What should slytherin house be like?

[druid91]

Ok so we've seen a good characterization of Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Gryfindor. We know what their general character is...

But all we ever see is Blood-purist Slytherin. Slytherin is meant to exemplify trickery, cunning. Lies and deceit. And while we get a few examples of that for the most part we get racist thuggery and bullying.

So how do you imagine an uncorrupted slytherin? Personally HPMoR has shaped my view of how slytherin should behave.

[blackspeeker]

I think at its best slytherin is ambition in its purest form, maybe cunning/cleverness as well it simply gets painted in a bad light because those qualities can easily be paired with duplicitousness, deception, and so forth.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Gryffindor is the warrior king or head general, probably of noble intentions, Slytherin is the cunning king or advisor who likes the power and is smart enough to use it well, Ravenclaw is the wise king or advisor who's like Slytherin, except they don't take the power for power's sake, and they also practice some sort of science as a hobby, and Hufflepuff is... everyone else, so long as they work hard, meaning tough laborers, strong blacksmiths, and peasant heroes.

[Eldan]

I'd say Slytherin is ambition before deceit or trickery.
A slytherin sets himself a clear goal, and then achieves it. A slythern can be ruthlessly practical in his pursuit of his goal, but that does not mean he will go to any length, he can still have values and things he treasures outside his goal. He can, perhaps, be single-minded about his goal, or power-hungry, but again, he does not have to be.

The basic characteristic is trying to strive towards a defined goal. To improve yourself and your life. To get what you want, whatever it is.

[Ravens_cry]

Indeed, ambitious, so many places you could go with that. Climbing a mountain none have never climbed? That's ambitious. Brewing a potion no one ever brewed? Ambitious. Been the fastest of the fast? Ambitious.
Slytherin is for goal orientated people, not chronic backstabbers.

[Mando Knight]

Slytherin is for goal orientated people, not chronic backstabbers.
Starscream is nothing if not ambitious.

[Ravens_cry]

Starscream is nothing if not ambitious.
No he wasn't. All he knew how to do was backstab, but he never knew when not to backstab. It was an obsession to the point a trope is named after the poor bastard.

[inexorabletruth]

That's the thing that always bothered me about the book. If Slytherin was such an evil wizard, why was he allowed to build a house in that school, and why is the house still going strong if all bad wizards came from Slytherin?

My thought is that most people from house Slytherin aren't bad, just misunderstood, but bad people misunderstand the cocept too and gravitate towards that house because they're attracted to the eeeeeevvvillll.

In the book, Albus Dumbledore clarifies that House Slytherin prefers students who are clever, resourceful and determined. These are actually highly valued traits of any good leader, and most underdog hero tropes meet these standards as well. Of course, so do many BBEGs. *shrug*

An interesting bit of trivia: Merlin comes from Slytherin House. Want an example of a non-evil Slytherin alumnist? There you have it.

But it's hard to wash off the Nazi metaphor stench when they, as a group, seem to react violently towards all muggle-born witches and wizards regardless of talent, with the obvious exception of Tom Riddle... sort of a Hitler allegory in his own right, since Hitler in no way resembled the Aryan ideal, but rather looked much more like the Jews he so ravenously persecuted.

[Ravens_cry]

According to some stories, he was part Jewish himself. It's possible, but no one knows for sure.
Another problem I had with Slytherin, as portrayed rather than claimed, was Crabb and Goyle.
From a meta-narrative perspective, they make sense.
Malfoy needed some cronies and they cronied well.
But from the actual requirements of Slytherin?
They were oafish, lumpen,and dull, dull, dull.
Not exactly Slytherin material in my opinion.

[Eldan]

Where else should the hat put them though, given that they also dont seem intellectual. hard-working or brave?

[Ravens_cry]

Where else should the hat put them though, given that they also dont seem intellectual. hard-working or brave?
Go Team Squib!
And if that is too mean, Hufflepuff House. They may not be the best examples of the best qualities of said house, but they fit there better than Slytherin.
It probably would have done them some good too.

