an alternative look at hogwarts sorting

[necessarian]

this is a system me and an irl friend have been refining for years, which assigns everyone a four-letter hogwarts house "type" - with an mbti sort of vibe, but different rules. i hope it can help you with character creation and characterisation! essentially, you get four letters (one to stand for each house) and put them in order to fit this metric:

1. primary: what you value
2. secondary: how you strive for your values
3. tertiary: where you can go if you're under pressure
4. antithesis: the opposite of what defines you

to elaborate; this maintains jkr's assessment that where you're sorted is based on what you value. your primary house is where you'd end up with the hat on your head. this by no means precludes you from having traits from your primary house that apply to other aspects of your personality, nor does it mean you can't value things outside your primary house. (e.g. lots of primary slytherins, who value ambition and cunning, will also happen to have those traits fitting the other descriptors - the key is they work to emulate these traits because they value them.) it's about the best fit. what fits best is going to give the most complete description, allowing for nuance outside the framework.

the way i usually type a character is "top down." i start by thinking which hogwarts house i'd sort them into, based on the values system, and then pick a secondary based on their actions in canon. once you've got the secondary, it can often be hard to separate the tertiary and antithesis, especially if you're working with a minor character or fresh new OC. i try to pick the tertiary first, but sometimes the antithesis is more immediately evident. you might even find an antithesis before you work out the secondary and tertiary. there is of course no wrong way to do this, since it's something i made up for kicks and am posting on the internet (lol), but i would suggest that starting from the primary is the best approach.

if you like mbti, it may help to think of this as a pared down version of that system. each house placement here is a function. your primary and tertiary are extroverted functions - i.e. they explain how you interact with the world around you - and secondary and antithesis are introverted functions - i.e. they explain how you internalise and create a sense of self. a character will always exhibit more primary and tertiary traits than secondary, but getting know them and the inner workings of their mind will very clearly reveal their secondary and antithesis.

it's best to learn by example. let's break down how i sort harry potter himself:

1. G: harry values courage in the face of adversity, daring, and being outspoken. he has more sympathy for people he dislikes who are brave than those he likes who become cowardly.
2. S: the way harry works towards his goals - i.e., the communication of his values & ideals to people around him - is through a whole lot of moxy, ambition & cunning.
3. H: under pressure, harry turns to his friends. he is capable of working hard if the situation calls for it, but it's not the kind of thing he'd turn to without external pressure.
4. R: harry is defined by his lack of interest in the acquisition of knowledge and creative thinking - in other words, he is more content to do things by the book/in ways he's done them before than to look for new ways on his own.

one of the common pitfalls of personality typing systems is they almost seem to pass judgement on the person being typed. i want to impress that none of these things are value judgements, except the primary house as a judgement of what someone values. saying that harry has no interest in learning is not to say he should - just that it's an aspect of his personality that he doesn't have that interest.

harry's character is pretty solid for us, since he's the protagonist. let's take draco as an example of how we can fit a more secondary character to this system:

1. S: perhaps because of how he was brought up, draco values people who are ambitious, traditional, and isolationist. it's clear from his actions, especially in hbp, that he emulates cunning thinking in his approach to taking on a task.
2. H: draco achieves his goals by exploiting his extensive support network. it's not just from environmental factors - he seems to naturally rely on others and enjoy having loyalties, going both ways.
3. R: again using hbp as my evidence, it seems like draco turns to obscure knowledge and fairly creative thinking in high-pressure situations.
4. G: to me, draco's gryffindor antithesis is more evident than his tertiary ravenclaw. he is constantly shown to disregard brazen acts of courage. he freezes in situations that require him to act against the norm and seldom shows bravery himself.

i hope from this you can get an idea of the rudiments of this system! feel free to ask for other character typings (i have a fair few of them kicking about for hp), or to come disagree with me in the comments. if you want to use the system to type characters yourself, please link back to this explanation - not just because my secondary slytherin wants credit, but because my primary ravenclaw thinks it's a good idea to have a concise point of reference so you won't have to explain everything a second time :)

Comments

[aroceu]

tell me ur other sortings i am asking u here instead of discord bc the world should know

also idk if we're the same but i am defs rshg bc draco's inferior gryffindor... i feel it bro

[necessarian]

i mean... we can be the same in this system if not in Certain Others :P because like hard same on the draco

OKAY so my other sortings (ask if you want me to elaborate):
- ron: GHRS
- hermione: GRSH
- dumbledore: GRSH
- james: GRHS
- sirius: GSHR (sirius is smart, but he doesn't value intellectualism as a modus operandi)
- remus: GHRS
- peter: GSHR
- lily: GRHS
- snape: SRGH
- mcgonagall: GRHS
- voldemort: SRHG

and some muggles just for fun:
- petunia: HSRG
- vernon: SHGR
- dudley: GSHR (just like harry wholly fuck)

i wanna do minor charas we should talk about that and/or assign them just for fun. (zach is HSRG)

[aroceu]

lets do it for [redacted au]