Hello, my name is Kirsty and I have been a Harry Potter fan for more than 20 years because I am old AF.

I always assumed growing up that I was either a Ravenclaw or a Hufflepuff, but then Pottermore was unveiled and the sorting hat told me that I belong in…

G R Y F F I N D O R

My friends say that they get it and that they can easily see me as a Gryffindor, but I really never have. If there is any house at Hogwarts that I don’t associate with, it’s probably Gryffindor, regardless of how much my life has changed and developed over the years I have never felt that strong affinity with Gryffindor.

Before I go on, for any not-Potter fans (congratulations for making it this far) let me just give you a quick explanation of the house system at Hogwarts (wizard school) – the school has four houses (teams), but unlike ‘normal human’ schools the pupils aren’t allocated at random (at least that’s how it worked at my school!). They are in fact sorted by a magical hat that reads their deepest, darkest thoughts to decipher what kind of a person they really are and sorts them that way. The four categories that it sorts into, in a nutshell, are those who prioritise courage (Gryffindor), intelligence (Ravenclaw), loyalty (Hufflepuff) and ambition (Slytherin). You don’t have to be a genius to work out that this would be a terrible idea in the real world, but it’s the magical world so it totally works.

So most people generally feel an affinity to one house, or maybe two, even though we all know that really we’re a little bit of them all (like Divergent, but that’s a whole other book series for another day!).

As time has gone on I have felt myself edging more and more towards the house that I didn’t mention earlier on – Slytherin (okay I’ll stop colouring them in now, I’ve had my fun). Clearly this is because I’m cold blooded. Heartless. Soulless. Evil AF. After all, that’s all Slytherins are, right? Evil, cold hearted beings who like evil things like stamping on the weak, stealing remembralls, calling out mudbloods and killing innocent babies (or at least trying to).

W R O N G 

It is often overlooked that the house of Slytherin is for those that show a proclivity for ambition. They’re goal achievers. Yes, okay, they won’t let anything stand in the way of achieving their goals but that’s exactly what makes them stand out. Slytherins are supposedly the people who will stop at nothing, and as I have embarked into the world of career and adult life I’m finding more and more that that is the kind of person I want to be. I don’t want to be held back. I want everything in my life to be perfect, and I want it to be that way because my actions made it so.

While I don’t necessarily think I’m a thoroughly good person, I definitely don’t believe that I’m a bad person. I don’t think that people should associate such a serious accusation (evil) with somebody just because of my house and my ambitious nature. Yes, Voldemort was a pretty bad guy and yes a lot of Slytherins have very strong ambitions for bad things (Hitler was probably a Slytherin, let’s face it) but there are also people who are riddled with ambition for good in the world

I can neither confirm nor deny whether my endless ambitions are for good or not, but I definitely think that it’s time that Slytherins were shown a little respect. It is often the ambitious amongst us that make the big changes in the world – for worse or for better. Nobody made a difference by sitting back and waiting for the universe to align for them.

While I think the house system picks up on your quirks and is a great way of putting you with likeminded people, I think that the isolated house environment of Hogwarts – where all the wise ones are together, the loyal ones, the brave and the ambitious – amplifies the issues of not being surrounded by a balance of people. Think about it – if you have one competitive person in a group, they’ll be less competitive than if you stick two competitive people in a group together.

I’m also sure that there is some kind of social experiment out their that proves that if you tell somebody they’re evil then they will essentially become evil. Think about that. Stop making ambitious people out to be the worst people in the world, both in the Potterverse and the wider world.
What’s your Hogwarts house? Let me know in the comments below!

There will probably be a new video soon when I try retaking the Sorting Hat Quiz to see if I’m still a Gryffindor, I’ll share the link here when it’s done! In the mean time, check out my Youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3aKQurLeAHT9UA0tfsVyBw