[Teron]

I hate to be the guy who just drops a TVTropes link, but after spending a minute coming up with traits the ideal Slytherin should possess, I realised this (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagnificentBastard) is exactly where I was going.

[Saph]

Another problem I had with Slytherin, as portrayed rather than claimed, was Crabb and Goyle.

Well, if you're making a House of evil ambitious people, they have to get their minions from somewhere, right? Where else are they going to recruit from?

[Eloel]

Tarquin.
[/thread]

[Ashen Lilies]

Gryffindor and Hufflepuff of course. Ravenclaws could make good minions too. You just need to point their brains in the right direction and let them think, though save the physical minioning for the other two houses.

[Winter_Wolf]

Maybe Hogwarts has a legacy system. Crabb and Goyle's parents were Slytherins, so they are (since neither seems to have an abundance of redeeming or outstanding qualities). I have no proof of that, since I've only seen the movies and it wasn't mentioned, just giving an example.

Alternatively/additionally, Slytherin could be like the "watch list" house. Like a depot to collect all the most likely potentially dangerous fledglings so they're easier to keep an eye on. The main drawback being that they're now all going to have a lot easier time finding each other.

[Xondoure]

I always saw the gryffindor students as the charismatic, but less motivated kids: encompassing the more artistic/sportsy and prone to slacking. Ravenclaw as the math and science kids who are actively interested in knowledge for its own sake. Slytherin as those kids in leadership who are convinced they're the popular ones, even though everyone else just sort of rolls their eyes. And Hufflepuff as the 4.0 students who actually end up running most of the world once they get out of school.

Obviously there are exceptions, and most students will be somewhere in the middle.

[Deadly]

Crabb and Goyle are easy... We know that the hat listens to you when deciding where to place you; obviously Malfoy ended in Slytherin and his two lackeys couldn't conceive of ending up anywhere but the same place, so that's why two bumbling idiots end up there and not... I don't know, the space between houses.

Anyway, I'd say Snape exemplifies Slytherin's ideals pretty darned well. Maybe that's just because I always liked Snape the most.

[druid91]

Crabb and Goyle are easy... We know that the hat listens to you when deciding where to place you; obviously Malfoy ended in Slytherin and his two lackeys couldn't conceive of ending up anywhere but the same place, so that's why two bumbling idiots end up there and not... I don't know, the space between houses.

Anyway, I'd say Snape exemplifies Slytherin's ideals pretty darned well. Maybe that's just because I always liked Snape the most.

Snape is one of those aforementioned exceptions. But that said, Snape and Slughorn are just about all we have. And Slughorn was never all that interesting.

[Nerd-o-rama]

The problem with Slytherin is this: every Slytherin we see is pretty much a bully - a bully leader, or a bully follower. Slughorn is the one exception to this (Snape is, for all his other good and bad points, what happens when a bullied kid becomes a bullying adult) and even then Slughorn's manipulative plotting is not terribly effective or a good example.

Getting back to the original point, the thing about bullies is that when there's a bigger, tougher thug around (and Voldemort is pretty much the biggest thug in the setting), they tend to immediately and almost reflexively form a strict pyramid of ass-kissing. Seeing almost every named Slytherin immediately fall in line with the crowd of Dark Lord supporters out of either fear or authoritarian follower tendency both paints them in a bad light and goes against their "theme" of being ambitious schemers. They're all just trying to hide or ride the coattails of the New World Order. Personally I'd have liked to see just one darn Slytherin take a gamble on the plucky heroes on the basis that, if they win, he's going to look fan-freaking-tastic in the history books, not to mention get all the fangirls/fanboys for being the sexy bad boy/bad girl on the hero team. High risk, high reward. That's what ambition is.

