The House Worth Mentioning
A/N: Hi there! I know it's almost been a year since I wrote anything and I am soooo sorry for that. I have nothing to say for myself other than that I had a horrible case of writer's block. It seems to be gone for the time being though. I've gotten about half of the next chapter of It All Started With an Owl written, so hopefully I can remember where I was going with that and it'll be up as soon as possible.
Disclaimer: Nothing. I own nothing. I am borrowing a really cute pink and brown bag from my friend Anne though, and I might be owning something similar in the near future. ;) The rights to Harry Potter continue to elude me. I'm playing with J.K.R's characters and settings merely for my own amusement.
It was the same conversation the first years had every year. The older kids piped in with their two knuts worth of biases in passing, but otherwise ignored the kids who were trying to figure out which house they were most suited for.
"I don't see why we're still arguing this." A young girl spoke loudly over the others sharing her compartment and conversation. "The only houses worth mentioning are Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. Obviously. It's just a matter of which one will better prepare you for the future. Ravenclaw will definitely lead you academically where you want to go in life, but Gryffindor bravery will help you get there."
"What about the other houses?" asked a small voice, new to the world of magic and not quite understanding how things worked. The bold girl quickly jumped to be the one to answer his question.
"Slytherin- ha! Sneaking around isn't a trait any sane person would want to foster. Why would you choose to sneak around behind everyone's back when you can use intellect and bravery to do the same thing in a perfectly respectable manner? It's ludicrous. The only people who go in that house are dirty to the core and you don't want to associate yourself with them."
"Isn't there another one?" the small boy voiced again, and again the brash young woman answered.
"Yes, but it's hardly worth mentioning. Hufflepuff is just where everyone else goes. There's nothing noble about that. Even Helga Hufflepuff admitted as much as just taking the ones nobody else wanted to teach." She brushed off the notion of the badger house quickly, as though it wasn't worth her time to explain it.
A new voice argued with the self-appointed leader of their small group of first years.
"I think you're being stupid about this." He said quietly, but with the authority of someone much older than eleven years old.
"Excuse me?" she replied haughtily. "I've just told you—" but what she'd just told would have to remain in the past as the boy cut her off, as though her explanations weren't worth his time.
"I've heard what you just said. I was here, wasn't I?" he asked without pausing for an answer. "But I think you only said what you've heard repeated over and over. It doesn't really represent the houses at all, or at least not fully."
"All right then." She said, gearing up for a good debate, "Let's hear what you think the best house would be."
"Okay. Let's start with the facts. First of all, every character trait is good- in moderation. Taken to the extreme, even the best of traits are turned into fiendish enemies of those who wield them. It's mostly a matter of balance.
"Gryffindor is known for valuing bravery above all else. Bravery will help you stand up to your fears, sure, but it can also lead you to be reckless, risking everything for some cause or idea that might not even be worth it, only you can only focus in on being a big hero or doing what you think the right thing at the time is without looking at the big picture and seeing the problems inherent in acting a certain way in a situation. No thank you. If coupled with extreme loyalty and no brains, this is an incredibly dangerous trait to foster. Without cunning, which is something this house generally abhors, you'll probably get caught before accomplishing whatever you wanted to do anyway.
"Ravenclaw. All right, knowledge is power. The pen is mightier than the sword and all that jazz. But who ever wanted to be around someone who does nothing but spit out facts all the time. And who wants to be the person who does nothing but spit out facts all the time? And even if you don't say anything because you know it's annoying, you have all that stuff floating around in your head, making it impossible to just hang out and have fun with your friends. It's impossible to have a jolly time when someone uses a 24-hour clock and mention it's 15:45 and you automatically think of the 'population control' and the vicious murders of thousands of young children and the horrible infertilization surgeries hundreds of women suffered and often died from because of so-called political reasons instead of tea about to be served, which was what was meant." He got several strange and wide-eyed looks at that one, but continued barreling on arguing against the different houses.
"Hufflepuff is much more worthy of a house than you would lead us to assume." He said, nodding towards the fiery curly-haired girl. "Hufflepuff is the house of those who are loyal. To themselves, to their school, to their classmates, to their magic. Helga Hufflepuff taught the students that the other founders didn't prize because she saw them for more than their intellect or cunning or bravery. She saw them as people who possess a special trait and needed to be taught to master it. And they did. Her students weren't the showiest of all, but they were the steadiest learners, the ones that knew what they were doing. They could be counted on to keep their word about something, be it scholastic or personal. They stick by their friends through adversity, which is more than can be said for the other houses, whose members leave others hanging when it interferes with their own goals at the moment. This sort of loyalty, if not tempered with intellect and bravery to know and do the right thing, can be a bad thing and intelligent, capable people who are bound by their word, given in a moment of thoughtlessness, could become the most fearsome army known to man.
"Slytherin gets a bad rap, worse than Hufflepuff. It's known as the house that Dark wizards come out of. The only reason for that is because the ones who do get noticed are the ones who have the ambition to try to make something of themselves. That's not a bad trait in and of itself. Ambition is good. Without it, you probably won't make something of yourself. Who here doesn't have some sort of ambitions for the future?" He looked around to prove a point. "Exactly. All of us want something and are willing to work for it. The other main thing Slytherin is known for is cunning. Cunning just means having the ability to get what you want. Not necessarily by whatever means necessary. Just having the ability to do what needs done without drawing attention to yourself is something most of us could use more of. Granted, just fostering these two traits is asking for trouble. Who could really expect much else from people taught from a young age to try to make something of themselves without getting caught using underhanded means if necessary? And since those are the type the Slytherin house prefers, it's no wonder that that house has the reputation it does."
"So what are you saying? All you've said is how being in any of the houses would cause problems." The fiery girl said in response to his monologue.
"Well, yeah. Like I said right off, it's about moderation. Remembering that other houses aren't bad, just foster something different than what you're used to is the key. Making and maintaining friendships with people in other houses will help you remember that and temper the extremities that spending time only with people from your own house would foster." The pale boy shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "People aren't meant to only have a few personality traits, but how we foster them makes us different."
"I think you have a point. But I still think that Ravenclaw or Gryffindor would be best." The girl stated obstinately.
"And while I'm inclined to believe that that's simply because of your upbringing," the boy said, smiling a little, "you're welcome to your opinion as long as you don't force it on the rest of us."
That seemed to be the end of that discussion. The kids moved on to different topics, such as what they supposed classes would be like, their home lives, favorite games, and what sweets they preferred.
The older students at Hogwarts weren't sure what they were surprised at more: that Scorpius Malfoy was happily sorted into Hufflepuff after a rather lengthy conversation with the Sorting Hat, or that little Rose Granger-Weasley was wildly cheering for him. Either way, they decided, it was a night to write home about.