hermione?
Sorting Hat Songsterri_testingNovember 2 2014, 02:24:17 UTC
You know, re-reading the Sorting Hat Songs--which we hear in books 1, 4, and 5--Ravenclaw and Gryffindor are presented consistently; Hufflepuff and Slytherin are both presented differently in book 5 than they were before. In the first two songs, Hufflepuff CHOOSES those who are "just & loyal... true.. unafraid of toil" and then "hard workers". In the first two songs, Slytherin chooses "cunning folk who use any means to achieve their ends" and "those of great ambition
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Re: Sorting Hat Songsjana_chNovember 2 2014, 04:09:28 UTC
Yes, JKR is big on her heroes being tremendously successful without actually striving for it. All the Weasleys end up being highly successful, but the only one condemned for it is Percy, because he's entirely up-front about wanting success, and doing what he can to achieve it. Apparently you're just suppposed to "follow your bliss" out of your great love of jokes, dragons, quidditch, police work, or muggle do-dads, and success will shower upon you. As long as you wear red and gold, of course
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The UK has had some form of daylights saving time since 1916, and moved almost entirely away from GMT around 1959. It seems the wizards have caught up to the system by 1991 because Harry doesn't find himself surprisingly an hour early for the train. I'm wondering if there was a time when this sort of thing happened - that Muggle-raised children were an hour early.
Also, Britain has also been using the Julian calendar since the Roman ages and didn't switch to the Gregorian calendar when the Catholic countries did in 1582, England finally relented in 1752, requiring an 11-day "bounce" to catch up with the other countries in "real time" (Russia and the other Eastern Orthodox countries didn't change their calendars until the 20th century, hence the "October Revolution" later on being celebrated on November 7th instead); tl;dr I wouldn't be surprised that e wizards' September 1st is different from ours, since the Separation took place in the year of the Glorious Revolution and not after 1752.
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Nooo, nasty evil Albus can’t belong to MY House! We’re all rational and abstracted and harmless. It’s true we never actually accomplish much, but we have such fun analyzing things. And we never mean it personally! Really, anyone who gets offended doesn’t have the proper perspective.
What's the difference between being pompous and being pedantic? If you're pompous, you want to be recognized as right, like a Gryffindor. If you're pedantic, you want to get the information right, like a Ravenclaw. If you're wrong and someone corrects you, you must grit your teeth and thank him politely, because it means you'll never make the same mistake again. No one likes being shown to be wrong, but Ravenclaw has its own rules.
You're right, of course, that us 'Claws make terrible Slytherins. When I was young I liked to imagine that I would be a Slytherin when I grew up, but I really don't have what it takes.
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Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,
Teach us something please,
Whether we be old and bald,
Or young with scabby knees....
So, er, yes, really any age.
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But, you know, the fact is we never once see a child in Hogsmeade. Not one. You'd have expected to see a herd running around playing pickup Quidditch, or gawking after the big kids on the Hogwarts weekends, or a baby's crying heard through a window, but.. no. Not one, ever. Nor do we ever hear of any students claiming to have been raised there.
So maybe it's a retirement community, really...
(But who the hell would set up a refuge and not bring in the kids?)
The goblins... well, after all, Hogsmeade was originally created as a refuge for magicals against Muggles, right?
Oh my god, the thought of Albus doing Tom's Career Advice talk--the mind explodes. In my 'verse, it would be post-blackmail, too!
Of course, that Albus might have been Head of Slytherin was rather a post-script--the rest of the essay works without. Still, it's a fascinating one....
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It is just about as likely that Harry merely never notices any younger kids in Hogsmeade - or for that matter those 3 roomies of Hermione - as it is that they are hiding. IF he can ignore the existence of 1 classmate, then surely he can be oblivious to others as well?
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