Rochelle Cleavy

And I can't fucking believe that Supernatural turned out to be prophetic after all.

So this entire post arose from a conversation I was having with a friend of mine. As we are wont to do, we were discussing Harry Potter and sorting various acquaintances of ours into each of the four Houses when my friend confessed she wasn’t sure of the House to which she belonged. I said, “Gryffindor” without a second thought.

But my friend was unsure. Pottermore had sorted her into Ravenclaw, not to mention her sister and one of her best friends (both staunch Gryffindors) also told her she was Ravenclaw. She herself thought she might be Hufflepuff. However, as the Ravenclaw-est of Ravenclaws, I felt obligated to correct her. I tried explaining my theory of the different value axes and alignments over Gchat, but decided visual aids were probably going to be more helpful.

Hence the Hogwarts House Matrix.

I’ve divided these traits into primary alignments and supporting characteristics

To explain the alignments (in declining order of weight):

Governed by morality vs. ethics: Ruled by a sense of Right and Wrong vs. Correct and Incorrect.

Externally vs. internally validated: Derives a sense of satisfaction from achievements and praise vs. personal accomplishments.

Socially vs. individually orientated: Effects and is affected by social situations and peers vs. is unaffected by others’ opinions.

The supporting characteristics are as follows:

Reactive vs. proactive action: How one responds to external stimuli.

Subjective experience vs. objective reality: How one believes the world should be judged.

Driven by passion vs. guided by reason: The raison d’être for doing.

Really, in my opinion, you can generally figure out which House you’re in by answering two questions:

1. Are you governed by morality or ethics?

2. Do you derive satisfaction from internal or external validation?

Answering those two questions gives you a pretty good picture of what I’ve defined as the core value of each House:

Gryffindor = morality + external validation = Justice

Hufflepuff = morality + internal validation = Fairness

Slytherin = ethics + external validation = Success

Ravenclaw = ethics + internal validation = Knowledge

The characteristics of Bravery, Hard Work, Ambition, and Cleverness are external manifestations of the core values. You must be brave to seek justice, you must work hard to be fair, you must be ambitious to find success, and you be clever to gain knowledge.

(More charts and LONG explanations under the cut!)

But I’d also reorder it slightly.

War, yes, War suits Gryffindor well. Fighting and dying for beliefs; fighting and dying for nothing; drafted into bloodshed and fire by bravery or chivalry or neither. Some take joy in this; some are burdened beyond repair. There was a cause, somewhere; there was good, somewhere; there was a reason for all this, somewhere. Oh, you’d have to be brave to live through this. Red and gold. Gold like armor and glory; red like blood and reality.

But Famine and Hufflepuff? No. Famine is Ravenclaw, ever-hungry for knowledge, constantly starving for more and more and more, almost feral for fulfillment. Where is the wisdom in the world? The truth? Nothing is true; nothing is enough; all there is to devour is worthless scraps. Blue and bronze. Bronze like a set of scales tipping and found wanting; blue like the infinite that never satisfies… never gives the answers.

Thus Pestilence is not Ravenclaw. Pestilence is Slytherin, sick with clever plans and cunning potential and corrupting desire. Ambition spreads like a sickness, a plague of greed and an illness to the soul. Maybe some might call it cruel, but here among friends it’s simple cunning at work. Green and silver. Silver like the sheen of glazed eyes; green like the complexion of infection.

AW MANI didn’t always fully accept my Hufflepuffness, but once @johnjennetteart (Ravenclaw) and I started discussing what makes the Houses what they are, it became pretty clear that my hardworking, justice-loving self was a Badger.The thing that fascinates me most, I think, are the discussions about where characters might have/should have been Sorted. There’s a long-standing fandom idea that Hermione=Ravenclaw, Ron=Hufflepuff, and Harry=Slytherin. Sometimes Neville is thrown in there as the Puff to Ron’s True Gryffindor. Even Dumbledore himself says “Perhaps we Sort too soon” in reference to Snape’s actions, implying that Snape is a latent Gryffindor. However, I find this simplistic and “essentialist”. (Can we coin the phrase “House essentialism” right now? :P) But that’s a whole other post.I’m also very skeptical of the Pottermore quiz, which Sorted me into Slytherin twice. LOL. I love Slytherins, and it’s my tertiary House, but I’m in NO way a Slytherin primary. Pottermore isn’t “official” to me, largely because I don’t think Jo has a great grip on how Sorting works. Controversial opinion? Maybe, but I think Jo’s obvious moral bias towards Gryffindor plays a lot into her interpretations of the other Houses and how characters fit into them.Over several long car trips, my husband and I ended up developing a sort of Sorting guide using the Hogwarts crest.

