What part is 'flanks' on a human? The horcrux?
01. Name: Jen
02. How did you find out about Hogwarts Elite? I was actually linked here a while ago from fandomsecrets by a very cheerful anon.
||MIRROR OF ERISED||
03. What do you wish to accomplish in life?
My number one goal in life is to avoid long-term stress. I hate dragging that out. It's the worst. It's funny, because I actually do a lot of my best work under stress, but only if the pressure lasts for a short period of time. I've seen what long, dragged-out stress can do to people, namely my parents, and I want to avoid that at all costs. So to those ends, I'm pretty committed to graduating and becoming a licensed biomedical engineer, while at the same time never losing touch with my friends or family. If, in twenty years, I've got a healthy, happy family that I get to spend a lot of time with, a close group of friends where we all trust and support each other, there's enough of a cushion in the bank in case something unexpected happens, and I'm a person who doesn't regret the things that I've done or the person I've become? Nothing could be better than that, for me. That's all I think I can realistically expect from my life, unless some billionaire wants to trip and fall in my lap. I certainly wouldn't say no to that.
04. Describe exactly what you would see in the Mirror of Erised. (This is not the same question as #03.)
I know I wrote a bunch of really grounded-seeming stuff up above, but that's what I realistically expect, or hope, to come out of my life. If I looked into the Mirror, though, and saw my heart's deepest, darkest desire? The image would probably just be me, chilling out on a funky squishy hand chair on the large paneled deck of my super mansion house, built into the side of like a mountain, overlooking beaches and jungles and stuff. I'd be whiling away my time, not worrying about a thing, playing billiards or lurking online or floating in a heated pool all the time. Oh, and I'd be able to summon a friend with a snap of my fingers or something if I ever got lonely. The version of me in the Mirror would definitely be a person who could snap her fingers (since I can't) and do other cool things with the money she doesn't need to worry about.
05. What makes a person deserving of your respect?
There are literally so many different things that people can do that would make me respect them. I don't know if it's because I always feel like I can absorb something great out of everyone I know, but I respect almost everyone I know in real life for various reasons. For my mom, it's the fact that she works so hard. For my dad, it's the fact that he's the weirdest version of a charmer I've ever seen -- you actually hate the guy when you first talk to him, but somehow he manages to get you to agree with everything he says and asks you to do. It's the weirdest thing, and something I really wish I could do. Let's see, who else? My sister is the kindest, most forgiving person I've ever met. One of my best friends has gone through some really nasty shit in her life, and she's managed to stay strong and work hard and play the crappy hand she was dealt. One of my profs this term told me a really great story about how much sexism she had to fight through to get to where she is today. Even people I can't stand, there's always something about them that I could begrudgingly respect; there's this one girl I hate, but I'd love to have her guts. She's just unbelievably forthright with whatever she wants, and it rubs me the wrong way, but at the same time I know it's something that not a lot of people would be able to do.
06. What is your biggest pet peeve?
My biggest pet peeve is working with people who are unsympathetic and selfish. It's just a pain in the butt. I could go on and on about the stuff people do that ticks me off, but it'll get long and boring and you'll start to hate me, so I won't. Basically, people who are extremely blatant about coasting on other people's work annoy the heck out of me. At least put in the energy to pretend or manipulate, if you're not going to actually work. I could get down with manipulation, especially if the people you're manipulating don't know they're being manipulated. Just don't be obvious about it, and don't be heartless, either. Other peeves are: those cute little gladiator shoes because my toes are weird and I can't wear them, the mayor of my city, and the elevators at my school library because there are only four and three are always broken.
07. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
The first thing that popped into my head was "my nose," but it's really not that bad and I should probably want to shave my jawline if I were going to have any sort of plastic surgery anyway. But now I'm realizing that this question could probably apply to more than just superficial things like looks, so I'm going to come up with something that seems less shallow. The more I try to think about it, though, the more I realize that I'm actually good with most of myself (haha). I guess if I had to change one thing, it'd be... not my lack of motivation, per se, but just... my ability to easily reconcile myself with whatever's happening, even though I could have prevented it in the first place. Does that make sense? It's very easy for me to just sit back and think, "Oh well! I only have five minutes to go do whatever, I'll just miss it altogether." Instead I end up planning for the second-best scenario, in the future, like, "Moving forward, I suppose I'll have to do this, and talk to this person, or I could just say this..." I don't really know where that stems from; maybe it's a combination of laziness and arrogance, in that I'm usually sure that I can rectify or correct most situations, so there isn't a whole lot of urgency to my actions. It's a bad habit, really.
