I could really use a Sleeping Potion right about now
Name: Kristen
Age: 21
AIM Screename ( if you have one ): IamLizardQueen
Who referred you here - username and house, if possible: satanseraph who is a total and utter Ravendor
1. Which of the Harry Potter books have you read? Which did you enjoy most? I have read all of them through twice save the final book, which I have only read through once, and probably won't get through it again, until I finish everything else on my reading list.
My favorite is pretty tough because I like to think of the series as a whole as opposed to dwell on one book. However, in the end it comes between Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix. However, I am going to choose Goblet because it was the book that I had the most fun reading the first time around. I think because this is where the books series moved away from Hogwarts and more into the larger scheme of things. The wizarding world became more dynamic and a bit more real, because before that pretty much the only aspect of that world we had seen before then was Hogwarts, that was the only place that Harry had really been except for his time he spent with the Weasley's and Diagon Alley. The characters are forced out of the insular bubble that they had been in for the first few books. And with the events at the end of sixth book, it is becoming increasingly evident that is not a series about a boy going to a magical school, but a boy going into a magical world. I think the scope of the series just bloomed in the fourth book. In addition, I really feel that Goblet kicked the series into high gear. Before the fourth book, the threat of Voldemort wasn't that real or imminent, except as some vague being that must be stopped at all costs. They only had to stop him when he was weak or in an extremely indirect way. But at the end of Goblet, Voldemort comes to the forefront. I liked that the series began to focus more on the longer arc, than a few tangents loosely connected by something lurking in the background. The graveyard scene at the end of the fourth book is my favorite scene out of the whole series, because it is the one that I can most easily remember. The emotional impact and the results of that scene are tremendous, and although Voldemort didn't really live up to my expectations in the following books, his entrance in that book was everything that I hoped it would be.
2.How do you feel about Voldemort as a character? (Not as a person.) I am not impressed. It is hard to believe that Voldemort is so evil that people are afraid to speak his name. What do they think he will show up if they say his name three times? But seriously, with all the buildup to the kind of villain he was, I guess I can't be surprised that I am disappointed. It is hard to think the guy is so great a villain, that up until the sixth book, he had pretty much been beaten by a bunch of young wizards, who are not even out of school yet. I want to see the supposed charisma that he has (otherwise how would he have gotten all of his followers? It certainly wasn't because he was an all around nice guy). Truth be told, his lackeys are more interesting and competent then he is at certain points. And I really don't understand his reasoning behind ordering Draco to kill Dumbledore. Even if he didn't really mean for Draco to do it, and was just using it as a form to get back at Lucius, it still reeks of pettiness and I figure a guy who is trying to conquer the world would do better then wasting his time coming out with such a long convoluted plan of punishment. Couldn't he have just tortured Lucius (when he gets out of Azkaban)? I mean really, I see Voldemort having no qualms about torturing his followers if they don't stay in line. But then again, maybe I am just giving him too much credit.
All in all, save for the backstory, I think the series has failed to fully establish who Voldemort is. We know where he comes from, but I want to see more of who he is now. I think at times, JKR has relegated Voldemort too much in background, and the kind of person/thing he is has mainly been described by other characters, we have seen very little of the actual present Voldemort. He still does not feel real to me, and I have a hard time rememebering that he is the villain. And why should I when the people who follow him have much better development and greater impact in the actual story.
3.Which Harry Potter character can you most relate to? (In the sense of personality, intelligence, character traits, etc.) I like many of the characters, but I don't really feel that I can relate to a lot of them. I tend to be distant from things like that because, I don't think about characters in terms of how they are like me and how they are not like me. When I was younger (and more full of myself), I was a lot like Hermione. I excelled in school, although I relied less on books than Hermione does. I would get angry with friends who didn't play by the rules, and I used to deal in absolutes, which I think Hermione can do quite often. I also had a tendency back then to automatically give up on things that I wasn't good at and couldn't do easily. However, I don't really do that anymore. I used to be bad at dealing with people, and I would often avoid them to keep myself from being comfortable, but I have since realized that I can't do that anymore. And though I am still not the best when it comes to dealing with people and am extremely uncomfortable with people I don't know, I have learned to deal with it. I don't really shut myself out anymore. If anything, I now sometimes look at Hermione and get angry with her when she does certain things, because those were things that I used to do myself. Also, I don't see what the use of her crusades is. While SPEW seems like a nice idea, she had to realize that forcing the cause down people's throats wasn't going to get anything done. I can't stand proselytizers in any form, for any cause even if it is one that I agree with.
