So it seems to be a pretty much universally accepted fact that Helga Hufflepuff was the last one to say what kind of students she’d like, and we know that was students who are just, loyal, and unafraid of hard work.
But what if she wasn’t the last? What if it was Rowena Ravenclaw, and she was like, “well fuck I’m stuck with all the nerds and artsy types. Guess I’ll stick them up in a tower and make it really fucking hard for them to get into their own common room because I’m bitter about this.”
Or everyone’s calling dibs and Salazar Slytherin’s not paying much attention and is suddenly left with a bunch of kids, and the only uniting factor happens to be that they’re purebloods, so with his flair for the dramatic (big fancy snake in the plumbing) he goes completely over the top with it and is all like “perfect! These are the kids I wanted anyway! Look at them, they’re so ambitious! And cunning too! We’ll be in our secret clubhouse under the fricking lake!”
Or Godric Gryffindor is thinking really hard about it and looks up to find he’s too late, and is just like “eh, fuck it. Let’s go on an adventure kids!”
I just really like the idea that these characteristics we obsess over that identify us as belonging to our houses, could really just have been a bit of an accident.