Did you know there are sorting communities for Hogwarts Houses? I just recently stumbled on a whole bunch...and now I'm struggling *not* to join them. I am not a joiner---never have been, seriously doubt I ever will be---and I've had enough bad experiences with online communities to know these would be just as much trouble. But...they're so *tempting*.

It's the sorting applications that get me, I think. They're basically like memes on steroids. We're talking questions like "What makes a friendship valuable to you?" or "If you could meet any single person, dead or alive, who would you choose and why?" or "What is your favorite literary quote?" That's not even including all the questions connected to the HP universe: "What wand would choose you and why?" "What would your animagus/patronus be?" "What is your favorite spell?" "Which Harry Potter character can you most relate to?"

I just love thinking about those sorts of things. Add to that the end result of finding myself categorically sorted into a House? Yeesh. No matter how many times I take a quiz and find myself slotted as a Ravenclaw, it's not quite the same thing as sitting beneath a sorting hat. Not that a sorting community is terribly better, but at least it involves people, not a calculated answer.

To be fair, though, the community that's really drawing me isn't hogwarts_elite or hogwarts_rising---both traditional sorting communities---but fourhouseunion, which stamps you as a mix of two houses. I took a quiz a long while back that branded me a Ravenpuff, but I'm curious to see whether the members of the 4HU would agree.

Bother. I think my common sense is on holiday.

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