Saturday, July 30, 2016

Never a Ravenclaw, Always a Slytherin

Harry Potter Month is hosted by Faith at Geeky Zoo Girl and Micheline at Lunar Rainbows Reviews. This fun event runs throughout the month of July. Find out more about it here.

When I was being sorted into my Hogwarts house on Pottermore, I assumed, because of some of my answers, that I would be in Ravenclaw. I wasn't trying to get into any house, I like them all, but Ravenclaw just made sense: I am a book nerd and I love learning. Then I was sorted into Slytherin. I was surprised, but I accepted my house immediately and when my sister was sorted into it as well, it just seemed to fit. So I have lived as a smart and kind Slytherin ever since. Then Micheline did a post on Hybrid Hogwarts Houses and so I took the quizzes expecting to get some form of Ravenclaw while fearing that Slytherin would never appear. Out of the three quizzes my hybrid houses were Gryffinpuff, SlytherPuff, and Slytherdor. Basically I am everything BUT Ravenclaw. It was actually really surprising, but I realized not being a Ravenclaw makes me even more of a Slytherin.

I didn't always like to read. It wasn't until I started finding books that I liked that I started to read obsessively. After a few years of this, I decided I was going to read 100 books in a year! And I did. I would read classics! Did that too. I would read all types of genres! And that. I kept logs of all the books I read (this was before I discovered Goodreads) and how long it took me to read each one. I wasn't only reading for the love of books, I was ambitious. Each year I tried to read more than the last. Each year I tried out new books and new genres. It was an obsession that was not always fun, but reading was the only thing I was good at, so I wanted to use that for something. This shows me that my love of books comes more from being an ambitious Slytherin than a brainy Ravenclaw.

Also, I love school, I really do. I love learning and I love the structure of it. But the reason I do good in my classes is because, like reading, I found out I was good at it and so I became a perfectionist. I am not a self-motivated learner, I need school to force me to learn and to do research. I am a last minute studier and sometimes I have severe anxiety about just writing an essay, but I always manage to get through it somehow. These don't sound like the habits of a Ravenclaw. My perfectionism is another form of my ambition. I take a lot of pride in doing things well and I like the recognition of getting a good grade.

So it turns out that all the qualities which I believed made me a Ravenclaw actually tied me to Slytherin. Truthfully, this makes me love being a Slytherin more because through my Hogwarts sorting I was able to learn something about myself that I didn't know previously. Although I may have Ravenclaw hobbies, I'm Slytherin through and through.
                     -Christina

4 comments:

  1. Ahhh! When we can make sense of our sortings it feels good doesn't it?! What you described here sounds like a perfect Slytherin to me and really, some of my best bookish/blogger friends are Slytherins! It's funny though how we both perceived ourselves as Ravenclaws but ended up never being sorted there. I started reading at age 5 and was always found with my nose in a book PLUS I was top of my classes all throughout grade school but I'm a Gryffindor (GryffinPuff LOL) and while it surprised me in the past, it makes total sense now ♥ GREAT post^^ xx

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  2. I think most of us in the book blogger world think we belong in Ravenclaw. Really, we didn't get to see a whole lot of sides to the houses so when Pottermore came around and we were sorted, I think there were quite a few surprised people. Slytherin is oddly one that I never get. I was sorted first into Hufflepuff and then into Ravenclaw with the new Pottermore. The hybrid houses revealed a mixture of Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor though I can't imagine being brave enough to be in the last one. I too realized that I have so much loyalty in me that Hufflepuff is actually a fit even though I feel like more of a Ravenclaw. I'm so glad that you worked out that you belong there. I agree that you seem to have a competitive edge with the reading, even if it was against yourself. That seems very ambitious Slytherin to me. I hate that there was such a stigma on the house, but really it was mostly full of ambitious witches/wizards who were dreamers with big goals that were dedicated in achieving them.

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  3. My Slytherin friend! I love that all those traits that you thought made you a Ravenclaw were what actually made you a Slytherin. It's so cool to get a different perspective on things. This is a great post! Thank you for sharing it. :)

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  4. This is such an awesome post! My cousin is a Slytherin; she took the Sorting Hat quiz quite a few times, lol, because she thought she'd be in Gryffindor, but she got Slytherin every time. She's since embraced being an ambitious Slytherin and is very proud of her house! :D

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