3 of Gryffindor: Exploration

3 of Gryffindor: Exploration

 <-- sketches


Meaning of the card when it's facing you: preparation, foresight, expansion, enterprise
Meaning of the card when it's facing away from you: delays, lack of foresight

The Pensieve is a something that gives the user access to his or her memories  by watching them happen in real time. It can represent expansion because it gives you more room in your head. It allows you to take a memory out of your brain and store it away from later. That way, you don't lose any of your thoughts and you make room for new ones. It can also help you expand your knowledge because sometimes even if you remember something, you might not remember it exactly and miss details that are important. with the Pensieve, that isn't a problem. It can be an enterprise because it is a successful in the things that it is supposed to do (which in this case would be storing peoples' memories and allowing them to view them when desired).

I'm not sure how foresight-y it is. You could probably make predictions and assumptions about the future from looking over your memories enough to find patterns or something. You could record moments of foresight, like Dumbledore did with Trelawney's prophecy. You could also have the foresight to save the memories in the Pensieve to view at a time when they are important.

Because the Pensieve lets you look at your memories, it can help you prepare for the reason that you can see what has happened and figure out might be happening. Harry was able to view memories that Dumbledore collected about horcruxes. Without this arsenal of information, Harry would not have been able to hunt down the horcruxes, or even have any idea what they might be. And without that, he would not have been able to defeat Voldemort.

Ghost of Gryffindor

Ghost of Gryffindor

  <-- sketches


Meaning of card when it's facing you: enthusiasm, exploration, discovery, free spirit
Meaning of card when it's facing away from you: setbacks to new ideas, pessimism, lack of direction

Nearly Headless Nick is the beloved Gryffindor ghost. He's proud and kind. He talks to the students at meals and in the hallways, waving, talking, story-telling enthusiastically about the school and people and things that he has heard and seen over the years. He is eager to share his knowledge with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and anyone else to asks. I think in general, he is one of the most liked ghosts in the school- or by the Gryffindors anyway. They great him in the hallways and sit with him at dinner.

Going along with that, Nick can represent discovery and exploration because he helps the Golden Trio come to understand things and know things that they might not have. He tells them about the Sorting Hat, and the House Elves which makes Hermione upset and leads her to starting SPEW in support of Elvish rights. He invites them to his death-day party and they get a full experience of how ghosts party and taste things and their goals in death- Nick's being joining the Headless Hunt. They also learn more about Peeves and Myrtle which turns out to be helpful later on. Nick tells Harry about the after life in the fifth book and explains how some people become ghosts though others don't and that Sirius won't be coming back. He helps Harry again in the seventh book by pointing out the Grey Lady to him. Without that, Harry might not have known important things about the diadem and might not have been able to find it.

He could be a set back of new ideas because Harry thought that Sirius could become a ghost and Nick told him that he couldn't. Lack of direction because his only goal really is to be part of the Headless Hunt which is futile because he isn't even headless and they have already rejected him a few times. He has a few setbacks and people might not respect him as much as he deserves, mostly because he's a ghost, but he helps Harry out a lot from getting out of a run in with Filch to giving him information that he needed during the war.

Head of Gryffindor

Head of Gryffindor

 <-- sketches


Meaning of the card when it's facing you: natural born leader, vision, entrepreneur, honor
Meaning of the card when it's facing away from you: impulsiveness, haste, ruthlessness, high expectations

Minerva McGonagall is my favorite teacher in the books, Remus being the second, and Crouch-Moody being the third tied with Trelawney.

She is the head of Gryffindor, Deputy Headmistress, and Transfiguration teacher at Hogwarts. She is strict and smart, but kind, caring, and understanding. She is a natural born leader because even if we don't know her from before the years that Harry was in school, it is still clear that she has natural leadership. Her students listen to her and respect her. They worry about the homework that they have to do for her and performing spells right in her class, but they know, especially the Gryffindors, that she is understanding and insightful and cares about them. Dumbledore values her opinion and thinks of her almost as an equal. She challenges him sometimes, which shows how healthy their (platonic) relationship was.