4. Who is your favorite Harry Potter character? Least favorite? I am fascinated with several characters in the books, especially the characters that are morally ambiguous .I am not into absolutes, so black and white characters often bore me to tears. In HP, this means that I am drawn to the characters that aren't completely good or completely evil. This means I have a fascination with characters like Slughorn, Percy Weasley, and Snape, who I am not ready to admit is completely on the dark side yet. (I think if he was then that diminishes the importance of that scene in the beginning of the sixth book). However, my favorite character is Luna, mainly because I like her outlook on things, and her ability to see things differently and shed new light on different things. Her quirks and ability to be herself, even as she is teased for it, is admirable. She is smart, but not in the conventional sense of the word, but Luna hardly ever is conventional. And while I can't relate to her sense of believing in things without proof, she does it in a way that is endearing to me, as opposed to annoying.
My least favorite character is probably Hagrid, and that is mainly because I loathe incompetence. It was stupid to trust students with an untrained animal, especially since it was the first day of that class for all the students there. He was asking for trouble the moment he picked that lesson plan. And it was his own fault that Draco got hurt, and then Buckbeak was sent to death. Also, the idea that he would willingly send his two favorite students into the forest to meet a giant spider is quite scary. I can't imagine that Dumbledore didn't know about that, and then still gave him a teaching position where he will be in charge of a group of students. He is irresponsible and does more harm to a lot of causes than good. I jus find his actions in the first three books horrible, and his dealings with Grawp even more so.
5. What thing, event, or person has had the most impact in your life? (Please don't use yourself because you can't think of someone/something else. Think hard!) For better or worse, it would have to be my uncle's suicide a little over five and a half years ago. I think it sort of kicked off many things in my life that drastically changed my outlook and behavior. It had nothing do with grief or sorrow, because I didn't cry and I didn't feel sad, and I barely knew him, so I didn't really lose someone who was close to me. Rather it got me thinking on what he had expected to accomplish, and what I in turn expected to accomplish. I often thought him quite stupid for what he did. I realized that I didn't want to waste my life, like he wasted his. There are so many things that I want to do before I die, and I am not going to cut my life short when my body is still healthy just because life isn't going the way I wanted. I would rather be alive and go about getting my life back together, then just plain giving up.
It was also around this time that I began to question things people told me since I was little. And I questioned everything. The biggest of which was my faith, which at the time I had been pretty into church and serving God, something I had always taken for granted. I was quite zealous about it too. But after looking forward and thinking things through, I questioned why I had taken God's existence for granted. Did I really believe in him because it made sense, or because it was repeated to me so many times when I was younger. And gradually throughout that year I lost it. I realized that I didn't have a good reason to believe in God, and the evidence that people gave me didn't mean much. I was never angry with God, I didn't lose faith because of my uncle's death, but my uncle's death did cause me to question things that lead to that. I have been a perpetual skeptic since, I have a hard time just anyone's word for anything, and if I am going to trust anyone, it is only going to be someone, who has proven to me that they can be trusted.
My uncle's death also made me realized, that I had to make sure that I was happy before I could ever hope to make anyone else happy. I realized that I could ask for help from others when things get hard, but in the end, I am going to deal with it on my own. My problems aren't going to be solved unless I do something to solve them. I became more independent, and more comfortable with my ideas, and I really got control over who I was and what I wanted. I figured out that my uncle got and cornered, and couldn't see where he was going and got scared and took the easy way out. Taking his own life was his way of taking control, and I have vowed that I am going to do everything in my power to keep myself from facing that prospect. The person I am belongs to me, and the world can take it or leave it so to speak.
