I'm starting to get quite paranoid, to the point where I periodically start shaking and have slight trouble breathing if I let myself think too much. What is the cause of my paranoia? Harry Potter.
You weren't that surprised, were you? Good.
Specifically, I'm paranoid about Pottermore and getting sorted into the wrong House. Pottermore, in case you don't know what it is, is a brand new, interactive, online way to experience the Harry Potter books, connect with other fans, and learn more things about Harry's world that Jo Rowling has yet to tell us. It opens to the world in October, but 1 million people have been given early access to the beta version of the site. From July 31st to August 6th, a clue was posted each day, and those who solved it and caught the Magic Quill before that day's spots filled up got into the beta. I have wonderful friends, and I got in on the very first day, thanks to a 4 AM phone call from my dear friend Chloe. Beta testers are being granted access in waves, and for the last few days my Twitter feed has been filling up with excited tweets from those who've received their welcome emails. I have yet to get mine.
Pottermore gives users the chance to experience all kinds of standard Wizarding milestones, among them being sorted into one of the Houses of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Rather than placing a magical hat on their heads, as is traditional among wizards and witches, Pottermore users take a complex personality test, designed by Jo herself, to find out their House, and Houses can't be changed after they've been assigned. I know at least three people who are already on the beta and who have been placed in a different House than the one to which they've always ascribed. Many wizards and witches out there are having identity crises of varying degrees of severity, and now I'm paranoid.
I've always known I have a lot of Hufflepuff qualities, but I feel very strongly that I have even more Ravenclaw in me. Since I first realized that many people take sorting very seriously and I began to take it seriously myself, which was actually only about two and a half years ago, I've considered myself a Ravenclaw. I have a Ravenclaw tie, Ravenclaw socks, and a beautiful Ravenclaw jewelry set that my friend Carie just gave me; I'm a member of Ravenclaw House on the Harry Potter Alliance forums; and my Twitter and Gmail names are both ravenclawdancer, not to mention that I generally look better in blue than any other color. However, I'm still paranoid of being sorted into Hufflepuff on Pottermore. This Sorting Hat test, the most accurate one I've taken thus far, gives each person a percentage for each House, since it's true that most people have at least a little bit of each House in them. My scores were as follows: Ravenclaw - 100%, Hufflepuff - 95%, Gryffindor - 81%, and Slytherin - 41%. At Hogwarts, it's a known fact that the Sorting Hat takes one's choice into account when assigning Houses, but I have no idea whether that applies to the Pottermore sorting process.
One of my favorite musicians, Alex Carpenter, posted a song yesterday that speaks to the Harry Potter community's collective fear of being sorted wrongly. While I think the song is brilliant, I now have it stuck in my head and it's making it impossible for me to think about anything besides Pottermore...
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