application :)
Name: Elaine
Age: 31
If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
I'd change people's priorities, making it less easy to give glib answers to important questions and harder to spend time thinking and feeling and doing things that don't matter.
Who is your favorite Hogwarts teacher?
Professor McGonagall, who I believe has many stories she isn't telling, secrets she doesn't share, and histories we can only guess at, and whose sense of fairness and justice is not as dependent on rules as it seems.
Who is your favorite character in Harry Potter?
Professor Lupin, whose only visible fault is how long it took him to get Sirius to explain what happened with Peter in the first place.
Who is your least favorite character in Harry Potter?
This is a tougher question; I'm inclined to choose someone who's simply not written as well, fleshed out as much, not as much of a *character* as the main ones (like Dean or Seamus, who I wish were more than just background). But in the spirit of the question I'll pick my least favorite *person*: Dolores Umbridge, of course.
What makes a person respectable?
A lack of fear. A desire and willingness to express his or her opinions and values, and to defend them, without dreading reprisal or scorn. Balls.
What is your take on religion?
Answers to first and most recent questions probably answer this, too. I believe everyone should have the right (and does have the right) to believe whatever they want to. I believe everyone should (and does) have the right to worship whatever power they feel or see or believe to be there in whatever way they want to, it harming none. While I respect anyone's right to defend their religious beliefs, I do not respect or recognize their right to think less of me or to insist I be treated differently for not sharing them.
What do you think about house elves?
I understand Hermione's desire to "free" them in much the same way I understand lots of things as a political liberal: I'm against hunger and slavery and unlawful imprisonment and torture and abuse, but I don't know the FIRST THING about what people on the other side of the world (or under the stairs) actually do, or how they live. It's been made pretty clear to us in the books that house-elves enjoy their service, and that the greatest pleasure they find is in helping people. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing abusive, torturous, or unlawful about allowing any being to live out its desires. Dobby proves that an elf who chooses to live differently can.
What do you look for in a friend?
A willingness to trade jibes and repartee without taking me too seriously, a sense of humor, brains, nerve, and just slightly more "get up and go" than I have.
Would you rather have friends and family or money and success?
Success, but since the question obviously means material success, not true success, the answer is friends and family. Besides the obvious reasons, eventually they die and give you the money, and money buys the shallow kind of success.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
I'd make myself work a little better. I'd make my body a little more functional. I'd make my brain less easily distracted. I'd make my work ethic more serious, my living habits less slovenly, and my relationships with other people more effective. I'd just make myself a little less inefficient overall.
What do you feel is your best quality?
I find it easy to express myself, I'm very, very hard to embarrass or make uncomfortable (at least in theory), and I can make people laugh.
What are your hobbies?
Online games, including the one I work for; very serious television-watching; equally or more serious reading; collecting books, often multiple editions of the same titles; and collecting other things, from OS X icons to fountain pens and ink.
Do you want to have children?
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. The tick, tick, tick of the biological clock, long considered a cliche, is very real.
Have or would you give time and money to a charity?
I have, but not much and not recently, and in theory (see liberal guilt above), I would. But it's harder than it sounds.
If your friend was attacked (by a person, animal, or (in the magic world) beast), what would you do?
Run, scream, or phone to get help. I'm not qualified or strong enough to provide it myself.
What is the one thing you would most like to accomplish?
Have and raise my children. It's a giant steaming pile of Hallmark sentiment, but there isn't anything else--besides giving yourself wholly to a cause larger than your world--that's worth using your life for. For many people children turn out to exist in research, invention, caring, and cure, but for me they'll be very small people who I will teach to love learning.
Who is your role model?
My mother, who goes out of her way to help people she loves in a way that I don't think I can. As I told her after watching her care for my grandmother (her mother-in-law) during an exhausting visit a few years ago, if I were ever in a similar situation I would ask for nothing other than to be as graceful and selfless as I'd seen her be.
What trait most annoys you about other people?
Inconsistency. Unreasonable demands. Foisting of their ideals upon me. Further elaboration on this question turns it into what it purports to loathe.
What do you want to do for a living?
I enjoy what I do (this question is posed towards people younger than I am, I think). I don't like the place I'm working now, but I've been in the same line of work, copyediting and page layout and print production, for about twelve years, and I enjoy it.
Would you ever use an Unforgivable Curse for any reason?
Sure, as a demonstration or a teaching tool. I didn't see anything at all wrong with the way the fake Moody used them to teach, even on subsequent readings/listenings when I knew that wasn't the real Moody.
What house do you think DOESN'T fit you? (This question is optional for those who feel they just DO NOT fit in a house. Please explain WHY.)
I don't believe Hufflepuff fits me, because I am not loyal, I am not a hard worker, and I have wicked thoughts. I'm not good enough for Hufflepuff, and honestly I believe they'd bore me.
What do you think are your top five abilities or qualities?
Resourcefulness, fluency, theoretical organization, a sense of humor, and unwavering love for the people close to me.
Where did you find out about us?
From Cleolinda.