Using this analysis, it should really only take three questions to determine your House.Are you motivated Externally or Internally?The Houses on the left side of the crest, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, are motivated externally. Usually that means Gryffs and Puffs are interested in how they can impact their environment and use that to fuel their ideas. (They tend to be activists and public servants, just like Hermione!)The ones on the right, Slytherin and Ravenclaw, are motivated internally. Slyths and Claws are more interested in self-reflection and self-improvement. That doesn’t mean they don’t care about their environment, but their solutions are going to come from within rather than be inspired by their surroundings. (They’re Steve Jobs, inventing a whole new way to make our lives easier rather than solving a specific existing problem.)Now let’s split the shield horizontally:Are you motivated by what others think of you? Or by what you think of yourself?

The top two, Gryffindor and Slytherin, are motivated by what others think of them. They want a particular reputation for themselves, and they want to shape it. That might not mean a squeaky-clean reputation, but they want to control that narrative (Look at how Sirius shapes his reputation as a dashing rebel and Lucius positions himself as a government official and philanthropist.).The bottom two, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, are motivated by how they think of themselves. I’m not talking about being motivated by group acclaim, I’m talking about how they will feel about themselves and their part in a group/movement/the world. They want to do what they feel is the right thing, even if that means pushing boundaries or pushing people away. (Luna, anyone?)Now we’re going crosswise. 

Are your actions driven by your passion? Or by your goals?

The diagonal Houses have a separate passion-goal relationship:Gryffindor and Ravenclaw have passion they must direct at a goal. Gryffindor and Ravenclaw are persistent Houses; when they get an idea into their heads they want to exhaust every possibility, which can prompt great discoveries, but can also be inefficient and aimless. “Let’s see what happens!” is a hallmark phrase of these Houses. (Think of Fred and George and their Wheezes!)Hufflepuff and Slytherin have goals they need to summon passion for. They are results-oriented Houses; passion comes second to getting shit done. That’s great for the goal itself, but sometimes not so great if the surrounding elements get pushed aside in service of the goal. (The whole idea of the Inquisitorial Squad is a good example here.)You might notice that these three questions don’t always arrive at a single answer, but maybe two potentials. As ever, choice is taken into account when it comes to your Sorting. But don’t just think about what you WANT to be: think about where you feel you’d fit in best. Who are the kinds of people you can see eye-to-eye with and work alongside with minimal discord? Who are you most interested in trading ideas with?

That’s the basic thought process for how we consider the Sorting. I don’t want to discount the typical traits/values of the Houses (Bravery, Ambition, Loyalty, Cleverness, etc.) in the course of this analysis, but I also think that anyone in any House can BE all of these things and express them totally differently, which is why expression of these traits comes above purely valuing them in our framework.

me, holding up my cat: stinky

wife: no!! don’t be mean!!!

me, swaying him back and forth in the air: stinky bastard man

wife: No!!!!!!!!

my mother, not looking up from chopping veggies: naughty boy. brat cat

The mom:

aelin: hey i killed archer finn

chaol: how can someone so beautiful …commit such a heinous crime?how can one possibly enjoy revenge? how can I love her now that I know that she kills people? how can violence ever be acceptable? Can I still want to fuck her even if she enjoys killing people.,,,

lysandra:

dorian: that spot right there? thats where aelin….killed….archer finn.right there. aelin,, the assassin,,,just..killed a man at this very spot……..

Thank you. This book wasn’t easy to read. Not all was happy, or safe or warm. But every word meant something to me. I have loved, and will love, these characters with my whole heart. Have laughed with them, cried with them, hated and loved and lived with them, and they have taught me so many things about myself, and about the person that I could be. They changed who I am. Before I sit back, quiet and shy, I remember Aelin, and know that she would not want me to hide myself. Before I am cold, and harsh, I remember Rowan, and know that he felt that as well, and would not have me feel it. Before I say something in anger, I remember Aedion, and I learn from his mistakes. Before I settle for something, I remember Lysandra and her wildness, and know that she would see wildness in me too. When I am brutal, when I am merciless, Manon breathes to me of love. Love that changed her, remade her. When I lose someone, Dorian reminds me that they’re never truly gone. When I am proud, and unbending, Chaol tells me to allow people to help, to ease the burdens. And so many more lessons from so many others. These books have meant so much to me. And this final chapter made me grieve more than I could have imagined, made me rage and cry against it, but it also made me smile, grin, laugh and hope and live. It was so much more than I ever could have dreamed. So thank you so much. For thinking up Aelin, Rowan, Aedion, Lysandra, Manon, Dorian, Chaol, Yrene, Elide, Lorcan, Fenrys, Gavriel, Evangeline, Fleetfoot, and everyone else. In my heart, the Kingsflame will always bloom for Aelin and her Court To Rattle The Stars.

“As if she might stay with them, her Thirteen, for a little while longer”.