Week Thirty-Six: Spoiler-free thoughts about Pottermore and my own personal Sorting.

Wow. It sure feels like it's been a while since I've posted, but I know it's just because BEDA is over, and I'd been in the habit of blogging every day.

As is usually the case, I've been busy. The show that I'm in is going into our third week of rehearsals, with 2 1/2 hours of rehearsal three times a week. Everyone is hilarious, and I'm having a great time. As is with last winter/early spring, I'll be teaching classes with my family at a homeschool co-op. Last year, we taught 3 classes at one co-op, all day on Tuesday. This fall, we've got proposals in at three different co-ops, and if all the classes we've proposed get the minimum enrollment, we'll be teaching 10 different classes. I have to say, I'd really excited about this. Between proposals for Banned Book Club (something I've already started calling "the BBC" in my head), teaching American Sign Language to two different age groups, and all the other amazing stuff, I really can't wait to get back to teaching. Autumn, here I come!

In other news, I finally got my Pottermore welcome e-mail!
When it appeared in my inbox, I literally jumped out of my chair and went shrieking into the kitchen saying something to the effect of "It's HERE! My Pottermore e-mail! I'm MAGICAL!!!" Seriously. Best e-mail ever.

No spoilers will be in this post, so don't worry. I wouldn't do that to people.

I've completed the first book, and it was amazing. Being a die-hard Potterhead, just having some new HP related things, directly from Jo Rowling herself is amazing. Without saying any more, I just have to say that I can't wait for book two!

Of course, the question that seems to be looming over everyone's head is about the Sorting. I was so nervous and SO excited, so naturally when I reached that part, I was just a tiny bit nerved up. I've self-identified as a Slytherin since the age of 9, (over half my life, and over ten years), so I have some very strongly held attachments to the house of the snake.

I took ages to complete my Sorting test, because I wanted to give the honest answers SO badly without trying to skew the results (either subconsciously or not) in any direction. After agonizing over every question, I pressed the button to get my result, the screen changed over to a bright, brilliant and shining RED.

I was in shock. Gryffindor? The house that I've spent years of my life teasing? The one house that I said that I wouldn't be happy about getting into on Pottermore?

I'll admit it. I started crying.

After a while, I managed to pull myself together and began to come to terms with the fact that being placed in Gryffindor is not, in fact, a bad thing*, and that the fact that I've been sorted into a house that I didn't think I was in does not mean that my whole life was a lie.

Because of my Sorting, I've been taking a new, closer look at Gryffindor, as a house. Some of the stereotypically Gryffindor traits are not things that I hold very dear to my heart, but once I looked past the James Potter-esque contingency, I can see that Gryffindors are just as varied as I've been trying to convince everyone that Slytherins are.

So much of my time has been spent trying to convince people that Slytherins aren't all bad. There's a surprising amount of house prejudice out there, and the misconception of Slytherins as selfish, evil, manipulative, cold-hearted bastards who care for themselves first, foremost and only really bothers me. As soon as people find out that I am a Slytherin, I've had every reaction from people physically backing away from me, to giving me really odd looks and asking why I wanted to be a Slytherin, to telling me I'm "too nice" to be a Slytherin. I think it's absurd that you can be "too nice" to be a Slytherin, just as I think it's absurd that you can be "not nice enough" to be a Hufflepuff. People who are sorted into different houses are still just people, and they come in a variety of personalities.

We need to remember that we see the Harry Potter books from Harry's point of view, and that what he perceives is not going to be 100% accurate (can anyone remember his repeated accusations of Snape or Draco being behind everything that seems just a slight bit off?) and that Harry is a person, with his own experiences coloring his view of the world, including the houses at Hogwarts.

I've been trying to remember that (just like is true with Slytherins) there's not just one kind of Gryffindor. Remus Lupin, one of my favorite characters in the HP series is a Gryffindor. So I have to say that while I'm not exactly happy with where I got Sorted, I'm coming to terms with being a Heart Slytherin and a Pottermore Gryffindor. What a weird mix.

So thank you, J.K.R. Thank you for forcing me to look at myself differently, and for giving us HP fans even more to look forward to. Thank you for writing, and thank you for helping make people into readers.

I'll see you all on Pottermore.

~Whimsy

*Please understand that I have many friends who are Gryffindors, and I love them all dearly, it's just that's not where I saw myself being placed, and after living as a very proud and out-there Slytherin, it can feel not-particularly-fantastic to be told that you're playing quidditch for the other team, as it were.


P.S. If you're on Pottermore, feel free to add SilverSpell70, and if you do, leave me a comment here so I can know who you lovely people are. Cheers!