08. If you could do any one thing and suffer no consequences, what would it be?
I think the one thing that I wish I could do is to be more truthful about everything that happened during my first term to my friends -- the ones at my current university, anyway; the ones at my first school already know all that since they were right there with me. Nothing serious happened, just a lot (A LOT) of poor decisions all around and one relationship with an older guy that maybe I shouldn't have gotten into, haha. Basically I did what most freshman kids do, and I partied my time away, and then ended up transferring because I realized that it wasn't such a great environment for me. But my friends at my current school tell me that I'm a little guarded, and they know there are things that I'm not telling them because it'll change their opinions of me, and that makes them curious. So if I could, I'd tell them the truth about the people I met and the things I did and the screwups I made, because I don't really like being seen as enigmatic (that's a lie, I'd love to be seen that way) or distant. I just don't want them to start judging me about the silly little things I did back then, because these kids are really nice and fairly innocent and I don't want to scar them, haha.
09. What do you think are your top five positive characteristics?
01. People tell me I'm pretty cute. Like, not necessarily appearance-wise, but just my mannerisms and the way that I act. I don't really know what it is, but sometimes I'll be really into telling a story or something and I'll make a gesture? Or a facial expression? Or say something a certain way? And they'll interrupt me or look at each other and say, "She's so cute." It's not really that I'm cute or whatever, it's just that I guess I come across as a pretty engaging person, or something, I guess. I can usually talk my way into convincing people fairly easily. I don't know, I just find that a friendly smile and an open demeanour goes a long way when asking for favours from other people so that they don't feel bummed out about helping me get what I want.
02. Okay, I really feel like an ass in saying this, but I'm pretty smart. Maybe not in a life decisions kind of way, but books and things like that come really easily to me. I won't go too in-depth into it, but when I was five years old I got put into grade two, so that I ended up graduating from high school when I was 15. I don't always have the best grades, because I'm really lazy and never go to class unless attendance is being marked or something, so I end up frantically staying up for three days on end trying to learn everything I'd been bumming around on earlier. But at the end of the day I expect myself to be able to attain a respectable GPA, and I do, despite the fact that I definitely don't deserve it in terms of the amount of work that was put into it. So yeah, as far as life decisions go, I'm pretty dumb, but books sink into my brain easily enough.
03. People tell me that they like working with me, because I can always be counted on to get things done without making everyone else mad. I mean, everyone's worked with people who are slow during a project because they're worried about stepping on other people's toes, right? I'm obviously not going to go out of my way to alienate other people while we work, but I do always end up delegating tasks pretty quickly. Part of that is probably because I can size people up really quickly and tell what kind of work they'd be best suited for. I've worked on projects with leaders who have no idea how to use or connect to the group members properly, and that bugs the heck out of me, so I always try to include everyone in a way that they're happy with what I've assigned them to do. And then at the end I usually don't even have to do that much work, haha.
04. I'm a bit of a jack of all trades. If you need me to do something, chances are that I already kind of know how to do it, or I can pick it up fairly easily. Need help with that power tool? Cool, I know how to do that. Would your evening be better if I was playing some Yiruma over there on the piano? Okay. Does your baby need a new diaper? Well, I don't want to, but I can. Trying to hack your Wii yourself? (Shh, I can do this, but it needs to be on the downlow.) On the flip side, though... you know what they say. Jack of all trades, and master of none. I can do a lot of stuff, but I'm not an expert or anything. I'm just good in a quick pinch if you need some help.
05. I like to think I have a sense of humour about things. Maybe not, like, in a jokes sort of way, because the only ones I can really land are sarcasm (lowest form, really) and insults (but always said with a loving tone)... probably more of a positive outlook kind of way. I don't like to be too serious about things, or to get bogged down in the gravity of situations without looking for a way to either distract myself or to find the bright side of things. Obviously you can't escape it in some situations, but I'm that person in the corner of the booth who's always trying to find the things we can feel good about when the topic starts making the mood a little bleak.
