"Yes well, You shouldn't have favorites as a teacher, of course, but she was one of mine. Your mother," Slughorn added in answer to Harry's questioning look. "Lily Evans. One of the brightest I ever taught. Vivacious, you know, charming girl. I used to tell her she ought to have been in my house. Very cheeky answers I used to get back, too." "Which was your house?" "I was head of Slytherin! Oh, now," he went on quickly, seeing the expression on Harry's face and wagging a stubby finger at him, "Don't be holding that against me! You'll be Gryffindor like her, I suppose. Yes, it usually goes in families. Not always, though. Ever heard of Sirius Black?" -- from Half Blood Prince, Ch. 4, "Horace
Slughorn"
I remember thinking -- upon listening to my HBP recording the second time -- that this should have been a clue to Harry that Slughorn was to be the potions master rather than the DADA teacher. In some ways, the sorting process predetermines the destinies of witches and wizards with a kind of visionary precision. Do students have any say in the matter? In a very good essay over at The Leaky Cauldron, Emily Bytheway points out that a neo-Marxist would probably say "no". (HT: Felicity who sent me this link 7 weeks ago.) She follows the thinking of a Marxist named Louis Althusser who she claims would, as a neo-Marxist, see the Sorting Hat as an "Ideological State Apparatus" for the ordering of a society, such as the wizarding world. Inside the Head - The Instant Slytherins We know the sorting hat "sees inside your head" and we've heard the hat sing to everyone and speak individually to Harry. We also heard a little about something the hat said to Hermione -- more on that later. The hat, which refers to itself as a "thinking cap" in the first song in Philosopher's Stone, is almost preoccupied with thought. It's words to Harry are very memorable "It's all here in your head. Slytherin will help you on your way to greatness." The hat makes a snappy decision for Draco Malfoy in book 1 and also, we learn in HBP, Tom Riddle is immediately placed into Slytherin as soon as the hat touches his head. The intellect seems to be "read" in these cases and most others. Ravenclaws are clever, Hufflepuffs are duller, more simple-minded, Slytherins are cunning. All of these traits of the intellect. Sorting based on these traits is almost passive in contrast to the long conversation with Harry which I'll address. Heart, Free Will and Gryffindor House Free will, or choice, is merely an illusion to folks with a Marxist ideology like Altusser, at least when it comes to falling into place via a state apparatus. The author of this essay, using his logic, states that Hermione doesn't really choose Gryffindor, her "self-image" does because she's read that they're the best house. Sirius Black's sorting is an "aberration" which determines his destiny, citing his decision to run away from home since he no longer belongs with the others in his family (Slytherins). This is the opposite of how I would see the sorting. Admittedly, I'm not a Marxist, I'm a Catholic Christian, and most Christians believe in free will. Without the ability to make choices, we have no way to chooses good and avoid evil nor to love God and neighbor. We see the heart as the seat of the will, just as the head is the part most associated with the intellect. The heart is also seen as the source and symbol of courage. The Italian word for courage is coraggio, stemming from the Latin root cor- meaning "heart". Courage is the primary trait ascribed to those in Gryffindor house. Some Gryffindors, such as the Weasleys, are sorted into the House of the Red Lion in a very similar "automated" way. They belong just like Riddle, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle belonged in Slytherin. But I think it's notable to take a look at three students who ended up in Gryffindor whom the books suggest might have ended up elsewhere. Harry. First our hero. Harry a Slytherin? Harry is completed unsure of what to expect. He's even more than a little worried that he's going to be "unsortable" and plopped back on the train bound for the mundane Muggle world of the Dursley's. But he knows one thing and that's that he doesn't want to be a Slytherin. Voldemort was one and he doesn't want to end up like that. It must have taken much courage to say "No!" in the face of the "Ideological State Apparatus" of the Sorting Hat, thinking that there was this alternative of no house. When the hat reads this thought which comes from the heart "Better be Gryffindor!!" is the response. Neville. Next in the series (and I can't think of whether this is in book 1 or 2) Neville makes a remark about "I should be in Hufflepuff," when he is having particular trouble with schoolwork or remembering passwords. Neville is also best in Herbology -- the study of the "fruit of the earth" -- associated with Hufflepuff in the books. But courage is proven to be his primary trait in standing up to his friends when he believes they are doing wrong in Philosopher's Stone and his defiance of Bellatrix Lestrange in OotP. True, we don't see an explicit choice for Gryffindor in the sorting process as we do with Harry, but we can imagine that living and breathing may be acts of courage for the poor kid raised by his Grandmother whose Uncle threw him out the window to see if he was a wizard!
Hermione. I already mentioned Hermione's choice in which she might have virtually requested that the hat place her in Gryffindor. If she had read wizarding world books which mentioned Harry, she probably knew that his parents were Gryffindors as well as Dumbledore himself. It's therefore instructive when we learn what she reveals to the D.A. members in OotP -- that the hat considered placing her in Ravenclaw due to her superior intelligence. Yet as Hermione reveals on the Hogwarts Express, she had used that intelligence and love of studying to help her decide which house she wanted to be placed in! Her intelligence informs her will, but she is not passive under the hat. It seems as if she had an active conversation like Harry's and not the standard passive mental X-ray. What's my point? I'm throwing this out there hoping Merlin can weigh in and expand, but my conclusion is this. Hogwarts students that present a dilemma for the hat seem to end up in Gryffindor. They are struggling for identity itself which is a courage-building exercise. Hermione, the Muggle-born determined to be the best student, Harry, the orphaned hero determined at all costs not to fall to the dark side and Neville, the bumbling nerd for whom even simple tasks presents a challenge -- all in Gryffindor together. These students seemed to have been placed owing in a greater way to the courage they exhibit from the heart, not the thoughts or preoccupations of the mind. This is important if Gryffindor is indeed destined to be the unifying house for all 4 houses especially through Harry. If their are elements of all the 3 others within Gryffindor, this makes them a kind of microcosm. There is a bit of "Gryffindor evangelism", if you will, in OotP when the Gryffindor students dominate the D.A. and seem to be the most comfortable with it. Luna Lovegood is the only non-Gryffindor student who exhibits any real lasting connection with Gryffindor; Miss Lovegood's persona, however, presents enough information as well as questions for another whole post, and I'm coming off an overlong hiatus -- please bear with me! | 
