I don't think there is much, if any more inter-house mingling than Rowling shows. :/
In real life, I haven't found that a friend dating someone I'm not friends with gets to hang out with them. Why should magical teenagers be any different, right?

Also, unless you were friends with someone before you came to Hogwarts, and got sorted into different houses, there isn't a lot of chances for you to become great friends with them. Hogwarts students seem to spend a lot of time in their Common Room, and obviously, they can't mingle with other houses there. Maybe I'm just weird like this, but I don't become good friends with people just becuase I see them one block a day for a year.

I'm starting to doubt that I'm making any sense.
So. Recap, just in case. XD I think that in Hogsmeade people tend to stick with their friends. Most of whom would be in the same House as them.
I don't think a inter-House relationship would bring two groups friends together. They may all hang out in one group, but they talk politely to the 'outsiders', if that makes sense.

Winstin//Slytherin

You make good points. Especially the part about talking to outsiders.

What about study groups? Do you think that someone could have a tutor from another house? That might help them become friends. Then again, it is unlikely that someone would ask help from another house, except possibly if they were partners for a project or something like that.

Delfeus / Slytherin

It could help yes, but look at the DA. There was a inter-house study group, but you don't really see any friendships coming out of that. Save for the trio+Ginny and Luna. Kind of. O_o

I don't think people would ask someone from another house for help in some subject unless they had absolutely no other choice. :/
Can you see canon!Slytherins asking for help from people in any other house, for example?

Winstin//Slytherin

No, I can't. They have too much pride for that. I think that a Hufflepuff or Gryffindor might in a suitable case, though - like for example Ginny asking help from Luna. It's not very likely, but not quite impossible.

Delfeus / Slytherin

Yeah, it is possible with the other three houses.
But... I think it would be so much easier just to ask someone else in your house. More than likely, you are doing your homework in your common room, right? :/

Winstin//Slytherin

On the other hand... would Slytherins feel that it's a favor that needs to be repaid? In that case they might ask a Hufflepuff (or intimidate them to it) to avoid that. *shrug*

Delfeus / Slytherin

Yeah, I pretty much agree. I mean, the DA is really the only time we see students voluntarily doing some House mixin'. Maybe some of the other school clubs, like Gobstones or something like that, might allow a few students to mix, but other than that...I don't see it. And while Hogsmeade weekends are a bit freer from time/class constraints, I doubt that any acquaintances made in class go any farther than that. Quidditch allows some students to know *of* other Quidditch players, but that's more of a strategic look over than anything else.

As for people dating outside their Houses...*shrug* It happens - Percy and Penelope, Ginny and Michael Corner, Cho and Cedric, Harry and Cho (tramp XP). But again, the only relationship that lasts for a while would be Percy/Penny; however, we don't even know if they're still dating now that they've graduated. I have a theory that they really only got to know each other b/c of prefect/Head Boy-Head Girl stuff, so they were spending tons of time with each other. The other relationships ended quite badly, actually, with most if not all ending up dating someone else from their own houses. But from what we've seen, none of those relationships introduced new sets of friends to other sets of friends...

~SamCate//Ravenclaw

I don't think there's much more inter-house mingling than JKR shows. Obviously it happens, but I don't think the students go out of their way to hang out with someone from another house, simply because of the fact that the classes are so rigidly set i.e. Gyrffindor and Slytherin tend to have classes together, as do Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, with the exception of Herbology it seems. In schools in the real world, there's much more opportunity to mix with people from different groups because classes are usually well mixed together. I don't know how it really works in American schools, but at my school in the UK, we had four house groups that were distinguished by colours just like Hogwarts (red, blue, yellow and green) and in comprehensive school by famous castles of the area (although they too had associated colours), but apart from a letter in our form numbers, that was as far as the seperation went. All the classes were mixed and you had opportunity to talk with people from all four houses, not just your own. In Hogwarts it's not really like that, like someone else said, the DA is really the only time we ever see them all voluntarily interacting. Though in the movies, you can see students of different houses mixing, I don't think it actually happens.

But, you know, that's just my opinion. :-)

Emma//Gryffindor

I agree with the mixing in clubs and classes, but whether it's a regular thing is doubtful. I mean their house is their home, so it's like having a family and people are more likely to hang around with their family than a stranger's family. I mean there are probably exceptions, especially as students get older they tend to be more adventurous.

jen//ravenclaw

I would like to imagine that all the houses pretty much get along with each other, but I doubt the existence of very many extra-house friendships. Its wholly possible that people could reach out to other houses for frienship, but the opportunity for it would be few and far between. Mostly, you wouldnt have many opportunities to hang out, especially since if I was friends with a Hufflepuff, we couldnt hang out in each other's common rooms, which is where a good amount of "hanging out" time is spent, I would imagine.