10. What do you think are your top five negative characteristics?
01. Yikes, okay, so recently I took a personality disorder test online. It didn't tell me anything I don't already know, but I was a little surprised to see that histrionics landed so highly (in fact, it was the only one rated Very High). The definition is here, in case you're not familiar. Not all of it applies to me, but the parts about liking attention, exaggerating stuff, always needing to have a story to tell, being a little bit manipulative... well. Yes. That is quite me.
02. I also scored highly for the narcissistic bit. That's not much different from the above, but I will say that I'm a little more empathetic than the average narcissist. I don't like taking advantage of others if it means they'll suffer in the process, but if it's a neutral-win or win-win situation, I'm all for it. I think the biggest part that applies to me from the narcissism definition is mainly that I'm always very conscious of myself, in terms of how people think of me and that I like to hear things about me, good or bad. Basically I'm very self-absorbed -- almost like a child, really -- and quite arrogant about my own abilities and how others stack up next to me, and things like that. Sometimes I do get a bit inflated in terms of my self worth, and I'm the secret competitive type, where I'll obsessively note down other people who do better at things than me so that I can feel good about myself if I eventually end up besting them.
03. I'm also a bit of an avoidant. If there are reasons not to do something, I'll probably tot those up in my head way before I consider why I should do it. That probably ties in with laziness, I suppose, and it extends to many aspects of my life: schoolwork, going on trips, doing the laundry...
04. Apparently I've got this super judgmental, appraising look that I shoot people sometimes. I cop to that, completely, since I think it's actually really silly of people to not have any idea who they're surrounded by or working with or whatever. Maybe I could work on how much I'm telegraphing to everyone who can see me, though, since other people apparently don't like it when random people assess their outfits, hair, demeanour, personality, etc.
05. If you end up being a close friend of mine, you'll inevitably tell me this five times a day (basically every time I text you or send you a message or something, I suppose): I'm really whiny. I like complaining about things and then never doing anything about the things that irritated me in the first place. I just like unloading it all on everyone I'm around and then feeling better afterwards, haha. I know, it's selfish and petty, and one time someone incorrectly called it being "passive-aggressive"... there's zero aggression actually occurring, to be honest. At least none that you'll ever directly see from me.
||HOGWARTS, A HISTORY||
11. Who is your favorite character in the Harry Potter series?
James Potter, even though I know zilch about him aside from the fact that he started off as a schoolyard bully and grew up to be a good man. I'm aware that fanon pollutes a lot of my opinion of him, in that Marauder-era fics are my favourite and have been for years, so a lot of the positives I see in him might be positives that I've drawn in myself from what JK Rowling actually wrote of him. And that, to me, is fine, because I like having characters that I can think about and fill in some of the blanks on my own. I just end up connecting to the character a little better, I suppose, because half of it came out of my own head. Besides, what I do know of him? That he was a pureblood who fell in love with a muggleborn and didn't care, he was able to overcome his snotty little boyhood ways, he was fiercely close to his friends, he was a pretty fun guy to hang out with, and he fought and died for the values he believed in... those are all pretty great things. Somehow I guess that was the perfect hero archetype in my mind as a kid, the one who starts off being a jerk pulling your pigtails but eventually a really great, honourable guy who can really make you happy. It's a little bit unrealistic, I suppose, but why not consider that kind of a man to be an ideal?
12. Who is your least favorite character in the Harry Potter series?
It kills me to say this, but Snape was definitely my least favourite. He's an interesting character for sure, and I love the complexities of his motivations. I just don't think I sympathize with them all that much. His actions get a lot of passes, I think, but I don't think I'd be able to forgive a lot of those things in real life. Especially the racial slurs against someone he cared about, and the bullying of children who had no idea what they'd done wrong and that they'd never be able to do anything to rectify it. Just because they're "smaller" evils than the one he ultimately ended up fighting for doesn't mean they should be dismissed or forgotten, and I object to the way he's painted as an unsung hero because I don't believe someone like him deserves it. I love that there's so much to say and discuss about a character like him, and I know I've probably just angered a ton of people haha! but personally, he's not my favourite at all.
