Greatness from a Hogwarts House.

This is not, and will never be, a Harry Potter blog...

But...

It is a blog of various items not important enough to be mentioned individually, and if one of those various items happens to germinate from a fictional story, it's still fair game to me.

So, this is it.

Even the most casual of Harry Potter fans will remember the Hogwarts Sorting Ceremony, wherein the freshly-admitted first-years gather round and take turns putting an enchanted wizard's hat on their heads. The scene is a recognizable part of the first book, movie, video game, and whatever other forms of media.

As it sits atop each head, The Sorting Hat magically analyzes said student's thoughts along with their personal traits, values, and other bits and bobs of potential. It speaks directly to the student, thinking aloud, and eventually comes to a decision. The Hat calls out one of four House names for everyone to hear — thereby sorting the student into the core group of peers they will go on to study, work, play, and live with for the next seven years.

Now, in the story, a big character development moment happens when Harry himself steps up for his turn with the garment.

As he sits and awaits his fate, Harry is conflicted; the Sorting Hat seems to think he could “do well” in Slytherin, the de facto “evil” House that even a wizard newbie like Harry knows to avoid. Harry is adamant about not being sorted there. Sensing this, the Hat tries to encourage him, saying,

“Not Slytherin, eh? Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness...”

...

So, where am I going with this?

Well, what exactly would Harry be able to do that is so “great,” being in Slytherin? Or, let alone, any House in particular? Aren't they all more or less the same thing?

In the real world, going to different schools can definitely affect the trajectory of students' opportunities and achievements. But this? These Houses (all within the same school) are more akin to saying your particular homeroom teacher could lead you to “greatness”... in contrast to the homeroom down the hall.

After all, the students at Hogwarts do the same things, no matter their House — they take the same classes, have the same lessons, study under the same teachers, have the same homework, and take the same exams. They often even have classes together with other Houses, even. (The only differences come when students themselves pick the classes they want, but that has nothing to do with House assignments.)

For all intents and purposes, belonging to one House over another doesn't really lead to any tangible difference in the students' schooling other than where they sleep, who their friends are likely to be, and what school athletics team they root for. In reality, it's not much more important than a glorified summer camp spirit color.

Sure, it's a boarding school, so unlike a typical regular institution, students spend a hell of a larger quantity of their seven years together. That can do a lot to influence a person. But they also spend quite a lot of those seven years with... all of the other Houses, too.

The Hat isn't saying that Harry could be great because he goes to Hogwarts and gets a magical education in general. It's saying that he could be great by being in Slytherin, specifically. I'm assuming it means that by being in another House, he'd risk this greatness, or at best he'd only achieve only some other “flavor” of greatness, and not that which only Slytherin could bestow.

But if all Houses have the same classes and lessons, and there's no significant difference in the actual education experience between them, where does this greatness come from? What is he doing and experiencing and learning differently? Is it from sleeping in the dungeons for seven years, as Slytherins do, rather than on another, higher floor of the castle? Is it from the wearing of emerald green robe accents? Or does his knowledge of being IN the House at all result in greatness, like a self-fulfilling prophecy?

I know what you may be thinking: the Houses are a lot more like fraternities and sororities. Perhaps, there's the angle of networking — even if the education between Houses is the same on paper, the connections and friendships one makes in their House family may lead to connections, job opportunities, and so forth.

There are a few things wrong with this. Foremost, Hogwarts education lasts from ages 11 to 17, roughly. Who cares, at that age? They're too young for networking connections (the ones that may lead to “greatness,” anyway) to survive to the point of being useful. How often does someone point to their middle and high school assigned classrooms as the cornerstone to their career success? (And I don't mean what they studied those years. I mean, their particular homeroom class or equivalent from that time.)

Then there's also the matter of the extremely limited picture we get of Wizarding careers in the first place. Clearly, the size of Great Britain's magical population is very small. There are also so few actual jobs to begin with, and magical families are well aware of other families almost as a rule. I struggle to see what kinds of career connections can really be stoked through networking when the only career paths are Ministry work, law enforcement, teaching, owning a shop, or the magical equivalent of a doctor. Like... with such limited choices and such clear post-grad career paths, how many people really rely on their connections? It's hard to see what kinds of other greatness might be even be there lying dormant, only to be unlocked by spending seven years in one House over another.

