I’ve never been more sure I was a Ravenclaw…

Hogwarts House Psychoanalysis

Gryffindor
True Gryffindors have a very strong sense of what is right and what is wrong, and this is a part of what gives them such strong opinions. Depending on the person, this may be taken to a Borderline degree, and they may see people as either good or evil, not in between and no chance of redemption for those on the darker sides of things. Alternately, Gryffindors may see all people as being initially good, and only making the wrong choices take the down the wrong road. Both of these behaviours are why Gryffindors and Slytherins can easily clash. Gryffindors are usually incredibly intelligent, but they tend to be slackers, more focused on getting a taste of something new than sticking to responsibility. This can be their downfall from success, or quite the opposite, bringing them a rise up into something they love. Once they find their true place in the world, Gryffindors will often use their accomplishments to the benefit of others in some form or fashion. Actors, singers and athletes can often be classified as Gryffindors. Despite their good intentions, they can also quite often be ill-tempered and overly emotional, which is their Achilles’ Heel in most instances. A darker Gryffindor may become out of control because of this, hurting those they love or holding a grudge for many years.

Hufflepuff
Essentially, Hufflepuffs see the world and their people as ultimately good, and only the darkness of the inevitable turning them away from what they think is right. Because of this, they tend to treat everyone fairly and with sympathy, trying to put themselves in the other person’s shoes before judging them, if they judge them at all. Hufflepuffs are almost always maternal or paternal types, ready to take care of anyone who may come to them. They are dedicated to what they do, and are very focused on making sure everything is done properly, leaving no room for error. Mostly, Hufflepuffs think what they do is right, and Ravenclaws who doubt them may annoy them, but Hufflepuffs hate conflict, so they tend to ignore their irritation. Hufflepuffs are very passive aggressive, doing little things subconsciously when someone makes them angry. This is usually the farthest they will go so far as revenge, as they rarely want to participate in any form of violence. Hufflepuffs are healers in nature, wishing to care to the needs of others. Many nurses, cooks, teachers or counselors are Hufflepuffs.

Ravenclaw
Intelligent and insightful, Ravenclaws are not ones to classify people under any certain category. Instead they often ponder on humanity, what is good, what is evil and why we should classify people as one or the other. Ravenclaws are very philosophical, and often you may see them simply staring off into space, but this is not in some brainless manner, in fact they are exploring the gears of their mind and trying to figure out how the world works. Ravenclaws are focused on their work, but they often don’t need effort. They tend to pick up on every detail and remember it without even trying, something that others may be skeptical of or be jealous of. This can give some a sense of superiority and the idea they should tell everyone the right way to do something, which can easily make others, especially nervous Hufflepuffs or emotional Gryffindors, very irritated. Ravenclaws are very analytic, and this can be very good or very bad. For the kind-hearted this will be a way to help others, for the dark they can use this to twist and manipulate. Ravenclaws are not every emotional, instead they tend to put up a wall and not let anyone in except for perhaps their closest friends or family. Instead they pick at the minds of others, trying to figure out how they work and to see if they themselves are different, or just the same as everyone else. Psychologists, professors and investigators are often Ravenclaws. 

Slytherin
Slytherins have a more cynical view on the world, and believe that there is darkness in the hearts of all, some are just unwilling to accept it. They think anyone who doesn’t realize this is naive or perhaps even stupid, and because of this they can easily clash with Gryffindors or laugh at Hufflepuffs. This said, Slytherins are absolutely in no way evil, some are actually very good. They simply have a drive that carries their life, and if you get in their way you better watch out. Slytherins have an almost bloodthirsty craving for success, and if they don’t think they can achieve this then they can easily fall into a darker place of  self-loathing and take this out on others. Love and accomplishment are the two things that mean the most to them, and they do not understand that the need for the latter can drive away the former, and when the feeling of pride fades or they fail at something, their possible lack of something dear and close to them can hit, and when it hits it hits hard. Slytherins are very emotional, however unlike Gryffindors they very rarely show it. Instead they bottle it up, using it in other ways, some of which may be artistic. Slytherins can very easily connect to art or music. Slytherins usually pick one subject they feel for and stick with it, rather than focusing on them all. This can be an issue academically, and some Slytherins may even drop out of school, but despite this their ambition will drive them to doing something they love, or they will have a downward spiral into depression. Lawyers, doctors and artists are often Slytherins.

