Some of the most affecting stories I've heard in fandom are from people who were or know kids who do identify with the "bad kids" at Hogwarts for whatever reason. Like where they might feel exactly like Harry does about being bullied or picked on, but feel like within this world they would still be Slytherins. Not in a fake, romantic Goth way, but just a brutally realistic way. I do think it's part of the whole Gryff vs. Slyth thing in fandom, in fact, because both sides tend to identify themselves as the underdog. Slytherin makes it strangely easy to do that, because they really embody the worst, least attractive aspects of both the bullies and the victims.
Thinking about Gryffindor vs. other houses is really interesting for me because pre-OotP I remember always having this vague impression that if you were going to break down alliances between houses there was the everybody-against-Slytherin one, then the Gryff/Slyth rivalry vs. Huff/Claw as the two "recessive" houses, and then Gryff/Huff vs. Slyth/Claw. It wasn't anything I could really point to, I just felt like there was this subtextual thing where Hufflepuff was like Gryffindor Junior because it was based more on emotion. I just got the feeling Ravenclaw's "intelligence" was closer to Slytherin's "cunning" and so was a bit more suspicious because it put head over heart. It seemed like fanfic often picked up on that, having Ravenclaw students more apt to be friendly with Slytherins than Hufflepuff or Gryffindor. In the books Ravenclaw was the house we knew the least about, next to Slytherin. Hufflepuff had more character, somehow. Even now there's more house character, imo, to the three other houses. Ravenclaw's like a wild card, a school in itself with many different kinds of kids.
So in OotP we met Luna, but she was an outcast in Ravenclaw waiting to be adopted by those bully-protectors in Gryffindor. And I just felt like it made sense that the "mole" within the DA was a Ravenclaw. It happened much the way I just always had a feeling the books felt it would: the Ravenclaw was untrustworthy. She doubted the cause. She saw the other side's pov. Cho tried to explain her actions to Harry instead of dropping her like a traitor. Meanwhile as I was reading I thought from day 1 I couldn't last in that group and knew just how Marietta was feeling.
Maybe it's because I identify with that house after always getting put there in quizzes, or just because to me being thinking-based rather than driven by your heart or your gut (which is not to say smarter; you can be ruled by head/thinking without being bright) makes being part of anything like the DA a problem. Thinking too much just seemed sort of suspicious, which is why the allegedly intellectual Gryffindor specifically puts down "books and cleverness" in favor of "courage," and whose intellectual curiosity is all in the service of a cause. Hermione's yet to let research change her mind about anything that I can remember. Part of her smoothing over ethical questions is the way she doesn't go into any study objectively.
To bring it back to the real world, Hermione would get none of the criticism levelled at John Kerry. He's always accused of not being decisive and "arguing with himself," imo because he approaches complexes problems from all sides. Hermione, while smart, finds a sound bite and sticks to it.
no subject
Thinking about Gryffindor vs. other houses is really interesting for me because pre-OotP I remember always having this vague impression that if you were going to break down alliances between houses there was the everybody-against-Slytherin one, then the Gryff/Slyth rivalry vs. Huff/Claw as the two "recessive" houses, and then Gryff/Huff vs. Slyth/Claw. It wasn't anything I could really point to, I just felt like there was this subtextual thing where Hufflepuff was like Gryffindor Junior because it was based more on emotion. I just got the feeling Ravenclaw's "intelligence" was closer to Slytherin's "cunning" and so was a bit more suspicious because it put head over heart. It seemed like fanfic often picked up on that, having Ravenclaw students more apt to be friendly with Slytherins than Hufflepuff or Gryffindor. In the books Ravenclaw was the house we knew the least about, next to Slytherin. Hufflepuff had more character, somehow. Even now there's more house character, imo, to the three other houses. Ravenclaw's like a wild card, a school in itself with many different kinds of kids.
So in OotP we met Luna, but she was an outcast in Ravenclaw waiting to be adopted by those bully-protectors in Gryffindor. And I just felt like it made sense that the "mole" within the DA was a Ravenclaw. It happened much the way I just always had a feeling the books felt it would: the Ravenclaw was untrustworthy. She doubted the cause. She saw the other side's pov. Cho tried to explain her actions to Harry instead of dropping her like a traitor. Meanwhile as I was reading I thought from day 1 I couldn't last in that group and knew just how Marietta was feeling.
Maybe it's because I identify with that house after always getting put there in quizzes, or just because to me being thinking-based rather than driven by your heart or your gut (which is not to say smarter; you can be ruled by head/thinking without being bright) makes being part of anything like the DA a problem. Thinking too much just seemed sort of suspicious, which is why the allegedly intellectual Gryffindor specifically puts down "books and cleverness" in favor of "courage," and whose intellectual curiosity is all in the service of a cause. Hermione's yet to let research change her mind about anything that I can remember. Part of her smoothing over ethical questions is the way she doesn't go into any study objectively.
To bring it back to the real world, Hermione would get none of the criticism levelled at John Kerry. He's always accused of not being decisive and "arguing with himself," imo because he approaches complexes problems from all sides. Hermione, while smart, finds a sound bite and sticks to it.