What Makes Them Gryffindor?

Among all Hogwarts houses, Gryffindor is the most exposed through Harry Potter series because Harry Potter was a Gryffindor and his life was surrounded by Gryffindors.

Gryffindor's most well known trait is bravery and Gryffindors, in my opinion, are brave to do what they think is right. And for that "right thing", they're willing to sacrifice what's important for them, sometimes to the point of doing reckless or stupid things.

I know almost too many Gryffindors that I sometimes forget they're from the same house. There are trouble-making Fred and George Weasley, smart Hermione, ambitious Percy Weasley, clumsy Neville, and flirty Lavender Brown. We also see the infamous Peter Pettigrew. The question is, "Are they brave enough to be Gryffindor?" 

Look at Percy Weasley. He's smart enough to be Ravenclaw and ambitious enough to be Slytherin. Still, he was a Gryffindor. He was a Gryffindor who left his family and chose to work for the Ministry of Magic. How can a Gryffindor do such thing? I think Percy actually considered family important. Remember, even after he left his family, he congratulated Ron when Ron was chosen as prefect. Percy, at that moment, thought that Ministry of Magic was right and his family was wrong. Simple as that. He had the nerve to go after what he thought was right. He believed in Ministry of Magic, then he work there and left his family. After a while, he realised that his family was right then he came back to his family.

Hermione stated in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix that the Sorting Hat had considered placing her in Ravenclaw but she chose Gryffindor because, as she said herself in her first year, "Books! And cleverness! There are more important things - friendship and bravery and - oh Harry - be careful!" She valued bravery more than cleverness. Also let's just remember how many times Hermione was involved in breaking the rules for the sake of "everyone's safety".

Neville Longbottom was sorted into Gryffindor for his bravery although he didn't realise it at first. I found a post that may have been reposted many times so I couldn't find the original resource. The post was written, "I had a thought: Neville's greatest fear was Snape. And for ten months of every year for seven years, he went back and faced that fear over and over and over again. It would be like tossing Ron into a nest of spiders every day. Or pitching Harry against a Dementor every day. Neville went back to Potions every time, never skipped out, never ran away. Kid was braver than anyone ever noticed from the very beginning, even before he started standing up for himself." That post explains how bravery doesn't simply mean not being afraid but it's more about how someone deals with fear. Neville, in this case, faced his fear.

What about Peter Pettigrew? I guess the Sorting Hat thought this way, "Peter wasn't loyal enough to be Hufflepuff. He wasn't smart enough to be Ravenclaw, neither ambitious enough to be Slytherin. So let's sort him into Gryffindor, muahahaha!!!" Ignore that "muahahaha". Or maybe Peter was sorted into Gryffindor because he chose it, since he wasn't brave enough to be Gryffindor. 

At the end, we can learn from Gryffindor that the act of bravery takes many different ways. Except from Peter Pettigrew. Really, I still don't understand how he was sorted into Gryffindor.

P.S. I feel satisfied that I can finish writing this post. Really, I didn't expect that writing about Gryffindor would be difficult. It was even easier to write the Slytherin post. I don't even know why.

Learning from Slytherin

I had a random conversation with Lady Slytherin. She's a self proclaimed Slytherin who was sorted into Gryffindor in Pottermore. 

Apparently, Lady Slytherin didn't accept that. She never accepts it. Then she tried a YouTube quiz "Which Hogwarts House Are You in?" and was sorted into Gryffindor. She said, "I'm not evil enough." After that, I showed her a BuzzFeed quiz "These Five Questions Will Tell You What Percent Slytherin You Are". And her result? She's 100% Slytherin.

This is a problem that bothers us. Many quizzes about Hogwarts house still consider Slytherin as evil. Lady Slytherin and I see Slytherin as a house with people who have "unique" priority and do their best to keep that priority safe.

Let's take a look. Harry, Order of the Phoenix, and Dumbledore Army's priority is to defeat Voldemort and the Death Eaters so people can live in peace. For that reason, they practice their magic and make strategies to defeat the dark wizards.

However, Slytherins have various priorities. For the Malfoys, their family matters. All that they do is to keep Malfoy family and lineage safe. Lucius stated that he had been under Imperius curse during the first Wizarding War (the one before Harry was born) then he wasn't prisoned in Azkaban. Thus, Malfoy family was still safe, rich, and powerful. After Voldemort was back, Lucius declared his loyalty again. He did it because he knew what Voldemort was capable of and he didn't want to risk his family.

For Snape, Lily was important. All of his act as double agent was motivated by his feeling for Lily. His motivation might not so "pure" as the other members of Order of the Phoenix. He still hated Harry at some point because Harry was James Potter's son. However, as Harry himself said, Snape was the bravest man he ever knew. 

And finally, let me talk about our infamous Slytherin, Tom Riddle aka. Voldemort. What did Voldemort consider important? Power and immortality. For those things, he was willing to read old books and travel the world. For those things, he was willing to live through the pain of splitting soul. And also for those things, he was willing to act polite and courteous to people (remember Helena Ravenclaw and Hepzibah Smith?).

Now I'm not saying that Slytherins are right. I'm saying that there's nothing wrong with being Slytherin as long as you understand what truly matters to you.

Things to Remember When You're Sexually Assaulted

I haven't posted for a long time and I haven't finished my undergraduate thesis. In this post, I won't talk about my thesis. I want to talk about another important issue: sexual assault.

I have been sexually assault twice. Those weren't rape but unwanted sexual touching. Sure I wasn't raped but I can still feel the mental trauma. And if you experience sexual assault, these are things to remember.

1. It's not your clothes' fault
Some people say that sexual assault is also the victim's fault for wearing revealing clothes. Really? The last time I got sexually assaulted, I wore trousers, long sleeved shirt, and a jacket zipped up to my neck. Now should I blame my jacket? To make it fair, if we tell girls and women to dress modestly, we must also remember to tell boys and men to respect girls and women.

2. You can't blame yourself for not knowing how to react
When someone is sexually assaulted, they're shocked. Worse, they may not react properly. I used to blame myself for that. I thought, "Why didn't I scream? Why didn't I just hit and run?" However, the truth is, sometimes we just can't react.

3. It's not your fault
Sexual assault is a crime, just like robbery. When there is robbery, can we blame the victim because they have a valuable things so they're robbed? No. It goes the same with sexual assault. We can't blame the victim.

4. Don't be afraid to tell someone 
I know some victims feel ashamed to tell about their experience. I tell you something, it's not you who should feel ashamed. It's the person who assault that should feel ashamed because they do such crime. Also, remember that if you don't tell someone, there may be more victims in the future.

Are there more things that should be remembered by sexual assault victims?