I think that this more comes from the physical splitting up of the houses in almost all situations at Hogwarts. They have to sit at different tables, go to classes with just those in their house and one other house, and have completely different areas of the building to sleep and chill. I think if Hogwarts doesnt want to be so divided, they should stop providing so many physical barriers that the kids have to overcome to be friends with others in different houses. I dont think its personality clash at all. Like, in the Great Hall, save for special occasions, I think they should be able to sit wherever they want. And there should be areas (other than the library, where you cant talk), where kids from seperate houses can go to be with each other.

Boley//Gryffindork

Good points. They really should have some general common room or something where people could go before curfew to meet others.

Delfeus / Slytherin

I agree with runtling. It's hard to become friends with people you see maybe once a day and don't ever really get to talk to. They don't even intermingle at lunch or anything.

I see the same here too. I know a few people in other houses, but that's because I knew them before HiH. :) I like meeting other HiHers, but there's just rarely an opportunity. Hogsmeade has been good for that, all of us chatting and getting to know each other (*suppresses urge to sing a la "The King and I"*).

In any event, I can agree that it's hard to mingle. JKR has set up pre-made cliques for Hogwarts students. I guess that's not a bad thing....:P

Jackie//Ravenclawwwww

I see the same here too. I know a few people in other houses, but that's because I knew them before HiH. :) I like meeting other HiHers, but there's just rarely an opportunity. Hogsmeade has been good for that, all of us chatting and getting to know each other (*suppresses urge to sing a la "The King and I"*).

Agreed. It's sad, cause I love my lions, but so many of y'all seem like cool people too! At least at Sugarquill I've met ten billion Ravenclaws. ;o)

Hey, and this is for all the girls out there....(well maybe boys too, but I only know this from a girl's perspective) haven't you ever thought how weird it was that the characters don't all hate each other? In my high school experience it was the girls collectively known as "The Snob Squad" and the other group of girls known as "The Skeleton Crew" who had a lot of backbiting and bitching amongst them, cause they never mixed with other people, and they drove each other nuts. My close friends and I, however, never had our own "crew" of friends but we were buds with lots of different people, and I never experienced the same Oh-My-God-If-I-See-Your-Face-For-One-More-Second-I'm-Going-To-Kill-You like those other girls in their groups did.

Also I've always thought it bizarre that Harry doesn't know the names of the other Slytherins. Ala Theodore Nott. Dude, Harry, you've only had classes with him for five years before you notice his existence! Plus he has no idea who Susan Bones is until she joins the DA, or Zacharias Smith, and he's had Herbology with them since first year! I'm willing to cut him a tiny bit of slack about not knowing who Michael Corner, Terry Boot and Anthony Goldstein are, just cause he's never had classes with the Claws, but he's really ridiculously obvlivious.

Jackie//Gryffindor

HAHAHAHA....oh man. Can I just say I heart you like whoa?? XP

But now that you mention it, yeah, it is a little weird that there aren't really any 'crews' in the Potterverse. I mean, yeah, we have clumps of people, but do those count as crews - like the Trio/Mod Squad (<-- what I call the Six: Trio + Neville, Ginny, and Luna), the Slytherin core (Draco and his B's- Pansy, Crabbe, Goyle), the Gryff Quidditchers (Forge, Gred, Lee, Angelina, Alicia, Katie), etc? They're not exactly the same...*shrug* Very interesting to think about, though...

And yeah, our boy's not just excellent with names, is he? =P

~SamCate//Raven

Well, as long as he remembers his own...

Delfeus / Slytherin

...which can be hard for him at times, poor thing...

~SamCate//Raven

I think the scar gave him some memory damage. That or all the weed.

JellyBellys//Gryffindor

Ahh...the real reason for Snape being bloody pissed at Harry all the time...the boy is swiping his damn WEED!

~SamCate//Raven

"I use it strictly for various potions of a delicate nature."- Professor S. Snape

(~SamCate//Raven)

HA! Oh, I have nothing to add. But, HA!

Jackie//Gryffindor

I know! It explains everything! I know you've been stealing my potion ingredients boy... or something of that nature. And Harry doesn't even have the courtesy to make Snape some brownies. No wonder Snape is cranky.

Jackie//Gryffindor

Both, probably.