13. What was your favorite plot or character revelation in the Harry Potter series?
Well, obviously I loved everything we got about the Marauders era, but my favourite plot point was probably back in book three with the Time Turners. I remember reading that as a kid and just eating it all up -- like, how clever was Hermione?! That she could get away with all that? And balance all that work and the cover stories and everything? And McGonagall, that sly old thing, she was in on it the whole time! And it made the whole book instantly re-readable, which normally doesn't happen to me; I love re-reading things, but it takes a little while, right? At least a week, for everything to sink in, before I can go back and do it all again. But I think I re-read the Prisoner of Azkaban three times in a row back then. It was just a great little twist that I'll never not enjoy, just because I have some really great memories of being a mindblown little kid who absolutely loved the cleverness of it all.
14. Describe the canon qualities for each house that accurately reflect you.
• Gryffindor: I think I'm pretty... how should I put it? Idealistic? And a little stubborn about those ideals. If I think something's wrong, then it's wrong, and sometimes I actually get a little bit overzealous in trying to convince everyone else to see things the same way as me. I'm very passionate about these wrongs, and hitting these issues is basically the only way to get me to instinctively come right out and pick a fight with you.
• Slytherin: Well, like I said earlier, I'm all for manipulation. I don't think the word deserves the negative connotation that it sometimes gets, since being able to maneuver people into doing things for me is actually pretty clever (or cunning, if you prefer). It's also pretty fun if you can manage to pull it off, to be honest haha. It's like winning! Even if you're the only one who knows you just won.
• Ravenclaw: I do believe in education being a really important part of life, and to that end classes and facts and just knowing a lot of things is essential to me. People who actively go out of their way to block themselves from learning new things don't make any sense to me. A lot of people knock book smarts, saying there are plenty of other things to worry about in the world, but I don't agree completely with that. It comes across a bit snobbish, I think, but I really do believe the world would be a better place if everyone had some knowledge of things outside of their immediate concerns.
• Hufflepuff: I guess the biggest canon quality that matches me would be cheerfulness / overall friendliness. I empathize pretty easily with other people and can easily put myself in their shoes to figure out how to work well with them, and I don't really like picking fights with other people at all. I'm probably not the textbook definition of someone who's loyal, but if something were to happen to someone I cared about then I'd definitely be first in line to make everything right.
15. Describe the canon qualities for each house that do not accurately reflect you.
• Gryffindor: I'm not brave at all. I don't know if it's through a combination of really terrible reflexes or a general sense of cowardice, but I'm usually the last person to step up and put myself out there. I always have to think about and consider the implications of what I'm about to do, and see if anyone else is about to step up so I won't be the only one up there, before I actually do anything. Also, I think I care a little too much about what other people think of me, to be able to be unashamedly foolhardy and brash and all that sort of stuff.
• Slytherin: I wouldn't say I'm really that ambitious. I know what I've got to expect from life, and I'm not at all inclined to step on other people or work hard enough to make ~dreams a reality or anything like that. To me, being ambitious means that you'll probably have to knock down a few other people to get to the top, and while it's definitely an unavoidable part of life, I'd rather not participate in anything nasty or backstabby if I had a choice. It just doesn't sit right with me, and it's one of those pesky little ideals that I find gets in the way more than anything else, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
• Ravenclaw: My grades in school are fairly important in terms of a solid GPA and my future plans, but overall it's not really that important to me. I'd rather be out having fun or watching TV or catching up on sleep rather than to study, even if that means the difference between an A- and a B+. I'm actually a bit notorious in my program for never attending class if marks aren't involved for attendance or participation, because sitting there and listening to a lecture is really not my favourite thing in the world, especially if I have the ability to learn everything in a much shorter amount of time than that.
• Hufflepuff: This sort of ties in with the last point, but I'm not hardworking. At all. I'm always looking for the easiest way to do something, or the bare minimum that I can do, or for how long I can possibly put something off, before finally being forced to quickly dash something off. If you looked up the word 'lazy' a picture of me should honestly be grinning up at you, completely unashamed of how little effort I put into the things that I do. Shortcuts are basically my best friends.
||HOGWARTS EXPRESS||
16. Age: 18
17. Optional: Link us to where you have promoted this community in your personal journal to earn your future house five points. Here.