[Sotharsyl]

So how do you imagine an uncorrupted slytherin? Personally HPMoR has shaped my view of how slytherin should behave.


Well obviously every succesfull person you don't the House of is a Slitherin :smallwink:

If I were given the chance to rewrite House Slitherin I'd make them the most loyal of the Houses but not like Hufflepuffs loyal in the normal easy to notice way, but loyal to the Wizarding World as a whole that'd be my reason for why everybody allows the Slitherin to go around doing their bussiness because they know they're keeping something even worse back.

What are they holding back which can be worse? Muggles, yes I'd make the Slitherin the unofficail arm of the WW into muggle affairs Slitherin make the perfect wizard agents for operating in the MW less flashy than a Griffindor, less of a bleeding hearth then Hufflepuff, less likely to go into explorer mode then Ravenclaws and ideally the sneakiest of them all.

This doesn't mean the Slitherin love Muggles now they still hate them, but it's the hate which grows from close contact every Slitherin knows directly from the source how poluted,violent is the MW how easily they turn on those not like them.

Sure Arthur Weasley stays at his wizard village and is in love with those terific muggles who bless their hearts get along some way without magic and make rubber duckies but Lucius Malfoy has went to Africa and negociated a transaction for diamonds to stave of a reagent crisis with rebels who use children as slaves in the mines and he's seen what 20 people with AK-47 can do to a small village.

And it's not only the fact that Slitherin should have the spying skills which make them the go to mages for muggle interraction, they throw themselves into the work because out there outside the WW in that dangerous world is where you can conquer build empires with the least competition.

There's a double meaning to the word mudblood it also means for those in the know one who's parentage is unsure there's a whole world out there filled with beautifull men and women who don't know what a Imperious is nor can their friends guess it.

You think Voldi's mom was the only one who has that bright ideea, in a more darker series I'd make someone note how the WW greatley weakened by the DE are bolstering their forces with the DE's own unknowing offsping.

But turning our heads to less nauseating breaches of the law, the Malfoy's have a very good bussines every succesfull book in the MW is judged if it can be adapted to the WW and if yes Malfoy does it, how can Steven King know to ask about the 3 novels he was Imperioused into writing then mindwiped about.

So yeah Slitherins have used the resources of the MW to propt themselves as a sort of aristocracy in the MW and they hate the half bloods because they're the competition or they're victims and you'do best to remember half blood they're not one of us (now you're on the other side and were the best at helping you find what you need here)

Voldemort was such a waste though a Slitherin, more intelligent then a Ravenclaw more carismatic then a Gryfindorbut he wasn't loyal to us,the WW, he just hated the MW more than the WW.

If Dumbledore was a Slitherin he'd have recognised that the muggles just broke him too much for him to be of use to us.

And how can the other Houses deal with Slitherins, well tough luck if you had a need which only a Slitherin can solve, "What is Girls Gone Wild?" , you're going to get screwed the important thing is to recognize how to get the least amount of screwed and that friend is how they get you my friend.

You allready went in and peeled away at 5 coats of deception and lies but you couldn't know there were 15 in total, but I'm sure that "tape" of GGW you got for 6 galleons 13 sickles and 4 knuths was a fair trade and surely there is a charm to "play the tape".

PS I seemed to have gone of track a uncorrupted slitherin could pottentialy be like Kirk, just scale down the bravado and scale way up the respect for the Prime Directive because if the pre warp civilisations band together they can kick our asses.

[The Extinguisher]

The big thing is that the Slytherin house we see is tainted by Voldemort and his time at Hogwarts. It wasn't always racism and evil, but that's what people see because that's the effect Riddle had on people. Apparently it got better afterwards, but things like that are pretty huge.

Compare Slughorn to Snape. Slughorn, an older Slytherin from before Riddle's time. He play's favourites, but it doesn't matter how pure your blood is, as long as you're good at something. Next to him we have Snape, a Slytherin after Riddle's time at Hogwarts, who takes up the racism in order to fit in with his house.

