-1When you're first sorted into houses as a first year, the house badge means everything. It's your rank, you're family, and if you aren't careful, it becomes your identity. Take Hufflepuff, for example. No one wants to be in Hufflepuff, because 'everyone knows' that Hufflepuffs are pushovers. Of course, 'everyone knew' that Voldemort wasn't coming back, and that certainly hasn't helped anyone he's killed since, and I know Hufflepuffs who, when it's for the greater good, can't be made to back down.
Then there's Slytherin. House of Evil, or tragically misunderstood? Honestly, there are days where I have a hard time remembering why there is a Slytherin house. I'm not saying that the people in it shouldn't go to Hogwarts; I'm saying that it creates a potentially lethal stereotype. Then, I recall the only logical reason for the continuation of such a stereotype-- the very human need for a scapegoat.
Slytherin has a reputation for cold malice and cunning that is not particularly undeserved; what it is underestimated. A certain coldness is not a disadvantage, and many of the so-called lighter houses display a similar cunning. Ambition, also, is not nearly the sin it's made out to be in a Slytherin's hands-- again, everyone needs at least a little. It is really the ability to make a judgment unbiased by emotion that is Slytherin's true defining characteristic. Some of the best strategists and leaders have been Slytherin; they make good leaders for their ability to put the important things first. In the military, they are an astoundingly wasted asset. They can make judgments unhampered by rage, fear… or affection. For the more emotional Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors, this ability is unimaginable and incomprehensible. And, as always, what is not understood is feared and hated.
Don't get me wrong. Slytherins are hardly angels. Ambition does have it's dark side. They're only human, after all, and the same skills that make a wonderful leader also make a terrible dictator if coupled with the wrong kind of cruelty. Slytherins, by their very nature tend to be powerful, and power does corrupt.
Gryffindors are widely toted as the good boys and girls. I have to wonder how much of that reputation stems from their status as Dumbledore's favorites, but they do have their positive attributes as well. The Lion's name for courage is not in the least understated. They are determined and stubborn, and ferocious for what they believe in. Fools will walk where angels fear to tread, and those fools very often wind up in Gryffindor. They also tend to be proud; the kind of pride that will drive someone to be the best they can, in whatever image they choose. That pride demands of them that they act reasonably, tempering their sometimes too emotional dispositions. Gryffindors are very strong in how they feel, elemental in their passion.
Like all things, the House of Lions has its darker side. Gryffindors do not lack for ambition, and ambition can always be twisted. Pride in too great a measure is the seventh deadly sin, and stubbornness does not guarantee that the reasons are correct. A Gryffindor, sure in his convictions, can do just as much harm as anyone else; the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
That leaves only my own house, Ravenclaw. By now, my seventh year, it has become almost synonymous with home, or perhaps with ally. We are the scholars, who try and just as often fail to have and to hold the knowledge of the generations. We watch, and observe, and we remember, so that past mistakes need not be repeated. I know we all have our share of faults, but I find it hard to put them so clearly to the people I have known for years, and tomorrow shall leave forever. I try to pen our virtues and our vices, as I have done (at least to some extent) for the others, but I find the names and faces get in the way. Perhaps a student of another house could answer, but I am too close to the people of Ravenclaw house.
When you are first sorted as a first year, the house badges mean everything. You know exactly what a person is, simply by the colors on their robe or scarf. I wonder now, a little bit too late, how accurate those impressions are, but for me it doesn't matter. I leave tomorrow, and pass this journal on to my successor, a soon-to-be-third-year with the metal to take my place. It is the tradition, of our house, that one must watch and take note, in this book of wisdom to be handed down. It is hoped that when it is needed, this book will be read. Our house remembers, so that mistakes need not be repeated. When I am gone, my successor shall read this. When she graduates, she too will pass it on. Perhaps, someday, we will learn a little sooner. Perhaps we shall not assume that one's house is one's identity. As someone very wise once said, it isn't what you don't know that gets you, it's what you think you know that isn't so. But is it, so very wrong?
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AN: Well. I'd been planning that for a while, finally got around to writing it. Please, please, PLEASE review. Even if you hated it, I'd like to know why. Constructive critiscm so welcome that it isn't even funny.