Stop Discriminating Against House
Harry Potter Housism is a real thing.
Put yourself in the shoes of a housism victim. You grew up reading Harry Potter. These books are your childhood, your roots. They built you up, taught you half of everything you know, and they mean basically everything in the world to you. They were your friends when people weren’t. They were there for you when people weren’t. They shaped your views of the world, your views on life, and your views on most other things, too.
So you go on Pottermore to be sorted into a House. To find a family. To find people like you, people you can relate to, people you’re going to feel like you already know really well. Because that is what happens in a house: you find like-minded people and feel less alone in the world because you realize there are so many others out there who can really understand you.
And you answer every question honestly. You pour your heart into the sorting, because you want this to be very special and very true and not just some silly fanmade quiz. And then you get your result…
And it’s Hufflepuff.
And you’re hurt by it. You’re disappointed, extremely. You think, “There’s no way! I’m not stupid! I’m not useless!” Because, stereotypically, Hufflepuffs don’t actually do anything, right? So you take the sorting hat test again. And again. And again. And you get the same result every time.
Or you get Slytherin (like me). And you sit there staring at the snake on your screen and feel disgusted, because NO WAY. “I’m not evil! I’m not a snake. I’m not a coward! I would’ve fought in the Battle of Hogwarts! I’m not a Death Eater!” So you take the test again and again and again. And you get the same result every time. And you can’t believe it.
Or you get Ravenclaw. And you think, “I’m not stuck up! I’m not snobby. I’m not a know-it-all!”
Or you get Gryffindor. “I’m not reckless! I think before I act! I know the difference between brave and stupid!”
And you keep the fact hidden, no matter what house you’re in. And you talk to other Potterheads and everything’s fine and you laugh about inside jokes and tear up at the mention of your favorite characters’ tragedies, and everything’s perfectly cool.
Until that question comes up–
“So what house are you in?”
And you consider lying and saying you’re this house or that house, any house except your house, but you know you can’t fake being in a house. There’s a reason the sorting hat put you in the house it did, and you can’t feign a personality type you’re not, even if you dislike the one you are.
So you tell the truth.
And do you know what happens when you tell the truth? Either they say, “Cool, me too!” or this happens:
“I’m in Gryffindor.”
Your new friends nod. “Okay,” they say monotonely, hiding any emotion, and move on to a different topic. And you can feel the change in the atmosphere. They’re not your friends anymore. They don’t want to be friends with a thoughtless, arrogant asshole.
or
“I’m in Ravenclaw.”
They roll their eyes. And you know what they’re thinking, though they don’t say it out loud. Oh, so you’re one of the smart ones, aren’t you? Probably stuck up and rich, too. They fight their sneers. They talk to you less. They get defensive over stupid things you didn’t even say or mean to imply.
The Slytherins and Hufflepuffs tend to get the worst of it.
“I’m in Hufflepuff.”
They laugh. They laugh at you! And you feel silly. You feel cast-out. Pathetic. Like an absolute loser. Because Hufflepuffs are pathetic losers, right? They’re not worth being friends with, are they? At least, that’s what people think.
or
“I’m in Slytherin.”
And their faces darken. They don’t even try to hide their disgust. You’ve become an automatic enemy. One of my best friends actually gasped when she found out and told me, “But you’re not an evil little snake!” And you have no idea how much that hurts, that she would think I might be an evil little snake just because I share traits with people who commonly are.
And you hide from your house. You’re ashamed to admit what house you’re in. Because people make you feel horrible about it, no matter what that house is. And it needs to stop.
How have we forgotten that Gryffindor was full of deep-thinking individuals, like Remus Lupin? Like Hermione Granger? Say what you will about Dumbledore, but Minerva McGonnagall is head of Gryffindor house!
How have we forgotten that Luna Lovegood, the sweetest and most caring person we met in the books/movies, was a Ravenclaw? Was she a stuck-up rich girl who thought she was far superior mentally to anyone else? No. She was the least discriminant, least stuck-up of the entire cast.
How have we forgotten that Cedric Diggory, who died protecting a rival he’d befriended literally about a minute ago, was a Hufflepuff? That J. K. Rowling herself is a Hufflepuff? That Nymphadora Tonks, who died defending Hogwarts, was a Hufflepuff?
And that her mother, Andromeda, was a Slytherin who married a muggle-born and raised a Hufflepuff? That Sirius Black would totally have been in Slytherin if he hadn’t hated his family so much? That Harry Potter himself was almost placed in Slytherin but chose not to be in this house because someone told him, when he knew so little about the world, that Slytherin bred the wickedest wizards. Merlin, one of the greatest wizards of all time, was a Slytherin. Yet apparently all Slytherins are Death Eaters and “evil little snakes”.
Yeah, Housism tears you up. It really does hurt. No, it’s not racism and people aren’t dying over it. It isn’t affecting our lives in the big, dramatic ways. But it’s affecting kids in other ways, eating them up from the inside, lowering their self-esteem during the most important times of their lives. It’s making social life difficult. And it disgusts me that people laugh at the wreck of someone’s childhood. Stop laughing at Housism.
