Observations and Questions (Hagrid's statement)

[metella_porcia at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 25617

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Patrick Dawson <wcdawson at o...> wrote:

> 
> SS/PS Ch.5
> Hagrid says "There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in
> Slytherin".
> Rephrased, that's "Every witch/wizard who became evil was in Slytherin."
> But we know that's simply not true. Whether you take it from Hagrid's
> perspective or from the truth, there's at least one evil wizard from
> Gryffindor (Sirius Black or Peter Pettigrew). So why did Hagrid say that?
> I'm guessing that JKR didn't have the plot of Book 3 planned out at this
> point.
> 

Hi!  I've been reading for around 3 weeks now, but this is my first 
post.  Great (and incredibly prolific!) group.

Patrick, and many of the people replying, seem to think that Hagrid was 
mistaken in the statement quoted above, or didn't know about Black when 
he made it, which I rather doubt.  Does JKR ever specifically say what 
house Sirius was in?  I believe we know that James Potter was in 
Gryffindor (somewhere it's stated that he was the Gryffindor Seeker), 
but that doesn't necessarily mean that his friends were all in the same 
house (I concede that it might make it more likely).  Absent any 
evidence to the contrary, I think we should probably assume that Sirius 
Black was Slytherin.  The jury is out on Peter Pettigrew in that he 
was, at the time Hagrid made his comment, considered a victim rather 
than a perpetrator.   Finally, its worth pointing out that "All Death 
Eaters are Slytherins" is not the same statement as "All Slytherins are 
Death Eaters".  If all Slytherins turned out badly, the Sorting Hat 
would never have considered Harry for Slytherin house.