Delfeus/Slytherin

Except for those two mysterious Gryff girls that even JKR can't remember who they are. ;o)

JellyBellys//Gryffindor

HAHAHAHA....oh man. Can I just say I heart you like whoa?? XP

Aw I love you too, my little sugarquill love.

I think it's odd that it took till OoTP for the Gryff Boys (Harry's year) to start turning on one another, and that was only because of Seamus's mom. I mean...if I lived with four people all the time, saw them every second...I would turn homicidal. But then I'm a hermit who needs my alone time.

And yeah, our boy's not just excellent with names, is he? =P

The names are bad enough, but he doesn't even know the *faces*. Such as he doesn't recognize any of the aforementioned Claw boys, or the two Puffs, or Theodore Nott, and Blaise Zabini is conveniently never mentioned till the sixth book.

I mean...way back in elementary school, we had about 150 kids in my year. I knew who every single one of them was, and I had never had classes with a lot of them, or interacted with them. And if I didn't know their name (very rare) I knew their faces. And Harry has to deal with what? Forty other kids?! Though JKR has stated a number of contradictory details about how many kids there are at Hogwarts that has driven me nuts for some time.

JellyBellys//Gryffindor

I concur. I wasn't especially katty in high school, but as a girl, I know how BITCHY sensitive we can be. :P The fact that Hermione and Ginny get along so well kinda freaks me out. Where is the cattyness?? WHERE IS THE BLOOOOOD????? (yeah, I'm insane...)

And yeah, JKR didn't really get too detailed with the number of students. :P Darn HER!

But in reference to an earlier comment, 'Claws are long winded like to write, so we're always chillin' in the Sugarquill. :) It's nice to meet other people! I did a little looksie and like 5 of my friends are 'Puffs, 1 Gryff and no Slytherins. :( *sad* It's weird....

We should have an interhouse pen-pal group. Where you get paired up with someone from another house and chat. Or something....:P

Yeah.

The Other Jackie//Ravenclaw

hey I like the pen pal thing idea!

Rachel|Gryffindor

That penpal idea is great. :3
I know absolutely no one in any house other than Slytherin at this point.
Hell, I barely know the Slytherins. XD
Curse me being relatively new. :P

yeah being new sorta sucks... I wonder how we could set something up like this... hmm Ill ask my prefect

I *cough* just started a friending meme here, in case y'all didn't see it. *hinthint*

Jackie//Gryffindor

totally saw and and I did it... *hopes for new friend*

Yeah, that is really weird. I'm just thinking of my group of friends at the moment, and it's... well, not good. All the talking behind backs and stuff. We're at each others throats on a near daily basis.

Why aren't there catfights in the Common Rooms and the Great Hall and stuff?!

I don't know... maybe because we don't see each other/talk every day.

I don't know many people from different houses... but I'm heavily involved in gryff activities... So personally I stick with my house because it's more convient for me to participate in my houses activites. And when they have parties with other houses... I tend to not be on the computer at all that week. Don't get me wrong I'd love to make friends in different houses but the oppertunity hasn't arose yet...
Rachel|Gryffindor

Am I the only one who thinks theres more inter-house mingling going on?!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111

*ahem*

Look at the inter-house dating! Ginny and Michael Coriner (he's either a Hufflepuff or a Ravenclaw depending on what source you're refering to). Harry and Cho (pfft hardly counts) Ron and Padma (ok, doesnt count either). Percy and Penelope! Roger Davis from Ravenclaw went with Fleur (I'm getting desprate, I know).

We dont know much about the dating in Hogwarts. And the last book has Harry as a 16 year old male. He has to be romantic/sex concious. The book is from his perspective and he doesn't touch appon anyones relationship except Lavender and Ron - both of which are members of his own house. I somehow doubt that they have a room full of teenagers who arent either a) snogging eachother or b) snogging someone from another house. And since Harry hasnt made mention of much snogging, one is lead to believe that relationships exist elsewhere (ie not between eachother).
ANNNNNNDDDDDDDDDDDDD we know that Madame Puddifoot's teashop was packed with couples on Valentines day. There as to be some more lovin' going on than what the books mention.


Personally I just think that Rowling couldnt fit it all into the book. Harry obviously knows a lot about many of the other students even though we dont see him socializing.

Susan // Ravenclaw

I think they are most likely to date in house, just because of the fact that they spend the most of their time together. As well as the house unity, competition, etc.

I'm not too into the dating aspect of the books, so it really doesn't matter to me.

Jennifer//Ravenclaw