Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hmm, interesting comparison with Romilda Vane, as I would have thought someone as sneaky and self-serving as Rita Skeeter would probably be more Slytherin-material, but I guess we've seen that Gryffindors can have those characteristics as well and that bravery doesn't have to be noble.

I read an interesting editorial on Mugglenet that analyzed the DADA teachers' personalities and what houses they were probably in (or were in in Lupin's case; this was before HBP came out, so Snape wasn't mentioned). The writer suggests that with each DADA teacher, JKR is, in some cases, showing a new type of evil outside of the typical Slytherin/Death Eater kind and, in most cases, introducing a new character category, such as bad people who aren't Slytherin, or bad Slytherin's who aren't Death Eaters, or even bad Gryffindor's who aren't Death Eaters, as Wormtail was the only bad Gryffindor we had seen, and suggested in the end that the new teacher in HBP would represent a Slytherin who was good (which was the case, though Slughorn wasn't DADA. Snape, the author claims, is the character category of ambiguous Slytherin). Here's the basic gist of it:

Quirrel: Ravenclaw - We don't know much about him, but he seems to have been interested in pursuing knowledge, as he left his teaching position to study for a time. I don't quite remember the analysis he made of a bad Ravenclaw, but Quirrel represented it.

Lockhart: Gryffindor - While Lockhart himself was not very brave, he obviously valued bravery, which is why he stole all those stories (and he may not have had a mind to do that when he was in school, so when he was sorted, there could have been some bravery there). And unlike Wormtail, he wasn't a Death Eater, but he was still bad.

Lupin: Gryffindor/Good (we all know that...)

Barty Crouch, Jr.: Hufflepuff - I think we can all agree that he is extremely loyal to Voldemort. Therefore, he represents how a Hufflepuff's loyalty can be negative.

Umbridge: Slytherin - She's power-hungry and she likes using that power. However, she's not a Death Eater, even though she's a bad Slytherin, which is a new character category.

Here it is if anyone wants to read it (even if it is pre-HBP).

I would definitely say Umbridge was either a Hufflepuff or Slytherin. Shes nasty like a Slytherin, but I could picture her as a Hufflepuff (pink cardigans=hufflepuff in my mind, thank you very much).

I agree, Umbridge's a definate shoo-in for Sytherin.

I've never understood why liking pastels would make someone Hufflepuff or un-Slytherin. Not all, in fact, I would go so far as to say most, Slytherins are not goths.

Plenty of evil people like pink. heart

I think you're jumping to conclusions here. We said Lockhart was a Gryffindor. And there are very good reasons to assume Umbridge was a Slytherin, if you'd take time to read them. I also want to point out that no one said "umbrige wuz a totel slitherin bcuz shes evil n i h8 her scream scream scream scream scream scream scream "

Did you uh... read my post? Just wondering.

And sorry Zaurak, though I do think that the characteristics of a house should be considered when putting characters into that house. It's true that we shouldn't put someone into Slytherin because they're evil or because they're a Death Eater (Not that anyone did). Again, sorry.

And to contribute to the thread a little bit better... well, crap. I can't think of anyone to put into a house. I guess I'll just reiterate that most of the evidence does seem to point to Umbridge being a Slytherin. If she were anything else, why would she favor them so much?

There's no way he's in hufflepuff. He's much more Slytherin. I mean, he wouldn't have taken credit for what all those people did if he was fair, now would he? No, Lockhart is power-hungry. But, it's a different power-hungry. He wants popularity, which in turn will give him power. Lockhart's not loyal, he's not fair, he's nothing like a hufflepuff! He's a slytherin, through and through.