Adventures in Pottermore, Part II: Saw That Coming
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With a bigger, better RAM stick installed, I was ready to revisit the world of Pottermore with hopes of actually being able to run the site. I noticed two things in rapid succession: first, the interactive “moments” were indeed running far more smoothly, and second, these pages were painfully boring. I’m sorry, but I have yet to understand how clicking through some mostly-static scenes to collect salt shakers and seaweed is supposed to enhance my experience of the fiction. I progressed slowly through these scenes, thinking I must be missing something: this couldn’t possibly be the point, could it?
When I reached the Diagon Alley scenes, things began to open up a bit. There were items to buy with different attributes, and it appeared that these would aid in actual gameplay sections later on (at the time of this writing, I still haven’t reached a section where I make actual use of these items). Having kept both birds and toads in real life, I selected a cat as my magical creature. When all that was done, I went to Olivander’s and got myself a larch wand with a phoenix feather core. Eleven inches, rigid. Damn right.
Wand in hand, I hurried through the next few scenes to the one I’d been waiting for since I started on site: the Sorting Hat. I was subjected to the rather awkward and obtrusive video of Rowling explaining the sorting process (my friend had mentioned this to me before, and its awkwardness did not disappoint) and then began the quiz itself.
I have to stop here to ask if anyone, while reading the Potter books are watching the films, ever actually thought to herself, “Hufflepuff is totally the coolest house.” Friends of mine have described it as “the stoner house;” it’s where you go if you get into wizard school but don’t really stand out beyond that. I mean, Slytherin is kind of strange in that it seemingly exists only the harbor the fiction’s equivalent of neo-Nazis, but I do have friends who favor that house (probably due in no small part to the awesome that is Alan Rickman). I haven’t met a single person in real life who wants to be in Hufflepuff.
So while the rational part of my mind knew I was destined for Ravenclaw, there was a fear that my nice-guy tendencies (combined with a possible desire on the part of the site’s creators to distribute users somewhat evenly among the houses) might push me toward Hufflepuff. Try as I may to answer the questions honestly, that fear might have influenced me when I chose to save Merlin’s book before the dragonpox cure. In the end, the fear was unfounded; some users end up on the cusp between two houses and have to choose for themselves. I wasn’t one of them.
Greetings to all my new housemates. Check back soon for Part III!
Excuse me? Did you just call my queen awkward?
15 July, 2012 at 7:59 pm
Rowling is the boss. But that particular video, and the way it sort of comes out of nowhere in the context of the site design, was pretty awkward.
15 July, 2012 at 8:31 pm
eff the house system enertily. When I got HUFFLEPUFF I was completely surprised! My best friend (a Slytherin) and I did the sorting together (internet together, anyway), and she teased me that I might get Hufflepuff – so I was… sort of in the WHAT??? stage for awhile. But as soon as I read the description and thought about it for more than half a second, I realized that one of the reasons I didn’t like the house system was that my values – my honest values – didn’t quite mesh with any house I’d seriously considered (Slytherin included. All but Hufflepuff included, really). And then I realized that Hufflepuff was the one who would just as soon have taught everyone and done away with petty practices like just taking the “smartest” or “bravest,” etc. She valued equality of opportunity, fair play, honesty, loyalty, and justice. BATMAN is all for justice. If Batman is a Hufflepuff, I certainly want to be XD. But beyond that, anyway, I am really glad that Pottermore sorted me into Hufflepuff. I still don’t like the method of a hat just straight up TELLING people what house they fit into best; I think if there are houses at all the hat should at least explain/show each person WHY s/he is sorted where. Otherwise someone like me would base their opinion of themselves off something they don’t even understand enertily. OK. Long rant, ha… I’m just really pleased to have been able to learn more about Hufflepuff so I could realize how well I fit into it compared to other houses. Also this is probably full of typos ’cause I’m in a hurry so MANY APOLOGIES XD Gotta go work! WOOO….
7 August, 2012 at 9:05 am
Stacy MillerSo good to see a blog on hatatslls!!I am a hatatsll myself last night, I joined Pottermore, and I became a Slytherpuff!! I was being as honest as possible while asnwering the questions, and I knew that I did possess qualities of more than one house. But the way I was answering the questions, I thought I would end up in Ravenclaw. Thank goodness I didn’t. No disrespect to the Claws, but if you ask me, I would be locked out permanently while trying to figure out the answer to their riddle, for their Common Room. I’m not dumb, but I’m definitely not Ravenclaw smart, and I lack creativity and wit as well.Coming back to the hatatsll, so after question 7, I was like,’Okay, here it goes’, and then comes, Which house would you most like to be in? Slytherin or Hufflepuff? While I was shocked to get a hatatsll cos I thought my answers were so Ravenclaw-y, still it was a relief to get a Slytherpuff hatatsll, cos I possess qualities of BOTH houses (I would feel totally out of place in Gryffindor and Ravenclaw). I was in a fix about my choice for the hatatsll, but then I remembered that my wand comprises of a unicorn core, which means that I won’t turn to the Dark Arts easily, and this was a massive relief for my Hufflepuff conscience. And if I am completely honest with myself, I do have a tendency to behave just like a Slytherin if things don’t go my way (even if my Hufflepuff conscience isn’t happy with it). So, in order to stay completely true to myself, I chose Slytherin (my Hufflepuff conscience still thinks that I deserve to be in Hufflepuff!). Therefore, I can guarantee you that I’m a Slytherin with a Hufflepuff conscience. For example, I wasn’t happy with the way the Slytherin prefect paid a back-handed compliment to the Hufflepuffs in the welcome letter. Sure, following Merlin’s footsteps would be a great honor, but I also think that the invention of the Self-Soaping Dishcloth is a wonderful achievement. Likewise, the Slytherin bashing by the Hufflepuffs in their own welcome letter hasn’t gone down too well with me (you can read the other welcome letters too, thanks to the internet!) even if I’m (now) a Slytherin, I do believe in hard work and fair play, but then, (unjustified) desperation forces you to do things that you would otherwise never indulge in, and yes, I do regret those occasions. Also, I can be as harmless as a well-behaved child if you’re pleasant to me and leave me alone, but if you upset me, I can strike back in true Slytherpuff style. I’ll simply ignore you, and behave as if you don’t exist (especially when you need my help).So there you go, a true Slytherpuff.
7 August, 2012 at 12:53 am