The Problem with Hogwarts
Aka: The Year in which Nobody Won the House Cup
The problem with Gryffindor was the flood of natural leaders. How do you expect a community to work with so many potential leaders, all leading to different directions, all equally convinced of their rightness? Of course you have a house-spirit, but it's insanely difficult to choose between the Quidditch Captain and the Head Boy, when they are equally passionate about completely opposing things.
o.o
The problem with Hufflepuff was the lack of any natural leader. Of course you would be faithful and ready to follow any leader there was, but people just did not seem to like leading at all in your house... Of course the elder students were nice to the younger, and generally everyone was nice to the other, and you had a house spirit, but you just weren't sure what that meant in the end. Your prefects were too timid to deduct points anyway; you were doomed to loose in the contest between the houses. Besides, could a stupid contest really matter so much that people beat each other up about it?
o.o
The problem with Ravenclaw was essentially the smart thinking. You see, why would you want to follow anyone, when they would certainly make mistakes? Logically such thing as an infallible, prefect leader could not really exist. And anyway, who is to say you wouldn't make a better leader? Or who is to say you wouldn't make the same mistakes? After all, you had to find your own way. Besides, all this fighting did not matter too much in the end...while thinking, well that could solve a lot of problems that the thoughtless fighting would create. It was insane how crazy-competitive some people got! What was the point, really? You had better things to do anyway!
o.o
The problem with Slytherin was the insane amount of equally ambitious people, because essentially it meant that you would have to walk over each other to get what you wanted... Besides, not that you didn't have a house-spirit, but... Well, lets face it, you didn't have a house-spirit. You were proud to be a Slytherin, but you were mostly proud because of all the great influential and powerful people that used to go to Slytherin. You were proud to follow in their footsteps, but about your own house mates... Well, you just couldn't care enough. Soon, you'll have to best them anyway, so why bother with the popularity, really? Did it matter in the end? Accomplishments, yes those mattered, so you are polite enough with the prefects, and do your best in classes, but you really don't care if that stupid first year over there, gets beaten up by a Gryffindor. Their problem, not yours... He should have been smarter...
I am questioning the methods of the sorting, yes! Why? Because normally a group functions the best when it is of different types of individuals, learning to work together, leaning on each other's strengths. Imagine how well a Ravenclaw and a Slytherin could work against an equally as powerful duo of a Hufflepuff and a Gryffindor! But two dominant Gryffindors working together? I see a problem there. Just as much as I see a problem with two equally ambitious Slytherin trying to work together...
Psychologically the system does not seem wise. For me. :)
Anyways, it was just a bit of experiment! I hope you enjoyed it (regardless of the length) and please, tell me what you thought!