Dumbledore should be in Slytherin
I would really love it if it were canon that Dumbledore was a Slytherin.
What would be the point of this: Dumbledore is written to be and commonly agreed to be a good character and a morally good person, who has evolved and grown. Having this as representation of the house would really make it clear that Slytherin house can and does produce good wizards. Currently Slughorn is this representation, which doesn’t seem good enough. Like yeah he fights on the good side in the end, but he seems at best like a fine or medium good guy.
Is he ambitious?: In his younger years, straight out of Hogwarts I would argue that he mostly displays ambitious and cunning (also a bit intelligent) traits, with his and Grindelwald’s search for the hallows. Along with this it could be theorized that D. was both a seeker in his first year and a triwizard champion, pointing to ambition being a trait he would have when being sorted (to be clear the end of this argument is weak at best, and I’m not basing it on this, just pointing out that there is a reason to suspect he was more Slytherin at the point of sorting, since we have even less evidence of other traits). Wether he in his older days was ambitious I will leave up to debate, since it is difficult to determine, but it is of course clear that he is less ambitious after the accident with Ariana and the duel with grindelwald. However I don’t think the sorting hat would take this into account, since it doesn’t seem to know the future.
Is he cunning?: D. is most certainly clever, but I would argue that he sometimes uses it a more cunning than intelligent way. When he e.g. withholds certain information to almost play the puppet master behind the scenes, or the way he almost exploits Snape. Of course it’s difficult to see the full extent of this, since most of his work is behind the scenes, and we follow Harry not D., and he for the most part only sees what D. wants him to see. But this would also show how trickery isn’t always for ones own benefit and can be used for good.
Why not Gryffindor?: Tbh, I don’t think D. is brave. I think we can agree that bravery is to do something in spite of being afraid. The only time we can assume he is brave (on the top of my head, feel free to find other examples) is in his duel with grindelwald. Fighting an opponent who you love and know has a much stronger wand would reasonably be scary, and we could probably assume F. here is afraid, but shows bravery and still duels him. Of what we see in the books, I doubt he is scared. He knows his abilities, knows the other’s abilities, is cunning, calculated, and intelligent while also being experienced. In his duel against Voldy or at the time of his death, he doesn’t seem afraid, and seems too wise to be. E.g. he isn’t one to fear death. It is therefore difficult to be brave.
Why not other houses?: Mostly I don’t think there’s enough evidence to place him in gryffindor except jkr’s common love for D. and gryffindor. Hufflepuff I think we can all agree is completely out of the question. Ravenclaw, however, I can totally see and wouldn’t mind that at all, personally I just like him in Slytherin more (it would give more to the story and mean more).
But when that’s said I would to clarify that this is not the hill I’m going to die on and is more wishful thinking and a fun headcanon of mine🩷