Harry Potter 30 Day Challenge: Day 6- Favorite Professor

For favorite professor, I am going to have to go with Horace Slughorn. For these challenges I’ve been trying to strictly stay with the books and not let the movies influence my opinions, but I have to break that rule with this one. I adored Slughorn in the books and while he wasn’t as…..”plump” as I would have liked, the movie version of Slughorn is one of my favorite portrayals of any character. I mean, he is such an outrageous man, clearly collecting and showing off favorite students, and an awesome potions teacher (from love potion to Draught of Living Death on the first day of class! wowza!). Can you see Snape teaching the students to make a love potion? Me neither. Living Death? Yiz. Let’s not forget the funeral for Aragog and the kind words he spoke….before taking his venom and most likely selling it in Knockturn Alley.

Despite accidentally teaching Tom Riddle about horcruxes, Horace steps up to the plate and helps in the final battle of Hogwarts. Fav-o-rite.

Harry Potter 30 Day Challenge: Day 5- Favorite Book Cover

Alrighty this will be a short one. Favorite book cover!

USA Version:

I remember first getting this book— I loved the green and the swirls and the mysterious glow coming from that column thing.

UK Version:

I’m not really attached to any of the UK covers, so choosing a favorite cover was…interesting. They sort of all just made me laugh a little. So I chose Half Blood Prince for the UK version as well. I think the scene portrayed on the front of the book is such a pivotal scene, and look at all that fire! Dumblydore you be hawt.

Harry Potter 30 Day Challenge: Day 4- Favorite Villain

[This is part of an ongoing series. To see previous posts, click here.]

If anyone really knows me at all, you won’t have to guess at what my answer to favorite villain will be. (And I have a lot to say, so be prepared.)

Draco Malfoy (surprise, surprise).

Okay so you have this kid, this tiny little eleven year-old whose father is a death eater, mother is a nasty witch, and aunt who not only is a death eater, but completely and utterly in love with he-who-must-not-be-named. No wonder he turns out the way he does. But here is why he is my favorite. Draco is from a wealthy, not to mention powerful, family. They get what they want, and they are— at least in the beginning of the novels— accepted by the dark lord. Yes, Draco is a spoiled little brat (as seen in the shop when being fitted for his robes) but if you really look at it, Draco was never really horrible to Harry until Harry declined his friendship. In the robe shop Draco was civil, and on the first day of school Draco, who is used to being the center of attention has to battle egos with the famous Harry Potter. So what does he do? Extends a hand of friendship. He wants to team up with the boy who lived. Who wouldn’t?

Sure, he goes about it the mean way, insulting the Weasley family, but it is ultimately Harry who rejects the offer of friendship thus creating a rivalry between the two. And Draco, who is forced to follow in his family’s footsteps to please h-w-m-n-b-n, and gets assigned the task of killing Dumbledore. But he can’t. JKR narrates that he begins to lower his wand before Snape comes in a finishes the task; Draco himself says he has to do it, he has no other choice. The entire sixth book he is struggling with pleasing his family and doing what is right. And then of course we come to the seventh book in which Draco is forced to perform acts for Voldy. And we musn’t forget the scene at Malfoy Manor when he is supposed to identify Harry. Anyone who went to Hogwarts during that time would know that when there is a Ron and Hermione, there has to be a Harry Potter nearby. But he doesn’t identify him in front of Bellatrix. He simply states “It might be.”

All in all, I think Draco is a seriously misunderstood villain and while he does boarder on villain-turned-good, I do think there is too much hate and malice in him to be anything other than mildly civil to the golden trio. Aaaaand that is why he is my favorite.

Harry Potter 30 Day Challenge: Day 3- Favorite Character

[This is part of an ongoing series. To see previous posts, click here.]

