Skip to main content

harry potter - Why was Neville Longbottom in Gryffindor?


So, students in Gryffindor are supposed to represent bravery. How does Neville represent bravery, to the point in being accepted into the house. I've always thought of his strongest traits being things like loyalty, willingness to work hard, etc, and these things would tend to put him in Hufflepuff.



Answer



First of all, in the first 4 years, it isn't really shown that Neville is NOT brave - the only thing he's really afraid of is his Grandmother and maybe Snape during Potions. With good reason. :)


You may be confusing a lack of confidence/assertiveness with not being brave, but they are not the same (for a good in-universe illustration of the opposite, think Prof. Lockhart).


First four books, he's clumsy, and is not yet showing any magical talent.


Starting with the fifth year, Neville is shown to have been changed, and repeatedly proves his bravery and willingness to fight.



NOTE: He first shows bravery in the First Year (see System's great answer for details), but the real Gryffindor-y Neville emerges in the Fifth year.


There's another instance of him showing a Gryffindor quality - more specifically, integrity. He argued with the Hat to sort him into Hufflepuff (src: Pottermore), because he felt he wasn't brave enough to be a Gryffindor.



Fifth year




  • He joins DA




  • He shows marked and significant improvement in his magical abilities while in DA





  • He voluntarily joins the DA members who accompany Harry to Ministry of Magic battle in the end of OoP, even arguing with Harry about it:



    Neville: "We were all in the D.A. together. It was all supposed to be about fighting You-Know-Who, wasn't it? And this is the first chance we've had to do something real — or was that all just a game or something?"


    Harry: "No — of course it wasn't —"


    Neville: "Then we should come too. We want to help."






  • During the battle at the Ministry, he refused to leave as per Harry's suggestion after Dolohov broke Neville's nose and wand.




  • When being threatened and tortured by Death Eaters, he told Harry not to give them the Prophecy





Sixth year



  • participated in the Battle of the Astronomy Tower. Along with Luna Lovegood, he was the only member of Dumbledore's Army to reply to the summons via the coins.




Seventh year




  • Neville got in trouble with the Carrows for refusing to practise the Cruciatus Curse on other students as a method of punishment, as well as for standing up against their bigotry and cruelty.




  • along with Ginny and Luna, restarted Dumbledore's Army.





  • attempted to steal Godric Gryffindor's Sword from Snape's office




  • Neville was eventually left alone to lead the rebellion efforts (Luna and Ginny were not in Hogwarts anymore). When avoiding the Death Eaters at one point, Neville stumbled into the Room of Requirement, which he was able to turn into a hiding place for the D.A., and to connect to the Hog's Head in order to get food from Aberforth Dumbledore. By May, most of the D.A. had taken to living there.




  • During the first round of battle, Neville used various plants to attack Death Eaters, and helped transport the injured and dead when a temporary cease-fire was called.





  • When the Death Eaters approached with a "dead" Harry, Neville stood up in defiance of Voldemort. He was subsequently forced to wear the Sorting Hat as it burned because he refused to join Voldemort. Fortunately, due to Harry's sacrifice, Neville was able to shrug off the Full Body-Bind Curse.




  • Because of his tremendous bravery shown on the battlefield, Neville was able to pull Godric Gryffindor's Sword from the burning hat, in the process proving himself a true Gryffindor, something that was doubted constantly throughout due to his apparently weak-willed, shy, and bumbling nature. In a single stroke, he killed Nagini, destroying Voldemort's last remaining Horcrux.




  • Neville subsequently teamed up with Ron Weasley as the defenders of Hogwarts and Death Eaters were forced into the Great Hall and defeated Fenrir Greyback.






All in all, pretty convincing evidence of someone's bravery


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...
Post a Comment
Read more