Dark Wizards and House traits - good and evil.

[Hollydaze]

No: HPFGUIDX 30587

Amy Z wrote: 
<snip> 
> > but do we really 
> > believe no Dark wizard has ever come out of Gryffindor?  

Jennie wrote:
> I've seen some speculation that dark wizards could come out of the 
> other Hogwarts houses.  This is possible, but Hagrid tells Harry 
> otherwise.  In SS chapter 5 he says, "There's not a single witch or 
> wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin."
<SNIP>

I used to completely ignore this quote about Slytherin and dark wizards until it was pointed out on another list I am part of. 
There has to be at least one bad wizard who came out of Gryffindor. Think about it: James was in Gryffindor, JK has said so and it has been implied in the books. This would imply that Sirius, Lupin and Peter were too, otherwise how did they become such good friends? So in terms of the wizarding world, who don't know of Sirius's innocence, he is a wizard from Gryffindor who "turned bad". Even knowing what we know, that Sirius is not the traitor and that Peter is, that still means there was a Gryffindor who turned bad. 
Of course, if we later find out that MWPP weren't in Gryffindor then that still doesn't completely fall apart as it is unlikely (going on their personalities) that they were in Slytherin, and if they weren't in Slytherin then there were still wizards not from Slytherin who went bad as they must have came out of either Hufflepuff (unlikely) or Ravenclaw (possible - maybe not Peter though).
Gryffindor does however seem to be the most likely house for them all, from what we know about them and how you interpret bravery. James, we already know is quite brave in one sense of the word, in that he tried to protect Lily and Harry (even though it appears LV was after him too) plus going down the tunnel to save Snape etc: Sirius was brave enough not to completely fall to pieces while in Azkaban for about 13 years: Lupin's bravery is different in that he has to cope with being a werewolf, he doesn't run away from it. And as for Peter, we don't necessarily know what exactly his bravery is but he seems similar to Neville and Neville got into Gryffindor (I do not however subscribe to the idea that Neville will turn into another Peter). We don't know for example that Peter's bravery isn't an example of what might be classed "evil" bravery. Surely, just as cunning can be used for both evil and sometimes good, bravery can come under the same category, as can friendship and intelligence, it all depends on how you use them and how other people interpret them (especially bravery, cunning and Intelligence). 

Examples:
Ravenclaw: You could use your intelligence to either help people by creating cures in medicine etc (GOOD) or you might decide to use it against people by inventing bombs (or a Wizard equivalent)etc. (EVIL - but good in terms of the people you are doing it for - depends on how your interpret it).
Hufflepuff: Friendship can be used to make friends, make people feel good etc (GOOD) or it could be used to get what you want out of people, to use them and fool them into thinking you are being nice.(EVIL)
Slytherin: Cunning, well apart from the obvious of the evil side with LV and taking over the world (EVIL), surely that can be used to outsmart people, for example if you were a spy, (Snape working for Dumbledore). (GOOD - for your own side).
Gryffindor: Bravery is a weird category as it can be interpreted in different ways depending on who you are just like cunning and intelligence. 
For example, something that we would class as an "evil" act:
(Hypothetically) Lucius Malfoy sacrifices his life to save LV. We would see that as an evil act, because in our opinions LV is evil and so are his followers. 

Something we would class as a "Good" act:
James and Lily sacrificing their lives to save Harry. We see this as a good act because we believe Harry and his parents were on the "good" side.

Now what is the difference? Both sets of people have showed bravery in giving their lives to protect something they feel is worth protecting. Why does that change just because one set is considered to be an "evil" group of people and the other are considered to be a "good" set of people? It is still bravery but used in the same way but interpreted differently.

Plus what is "good" and "bad"? To us Harry is "good" and LV is "bad" but to the death eaters, Harry is "bad" and LV is "good". The only reason we don't see LV as good is because JK has written her books from Harry's point of view, if it was Malfoy's then the likelihood is we would see it the other way round. JK wants us to see LV as the bad person and Harry/Dumbledore etc as the good people. We are biased by what JK wants us to see.

There are also different types of bravery:
For example it can be used in the obvious ways of  (James saving Lily and Harry), or in less obvious ways (Neville having to face what happened to his parents/Lupin having to deal with being a werewolf). Even Snape, who we know wasn't a Gryffindor, must have shown considerable bravery to spy on LV, risking his own life to try and help Dumbledore and the others. And we can't forget Peter, cutting off his own hand to help give LV his body back, that must have taken a tremendous amount of bravery but we see that as an evil act.

Bravery is all a matter of personal opinion, the only reason we think that cunning is the worst trait out of all the houses and bravery is the best is because that is the way that JK makes us think.

HOLLYDAZE!!!


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