Okay this one was extremely difficult. I have always avoided this answer, or either shouting the first character that came to mind, because I simply couldn’t choose. (I’m also this way about most things. Ask me to pick a favorite anything and my answer will change about every twenty minutes or so.) However the time has come for me to actually choose a favorite character. I thought about the strengths and weaknesses of all the characters like the good little nerd I am and have finally made my decision…

Snape. Snape. Severus Snape. Once I began thinking about everything each character had been through I just could not think of a better character than Snape. You have a boy who fell in love with a girl (and fellow witch) and remained close friends with her until those other idiot Gryffindors provoked him into calling Lily a mudblood, therefore ruining their friendship and creating the angst/drama with James, Lupin, and Sirius. Then he turned death eater, only to realize when Lily and James were attacked/killed that he actually wanted to be good. Then he switched sides becoming a double agent; ultimately sacrificing himself for Dumbledore’s wishes: protecting Draco’s soul. When Dumbledore whispers “Severus, please” and then he kills him– I die. Maybe I am getting too mixed up in a fictional world, but for Snape to put aside his own feelings, his own friendship to kill a man (granted, one who is already dying) to protect Draco and save face with the death eaters is simply amazing. By the time we reach the seventh book I didn’t even know if I could trust him or not (just another show in how brilliant JKR’s writing is) and by the time you get to the prince’s tale…I don’t know. I think it is just one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking scenes in the entire seven volume story.

So to make an extremely long answer short, I would say Snape sacrificed and overcame so many trials, all for the love of the mother of the boy who lived.

Harry Potter 30 Day Challenge: Day 2- Least Favorite Book

Continuing the Harry Potter 30 Day challenge. (Yesterday‘s topic was favorite book.)

I must say, it is really difficult to pick a least favorite book. I chose OotP because it is the hardest to get through for me; about halfway through I feel that for every one page I read, four or five get added on to the end. I never think I am going to finish it in a decent amount of time. That being said, it really is a wonderful book. I think each book offers so much valuable information (that sadly we didn’t get in all of the movies) to the overall story. Umbridge is a complete and utter terror and she is a fantastic villain. Half of the time I just want to throw the book across the room because I hate her so very much! So…yes, choosing this one for length over content.

Harry Potter 30 Day Challenge: Day 1- Favorite Book

In honor of Deathly Hallows coming out in just one week, and the London premiere today, I thought I would participate in the Harry Potter 30 Day challenge! Here we go!

My favorite book in the series has got to be Deathly Hallows. I love all the books for various reasons but this one is, to me, the best; the most climactic of the series. For an author to write two, three, even four books is amazing, but to write a story that only continues to grow and become more engaging and more fascinating— for seven freaking books— is utterly bewildering. The end of this book deserves an award, and any book that can keep me crying for the majority of it, not to mention completely sobbing at the end, has to be my favorite. [And I just have to mention two words that really sum up what I’m talking about: Snape. Lily.]

Cause I’m a Free Elf Baby.

When I was a junior in hell high school something strange started happening to me. My hair started falling out. I don’t mean the normal amount of hair that falls out during an average day– oh no. I mean, I would wash my hair in the shower and it would come out in clumps. Literally, handful after handful of hair. As you can guess, I would have breakdowns in the shower, holding my hair, thinking I was dying. Apparently my mother agreed and she had me tested for all these disorders and diseases, none of which I knew about. I was just there for some blood tests. Eventually the tests came back and nothing was out of the ordinary. Do you know why my hair was falling out? Do you? Guess. Go on, try.

Stress.

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.

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Yes. My hair was falling out in clumps because I was stressed. People started telling me I needed Rogaine for women. A JUNIOR IN HIGH SCHOOL AND MY MOM WAS BUYING ME ROGAINE. That is just not normal.

So lately, as you may have noticed, I haven’t been blogging. I don’t know what else to say other than…my hair is falling out again. No, that is not a lie, not an excuse. I have been so stressed that my hair is falling out again. Everything about this semester is just…. stressful. I pulled out a lot of hair last night (well, not pulled out, but it sort of just voluntarily left my head while I was washing my hair) and I realized JUST how stressed out I am. Lately I’ve been working on this capstone project. We had to create unit plans regarding what we will be teaching next semester. I am teaching To Kill a Mockingbird, and while I am excited about this, my unit plan turned into a 72 page document. And I just realized this week that I only wrote 7 out of the 35 lesson plans. I mean, COME ON. Too much work! On top of that I have to do photography and DON’T even get me started on that. I freaking put in so much time to that class and I hate it. It is not fun at all, nothing I wanted it to be. My professor does not like anything I do, and it makes it very difficult to care about anything in that class.