02. How did you find out about Hogwarts Elite? I was actually linked here a while ago from fandomsecrets by a very cheerful anon.
||MIRROR OF ERISED||
03. What do you wish to accomplish in life?
My number one goal in life is to avoid long-term stress. I hate dragging that out. It's the worst. It's funny, because I actually do a lot of my best work under stress, but only if the pressure lasts for a short period of time. I've seen what long, dragged-out stress can do to people, namely my parents, and I want to avoid that at all costs. So to those ends, I'm pretty committed to graduating and becoming a licensed biomedical engineer, while at the same time never losing touch with my friends or family. If, in twenty years, I've got a healthy, happy family that I get to spend a lot of time with, a close group of friends where we all trust and support each other, there's enough of a cushion in the bank in case something unexpected happens, and I'm a person who doesn't regret the things that I've done or the person I've become? Nothing could be better than that, for me. That's all I think I can realistically expect from my life, unless some billionaire wants to trip and fall in my lap. I certainly wouldn't say no to that.
04. Describe exactly what you would see in the Mirror of Erised. (This is not the same question as #03.)
I know I wrote a bunch of really grounded-seeming stuff up above, but that's what I realistically expect, or hope, to come out of my life. If I looked into the Mirror, though, and saw my heart's deepest, darkest desire? The image would probably just be me, chilling out on a funky squishy hand chair on the large paneled deck of my super mansion house, built into the side of like a mountain, overlooking beaches and jungles and stuff. I'd be whiling away my time, not worrying about a thing, playing billiards or lurking online or floating in a heated pool all the time. Oh, and I'd be able to summon a friend with a snap of my fingers or something if I ever got lonely. The version of me in the Mirror would definitely be a person who could snap her fingers (since I can't) and do other cool things with the money she doesn't need to worry about.
05. What makes a person deserving of your respect?
There are literally so many different things that people can do that would make me respect them. I don't know if it's because I always feel like I can absorb something great out of everyone I know, but I respect almost everyone I know in real life for various reasons. For my mom, it's the fact that she works so hard. For my dad, it's the fact that he's the weirdest version of a charmer I've ever seen -- you actually hate the guy when you first talk to him, but somehow he manages to get you to agree with everything he says and asks you to do. It's the weirdest thing, and something I really wish I could do. Let's see, who else? My sister is the kindest, most forgiving person I've ever met. One of my best friends has gone through some really nasty shit in her life, and she's managed to stay strong and work hard and play the crappy hand she was dealt. One of my profs this term told me a really great story about how much sexism she had to fight through to get to where she is today. Even people I can't stand, there's always something about them that I could begrudgingly respect; there's this one girl I hate, but I'd love to have her guts. She's just unbelievably forthright with whatever she wants, and it rubs me the wrong way, but at the same time I know it's something that not a lot of people would be able to do.
06. What is your biggest pet peeve?
My biggest pet peeve is working with people who are unsympathetic and selfish. It's just a pain in the butt. I could go on and on about the stuff people do that ticks me off, but it'll get long and boring and you'll start to hate me, so I won't. Basically, people who are extremely blatant about coasting on other people's work annoy the heck out of me. At least put in the energy to pretend or manipulate, if you're not going to actually work. I could get down with manipulation, especially if the people you're manipulating don't know they're being manipulated. Just don't be obvious about it, and don't be heartless, either. Other peeves are: those cute little gladiator shoes because my toes are weird and I can't wear them, the mayor of my city, and the elevators at my school library because there are only four and three are always broken.
07. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
The first thing that popped into my head was "my nose," but it's really not that bad and I should probably want to shave my jawline if I were going to have any sort of plastic surgery anyway. But now I'm realizing that this question could probably apply to more than just superficial things like looks, so I'm going to come up with something that seems less shallow. The more I try to think about it, though, the more I realize that I'm actually good with most of myself (haha). I guess if I had to change one thing, it'd be... not my lack of motivation, per se, but just... my ability to easily reconcile myself with whatever's happening, even though I could have prevented it in the first place. Does that make sense? It's very easy for me to just sit back and think, "Oh well! I only have five minutes to go do whatever, I'll just miss it altogether." Instead I end up planning for the second-best scenario, in the future, like, "Moving forward, I suppose I'll have to do this, and talk to this person, or I could just say this..." I don't really know where that stems from; maybe it's a combination of laziness and arrogance, in that I'm usually sure that I can rectify or correct most situations, so there isn't a whole lot of urgency to my actions. It's a bad habit, really.