It's a bad time to look at Slytherin House for redeeming qualities, because at the time it was overshadowed by Voldemort and his magical racism. There are certain analogies to real world events that are pretty obvious as well.

EDIT: Also in the people who were probably Slytherins, I'd say Mundungus would be. And he was in the order.

[Raimun]

Perhaps not all slyttherins were evil, racist bastards, with no redeeming qualities, but most of them were portrayed that way in the story, except Slughorn and Snape.

Still, I think it was the only house that had death eaters.

As for ambition... I don't want to say who had ambition too, because I would invoke the Godwin's law. :smalltongue:

[Moff Chumley]

Godwin's Law's been invoked multiple times already. :smalltongue:

The way I see it, there would be plenty of Slytherins who didn't approve of the racism or bigotry one bit, but kept it to themselves and avoided the more "powerful" house members. Schemey and ambitious kids, but not dishonest; probably more afraid of the Voldemort contingent than anything else, but unwilling to actually be swayed by it.

[Xondoure]

Well if I were Slytherin, I'd probably be pretty irritated that my dorms were in the dungeon with evil looking snakes everywhere and not warm and cozy like the rest of the houses. That alone may explain quite a bit of their disposition.

[Mewtarthio]

Godwin's Law's been invoked multiple times already. :smalltongue:

Godwin's Law only applies to ad hominem attacks. When somebody actually is ranting about wanting to stamp out the "lesser races" and oppress everyone with a facist regime, you can make the obvious comparison without losing the argument.

[DiscipleofBob]

What should have happened in Book 7:

During the final battle between the Death Eaters and Hogwarts, even though Slytherin is supposedly quarantined for the fight, a good number of students sneak out and seemingly join up with the Death Eaters. But when the Death Eaters turn their backs and resume fighting, the escaped Slytherin students proclaim their loyalty to Hogwarts, but only after they've let off several volleys of spells at the Death Eaters' flanks.

Or another possibility:

I want to read a story/fanfic/spinoff along the lines of The Unsung Hero. A Slytherin who joins at the same time as Harry Potter, but is a manipulative bastard somewhere between Xanatos, Batman, and Light Yagami. He interacts very little with his own house beyond putting on appearances as a moustache-twirling villain to fit in, but in reality he (along with his Hufflepuff sidekick he quickly befriends and uses as a gofer), pulls off a series of plots which go unnoticed for the most part but serve to a) make Harry Potter's miracle triumph at the end of each book possible, and b) serve his own self-interests in the long run. His contributions always go unnoticed, but by the end of his seventh year, he's already set himself up for a prime position somewhere in the wizarding world.

[Tengu_temp]

Offtopic, but is there any reason why Hermione is not in Ravenclaw other than her being a main character and Gryffindor being the designated main character house?

[Nerd-o-rama]

Incessant bossiness equates to bravery and leadership in practice.

Actually, all three of the mains are suited to each of the other Houses, although Harry really only by virtue of having a chunk of Voldemort in his head. Ron covers the "tall glass of mother****ing loyalty" aspect of the Hufflepuffs.

[Elhann]

Pretty much like Harry, the Sorting Hat considered putting her in Ravenclaw. It's just that she liked Red and Gold better than Blue and Bronze. (I think she said so in Order of the Phoenix, when one of the Ravenclaw guys was amazed because she was so smart)

[Moff Chumley]

Godwin's Law only applies to ad hominem attacks. When somebody actually is ranting about wanting to stamp out the "lesser races" and oppress everyone with a facist regime, you can make the obvious comparison without losing the argument.

Godwin's Law applies to all Hitler/Nazi comparisons. "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1." While it's generally used to refer to ad hominums, there's nothing in the text of the law that excludes legitimate references. :smalltongue:

[Nekura]

I hate to be the guy who just drops a TVTropes link, but after spending a minute coming up with traits the ideal Slytherin should possess, I realised this (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagnificentBastard) is exactly where I was going.

