fictional Scottish school of magic from the Harry Potter universe
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harry potter - What defines a Hufflepuff? - Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange
What does it mean to be a Hufflepuff
Hufflepuff seems like a useless house…what skills or traits does a student have to be sorted into that house? Why even a separate house formed for such minor skills?
Why Do You Think Only 3.9% Of Players Chose Hufflepuff?
What did FRIENDSHIP, LOYALTY, HONESTY, HARD-WORKING etc etc ever get anyone anything in the real world or the magical world?
My favorite description of "what makes a Hufflepuff" comes, of all places, from a post on the Office of Letters and Light blog (the good people who bring us National Novel Writing Month and Script Frenzy every year). Ari, one of their interns, writes:
Hufflepuffs [...] get a pretty raw deal in the world of Harry Potter. You could never describe a Hufflepuff as “ambitious” or “valiant,” or “brilliant.” “Loyal” hardly seems as flashy a trait as any of the others. Jokingly, I used to imagine introducing a Hufflepuff boyfriend to my parents. In the scenario they’d wait until he left before saying, “Well, he’s… nice.” [...]
But we all know a Hufflepuff. Some of our closest friends are probably Hufflepuffs. A Hufflepuff will split a cookie with you, and give you the bigger half without even thinking about it. Hufflepuffs always know how to defuse awkward situations. They make the best wingmen. They’re not dramatic, they don’t fish for compliments, and they never have problems dealing with change. When your ego gets the best of you, a Hufflepuff will keep it in check. Hufflepuffs are charismatic, empathetic, and easy to take for granted because they put their friends before anyone else.
Why? They don’t need a reason why. A Hufflepuff doesn’t need to know the good deeds you’ve done, or how powerful your wand is, and a Hufflepuff doesn’t care how you do at math (thank goodness).
The full post isn't too long and is well worth a read. It made my wife and I realize that one of our best friends is a Hufflepuff through and through -- and we most decidedly are not, though we sometimes wish we were; we'd get a lot more done.
My favorite bit, though, comes in the comments:
I am constantly arguing in favour of Hufflepuff. They're the ones who believe that hard work - devotion to your craft - is more important than some kind of nebulous virtue like courage. Hufflepuffs are the ones who think that having brains is less important than applying brains. Hufflepuffs get their boots wet and their hands dirty, and they make things happen without demanding attention because they've got better things to do.
Granny Weatherwax would be a Hufflepuff. Hufflepuff is hardcore.
I'm going to extensively base this on an answer I made on a related question: Is there any way to prove that you are a true Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin - analogous to pulling Godric Gryffindor's sword?
First, canon info:
To get into Hufflepuff, one must fail to be accepted into any other house
In other words, nothing makes Hufflepuff "stand out" as a house.
To address your specific concern - Hufflepuffs work harder because they have to put in extra effort to overcome their lack of brilliance or talent. They aren't necessarily dumb - just not extraordinarily bright. I don't know of a canon example of this, but it's simple logic. To pass an OWL in a subject, you need to either be naturally brilliant at it (which, if nowhere elese, would get you into Ravenclaw), OR study extra hard if you're a "normal" student.
Hufflepuff admitted students into her House that were unafraid of hard work. While the other Founders took students based on either ambition, bravery, or intelligence, Helga Hufflepuff took the rest, treating them all equally and teaching them all she knew (src: Harry Potter Wikia)
Another way of looking at this is less traditional - Hufflepuffs would be special because they are LOW on the negative qualities inherent in other houses.
They aren't reckless like Gryffindors.
Despite what people told Harry, I would posit that some of his qualities as a Gryphindor heavily contributed to Sirius's death - he didn't think he should confide in people with more experience/brains.
They aren't as likely to turn bad/evil as Slytherins
They also don't share the arrogance likely in either S's or G's.
I just don't see a couple of Hufflepuffs hazing Snape the way James Potter did.
They aren't insufferable know-it-alls or uber-boring geeky dweebs like Ravenclaws :)
As a very poor real-world equivalent, Hufflepuff is what you get if you take a random high school, separate all the A-type students into a special class (let's call it AP - "Advanced Placement" track), separate all the leadership types or rich kids into a "High Society" class, and separate all the sports jocks who aren't interested/fitting into High Society and not geeky enough for AP class into a "Sports track". What you're left with is Hufflepuff - they just didn't fit into the right tail of the exceptional curves.
So, I have always love Harry Potter, the movies I’ve watched 100 times, and I’ve read the books once and am currently re-reading them (I’m on the Goblet of Fire now). I took the quiz to see what house I’m in, and I got Hufflepuff. But…I don’t quite know what that means. I know loyalty is a big trait for them which I relate to, but what else is Hufflepuff known for? I just want to have more of an idea what it means to everyone!