Hermione should have been a Slytherin, and Lily Potter never forgave Snape

Before you get mad, let me explain. XD

Hermione should not have been sorted into Gryffindor. If you actually look at her personality and match it up against the personality types of the houses, I think it becomes pretty clear (at least in the books). She's very cunning (that whole thing about the potion and Ron's quidditch nerves, lying to Umbridge and telling her what she wanted to hear in order to lure her into the forbidden forest, even hiding clothes for the House Elves), she's very ambitious (who else took so many classes they needed to use time-travel for it? And for those of you who don't know, she goes on to pretty much revolutionize the Ministry of Magic and change the Wizarding World from the inside out in the future), and although she doesn't take pride in the same things that most Slytherins do, she is very proud of other things. Her knowledge, for one. She prides herself on her knowledge, and is even known to look down on people who believe things she doesn't believe or even get visibly angry with them over it (like the Lovegood family).

As far as Gryffindors go, yes, Hermione is brave, but in a very different way than most of the other Gryffindors. While the others can be described as reckless and impulsive, sometimes barely seeming to register there is danger until it's over, Hermione repeatedly displays fear at what she's facing, and she always knows exactly what she's getting into before she does, and still goes through with it. Yes, that just means she's even more brave than people who jump first and don't seem to know how dangerous the path is, but there are brave people in Slytherin, like Snape, and her kind of bravery is more reminiscent of his kind of bravery than it is of people like Lupin or Sirius. Besides, no one said people can't have traits for more than one house, and even though she's very brave, I think her other traits are more predominant. imo, her bravery is the only reason I can see her becoming a Gryffindor, and it's enough of her character for me to be okay with it, but I definitely believe she ought to have been a Slytherin.

Now for Lily and Snape. XD

Some of you might know that JK Rowling had, at one point, confirmed that Lily and James were pregnant with their second child at the time of their murder, and that Lily had convinced James to make up with Snape and they were going to talk to him and make him the godfather of their second kid. I'm calling this out as wrong for one glaring, obvious plot-hole: Dumbledore was the only person who knew Snape's true allegiance. Everyone else, Lily and James included, believed whole-heartedly that he was a Death Eater. Even if Lily and James were emotionally ready to make amends and forgive offenses of an old high-school rivalry in normal circumstances, they weren't in normal circumstances. They were in a war. They were at war, in hiding, and 'knew' that Snape was working directly for the man trying to kill them and their first baby. There is no way they were intending to make Snape the godfather of their second, and there's no way Lily had forgiven him just yet, not when his original offense (calling her a Mudblood and adhering to pureblood elitist viewpoints) matched so closely with what they thought he believed at the time (working for literally the muggle-hating pureblood elitist Dark Lord Voldemort).

I think that JK Rowling only said that's what was happening because Lily Potter is one of her pet characters, and she couldn't stand to see all the hate she was getting for what she did to Snape, so she was trying to come up with a way for Lily to have forgiven him before she died.

Your thoughts? XD

 

Fair enough, both about the Snape thing and about the potion thing. XD I'll admit, I wrote this on the fly and didn't actually go research it myself; I got all my info from my sis, who's usually a very reliable source as an encyclopedia of all things Harry Potter and Loki related, so idk what happened this time. XD

I will respond that in my opinion, being able to come up with such cunning things like the Umbridge trap on-the-fly makes it even more impressive as far as cunning goes, and I feel like the many nuances of the plan go a bit beyond reckless improvisation. However, I do see your point, and I think that it could have been so. Perhaps she shouldn't have been in Slytherin, but I don't think it would have been too much of a stretch if she had been, either. XD

 

Here's the thing... Is sorting just about personality? I mean, the hat has demonstrated several times that it will straight-up take requests.

 

DJ Sorting Hat yielded no good image results.

Sad.

 

Whatever I was expecting when I walked into the Spam Zone today, it wasn't this.

I should've known better.

 

I always liked the idea that the sorting into houses depended on what you valued most.

Griffindors value bravery, courage and friendship most. (While Hermione was intelligent, hard working, cunning and ambitious she valued friendship and bravery more. Also that's why people like Peter Pettigrew and Neville were in Griffindor, even if they weren't brave, they valued that a lot.)

Ravenclaws value knowledge and wisdom most (Luna Lovegood is Ravenclaw because she values knowledge even if it's not of conventional things)

Huffflepuffs value hard work and loyalty most.

Slytherins value cunning and ambition most.

 

Thank you for everything

 

The thing is, the times that we know the hat took requests, it was usually between two houses the person fit into. Like with Harry, whom the hat said could either be in Slytherin or Gryffindor, and Harry chose Gryffindor. I mean, it could take requests for others and we just don't know it, but I feel like if anyone could just choose which house they wanted, the distinctions in their personalities wouldn't be quite as pronounced.

That said, I do think Midnight might be onto something with it going by what they value as opposed to what they are, but I think if that were the case, the hat wouldn't have almost put Harry in Slytherin to begin with, as it was pretty evident that the only thing he knew about the wizarding world was "I do NOT value the things Slytherins do."

Perhaps it's a mix, or perhaps, it's even more nuanced, that people usually automatically value what their personality already reflects? XD So brave people might automatically value bravery, cunning people value cunning, etc. That would explain the huge personality distinction between houses and the few odd cases where someone values the particular area in which they fall short, such as the examples raised about Neville and Pettigrew.

 

The wiki leans that way, and I'm inclined to agree. Other examples: Pettigrew making it into Gryffindor because he admired his big brave friends, Snape demonstrating enough Gryffindor qualities later in life to make Dumbledore wonder if they sort too soon.

It might also involve potential. Neville didn't get his request to sort into Hufflepuff, and we saw how that turned out.