Magnificent bastard. So your saying the ideal Slytherin should be Dumbledore? He doesn't care how many children he endangers, leaves uneducated, or are being abused for he has a PLAN.

Nevermind I missed the part where it said rarely if erver pointlessly cruel

[tyckspoon]

I always felt like the defining feature of Slytherin was a sense of superiority- Slytherins think they're better than you. Some of them are reasonably nice and polite about it, others are giant raging jerks, but it's always there. Because they're stronger, or smarter, or come from a more notable family, or whatever, Slytherins think they're the best ones in the group and ought to be in charge.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Pretty much like Harry, the Sorting Hat considered putting her in Ravenclaw. It's just that she liked Red and Gold better than Blue and Bronze. (I think she said so in Order of the Phoenix, when one of the Ravenclaw guys was amazed because she was so smart)
After using a Protean Charm, I believe. But it doesn't say it placed her because of her color preferences.

Magnificent bastard. So your saying the ideal Slytherin should be Dumbledore? He doesn't care how many children he endangers, leaves uneducated, or are being abused for he has a PLAN.
It never says what house he was in, does it?

Wait, no, I think it was said in the seventh book or something that he was in Ravenclaw because of his brains.

Nevermind I missed the part where it said rarely if erver pointlessly cruel

...

I get that Dumbledore was mostly about secrets and keeping almost everyone else in the dark about everything. But I must've missed the part where he tortured someone out of boredom.

[Dienekes]

Magnificent bastard. So your saying the ideal Slytherin should be Dumbledore? He doesn't care how many children he endangers, leaves uneducated, or are being abused for he has a PLAN.

Nevermind I missed the part where it said rarely if erver pointlessly cruel

Unfortunately Dumbledore kind of fails the 1 possible most important aspect of Slytherin, ambition. Dumbledore could have easily chosen to gain more and more power but ultimately chose not to. Besides that, yeah the comparison works fairly well.

In any case, I've always considered the ideal Slytherin to be Julius Caesar. Intelligent, calculating, charismatic, and ambitious beyond anything.

[Ravens_cry]

Or Cleopatra for that matter.
Besides the other qualities, she is the one with a connection to snakes after all.

[Teron]

Unfortunately Dumbledore kind of fails the 1 possible most important aspect of Slytherin, ambition. Dumbledore could have easily chosen to gain more and more power but ultimately chose not to. Besides that, yeah the comparison works fairly well.

In any case, I've always considered the ideal Slytherin to be Julius Caesar. Intelligent, calculating, charismatic, and ambitious beyond anything.
Dumbledore is, or at least was, the perfect Slytherin. Remember, he spent his youth plotting world conquest before his sister's death made him fear his own ambition.

[Mewtarthio]

My personal theory is that the Sorting Hat doesn't really have the mystical power to peer so deeply into a ten-year-old's soul that it can see how he or she will turn out seven years later so as to best Sort the student. It's only got a low-level telepathy enchantment and enough psychological knowledge to get a "read" on someone. It certainly can't make a life-altering decision for someone else on its own.

In truth, the only thing that matters is the student's request. The point of the Sorting ritual is to obscure this a bit to make it seem like the students are "destined" for their House. The Sorting Hat is more of an adviser. It can skip forward and pick the House the student wants most if they don't make a clear decision, but its usual role is to explain the Houses to students who need the explanations.

For example, when Harry sat down thinking Not Slytherin!, the Hat could tell that Harry mistakenly considered Slytherin to be a corrupting hellhole that would turn him evil in a heartbeat; that "Slytherin could help you on your path to greatness" spiel was just an attempt to explain that Slytherin was really a House for the ambitious, not just the evil. Harry probably would have ended up in Gryffindor regardless (since that's where his new friends were going), but the Hat wanted to be sure he wasn't making a decision solely based on the rumors he'd heard on the train.

