Hufflepuff, the dreaded Hogwarts house that wizards and hopeful muggles alike pray to never call home. Not unlike the creepy frat house down the street that everyone hates, being in Hufflepuff is a stigma that will haunt your days throughout your seven years at Hogwarts. The Badger is synonymous with the weird second cousin who’s always offering backrubs that everyone avoids during the holidays, and bearing the yellow and black crest is only setting yourself up for a lifetime of pranking hexes.
But can you blame anyone for making fun of the Hufflepuffs? Well, maybe J.K. Rowling, but she’s too perfect of a human being to ever be criticized. Honestly though, think about how well represented the other houses are throughout the series. You have Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger in Gryffindor, the three super cool best friends, the Plastics if you will, that everyone in Hogwarts wants to sit with at the Great Hall. Luna Lovegood from Ravenclaw is the quirky girl who gives out sage advice about accepting your individuality, and who is also consistently present throughout the fifth book and on. Finally, we have Draco Malfoy and his buddies. Sure, they’re all jerks, but they’re Slytherin jerks who are always around to give an unsuspecting first year a swirly.
Who’s the Hufflepuff representative? Cedric Diggory, and he hated being a Badger so much that he got himself killed off at the end of the fourth book and jumped ship to another franchise. Being a sparkly vampire in Twilight was a better option than sticking around for the following three books being in Hufflepuff.
I’ve taken enough Sorting Hat quizzes over the course of my lifetime to know that my house is Hufflepuff. It was a secret that I had gone to great lengths to hide over the years. I bought a Gryffindor cloak in attempts to hide who I really was, and have lied to friends and family about what house I’m in (which, surprisingly doesn’t, happen often; Hogwarts houses is not as popular of a topic at college parties as you might think). I began to develop an identity crisis because I had no idea what being a Badger meant. Everyone knows that the Lions are courageous, the Ravens are smart, and the Snakes are ambitious. So what was I?
It took many nights of deep soul searching, re-reading the books a dozen or so times, and one Pottermore account to finally get my answer. Upon reading my acceptance letter after the Sorting Hat quiz on Pottermore, I was greeted with the following description of Hufflepuff: “The most friendliest, most decent and most tenacious house of them all.”
Sure, I may fail the occasional chemistry test, I still cower in fear when a ladybug flies in the room, and I’m not willing to screw over a friend attempting to get a promotion, but that doesn’t mean I’m not smart, brave, or ambitious at all.
I’m a little bit of everything, and that sounds perfect to me. Go Badgers!