Plus, the Houses themselves are also very small. There are only eight students or so in Harry's year! This isn't some huge network of a fraternity with members all over the country. The entire House is what, a few hundred people at most?

Do people in the real world ever point to their accomplishments and say, “Sure, I was in a big school where I learned a lot under some great professors, and I practiced my craft thoroughly — but I actually couldn't have done it without the dozen or so students that were picked to be in my homeroom between the ages of 11 and 17”?

Does anyone ever say, “I had a professor who inspired me to get into this field... but it's actually the group I ate lunch with every day that made me great”?

Or, “I loved my alma mater, loved my classes, but it's honestly the specific set of kids that sat around me during each lesson that solidified the trajectory of my life”?

Keep in mind, Harry is going to get the Hogwarts education regardless. His House may have some impact on the student he becomes, sure, but what kind of greatness could being in one over another really do?

Of course, there's something to be said about spending seven years of boarding school around a bunch of kids who are all thought to be cunning, ambitious, and in pursuit of power all the time. That can affect a person. But at age 11, are the students really all of those things? Or do they grow into the characteristics the Hat leads them to believe they have? Fans love to talk about what other Houses the characters may have also fit into — like Hermione into Ravenclaw, for example. Are the differences between Houses really so strong that you'd be able to peg one person or another without the shadow of a doubt?

And even if they are, WHAT exactly are any of the students doing where those notable traits would come into play?

Now, I can actually see some of you contrarian, nonexistent readers objecting here. Friends and classmates DO influence how someone grows up! After all, a friend can become a trusted confidante, a future business partner, or an influence to follow one path over another. The group you spend most of your waking hours with really do make you into a particular kind of person. Thus, if you squint, it's possible to tie greatness to being in one particular House – maybe.

Except... this is Harry we're talking about, and we've already seen him meet and reject the face of Slytherin in Draco Malfoy. We know he hates Slytherin even before he protests the placement on the Sorting Hat's stool. The would-be Slytherins go on to be such stereotypes of ambition and cunning that we, the audience, already know from the outset that they will play antagonist to Harry somehow. If there's anyone in-universe who would also know that, it's the Sorting Hat.

So maybe Harry would go on to greatness through being the one Slytherin to play against type? Maybe by being placed in Slytherin but having a dynamically opposite personality, his greatness would derive from his “rising above” their noise and achieving something in contrast to them.

But – Harry pretty much does exactly that, doesn't he? Anyone familiar with the series knows that he goes on to do many “great” things in his future (and, arguably, the “greatest” thing a wizard of his generation could actually do) — and it's without being in Slytherin at all. Apparently, just by going to school and being in proximity to the Slytherin House, he completely lived the whole greatness thing anyway.

He does the greatest thing anyone could've done. What OTHER greatness would there have been? What did he “miss out on” by not being in Slytherin for it? Would he have been more ambitious? More cunning? Maybe he wins the war sooner, or with fewer casualties. But there are so many different choices of free will that lead to different outcomes all the time; one could hardly blame any of that on the House assignment of an 11-year-old.

All of the thoughts about the war makes me wonder: did the Hat have some sort of magical divination power to know about Harry defeating Voldemort? Was that baked into the analysis? Or did it mean that Harry could just wind up being a great wizard... in general?

Were those words something the Hat could've also said to any other new student — sensing greatness in a more everyday way, not solely via winning a generational war?

Let's say the Hat did not have any prediction ability, as none has been directly stated in the books. Maybe it just saw Harry's academic and character potential and thought he was just a great kid, a kid fit for Slytherin the same way it might for any other passing student.

Well then, that REALLY begs the question of what kind of greatness he was talking about. To him, Harry was just a normal wizard, born famous, perhaps, but not having yet shown any reason to be deemed special. Ordinary people who just, say, study and graduate and get jobs and raise families can certainly say they've achieved “great” things... but what part of their school HOUSE contributed to that? The group of students they sat at the dinner table with?

What aspect of being in one House over another is helping anyone on their way to any level of greatness?

The people we surround ourselves with influence who we become, sure. But it just doesn't seem like in the grand scheme of things, the House assignments would've done enough to do anything to affect Harry Potter's path to greatness. They were too small, too similar, and too arbitrary to move the needle. And definitely not enough for the Sorting Hat to stop and mention it out loud.

Fuck J.K. Rowling. ✍︎