As for why the Sortees tend to end up as the Sorting Hat "predicted" they would: Well, first off, the children who idolize a House's ideals will choose to enter that House, giving the whole process a bit of a selection bias. The rest is simple psychology: If you tell someone that they're destined to become brave heroes, put them in dorm filled exclusively with people who believe themselves to be brave heroes, and put them in a year-long competition against the three-quarters of the school supposedly not made up of brave heroes, then the "brave hero" label is going to become a part of their identity.

That, incidentally, is why Slytherin is the evil House. It's got nothing to do with ambition being evil or with old Salazar deliberately setting it up that way. It's all about the reputation: Jerks like Draco gleefully choose Slytherin because they hate Mudbloods and Muggles, while kids like Harry who are genuinely concerned about turning evil refuse to go into that House. Then when you've got some poor kid who honestly believes the reputation is just a rumor and wants to enter House Slytherin for legitimate reasons--Say their parents were in Slytherin, or they think a House for people who want to get ahead sounds cool, or maybe they just like snakes--You spend the next seven years telling that kid that he's an evil jerk, while the Headmaster blatantly cheats them out of their hard-earned House Cup while everyone cheers because the Slytherins are all evil jerks, and the only people who want to willingly associate with Slytherin are evil jerks... I'm just saying, it's not the healthiest environment.

[Xondoure]

Agreeing entirely with Mewtarthio.

What's more, the hat hates it's job, because it never liked the idea of houses in the first place. Poor hat.

[Agrippa]

Dumbledore is, or at least was, the perfect Slytherin. Remember, he spent his youth plotting world conquest before his sister's death made him fear his own ambition.

Wasn't he technically a member of Gryffindor House? I'd just like to point that out people.

[KnightDisciple]

Really, I don't know if you can talk about Slytherin, and how it "should be", without talking about how all the houses "should be". That is, what they would be like if the wizarding world wasn't embroiled in a decades-old guerilla civil war. One that colored every aspect of their lives.

Ravenclaw: The house of the inventers, the thinkers, the ones who make discoveries. They're the house of "smarts", and it should show.

Hufflepuff: The hard workers; the ones who make sure civilization itself is possible. They aren't just the likes of factory workers and such; Hufflepuffs would make good government representatives, good law enforcement agents, and so on.

Gryffindors: The wartime leaders, the bolder soldiers and cops, the leaders of civil rights movements and the like. They should be blazing new trails, pushing others to better themselves, trying to fight for freedom, that sort of thing.

Slytherins: Movers and shakers. They should quietly go about making sure everything runs smoothly. Gryffindors win wars, Slytherins prevent them.
Batman would totally be a Slytherin. :smallamused:

[Mewtarthio]

What's more, the hat hates it's job, because it never liked the idea of houses in the first place. Poor hat.

Wizard community service sentences are brutal.


Slytherins: Movers and shakers. They should quietly go about making sure everything runs smoothly. Gryffindors win wars, Slytherins prevent them.

I believe you mean "Slytherins win wars; Gryffindors HOLD THE LINE!"

[Dienekes]

Slytherins: Movers and shakers. They should quietly go about making sure everything runs smoothly. Gryffindors win wars, Slytherins prevent them.
Batman would totally be a Slytherin. :smallamused:

You see I'm not sure I agree with this. Part of ambition is wanting to be in the lime light. The quiet movers and shakers that make everything run sounds more like a politically minded Hufflepuff to me. A Slytherin sounds more like a politician who wins by demonizing the opponent by airing their dirty laundry. So about every politician these days.

[KnightDisciple]

I believe you mean "Slytherins win wars; Gryffindors HOLD THE LINE!"No, Hufflepuffs "hold the line". Gryffindors lead charges.

My point was more that a Slytherin leader would use shadow proxies and double agents to stop a war before it really starts, securing their place in history as the leader who prevented a terrible, terrible war.

