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Name: Julie
Age: 25
Favourite Subject at Hogwarts: Probably DADA. I know that's the one everyone picks, but I wouldn't be able to sit through History of Magic; I'd probably enjoy Potions except for Snape (well, unless Slughorn was teaching, depending on what book we're working from here). If Slughorn was teaching I'd probably be somewhere between bitter that I got no attention from him and eager to please, so I'd work really hard. Transfiguration sounds really cool, and I think I'd like McGonagall a lot because she's strict but when you do well in her class, she makes you feel good about it, and you can tell she's really invested in the students. I love teachers like that-- again, I work really hard to get praise from them. heh. I guess I'm a praise-seeker. Anyways, in DADA you get to DO a lot, and I'm big into active learning, plus I tend to feel vulnerable and would like to know how to better defend myself.
How do you spend your leisure time at Hogwarts?: Hanging out in the common room, doing homework with friends (it's more fun than studying alone), just sitting and chatting, or finding interesting things to do around Hogwarts (without stumbling upon trolls, three-headed-dogs, or Mrs. Norris).
If you could store one memory in a Pensieve, what would it be? Just one? Man. I don't know if I could pick only one... I would say the time my fiance and I were walking around Harvard Square (Cambridge, MA) and he was telling me something and I impulsively dropped my stuff on the sidewalk and kissed him. Because I timed it perfectly and it was like something out of a movie, heh. And also, because it was a nice kiss, on a cool night, under a burning-out flourescent light in the lobby of an old ramshackle theatre. Very romantic. :D
If you were to face a boggart, what would it turn into? Someone I loved in pain and crying out for my help. Ugh. Especially if they were in pain because of something I had done.
What would you see in the Mirror of Erised? Heh. I have this secret fantasy that my fiance and I will become Mr. and Mrs. Weasley (see icon-- and by the way, if you or someone you knew MADE this icon, let me know so I can credit it!). I want to have an awesome quirky little eccentric home full of knitted things and knick-knacks and lots of kids. It's sad, I'm working on my master's but my goal in life is to have lots of kids. Preferably redheads, actually (there is a slim genetic chance!) but that's sort of an aside. But no Fred and George, please... I don't think I could survive them.
Also, my family all staying nearby and our kids growing up together more like siblings than cousins. That's how I grew up, and that's what I want for my future children.
What advice would you give to a younger version of yourself? Stick it out! You'll do okay.
Would you have put your name in the Goblet of Fire? HAHA no. Let someone else bother with that hot mess. I don't see endangering my life in gladiator-like events as being a worthwhile way to spend my time at school. HELLO, stress. For a trophy? Maybe if I could win some money for it... no, I still wouldn't do it. But I'd watch it like a shameful reality TV show and then gossip about it every night with my friends in the common room, heh.
Harry Potter: Hero, Attention-Seeker, or Normal Kid in a Bad Situation? And Why? Between "hero" and "normal kid in a bad situation." It's not like he up and decided he wanted to be a hero one day... he was born into it and the only choice he had was to either live up to it or do nothing. He chose to take on that huge task, which in and of itself made him a hero in his own right, but it's not like he would have said "I'm gonna go get that Voldemort guy, and I'll be the one to destroy him!" one day in the middle of class. It was definitely forced upon him. I do think he'd have been on the side of good, and would have probably joined/wanted to join/agreed with the fight of The Order, though. He'd have been involved in some way. I guess, then, if I had to pick only one, I'd say "hero."
Voldemort: Evil, Genius, or just plain Misunderstood? And why? I'm so indecisive, lol. I'd pick "misunderstood person who became evil" because, well, people tend to think of evil as some sort of organic condition that can't be avoided. I don't see it that way-- had Voldemort grown up in a loving home with stable parents, I think he'd have still been in Slytherin, and still been a bit cold and calculating, and still been self-centered and a touch power-hungry... but in Deathly Hallows we really get a taste of how he worked so hard to prove so many things to the world, and the things he was trying to prove came straight out of what he never had/never appeared to have as a child. Am I making sense? I tend to ramble. He was all about glory and power and not needing anyone, but had he HAD someone and not been so starved for power and glory because he never had to go without... I think proper love and parenting would have made a huge difference in his life.
Under what circumstances would you use an Unforgivable Curse? If someone tried to hurt my family (and my close friends, as well, who are "family" to me), then I'd be okay with "Cruciatus" or "Imperio." I would be tempted to use "Imperio" for gain, but wouldn't because I'd be afraid of getting caught (but think, if you could just make someone give you stuff or do something important for you but didn't have to hurt them? But then there are all those repercussions, like "You can convince someone to give you $5,000, but then maybe they can't feed their children that night," so I'd feel too guilty, in the end, to go through with it). I don't know about the Killing Curse... I'd like to say I'd use it to save my family, and I probably would, but all those "Would you kill someone if?" questions are really hard to answer as hypotheticals.
What single quality goes the furthest in defining who you are? I'm really, really loyal and stubborn. You gotta put those two together. I'm loyal to both people and my own beliefs, to the point that I'll do whatever someone needs even if it's kinda not doable just because I said I would, and I'll be loyal to my beliefs to a fault sometimes and be a little closed-minded. So, stubborn.
What makes a person respectable? Doing what they said they'd do, as they said they'd do it. But they can't be bad things. I don't know why, but I try to picture myself saying "Voldemort is respectable because he's honest and follows through," and it's not the same thing.
I think dignity, though, is a big part of it.
