@jeggyverses-jegulus-microfic April 27, Word count 625
Regulus refused to believe he was nervous. His Mother had trained him that useless emotions like that are for fools, and as her son, she expected him not to be a fool. He felt pretty foolish right now, though, standing at the front of the line before the entire school, watching Professor McGonagall place a three-legged stool on the floor before him and holding up a tattered old hat.
“Regulus Black,” she called out, her clipped voice carrying around the great hall. Many heads turned, including those of his brother and his brother’s friends. Regulus locked eyes with Sirius’s supposed best friend, James Potter. James’s eyes crinkled as he smiled broadly at him. He even gave Regulus a little wave. Regulus returned his wave with a scowl. The boy had stolen his brother from him. He hated him.
Regulus took a seat on the stool and closed his eyes as the sorting hat was lowered onto his head.
“Ah, a Black, is it? Always ambitious, always cunning. Obsessed with power! But sometimes they can be courageous and brave. So, where should I put you?” The hat’s voice said into his mind. Regulus pictured the Slytherin crest. The crest that was plastered on nearly everything his family owned. But Sirius’s face kept flashing across his mind. Not that he’d admit it, but he loved his brother and wanted nothing more than to be with him.
“Ah, I can see where your heart truly lies,” the hat told him before shouting out its choice aloud. “GRYFFINDOR!”
Regulus got up from the stool on shaking legs and somehow managed to get them to walk towards the loud cheers. An arm wrapped around his shoulders and steered him into a seat. He blinked and found himself between his brother and James bloody Potter. He felt sick. He was going to be sick.
A warm hand gently rubbed his back.
“Here, drink some water,” the voice said and pushed a gold goblet into his hand. A wand tip hovered over it, and water poured out, filling the cup. Regulus took a grateful sip, and the hand returned to his back. At first, he thought it had been Sirius, but when he looked at his brother, he was pulling faces at Lupin. That meant…
He twisted in his seat and came eye to eye with a pair of warm hazel eyes. He swallowed, unsure how to feel about James Potter taking care of him.
“Don’t worry, we’ll look after you,” James said kindly, and Regulus felt his nervousness melt away. James seemed so sure of his promise that even Regulus believed him. He enjoyed his first night in Gryffindor Tower. He spent it entirely in the second year’s boys’ dormitory. He slept in the same bed as Sirius, which they had never been allowed to do, not that that rule had ever stopped them. James brought him a cup of tea in the morning before they got up, and for a few brief moments, Regulus felt amazing. That all changed when he spotted the proud Eagle Owl waiting for him when they went down for breakfast, but James squeezed his hand and took the letter from the owl, reading it for him before setting it alight.
“Her words aren’t worth the parchment they’re written on,” he told Regulus, and Regulus smiled shyly up at him. No one had ever shown that much disrespect to his mother. No wonder Sirius liked him, and now Regulus found he, too, was falling for James Potter’s unbelievable kindness. He knew his mother hadn’t said one nice word about him in that letter, and James had protected him from her poisonous words.
“Toast?” James asked him, and that was that; the letter was forgotten.
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The reason the sorting hat is sentient is because godric gryffindor made his hat into a horcrux. He just like to be in charge of where students go and wanta to live on as a defender of his house
Sorting Hat: So do you want the House where your classmates will hate you because of your poverty and presumed blood status or the one where your head of House thinks you're the spawn of Satan?
Tom Riddle: ... The first one?
Sorting Hat: Slytherin it is!
Dumbledore: I knew he was evil. Right again as usual.
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Now, it's canon that the sorting hat had made 7 mistakes, however, it is not known who were those. People speculate about whom.
I am not here to speculate about the individuals, I'm here to speculate about the working process of the sorting. Four houses, each one with specific sets of characteristics and qualities.
Slytherin: Cunning and ambition
Gryffindor: Bravery and chivalry
Hufflepuff: Loyalty and hard working
Ravenclaw: Wisdom and learning
However, canonical-ly,
“It is unclear if the Sorting Hat tended to place students based on qualities they valued or rather qualities they exhibited.”
I'm here to say that these qualities aren't the reason of the sorting hat decisions.
Hehe, bare with me until I articulate it more clearly.
Let's take Gryffindor traits for example, mostly bravery..
What's bravery? How can we say that this person is brave? Is it because this person is fearless or because they face their fears?
If a person is fearless then, well, there's something wrong with brain, mostly, they're on the psychopathic spectrum, if there's one. So, how could they be brave if they don't even process fear? Like they don't fear anything?
If you do not fear the sea, would swimming in it make you brave? In my opinion, no.
If you fear something unfearful for the most.. like cats, would fighting through your fear and pet it make you brave? Yes.
So, my theory goes like:
For every dominant quality for a house, there's an opposite trait, which based on it the sorting hat decides where to put the individual. Because the founders want to build the characters of next generation and rid them of the most thing that hinders the students, by building the house system to encourage qualities that helps fight their “demons”, through their community (house) stimuli and/or mere peer pressure.
However, whether the individual triumph over their demon or not, is up to them and only them.
Therefore, the machination behind the sorting would as so:
Gryffindor: Fear.
Hufflepuff: Loneliness.
Ravenclaw: Imprudence.