Gryffindors would end up in the war, but would keep the fires of hope alive in the hearts of the people with passionate speeches, and would end up winning through almost suicidal bravery.


You see I'm not sure I agree with this. Part of ambition is wanting to be in the lime light. The quiet movers and shakers that make everything run sounds more like a politically minded Hufflepuff to me. A Slytherin sounds more like a politician who wins by demonizing the opponent by airing their dirty laundry. So about every politician these days.
Ambition doesn't necessarily have to include lots of public recognition. Not all power is public power.

Slytherins could also be publicly in power, but hold onto that through less public means. Depends on the person, really.

[Tirian]

Wasn't he technically a member of Gryffindor House? I'd just like to point that out people.

Yes, but that has more to do with the literary box that JKR wrote herself into. Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Dumbledore sort of exemplified the principles of the four houses, but the first three books were so much about senseless intra-house conflict that she put them all into the Good Guy house, made a Pathetic Antagonist house, and then two nondescript houses because four sounds like a nice round number.

I don't want to put on airs, but after the fifth book when JKR said that she had figured out how the story was going to end, I sort of plotted out how I thought it would go. I saw Snape killing Dumbledore at the end of the sixth book (who didn't?), but hoped that the last book would have been about Harry, Hermione, and Ron joining up with a Ravenclaw, a Hufflepuff, and Draco to find the MacGuffin that would defeat Voldemort and exemplify why the founders of Hogwarts valued and developed their ideals in community. Alas, I think the actual story never reached that level of introspection.

[Sotharsyl]

Offtopic, but is there any reason why Hermione is not in Ravenclaw other than her being a main character and Gryffindor being the designated main character house?

Well the way I see it she'd allready been to muggle school and had the usual problems a girl who is way more intelligent and focused on school work than her peers has.

So she is enrolled into a new school and has achanche to start everithing over and she is being allowed to chose to which big clique she wants to join:
a) the cool kids
b) the smart kids
c) the evil kids
d) the nice kids

And she choses the cool kids because she's had enough of being a nerd, and being in Griffindor is a automatic small boost to her reputation with all non Slitherin's.

It's in a funny way the classic teen movie scenario of getting to join the cool kids but without the "leaving her old friends behind" part because she allready left them, if she had any when she came to Hogwarts, so no punishement for Hermione.

[Saph]

Offtopic, but is there any reason why Hermione is not in Ravenclaw other than her being a main character and Gryffindor being the designated main character house?

There's a line in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone that explains it pretty well. Ravenclaws put cleverness first, Gryffindors put bravery first. Hermione thinks bravery's more important than cleverness. Hence she got put in Gryffindor.

[Traab]

These are the paths to power for each house.

Gryffindor - They do something heroic and incredible, earn an order of merlin, and are given high office as a reward.

Ravenclaw - They make some important discovery, or are so bloody good at knowing everything that they earn the spot on pure talent.

Slytherin - They set a goal for themselves and they work at achieving it. They make alliances with people who can help their rise, they make deals, they compromise, they even arrange for the downfall of the people they intend to replace, (things like secretly exposing their corruption for example) At the least they use family connections as well.

Hufflepuff- They get to power through sheer competency and nose to the grindstone effort. Their loyalty makes them trustworthy, their hard work proves they can do the job, they may get overlooked from time to time, but they are always there doing a good to great job and eventually they get noticed.

As far as ideal personalities and such of each house.

Gryffindor - I see them as the superhero/boy scout mindset. They have a moral code, and arent afraid to do what they think is right. If they see a purse snatcher running towards them, they wont step out of the way like a ravenclaw smart enough to avoid a fight, or consider the reward they might get like a slytherin, they just step up and clothesline the bastard and hold him till the aurors get there. They dont back down when they see something they know is wrong.