08. If you could do any one thing and suffer no consequences, what would it be?
I think the one thing that I wish I could do is to be more truthful about everything that happened during my first term to my friends -- the ones at my current university, anyway; the ones at my first school already know all that since they were right there with me. Nothing serious happened, just a lot (A LOT) of poor decisions all around and one relationship with an older guy that maybe I shouldn't have gotten into, haha. Basically I did what most freshman kids do, and I partied my time away, and then ended up transferring because I realized that it wasn't such a great environment for me. But my friends at my current school tell me that I'm a little guarded, and they know there are things that I'm not telling them because it'll change their opinions of me, and that makes them curious. So if I could, I'd tell them the truth about the people I met and the things I did and the screwups I made, because I don't really like being seen as enigmatic (that's a lie, I'd love to be seen that way) or distant. I just don't want them to start judging me about the silly little things I did back then, because these kids are really nice and fairly innocent and I don't want to scar them, haha.
09. What do you think are your top five positive characteristics?
01. People tell me I'm pretty cute. Like, not necessarily appearance-wise, but just my mannerisms and the way that I act. I don't really know what it is, but sometimes I'll be really into telling a story or something and I'll make a gesture? Or a facial expression? Or say something a certain way? And they'll interrupt me or look at each other and say, "She's so cute." It's not really that I'm cute or whatever, it's just that I guess I come across as a pretty engaging person, or something, I guess. I can usually talk my way into convincing people fairly easily. I don't know, I just find that a friendly smile and an open demeanour goes a long way when asking for favours from other people so that they don't feel bummed out about helping me get what I want.
02. Okay, I really feel like an ass in saying this, but I'm pretty smart. Maybe not in a life decisions kind of way, but books and things like that come really easily to me. I won't go too in-depth into it, but when I was five years old I got put into grade two, so that I ended up graduating from high school when I was 15. I don't always have the best grades, because I'm really lazy and never go to class unless attendance is being marked or something, so I end up frantically staying up for three days on end trying to learn everything I'd been bumming around on earlier. But at the end of the day I expect myself to be able to attain a respectable GPA, and I do, despite the fact that I definitely don't deserve it in terms of the amount of work that was put into it. So yeah, as far as life decisions go, I'm pretty dumb, but books sink into my brain easily enough.
03. People tell me that they like working with me, because I can always be counted on to get things done without making everyone else mad. I mean, everyone's worked with people who are slow during a project because they're worried about stepping on other people's toes, right? I'm obviously not going to go out of my way to alienate other people while we work, but I do always end up delegating tasks pretty quickly. Part of that is probably because I can size people up really quickly and tell what kind of work they'd be best suited for. I've worked on projects with leaders who have no idea how to use or connect to the group members properly, and that bugs the heck out of me, so I always try to include everyone in a way that they're happy with what I've assigned them to do. And then at the end I usually don't even have to do that much work, haha.
04. I'm a bit of a jack of all trades. If you need me to do something, chances are that I already kind of know how to do it, or I can pick it up fairly easily. Need help with that power tool? Cool, I know how to do that. Would your evening be better if I was playing some Yiruma over there on the piano? Okay. Does your baby need a new diaper? Well, I don't want to, but I can. Trying to hack your Wii yourself? (Shh, I can do this, but it needs to be on the downlow.) On the flip side, though... you know what they say. Jack of all trades, and master of none. I can do a lot of stuff, but I'm not an expert or anything. I'm just good in a quick pinch if you need some help.
05. I like to think I have a sense of humour about things. Maybe not, like, in a jokes sort of way, because the only ones I can really land are sarcasm (lowest form, really) and insults (but always said with a loving tone)... probably more of a positive outlook kind of way. I don't like to be too serious about things, or to get bogged down in the gravity of situations without looking for a way to either distract myself or to find the bright side of things. Obviously you can't escape it in some situations, but I'm that person in the corner of the booth who's always trying to find the things we can feel good about when the topic starts making the mood a little bleak.