But on a lighter note, last week was the premiere of the new HARRY POTTER movie! I was sooooo freaking excited. Here are some pictures of the night:

This is me and my sister! Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw

This is me and my roommate! Ravenclaw and Gryffindor

Luna loves you so good.

I forced my mum to wear the Spectrespecs.

As you can see from our spirit of dressing-up, I had a blast. And! My parents went! My father, a man who usually goes to bed at 8-9pm actually stayed awake for this because I begged him to go! Aren’t my parents just wonderful! Down the isle from us were: Filch, Mrs. Norris, Colin Creevy, Dumbledore, and some other people from Hogwarts. It was so thrilling to be in a midnight showing. The last one I went to was The Bourne Ultimatum and that was an experience. I didn’t enjoy it because I was sooooo tired! Although, looking at Matt Damon is never a bad thing. But I digress….

Overall I really, really enjoyed the movie. Obviously they are not going to get everything right from book to movie, but let’s be honest– how many movies are better (or as good as) the book? Very, very few. I was really impressed by the acting; everyone really did an amazing job this time around. Dan Radcliffe is so awkward to me (Am I the only one who notices that odd thing he does with his hand when he speaks? NOW YOU WILL TOO!) but I thought he was really brilliant. And of course, Emma Watson is so beautiful and lovely and Rupert Grint was great too. I loved all the performances.

One of my favorite scenes included the torture scene with Hermione. I was so worried how Emma would do in that scene, because when I read the novel I get a very clear picture in my mind of what she sounds like and how Ron reacts. I thought they could have made Ron go a little more mad while still in the cellar thing, but overall it was fantastic. And just seeing her crying and the mudblood practically carved into her arm– seriously, her scream sent chills down my spine. I was very impressed. Also, did anyone else notice the hair that fell on Hermione? Were you confused by it? Because I figured it out last night and basically, *MINOR SPOILER ALERT* in order to steal one of the horcruxes, Hermione drinks polyjuice potion and becomes Bellatrix. So that was Bellatrix’s hair that fell on her, and probably how they will let her be able to become Bellatrix when they break into the bank.

I also enjoyed one of the more “controversial” scenes– Harry and Hermione dancing! I KNOW RIGHT! Many fans of the book are split on this. I thought it was so beautiful and so so very sad. I must say, when I think about the movie, or when someone mentions it to me, that is the first scene that pops into my mind! I think because it is just so…. it perfectly sums up what they are going through. During many scenes of the book we see Harry’s thoughts and he is so extremely mopey and I want to stab him in the face. Being a movie we can’t really get into his head, and I like how it focuses on Hermione. In the book it is just mentioned that Harry could hear her crying herself to sleep. By him actually getting her up and dancing, and them looking so depressingly sad…. I don’t know. I think it is my favorite scene in the whole film!

The Harry/Ginny scene was sooooo awkward. I like Harry/Ginny in the book, but movie version is just soooooo uncomfortable. I was recently watching Half Blood Prince and I just squirmed every time they shared the screen together! Other than that, I didn’t have any pressing concerns with the movie. I thought everything they brought to life was well done, and I loved how they handled the traveling in the forest scenes. It could have been much longer, much more boring, and very repetitive. I think the radio was brilliant in that it brought about a link and way to make the traveling more cohesive. Also it was a great break to just a haunting tune in the background. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy the score to the movie– far from it. I’m just saying listing the names had a more desolate and sad tune.

Overall the film was hilarious. There was so much more humor to it than I thought, which leads me to believe the next movie will be anything but humorous. I’m beginning to prepare myself now; I know that I know that I know I will be a complete and utter wreck during the next movie, which comes out ONE DAY before my birthday. Just saying. Seriously though, I can’t even begin to think that this franchise is coming to an end. I’m sure all of the actors/actresses are quite happy to be turning over a new leaf, but Harry Potter has been part of my world for so long! I can’t even begin to express how sad I am that it is ending, and I won’t because it is 1:30 in the morning and I have class in a few hours, so I am just going to call it a night.

Let me know what you thought in the comments below! I know I left some awesome things out, like Bathilda Bagshot and the ear scene and whatnot. Seriously, too much goodness to cover! Also, just saying, I didn’t cry at the end. I don’t cry during that scene in the book and call me heartless but…. yeah. Just putting that out there.