Ravenclaw - They are the sages of the school. They are the stereotypical wizard that is locked in his tower studying for decades that can answer any question you may have. They like to learn, not just a specific subject, like how a doctor might study medical journals, they like to learn everything.

Hufflepuff - These are the guys who fill every level of the world that you always want working with you. A ravenclaw might get distracted by something new to learn, a gryffindor may be a brave and good man, but that doesnt guarantee intelligence or competence, and a slytherin may just be using you for his own ends. A hufflepuff you can always count on to work his hardest and to be loyal to those who show him loyalty. They are not the legendary types, but they are the ones who tend to get the job done the most often, as they will keep working till they pull it off, and they have the support base to help them.

They dont stand out like the other three houses as obviously, but the signs are there if you look. They are the coworker surrounded by paperwork that responds when told its quitting time and they are getting a drink together, "Ill catch up, I just have to finish this." They are the guys you go to when you need a hand with something that will pretty much always respond with a cheery "sure!"

Slytherin - This is a complicated house as the traits it values are the most easily perverted for evil. A slytherin has lofty goals and ambitions, and is always working on plans to make them happen. An uncorrupted slytherin has limits on how far they will go to attain those goals. Take as an example, a slytherin at the bottom rung of the ministry that wants to be the minister of magic. A true slytherin would form alliances with other departments and make friends with influential people in the government, show that they are good at their job, and have the skills needed for the one they want, and have the views and opinions that will get them the job. They might bring down their opponents by exposing their illegal actions in ways that cant be traced back to them, but a corrupted slytherin wouldnt see anything wrong with creating the evidence and framing those ahead of them. They would see nothing wrong with allying themselves to someone more powerful, then stabbing them in the back if it gets them closer to their goal.

[Aotrs Commander]

I think the wizarding world's attempt to pidgeon-hole the full breadth of human diveristy into four categories works exactly as murkily and badly as D&D's alignment system.

Hermione and Neville in Griffindor just shows a fairly realistic distribution in that, given that as not everyone is determined by one, not even their dominant, character trait, you will get outliers.

On top of that, the system is far from foolproof. I mean, it's established, sort of, that your choices matter. (That's sort of one of the plot threads.) So, to some extent, you can choose what house you want to be in. (One might even argue that all the assignement choices are in fact chosen, just some at a more subconcious level.)

I know I'd be in Hufflepuff. "Wait," I hear those of you who know me cry. "Shouldn't you, being Evil, obviously be in Slytherin?" To which I would reply - of course not, because it's obvious! But who would suspect the bumbling badgers of housing the Ulimate Evil?

In any case, despite my desire to see Slytherin as a place where those who are sneaky (or just not a fan of warm-blooded creatures) go, it appears - in practise - to be solely a pure-blood haven for the criminally too-stupid and the rabidly ambitious. (Whether this was always true and whether Slytherin will be more-or-less empty in later years is a good question; though how come the sizes of the houses seem to be reasonably equal all the time is a better one...)

Though to be fair, lateral thinking is not something any of the wizards seem to do well. (Which is why Hufflepuff is the ideal cover, because it just wouldn't occur to anyone. I mean, heck, look at Petigrew. Never crossed anyone's minds to doubt him at any point, did it, and he was Griffindor.)

[KnightDisciple]

Had a thought. Examples for each house from DC Comics.

Gryffindor: Superman.
Ravenclaw: Martian Manhunter.
Slytherin: Batman.
Hufflepuff: Captain Marvel.

[Dusk Eclipse]

After using a Protean Charm, I believe. But it doesn't say it placed her because of her color preferences.
It never says what house he was in, does it?

Wait, no, I think it was said in the seventh book or something that he was in Ravenclaw because of his brains.

...

I get that Dumbledore was mostly about secrets and keeping almost everyone else in the dark about everything. But I must've missed the part where he tortured someone out of boredom.
IIRC it was stated in the first book (by Hermione) that Dumbledore was in fact a Griffindor.