Slytherin:
(I was going to forgo this one, because I'm Slytherin, and ha! We're flawless... alright, alright, I just couldn't fathom what is ambition fighting, but then my theory would be flawed or Slazar is quite the prick and wanted my theory to look flawed, but I thought this through, and.. it's not ambition that's the dominant trait..)
Slytherin: Naivety.
Examples:
Gryffindor
Gryffindor faces the fear to be brave, and be selfless to know chivalry.
Black, afraid to be like his family, scared of ending up in Slytherin like them.
Remember it's up to the individual to conquer their bad thoughts, Gryffindor has the infamous:
Pettigrew, whom I assume is afraid of being made fun of, maybe? Then, he joins the “cool kids”, but then he's still being made fun of by them, so he joins the death eaters, was promised with rewarding respect. He's afraid of being not respected, so, he's running after whomever promises him respect.
Potter, Snr., watching Black getting sorted in Gryffindor maight have shaken his belief in children everytime sorted in the house of their parents, plus, he may feared being in another house but Gryffindor. He's a failure, too, because he continued to show false bravado thinking it's Gryffindor bravery. Chivalry would be respecting the girl decision and bound, and don't get me on about the bullying and the sexual harassment.
Lupin is afraid of loneliness. Not only feeling lonely, but scared of being lonely. And I'd say he is another example of failing becoming brave.
Like come on, you want to tell me those above know anything about chivalry or real bravery? To be sorted based on these that they supposedly exhibit or value? Ha, bloody ha!
Most of the muggleborns, fearful of many things: not belonging to magical world (Lily Evans), not being good enough (Hermione Granger), taking the magic from them, etc..
Ron, fearful of not following up in his family steps, not being good enough like his brothers.
Percy, afraid of staying his whole life in the social class of his family.
Neville, also afraid of not being good enough like his parents. Afraid of disappointing/upsetting his grandmother.
And lastly but not least,,
Harry, well, he was going to be sorted into Slytherin, we could see that he's ambitious to impress the teachers and whoever happens to be watching him, he yearns to the new adults approval, and this is what makes him naive. However, he was chanting “not Slytherin”, and this is because of the subconscious fear two incidents planted:
1. Ollivander's words about his wand being the brother of the one who murdered his parents, and what similarities he and that evil man may have. 2. Hagrid's words about how all Slytherin are evil.
He is afraid to be like the man who killed his parents, we see this fear in year five thought more consciously. So, the hat chose Gryffindor of all the other remaining houses because of his fear. Not Hufflepuff because even though he is alone, he isn't lonely or suffers from loneliness. Not Ravenclaw because again even though he's reckless, which sums up the definition of Imprudence, he's not doing it for vanity or due to lack of understanding.
Ravenclaw
They should reduce their attention seeking Imprudence and be clever and learn from their and other's trials to reach wisdom and be witty.
Ah. The hardest one, because we have about four~five major characters in Ravenclaw, most of them are the failure examples but Luna Lovegood, a natural wise, because of her mother's death, but her father, who is a good example of learning and cleverness, was imprudent enough to publish articles against Voldemort's cause while Voldemort is literally controls the country.. like what?
Then we have Lockhart, a failure. No wisdom, always saying things that gets him a responsibility he doesn't even see: the duel club show, the “didn't you say you know the way to the secret of chambers Gilderoy”.
Crouch Jr., another failure, like what are you doing taking the Golden student and then instead of finishing the job you go on babbling and searching for your polyjuice until the teachers come back, that is not to mention his joining the ranks.
Yeah, and the majority of Ravenclaw are so competitive when it comes to academic success that they are known to back stab each other, and likely other students, in order to get top marks, according to Farley.
Dear Rowena Ravenclaw
Really, Ma'am, your house left the wisdom out the window and focused on “learning” and “cleverness” that you meant as bases for using in their trials to gain wisdom, and became knowledgeable fools.
Hufflepuff
There's no yellow! I remember there was yellow?
Alright, alright..
They should embrace themselves and accept loneliness sometimes, to be open to others and choose the right people to be loyal to.
We have Dumbledore, who in the end embraced loneliness but not, you know, make friends, but it's a good result, not a failure in my opinion.
Also, Tonks, a good example of a lonely daughter who's not the pink daughter her mother imagined, also has a unique ability, which likely distanced her from cousins on her father's side, and well, we don't to go in to her mother's side. But in the end she fought loneliness and made friends and a community she's loyal to and work hard for.
Don't know much about Alastor Moody, but maybe it's the same.
We also have Susan Bones, an orphan living with her very busy aunt.. so, I'd say she was lonely? But succeeded in making friendships.
Slytherin
My house lastly,
They should grow out of child innocence and hopes, with enough cunning to work diplomatically with the world while criticising every thought first and foremost, and every person.
All of them yearn for the approval of those they deem worthy of them seeking their approval (huh?) Yes, they yearn for the approval of their parents, social circles, and the sort.. to help them climb to their wanted position. There is where naivety comes from, they trust and follow the wrong people to where they may give more than they take, but then experiences should teach them cunning.
So, most of them failed to be cunning? Well, it always depends on which side of the war wins, and in this timeline case, many succeeded in the first war, but failed in the second war.
But Severus Snape, who exhibited a tremendous amount of cunning and intelligence, through out his life after 1980.
And Draco Malfoy, who also exhibited a life saving cunning at the end.
Also, on this note, Bellatrix is a whole failure. She's a Slytherin failure and disappointment.