6. What makes a friendship valuable to you? Friendship to me is companionship between people who can respect and care for each other. I don't want to say depend on each other, because I hate depending on others, rather what I look for in friends are people who are my equals (or even my superior), people who won't coddle me and aren't afraid to tell me when I am being a bitch. I love my friends, but I wouldn't do everything for them, nor do I expect them to do everything for me. We are friends because we enjoy each other’s company, and there is something that we can learn from each other. Friendship doesn't mean to me that we should agree with each other on everything. I am a better person because of each of my friends in many different ways. I can credit my sense of humor to many of my friends. I don't usually have many acquaintances as I am not very good with most people, and I am not the best when it comes to social situations. I also have this huge fear of being betrayed because it has happened to me in the past. I am not asking for loyalty really, rather, just someone who isn't going sell me out for the first new big and bright thing that comes along.
7. If you had a hero (real or literary) who would it be? (Please keep in mind that we're asking IF you had one, and again please don't use yourself because you can't think of someone else. Be creative!) I never had a hero in any sense, since I am not one to idolize people or places or things. I find that usually only leads to disappointment, and I hate being disappointed. I often find that when I have high expectations for people they usually let me down one way or another, and I get upset because they didn't live up to that expectation. I respect others for their accomplishments, but I never put them on any sort of high status. I just don't think anyone really deserves that. I have never really looked up to anyone, I look have looked forward to certain points where I want to be, and there is this ideal in my head of the person I want to be in my head, but I don't associate that with any person, since it is an ideal it doesn't exist yet. I never really remember having a personal hero, or knowing of someone who had fit there bill. And while in fiction there are several characters who have been through interesting adventures and experiences that I would kill to go through, I am not much for the idolizing them. I don't like perfect people, and would much rather read the exploits of a very flawed character who I can understand, than a perfect and infallible character that I can look up to.
8. What are your personal aspirations for your future? My main aspiration is to be happy. If I am not happy, it obviously means I am doing something wrong. My happiness is the most important thing, because I can't see myself accomplishing much of anything if I am sad or depressed. Most of all, I want to leave an impact somewhere in the world. Whether it is by writing that novel that is forever floating in my head, or if it is by enacting change and reform in the system. I don't want to just sit and complain about the way things are going. I want to actually do something about it. And while I don't exactly want to be famous, I want to be worth remembering. I want the people who knew me to look back when I die and think. "Wow she lived a really interesting life". I may not think that I was born for a special purpose, nor do I believe in fate, but I am not going to be worthless and I am not going to fade in the background. I am studying to be a teacher, but I plan to do much bigger things than that. I want to complete a PhD in my lifetime. I want to travel, and I want to see the world from many different points of view, I want to experience things that I have never really experienced before, and I want to give something to the world, that no one else can, or do something differently from everbyody else. I don't want to follow the normal course of graduate, work, retire, and die. I only live once, and I am going to make it count.
9. What are your most prominent personality traits, good or bad? Which one do you feel best defines who you are as a person? Primarily I am an introvert. I don't like being around many people, and my ideal evening is to lie in bed with a good and interesting book to read. I don't need many friends for my happiness, and I am not one to put myself out there, as I am extremely guarded. I also don't make the first move a lot with people. I know that in a lot of ways this isn't the best thing, particularly if I want to accomplish certain things in my life, but I feel by making the first move that it is my duty to impress people, and I don't want to feel that I have to impress anybody. I just want to be me.
I am also selfish. I want to be happy, and I want life to go the way I plan. I want to have everything that I want, and I will do almost anything to get the things I want, and I will go for them, unless I know that it will hurt me or someone I care about in the long run. After all if they people I care about are miserable, it is most likely they are going to make my life miserable, so I selfishly want me and everyone I love to be happy, even at the expense of others, who I may not be close too.