10. What do you think are your top five negative characteristics?
01. Yikes, okay, so recently I took a personality disorder test online. It didn't tell me anything I don't already know, but I was a little surprised to see that histrionics landed so highly (in fact, it was the only one rated Very High). The definition is here, in case you're not familiar. Not all of it applies to me, but the parts about liking attention, exaggerating stuff, always needing to have a story to tell, being a little bit manipulative... well. Yes. That is quite me.
02. I also scored highly for the narcissistic bit. That's not much different from the above, but I will say that I'm a little more empathetic than the average narcissist. I don't like taking advantage of others if it means they'll suffer in the process, but if it's a neutral-win or win-win situation, I'm all for it. I think the biggest part that applies to me from the narcissism definition is mainly that I'm always very conscious of myself, in terms of how people think of me and that I like to hear things about me, good or bad. Basically I'm very self-absorbed -- almost like a child, really -- and quite arrogant about my own abilities and how others stack up next to me, and things like that. Sometimes I do get a bit inflated in terms of my self worth, and I'm the secret competitive type, where I'll obsessively note down other people who do better at things than me so that I can feel good about myself if I eventually end up besting them.
03. I'm also a bit of an avoidant. If there are reasons not to do something, I'll probably tot those up in my head way before I consider why I should do it. That probably ties in with laziness, I suppose, and it extends to many aspects of my life: schoolwork, going on trips, doing the laundry...
04. Apparently I've got this super judgmental, appraising look that I shoot people sometimes. I cop to that, completely, since I think it's actually really silly of people to not have any idea who they're surrounded by or working with or whatever. Maybe I could work on how much I'm telegraphing to everyone who can see me, though, since other people apparently don't like it when random people assess their outfits, hair, demeanour, personality, etc.
05. If you end up being a close friend of mine, you'll inevitably tell me this five times a day (basically every time I text you or send you a message or something, I suppose): I'm really whiny. I like complaining about things and then never doing anything about the things that irritated me in the first place. I just like unloading it all on everyone I'm around and then feeling better afterwards, haha. I know, it's selfish and petty, and one time someone incorrectly called it being "passive-aggressive"... there's zero aggression actually occurring, to be honest. At least none that you'll ever directly see from me.
||HOGWARTS, A HISTORY||
11. Who is your favorite character in the Harry Potter series?
James Potter, even though I know zilch about him aside from the fact that he started off as a schoolyard bully and grew up to be a good man. I'm aware that fanon pollutes a lot of my opinion of him, in that Marauder-era fics are my favourite and have been for years, so a lot of the positives I see in him might be positives that I've drawn in myself from what JK Rowling actually wrote of him. And that, to me, is fine, because I like having characters that I can think about and fill in some of the blanks on my own. I just end up connecting to the character a little better, I suppose, because half of it came out of my own head. Besides, what I do know of him? That he was a pureblood who fell in love with a muggleborn and didn't care, he was able to overcome his snotty little boyhood ways, he was fiercely close to his friends, he was a pretty fun guy to hang out with, and he fought and died for the values he believed in... those are all pretty great things. Somehow I guess that was the perfect hero archetype in my mind as a kid, the one who starts off being a jerk pulling your pigtails but eventually a really great, honourable guy who can really make you happy. It's a little bit unrealistic, I suppose, but why not consider that kind of a man to be an ideal?
12. Who is your least favorite character in the Harry Potter series?
It kills me to say this, but Snape was definitely my least favourite. He's an interesting character for sure, and I love the complexities of his motivations. I just don't think I sympathize with them all that much. His actions get a lot of passes, I think, but I don't think I'd be able to forgive a lot of those things in real life. Especially the racial slurs against someone he cared about, and the bullying of children who had no idea what they'd done wrong and that they'd never be able to do anything to rectify it. Just because they're "smaller" evils than the one he ultimately ended up fighting for doesn't mean they should be dismissed or forgotten, and I object to the way he's painted as an unsung hero because I don't believe someone like him deserves it. I love that there's so much to say and discuss about a character like him, and I know I've probably just angered a ton of people haha! but personally, he's not my favourite at all.
