Great essay! I have never considered this idea, and I like. I agree with a lot you have to say about Percy. He is very ambitious and is willing to drop his family to succeed. However, it should be noted that he leaves everything to run into the battle to help his family at the end of DH, a very brave move considered he could be killed both in battle and as a punishment for leaving the MOM/Death Eaters. However, we also have Snape, a Slytherin, who risks way more to be a double spy. I guess the best way to put it is that sometimes you can have characteristics of more than one house!

Also, I could see Arthur as a Hufflepuff. He is loyal, hardworking, and a fair, just person. I never considered Fred and George as a Ravenclaw before, but being one myself I am happy to see them be associated with my house!

I agree that this is a tricky subject. I always wondered about Krum (as you mentioned) turning into a shark to save Hermione in the Second Task. If we look at the quote you mentioned about the wizard turning into a bat, would Krum remember to save Hermione assuming his Tranfiguration was correct (it did mention he did it incorrecly and thus lost points)? Would he pose more of a danger to the champions and the people they had to save? Or did he purposely do it incorrectly so he could both swim and keep his mind?

As for the desk/pig debate, I do think that the pig is edible. Hermione states that food cannot be tranfigured, but a pig isn't really just food. It's not a loaf of bread that's ready to eat. You would have to kill and cook it first. So you may not be able to tranfigure something directly into food, but you can do an animal then make food out of it. We never see plants being tranfigured, but I assume it's the same process. You might be able to tranfigure a chair into a pea plant, but then you have to cut up and cook the plant for food.

I think this is a great article. It may, like you said, bring up more questions but isn't that the point of Alohomora? The more questions, the more discussions!