Some students of hers would say she is ruthless and has high expectations. Her classes are hard and full of fancy spell-work that are difficult to perform. Even Hermione struggles in her class. Transfiguration in general is very difficult magic and it takes someone who is a strong wizard of witch to teach it.

McGongall is kind of the opposite of impulsiveness and haste. In the first book, Harry, Ron, and Hermione burst into her room and ask for help. Because there doidn't seem to be any actual evidence or danger, instead of rushing off like the three of them would like her to do, she tells them to calm down. She actually helps calm Harry down a lot over the years. She advises him not be be impulsive around Umbridge so that he didn't get into trouble. He didn't listen to her and suffered the consequences. She is a thin barrier between Umbridge's haste-y negative decisions towards Harry and Harry's impulsive urge to speak the truth when it comes to Umbridge.

There is a lot about McGonagall that we don't really know mostly because she is a teacher and therefore Harry wouldn't know much about her anyway. She is a strong caring leader who can take care of herself in a fight and isn't afraid to assign scary amounts of homework. 

7 of Slytherin: Illusion

Meaning when the card is facing you: fantasy, wishful thinking, choices, imagination
Meaning when the card is facing away from you: temptation, illusion, diversionary tactics

(Apologies for the lopsided pic of the card. the lighting was weird on the other pictures and this was the best even if it's kind of sideways)

(Also this color scheme reminds me of a bakery in Paris that I went to once with my dad...)

The Mirror of Erised is a very interesting and mysterious object in Harry Potter. We only saw it during Harry's first year, but it played a very big part. It is mentioned a few times later, mostly in the seventh book in reference to Dumbledore but I think its very important and I kind of wish it had a bigger part in the story.

The Mirror of Erised can represent fantasy, wishful thinking, temptation, and imagination. It shows whoever looks into it what their deepest desire is. When Harry looks into it when he stumbles upon it for the first time and all the times after that, he sees his family surrounding him. Ron sees himself proving himself to everyone as Quidditch captain, head boy, etc.- everything his brothers have achieved, who he is/will be compared to. Dumbledore says to Harry when asked that he saw himself holding up a pair of socks because he always gets books for Christmas. It's rather obvious that Dumbledore was not telling the truth but Harry never really thinks about what Dumbledore was really seeing until the seventh book. He thinks that Dumbledore saw his family, just like Harry did, especially his sister, Arianna, based on the information he finds out with the help of Ron's great Aunt and Rita Skeeter.

So this mirror shows what your deepest desires are, but it can be a trap. It's cause for wishful thinking, temptation, and longing. People have sat and watched the Mirror- themselves with the things they desire- until they waste away. Harry himself becomes obsessed with the mirror until it gets moved to a different location and Dumbledore tells him not to go searching for it. It's kind of like the Narcissus story in Greek/Roman (I forget which one) mythology. Narcissus was a beautiful man who saw his reflection in water and fell so in love with himself that he died watching his reflection because he didn't eat, drink, or sleep. That's kind of what would happen to people who get too tempted by what the Mirror was showing them.

It can also represent choices because of the choice that Harry subconsciously makes at the end of the first book. The Mirror was moved to where the Philosopher's Stone was being hidden. It was the last obstacle a person had to get through to get the stone. If he/she looked into the mirror with good intentions, not wanting the stone for their own personal selfish gain, then the stone would come to them. Voldemort makes Harry look into the mirror to try to get him to figure out how to get the stone. Harry's "choice" of not wanting the stone for himself, wanting instead to get it as far away from Voldemort as possible, was what the Mirror saw when he looked into it and he was able to get the stone. Because of this choice, Harry was able to keep the stone from Voldemort, saved the day, and escaped Voldemort for the second time in his life.