13. What was your favorite plot or character revelation in the Harry Potter series?
Well, obviously I loved everything we got about the Marauders era, but my favourite plot point was probably back in book three with the Time Turners. I remember reading that as a kid and just eating it all up -- like, how clever was Hermione?! That she could get away with all that? And balance all that work and the cover stories and everything? And McGonagall, that sly old thing, she was in on it the whole time! And it made the whole book instantly re-readable, which normally doesn't happen to me; I love re-reading things, but it takes a little while, right? At least a week, for everything to sink in, before I can go back and do it all again. But I think I re-read the Prisoner of Azkaban three times in a row back then. It was just a great little twist that I'll never not enjoy, just because I have some really great memories of being a mindblown little kid who absolutely loved the cleverness of it all.
14. Describe the canon qualities for each house that accurately reflect you.
• Gryffindor: I think I'm pretty... how should I put it? Idealistic? And a little stubborn about those ideals. If I think something's wrong, then it's wrong, and sometimes I actually get a little bit overzealous in trying to convince everyone else to see things the same way as me. I'm very passionate about these wrongs, and hitting these issues is basically the only way to get me to instinctively come right out and pick a fight with you.
• Slytherin: Well, like I said earlier, I'm all for manipulation. I don't think the word deserves the negative connotation that it sometimes gets, since being able to maneuver people into doing things for me is actually pretty clever (or cunning, if you prefer). It's also pretty fun if you can manage to pull it off, to be honest haha. It's like winning! Even if you're the only one who knows you just won.
• Ravenclaw: I do believe in education being a really important part of life, and to that end classes and facts and just knowing a lot of things is essential to me. People who actively go out of their way to block themselves from learning new things don't make any sense to me. A lot of people knock book smarts, saying there are plenty of other things to worry about in the world, but I don't agree completely with that. It comes across a bit snobbish, I think, but I really do believe the world would be a better place if everyone had some knowledge of things outside of their immediate concerns.
• Hufflepuff: I guess the biggest canon quality that matches me would be cheerfulness / overall friendliness. I empathize pretty easily with other people and can easily put myself in their shoes to figure out how to work well with them, and I don't really like picking fights with other people at all. I'm probably not the textbook definition of someone who's loyal, but if something were to happen to someone I cared about then I'd definitely be first in line to make everything right.
15. Describe the canon qualities for each house that do not accurately reflect you.
• Gryffindor: I'm not brave at all. I don't know if it's through a combination of really terrible reflexes or a general sense of cowardice, but I'm usually the last person to step up and put myself out there. I always have to think about and consider the implications of what I'm about to do, and see if anyone else is about to step up so I won't be the only one up there, before I actually do anything. Also, I think I care a little too much about what other people think of me, to be able to be unashamedly foolhardy and brash and all that sort of stuff.
• Slytherin: I wouldn't say I'm really that ambitious. I know what I've got to expect from life, and I'm not at all inclined to step on other people or work hard enough to make ~dreams a reality or anything like that. To me, being ambitious means that you'll probably have to knock down a few other people to get to the top, and while it's definitely an unavoidable part of life, I'd rather not participate in anything nasty or backstabby if I had a choice. It just doesn't sit right with me, and it's one of those pesky little ideals that I find gets in the way more than anything else, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
• Ravenclaw: My grades in school are fairly important in terms of a solid GPA and my future plans, but overall it's not really that important to me. I'd rather be out having fun or watching TV or catching up on sleep rather than to study, even if that means the difference between an A- and a B+. I'm actually a bit notorious in my program for never attending class if marks aren't involved for attendance or participation, because sitting there and listening to a lecture is really not my favourite thing in the world, especially if I have the ability to learn everything in a much shorter amount of time than that.
• Hufflepuff: This sort of ties in with the last point, but I'm not hardworking. At all. I'm always looking for the easiest way to do something, or the bare minimum that I can do, or for how long I can possibly put something off, before finally being forced to quickly dash something off. If you looked up the word 'lazy' a picture of me should honestly be grinning up at you, completely unashamed of how little effort I put into the things that I do. Shortcuts are basically my best friends.
||HOGWARTS EXPRESS||
16. Age: 18
17. Optional: Link us to where you have promoted this community in your personal journal to earn your future house five points. Here.