If you had to choose between your family, your friends, and your own beliefs, what would you do? Family. All my close friends count as "family" to me anyways, and no one can change my beliefs so I'd just fake it. As it is, my mom's pushing a lot of things for my wedding that aren't part of my belief system (like someone from "our church" presiding over our interfaith completely non-Christian marriage) but my options are "do whatever I want no matter how it affects other people, and have my mom be all pissed, and make a big hoopla" or "just roll with it and think whatever I want in my head where they can't get me," so I choose the latter. Well, I did after a big long fight. ;)
What do you look for in a friend? Someone who is a genuinely good person and is a loyal friend, no matter what their faults... as long as they match up with me enough that they don't bring me down. I can't do negativity anymore. But once I make a friend and get really close with them (which is a pretty small number of people, most of my friends are just acquaintances), I work pretty hard to keep them.
Put the following words in order of importance to you: Duty, Family, Friendship, Honor, Justice, Power, Tradition.
1) Family/Duty (they seem like the same thing to me...)
2) Friendship
3) Justice
4) Honor (down below justice because, well, honor according to whom? Are we talking virginal honor? "Doing what's right" honor? I think of honor as meaning "dignity, loyalty and faithfulness" more so than adhering to antiquated ideals of being virtuous.)
5) Tradition (carrying on the ones that are important to me and have become a part of who I am, but not "tradition for the sake of tradition")
6) Power
If you could have either a well paid easy job that did not task you mentally, or a lower paying job which gave you the freedom to pursue your interests, which would you choose? At first I'd choose the well-paying job, but then after a while I'd be really bored and evntually switch to the fulfilling career. I get a little wide-eyed about money and being able to enjoy some comforts/not have to worry, but if it was a really dull job I'd start to lose it.
As it is, I'm on track right now to a Master's-level education in infants and toddlers. Here I come, fulfilling low-paying career! *kermit arms*
What qualities do you possess from each of the four houses? I know I've used the word "loyalty" about a million times, lol. I guess that's my one Griffyndor characteristic. I'm about three feet farther from "brave" and "courageous" than the farthest away one can get. Ravenclaw... I'm definitely an academic-minded person. My study skills are a bit lacking (I was sick all day yesterday, so I should really be using this time right now to study rather than, oh, putz around LJ and play Mahjonng Titans off and on) but all week long I go from work to internship to class and back to internship, about 45 hours a week. So I'm pretty busy with the studying and schoolwork out of sheer necessity. I also do a lot of "I just really wanna know this" research. And I r smrt. Hufflepuff I think is probably where you guys will put me, just from my understanding of the house (although it's a tough one to understand, isn't it?) because of friendship! and bunnies! and also friendship. I'm a big "family & friends first" person, if you hadn't noticed. heh. And for Slytherin, I definitely like me some money and comforts and relaxing and letting other people do all the work. I am also frequently saracastic, but I don't think that's necessarily a specifically Slytherin thing, they just get characterized that way because it's easy. We've all seen snarky!Harry before, right? ;D
If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be? I'd be better at actually following through and getting things done. Discipline. I could use more of that.
If you were an animagus, what would you turn into? (Assuming that the animal reflects the person, it is not chosen.) Hrm. I really like barn owls. I don't know if I reflect the qualities of a barn owl or not, but I loooove barn owls. They're beautiful.
An animal that has qualities like me, though? I can describe myself well but I don't know if I understand how I appear to people enough to know what sort of animal I would become. Jeez, that's a tough question!
Okay, I just looked up animal spirits here to see if I could find a description that seemed to fit me (sorry, I just don't know these things off the top of my head!) The owl one actually sounded pretty good, mainly these parts:
Seeing behind masks
Messenger of secrets and omens
Shape-shifting
Link between the dark, unseen world and the world of light
Comfort with shadow self
Moon magick
I know it all sounds very dramatic and "ooh, I want this description to be ME," but in the past few years I've done a lot of work coming to terms with who I am, what I do, and how I treat myself... and I really like that line "comfort with shadow self." I can be dark sometimes, and I don't mind anymore. It's just a part of who I am, and I've learned how to deal with it/be it. Also, "lnk between the dark, unseen world and the world of light" sounds a lot like how I think... I'm a deeply spiritual person, if not religious, and I'm constantly thinking about random stuff like the state of the universe and the balances in nature and light/dark sides to things, etc. OMG I am Sirius's "Harry Empowerment Speech" from the OotP movie: "You are not bad. You are good! We are all good and bad. Now go get 'em, tiger *shoulder punch*." lol. or not.
Anyways.
In which house do you think you belong, and why? You know, I've done these sorting house things a bunch of times, and I've been placed everywhere except Ravenclaw. So either this is one giant irony and I should be in Ravenclaw, or I should be in Hufflepuff by default. I can definitely say that I've "wanted" to be in Griffyndor or Slytherin every time, because those are the "cool" houses (lol), but honestly? I'm 25. I am very busy. I want to do this for fun. It is not a way for me to try to figure out who I am anymore, so I don't care where I end up. I'm not going to be "disappointed," at any rate. I just want to see what it turns out to be. I imagine I'll be sorted into Hufflepuff. Besides, that whole thing about wearing one's heart on one's sleeve? I guess I kind of did that here, huh?
How did you find us? If it was from a post say where and who posted it. From searching through the communities that have "sorting hat" as an interest. I was definitely drawn in by "original sorting community on LJ" and "laid-back." Some people take these things really, REALLY seriously, and get rude and mean about it, and it's just not fun that way.
Thanks if you made it all the way through that, heh.