"The ones that love us never really leave us."
- Sirius Black
For the majority of my life - and by that I mean roughly fourteen years of my life - I have loved Harry Potter. I remember the first encounter I had with it:
I was roughly three years old (according to my parents) and I was playing on the computer while the rest of my family were watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I began to listen in until eventually I sat with the rest of my family in time to see Harry attempt to use the floo network for the first time. From there I was hooked. I remember seeing the final three films in the cinema with my Dad; I remember begging my sister to borrow the books which, at the time, were hers; I remember watching my Mum read the books when I was little, and her leaving Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in my bedroom when she was cleaning. Since then I've had multiple visits to Warner Brother's Studios in Leavesden. I've seen the addition of the Hogwarts Express, the Forbidden Forest and Gringotts Wizarding Bank. I have been sorted countless times on Pottermore (every single time resulting in being put in Gryffindor) and I try to buy every version of the books that I can get my hands on.
Harry Potter has been a part of my life for so long that I feel like it is a part of my DNA. Which means that I have spent a lot of my time considering the Hogwarts Houses since, in the words of JK Rowling "Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home". No matter how many stereotypes gets placed on the houses, I still enjoy finding the magic within them.
Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. The brave, the ambitious, the intelligent and the hard working. But each house is more than that.
What each house means to me
Gryffindor is where you'll find people who care for justice, which means sometimes they can only see the world in black and white. They are brave enough to stand alone against an army, not due to being fearless but due to their loyalty to themselves, and their loyalty to their friends. Gryffindor's are the friends who will keep you up until three am arguing the injustice of being assigned homework over the holidays, or the one who will spend an entire lesson having a debate with a teacher, while simultaneously providing charisma that keeps the class entertained rather than pissing them off. They are reading books in front of the fire but disregarding them the moment someone comes in looking sad, or if they see someone sat alone, because their house is a family and being a family means that everyone is worth a conversation, or at least asking if they are okay. It's helping their friends complete homework even if they haven't yet done it themselves because their friend didn't understand it and they can do it for themselves eventually. Laughter echos through the tower, but so does the echo of all the hurt they try to keep hidden. For Gryffindor is the house that care so much about standing up for what is right that sometimes they forget to stand up for themselves, and they would burn the world down to make sure the right thing happened but they would also burn themselves to the ground to ensure their own problems don't impose on anyone. They are new years eve, filled with fireworks and vodka-fueled flirting, while adopting everyone they meet as their family.
Slytherin is the house full of people who know the loopholes to every single rule, that use their intellect to advance their own ambitions. They are the ones who can bullshit their way out of anything purely relying on their knowledge of facts, processes and procedures. Teamwork, bravery, intelligence, loyalty. These are traits that are cared about in Slytherin only due to how they can aid the achievements of the house because each and every member is insanely smart, not just academically but also socially. They know how to help someone having a panic attack or how to coax someone out of bed when they have been tied down by the grips of depression. They are sarcastic comments, they're refusing to put up with idiotic teachers or school events, and refusing to be silenced by the opinions of others. They are the house of not giving a shit what people think, of standing your ground, of never backing down from a fight. They also tend to be the ones who run their mouths until a fight is inevitable. They are ruthless but would not dare to think about abandoning their own moral code, and they are loyal to a fault when they have devoted themselves to a cause or to a person. They are icicles hanging off of windows, beautiful yet looming dauntingly, ready to melt away into peoples memories if it is what best serves them, or fall down like daggers to get what they want.
Ravenclaw is not sleeping because they left homework until the last minute, but that doesn't mean that it can be missed or completed with anything less than their best try. They are too much coffee, they are reading at least two books a week or no books for four months. It's the house of all or nothing. Debates over dinner, helping their friends study and sharing studying techniques, getting lost in TED Talks and spoken word poetry. They will wreck everything around them if it means figuring something out, just for the satisfaction of knowing the answer. Creativity and a thirst to find things out, an inquisitive nature - that's what makes Ravenclaw dangerous. They are contemporary dance routines. They know every single health benefit to a healthy lifestyle, can even recommend a regime for you, but they would never dream of following it themselves. They never believe they need medical attention because going to see a doctor would just take too much time when they could be doing research...or alternatively having a nap because life is exhausting. They are the combination of clinical and emotional, of leading by logic but making the final decision from the heart, because the head and the heart work best when they are working in unison. They are rivers rushing past and star gazing at midnight, the chill of winter air and the brilliance of the first snow fall of the year. They are stardust and gin, with the shine of the moon reflected in their eyes and their breath escaping as clouds in cold weather.
Hufflepuff's are the pure of heart, the most loyal friends and also the peacekeepers. They like their life to be drama free, but that's all everyone around them seems to bring. What they value most is friendship and caring, they enjoy thick jumpers, blanket forts and Netflix. They go to sleep early only to wake up and watch the sun rise. It's the house of warmth and love, where everyone is welcome. Giving hats and scarves and gloves to their friends who ran outside as soon as it started to snow, telling them to be careful so they don't slip over on the ice. They are 'text me so I know you got home safe' but also 'I will kill you for crossing my friend' because they wouldn't hurt a fly unless that fly caused someone they hold dear to hurt incredibly. They are the cheerleaders of their friends, but also come up with the most reckless ideas if it means putting a smile on someones face. They are rooms covered in plants, with vines and ivy wrapping around their bed frames and a small watering can on their bedside table, caring so deeply for their plant children while disregarding the mess the rest of the room is left in. They are greeting every animal they meet, and even if they are scared of spiders, they would never let anyone kill one. They are Saturday nights spent with the scent of hair dye taking over the bathroom, and vibrantly stained towels left in their wake. Hufflepuffs are Halloween parties with couples costumes, they are trick or treating and carving pumpkins, while watching Halloween movies from childhood and encouraging everyone to see the cute as well as the scary.
Hogwarts houses are amazing because anybody could be a part of each one. They are all magnificent and unique and vibrant. What is the deciding factor between all of the houses is the emphasis of the individual. One of the best way to describe it is that Ron, Harry and Hermoine could have been put in Hufflepuff, Slytherin and Ravenclaw respectively, but they are all Gryffindor because they had the bravery to ask for what they thought was right for them. Hermoine knew she could be ruthless because she fell on the side of justice, and that is what her knowledge could be used for. Ron's loyalty and passion to defending his family and friends is what made him Gryffindor. And Harry, one of the most ambitious and sneaky people in the entire series who seemed to find loopholes to just about everything, found a home in Gryffindor because he knew that he needed reckless over ruthless. He not only had the bravery to know himself, but he had the bravery to stand up for what he thought was the right choice for him, Gryffindor. That's why Ron, Hermoine and Harry all respresent exactly what Gryffindor is.
Hogwarts houses are beautiful for what makes them different, but they are also magnificent for what makes them four parts of the same community, the same heart. Without one another they would not be whole.
Your stage is waiting.
Hollie x
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