I am skeptical. I don't accept things easily. I don't believe in luck, or the supernatural, and I would much rather follow my mind and logic over my heart and emotion. I am not going to believe things just because you say they or true, I need to confirm things for myself. I need things to make sense before I can accept them, and I am certainly not going to invent something to comfort me. If I don't know something, then I am going to say "I don't know" and look for a way to find out. I can't stand ignorance or an unwillingness to use reason. At the same time I hate absolutes.
I am sarcastic, and I know when to not take myself seriously. I value my sense of humor greatly. And I can separate myself from situations quite easily. I can laugh at myself on occasion, and I am not so bigheaded, that I think I am above reproach or mocking. I can find most anything funny, even my own failures. I may not be laughing the next day, but definitely a week later I will find it somewhat funny. I find everything is fair game for mocking, myself included. It also checks me when I get a little too full of myself.
I think I value my self-preservation moreso then most people. I don't like putting myself in the position to be hurt or caught off guard. I hate showing emotion in front of people, even people who I am close to and care about. To me those sorts of things are weaknesses, and even though I can get overemotional, I will makes sure that I can calm down in private. I hate feeling exposed in things like that, because it makes me feel uncomfortable, and that I have given over control of myself to others. I hate the idea that I am not in control of my life, or the idea that I am weak in some sort of way. And although I think that sometimes this may be a weakness for me (I sort of go by the thing about our greatest virtues also being our greatest vices).
I am extremely open minded. I realize that there are plenty of things that I don't know and still need to learn in my life, and I am going to keep trying to learn as much as I can. I also realize that my beliefs right now may not be correct, and that there may be things out there that work better for me. I don't think shutting yourself down, and thinking that you found the Truth is the smartest thing to do. I think that keeps you in a very narrow state of mind and unable to realize that other people and ideas have merit. I think I am most afraid of ignorance and getting stuck in one mindset, and stopping myself from growing into whoever I am going to become. No one has the answers to everything, and I would like to think that my views reflect the knowledge that I have gained in my lifetime.
I am passionate. I don't believe in living a life without passion. I put everything I have into my interests and my ideas, and when I am discussing things I love and care for, I get fired up and energetic. I love sharing ideas about things I enjoy with anyone who is willing to listen, mainly because at times I just need someone to let all my excitement about certain things out and find others with like interests. I am passionate about what I do and my goals. I don't go into things half assed, and even though I may procrastinate, when I finally get down to work, I put everything into it. I want to feel pride in everything I do, because my achievements represent who I am. And if something is horrible or poorly done that reflects badly on me.
And lastly, I am lazy. I usually don't do things until I absolutely have to. I have the tendency to get bored with certain things and so I will stop and go on to things that I am interested. If I could find a way, I would probably have to try to get out of writing this app and getting sorted a different way. I want to be able to do things while giving the least amount of energy as possible.
10. What house combination do you feel you're most like? Least like? (This is not pushing. It shows whether or not you are self-aware and may not have an influence on the voting process.) Honestly, I have usually thought I was Ravendorish, but I think my Gryff traits have been fading and becoming less prominent as I get older. I am not as emotional as I used to be, and I think that I am especially Gryffindor when I am at my worst. But I don't really value those traits in myself, because they have usually led me to trouble, and I hate trouble, but there is enough of that there for me to see myself there. At the same rate, I don't think I am Gryffinpuff at all. Because while I don't value the few Gryffish traits I have, I don't think I possess any of the primary traits of HufflePuff. I am not hard working, I am loyal but only to a certain degree. I am not completely honest ( I don't outright lie, but I often times will withhold the whole truth to protect myself). And I am definitely not patient. I can't stand waiting on anything. This is somewhat sad, because if I could acquire those traits, my parents would be the proudest parents on the face of this earth. As it stands, they don't understand how they gave birth to such a quirky and temperamental daughter.
11. Why should we not squib you? Because I hate rejection above all things, and the thought that I am not good enough, drives me nuts. I didn't hold back on anything, and I have no expectations on where you will place me. I don't think I lack a personality, and would be offended if you thought I was flat and boring. I hate the idea of boring, it would probably kill my ego to have a bunch of people tell me that I have no personality that they can't even tell what combination of houses I am.