All About BooksThis will be where I still shout about the books I love and champion the authors who write them, but I'm also expanding this to film reviews again, with some theatre reviews thrown in when I can.
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Given that it's the House Pride time of year again, on Friday, I wrote this about things I love in being a Hufflepuff. Now, I'm moving on to the others, based on their day. (And yes, this is slightly late, but I'm still not used to being back with my blog, so better late than never!) I guess I have to be careful what I write here cause one of my best friends is a Slytherin! :) Happy belated #SlytherinPride! While it seems all the houses have a rep of their own which isn't all they are, I slightly feel bad for Slytherins getting the rep as the 'bad' house. One of my favourite traits for this House is the ambition one. How they will keep working towards something they want and not be deterred to give up easily, where it might/would be easier to give up. I feel like Slytherins are not just proud of who they are, but of what they do and own that. I struggled to come up initially with HP characters who weren't just all evil or whatever. So this section for Slytherin will be in defence of Draco and Narcissa. I'm doing my own take on this because yes, they inadvertently helped Harry. We all know that. Whatever. Narcissa was not a nice person, but she loved Draco more than anyone else clearly. Remember in my Hufflepuff post what I said about everyone being loyal to something? Narcissa proved how strong a mother's love can be in a different way, and even though she might have been scared at times (given the environment she lived in), she still stood by Draco, still did what she thought was right to protect him, and I admire her for that. Also, possible unpopular opinion: Draco maybe wouldn't even have been in Slytherin if it weren't for his family. He'd been conditioned to think himself and his family better than others like the Weasleys, to be awful to people like Hermione and Justin for being Muggle-born. But when it came down to it- like (not) killing Dumbledore- he was still a scared teenager who was in way over his head due to his family and not fault of his own. I said maybe not in Slytherin because Draco does show plenty of those qualities, but if he'd have grown up under different circumstances, I like to think he'd have done alright in any of the four Houses. Maybe?? This post is going up later than planned, so happy #GryffindorPride out there! On the positive side, I love the nobility/loyalty thing they've got going on (which seems to just be a theme, overtly like Hufflepuffs or not), as well as their dedication to a cause and seeing it through. I think I need some Gryffindors to come give me some tips given the amount of projects I can start and not finish... Before I revamped the blog, I talked a lot about Hermione. When I first began reading the books at 11, I related to no one better. Hermione does so well at school and gets bullied for it, and that hit me hard. But she kept going and so could I. Hermione was me in many ways growing up- minus the magic obviously- and I always love her for making me feel seen and that who I was was ok. Oliver. Dedication. Quidditch. Do I need to say more?? :D Though I love his passion for a sport he adored and his determination to be the best he could at it, even if he came off as too overbearing. Even if Quidditch came before school work, he seemed to ok on that front as well. I put the GIF in because I now cannot look at it without being reminded of my time in the HP society at my uni this year, which gives me happy memories. Finally, happy #RavenclawPride for the 23rd. My second House if I had to choose. Home to lots of creative people, which I love and would fit in with. Also, home to people who seem to just know things, rather than the more work-hard-at-it distinction I made the other day for when I was figuring out where I fit between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff*. But the world needs geniuses, too. And being creative means getting to be individualistic and running with it. *One reason I realised I wouldn't be in Ravenclaw is because I'm terrible at riddles. Like Neville, I would spend time stuck outside the common room. Ahem. As to favourite characters, I of course had to pick everyone's favourite Ravenclaw. As Hermione was to me, once Luna showed up, I also found myself in her. I wish I could have had Luna's ability to not seem to care about what was said about her. (And let's be honest, even as an adult, that ability would be useful at times!) She's just great. Secondly, Flitwick. He doesn't get enough credit and I know the films more or less relegated him to choir director until he was needed for ten seconds in the last film (which I'm constantly salty about), but he seemed like a great teacher. I feel Charms as a subject gets a rep for being easy, but reading on some of those spells soon changes your mind. Also, as head of Ravenclaw, clearly Flitwick was well liked and respected by staff and students. There we are for another year. Some of my favourite things about each Hogwarts House and some of the characters I have soft spots for. Hope you enjoyed this. I'm sure I'll have some more HP relevant content back up soon. :)
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It's that time of year again! Celebrating the Hogwarts Houses and that's great about them. :) Today, I'm focussing on my House, and I'll do a follow up post tomorrow featuring the other Houses. So I usually try and do a theme. Last year, on my old blog, I talked about the Hufflepuff merch I have. This year, I want to discuss my favourite things (and characters) to come from each House. This is going to be so much fun. :D Character Traits Hufflepuff still gets a relatively bad rap. But if you think that, I'm not here to convince you otherwise. You can have your opinions, after all. However, I put in the above picture for a reason. Hufflepuff isn't just for 'the leftover students'. We're pretty great. (So are badgers.) Anyway, first up- loyalty. That's pretty important to me. When I'm planning out a new writing project and start figuring out my character's traits, yes, I do imagine them all under the Sorting Hat. But even in life, loyalty is super necessary. After all, when you think about it, everyone is loyal to someone or something. Next, hard working. Back when I was trying to work out whether I was in Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw, this was often a source of confusion. In terms of academics, I learnt was a difference between natural cleverness that the latter House seem to favour and the hard work of getting good results- this one which sometimes I fell into. But hard work goes beyond school and all that. I'm not afraid to have to work at something, even if I'm a beginner at it, in order to get results. Back when I first started spoken word about three years ago, I was convinced I could never write in that style. It took lots of terrible writing to be proud of what I eventually produced- and now that's a main way I write! :) This isn't to say I'm a natural at all of the main traits Hufflepuffs are associated with. I'm certainly not naturally patient (though getting better at it) and like Tonks, I can be really clumsy at times. Of course, there are several Hufflepuffs I love, but I guess I have to mention Newt. He cares so much about his animals and educating people. He's certainly got to be patient there.
Also, in the OWL and NEWT readathons last year, I successfully became Magizoologist! I choose this career partly because it's always sounded interesting (if not a little dangerous), but since I have an undergraduate degree in animal behaviour et al., I figured it couldn't hurt as a magical career. (Separate shout out to this year's OWLs starting in April. All info can be found viaTwitter @MagicalReadathon.) Finally, I feel like Hufflepuffs, while loyal to their own first and foremost- as all Houses are- totally would be the best cheerleaders for what other people do. And I don't have any favouritism. In real life, one of my best friends is a Slytherin. An online friend is a Ravenclaw. And, my time this year in the HP society at my university has been so much fun. While about half of us are Hufflepuff, they have all absolutely made my returning to uni that bit easier with time to not have to focus on studies- and plus, I actually joined a society this time around! :) For all of our differences as people, we all have things worth celebrating about us. That's why I love the House Pride days. It's just lots of love on the internet for each other and who we are- with an additional love of HP. :D See you tomorrow. #HufflepuffPride |