All This Time, We Were Completely Wrong About True Purpose of Hogwarts Houses
We all thought that by this point, we'd learned and understood everything when it comes to Hogwarts and its four Houses — but apparently, we were misled.
The Houses themselves are an old British educational tradition; the four Hogwarts Houses represent the four elements; and we all know the traits associated with Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw.
We even know quite a bit of the Houses' story — even though we still desperately need a series about them.
What else can there be, you may think?
A new fan theory recently published by Reddit user diametrik will surprise you and explain the true purpose behind the Houses, and it just makes so much sense!
According to diametrik, it all begins with understanding the two core components of a successful or powerful spell: strength of desire and thoroughness of imagination.
We see how crucial these elements are in the examples of Apparition, the Unforgivable curses, and the Patronus charm. Both imagination and desire are core to casting.
The primary traits of the four Hogwarts Houses correspond to these two casting components: Gryffindor and Slytherin focus on the strength of desire, whereas Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw are more about the thoroughness of imagination.
Gryffindor students are raised to stand up for what's right and be brave.
These traits rarely apply to everyday life, but in dangerous situations, Gryffindor's righteousness moves these students, and their desire to do what's right grants them power.
Slytherin's core trait is ambition.
Unlike Gryffindor's bravery and justice, ambition moves this House's students all the time, and their desire to achieve greatness helps them concentrate and really wish for what they're aiming at, empowering them.
Hufflepuff students are taught to work hard, and thus their main trait is discipline.
It is the discipline of their minds that helps them effectively imagine what their magic is supposed to do, and they're exceptionally good at it while not known for raw power.
Ravenclaw fosters creativity and wit in its students and encourages them to learn many spells and think outside of the box.
Ravenclaw's creativity boosts their imagination, leading to moves like using a stinging hex to disguise one's face (and this is partly the reason why Hermione would've fit perfectly in this House).
While every House teaches its students accordingly and directly focuses on improving either their strength of desire or thoroughness of imagination, this is obviously not everything.
A truly great wizard needs traits from at least three of the four Houses — Gryffindor and Slytherin take different approaches, but they're pretty interchangeable.
A great example of such a wizard is Albus Dumbledore who arguably had all four core traits — righteousness, ambition, discipline, and wits — and was considered the greatest mage of the 20th century at the very least.