Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion DS8 took the sorting hat quiz...

Neville? The boy who tried to stop his friends from losing any more house points in the first volume, and snagged ten points for Gryffindor, winning them the house cup? The one of six veterans of the battle at the ministry, in the fifth? Rowling even tells us the hat wanted to put him into Hufflepuff and he begged for Gryffindor. I bet he had plenty of secret fantasies of being a brave and celebrated hero, and actually managed to become one by book seven.

And Hufflepuffs may unite against you, they do unite against Harry in book two and four, as you pointed out. But I cannot imagine they'd unite against one from their own house, they way Gryffindors and Ravenclaws are shown to do.

By the way, the reason a Slytherin like Phineas Black, who is, after all, on the "good side", would be so dismissive of pointless heroics I'd say is that a true Slytherjn would never leave the end result out of sight - i.e. The point is always "what's in it for me?"

I think I shall go back to my housework.

I imagine his grandmother would have been very displeased had he not become a Gryffindor.

So we managed to get DS8, now DS9 into Gryffindor after all!

His ninth birthday was a Harry Potter themed birthday party. Complete with sorting ceremony (he knew exactly what to answer now for Gryffindor, and of course for his classmate with the bright red hair, the hat screamed "Gryffindor!" at once, but we also got a few happy Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws), potions class (the glassware abstracted from DHs science resource room, the ingredients making very nice layered cocktails), wand making and clasp making for cloaks.
It was the first kids birthday party that was WAY more fun than stress. You haven't lived until you have herded eight 9 year olds with black cloaks and LED powered glowing wands through a 19th century fortification in a Professor McGonagall costume...

I googled a bit and found this:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Layered-Soft-Drinks/
Keeping sugar contents in mind I ordered DH to buy three colourful syrups (cherry, strawberry and something green I couldn't identify) which we called dragon blood, troll blood and snake blood, three types of juice (orange, pineapple and banana) which we called gold and silver juice and three types of soda which we called magic water, magic lemon water and magic ginger water.
He poured it all in Erlenmeyer flasks beforehand. I let two or three kids, which weren't busy with wandmaking or clasp decorating choose their three ingredients, then showed them how to layer them with the help of a spoon (In character as Professor McGonagall of course, including snippy comments and distributing house points!). The layering didn't work so well, maybe because we didn't have ice. The kids didn't mind, most of them loved whatever came out (interestingly, some were happy to drink dragons blood and silver juice, but others needed to know what stuff really was before mixing and drinking). Anyone who felt thirsty could come over and make another. It is amazing the amount of sugar kids can down in one glass without shuddering. For grownup tastes, I would recommend real fruit syrups as opposed to the sugar-food colouring mix DH bought, which may add a little tartness, and going to the trouble of adding ice. Well, or actually adding alcohol, which we did not feel was appropriate at the time!
Interestingly, DS and a few other kids mentioned the potions class was their favourite part. I thought for sure it would have been the treasure hunt through the fortifications vaults in the dark!