In Defense of Salazar Slytherin

[wild_karrde_77]

No: HPFGUIDX 40924

 >>Sorry. Reposted, the formating was messed up somehow.

	I would like to preface my comments by first mentioning my bias. An
author's bias is critical in evaluating any text, from personal
narratives to children's novels to essays about children's
novels. I firmly believe that if I was sorted at Hogwarts School of
Witchcraft and Wizardry, I would be placed in Slytherin. As
Dumbledore describes them, I "have many qualities Salazar
Slytherin prized in his hand-picked students. His own very rare gift,
Parsel-tongue – resourcefulness – determination – a
certain disregard for rules,"(CS18) and ambition. (As for
Parsel-tongue, I may not speak with snakes, but members of my family
went to law school. I consider my conversations with them close
enough.)

	Now that you understand my bias, I would like to propose that
Salazar Slytherin might not be the insane and evil monster that
everyone seems to think he is. There are evil people in existence,
both in our world, and in Rowling's. Hitler was. Voldemort is.
But we have never met Slytherin. His life and beliefs are so
distorted by rumors and propaganda that we know almost nothing for
certain. Most of what we know about Slytherin comes from the biased
perspectives of three twelve-year-old Gryffindors and the memories of
one sixteen-year-old Slytherin who is destined to become an insane
dark wizard.

	So, lets begin by separating fact from rumor and myth. Here is what
we know from "reliable historical sources" (CS 9) and our
first-hand experiences with Mr. Potter. We know that Godric
Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin
founded Hogwarts as a school to train young wizards. During this
time, "magic was feared by common people, and witches and wizards
suffered much persecution." (CS 9) We know Slytherin left the
school a few years after the school was opened. It is commonly
believed that Slytherin left because of an argument with Gryffindor:
Slytherin did not want children with muggle parents to come to
Hogwarts, Gryffindor wanted to teach anyone with the ability to
learn.  We know that there is a chamber hidden in Hogwarts that can
be only opened by a Parsel-mouth, inside which Tom Marvolo Riddle
found a Basilisk. 

	We also know, from Professor Binns, that Slytherin did not want
muggle-borns attending Hogwarts because he felt they were
"untrustworthy."(CS 9) No other reason is given by the
"reliable historical sources." He did not believe, as the
Malfoys and presumably Voldemort do, that muggle-borns were less
powerful or incapable of learning. Just that they were
"untrustworthy." It seems hypocritical of Slytherin to call
them that, considering he prefers students who have a "certain
disregard for rules." I think Slytherin didn't trust
muggle-borns to keep the location and existence of the school secret.
After all, the castle was built as a safe haven, away from the eyes
of muggles. Revealing any information about Hogwarts to the muggle
parents of witches and wizards put the school and all the students in
jeopardy. The four founders might have been the best wizards of their
time, but I doubt very much they could have held off a muggle army.
And the Flame Freezing Charm that protected witches and wizards in
the time of Wendolin the Weird might not have been developed yet.
Even if it had, the younger students at Hogwarts certainly
wouldn't have mastered it yet.

	Let's apply Slytherin's actions to a slightly different set
of circumstances. It is January 30th, 1938, five years after Hitler
was appointed chancellor, ten months before Kristallnacht. German
schools have begun teaching concepts of genetic purity and of a
German master race. Hitler's youth programs encourage children
and teenagers to spy on their friends, looking for signs they are not
as loyal to the Third Reich as they should be. Jews are hated and
feared by Germans who believed Hitler's rhetoric. Four leading
members of the Jewish community establish a secret school called
Schweinwarzen (that's German for Hogwarts) as a place where
Jewish children can learn away from the ignorance and distrust spread
by the Nazi party. One of the founders, Gryffintür, believes that
the school should teach children of Jewish and Nazi parents alike, in
the hopes that by spreading knowledge, the children of Nazis will be
unable to remain ignorant and intolerant. Another of the four
founders, Slitherinnen, thinks that it is dangerous to teach children
with Nazi parents, thinking they might betray the existence and
location of Schweinwarzen. Gryffintür is an idealist, doing what
he thinks is right. Slitherinnen is a pragmatist; he thinks that the
potential risk of letting non-Jewish students into the school
outweighs the benefits of taking them in. The other two founders
support Gryffintür, and Slitherinnen leaves the school, taking his
family with him, and flees Germany. Are Slitherinnen's actions
evil? I don't think so. However, had he opposed teaching
non-Jewish students because he thought that everyone else was
inferior and were unworthy of being taught, then the same actions
would have been evil. 

 	There are other reasons that people assume Slytherin was evil,
besides the fact that he disagreed with Gryffindor. Most people,
wizard and muggle, believe Slytherin built the Chamber of Secrets so
that someone in his bloodline could come back and kill all the
muggle-born students, and therefore he is an insane and evil monster.
However, until he erased his own memory, most wizards thought Gildroy
Lockheart was a brilliant author and hero. Most wizards still believe
that Sirius Black killed thirteen people after becoming a servant of
Voldemort. Most wizards think Peter Pettigrew is a martyr who died at
the time of Black's attack twelve years ago. And most wizards
refuse to believe that Voldemort has risen again.  

 	But, let's look at the Chamber of Secrets from Slytherin's
perspective. Assuming he wanted the Chamber to be found by a student,
why would he hide the entrance in a girl's bathroom? We don't
even know if women can be Parsel-mouths, the three we know of are
male. For all we know, the ability to speak to snakes could be tied
to the y-chromosome. And even if there are female Parsel-mouths,
putting the entrance in the girls' bathroom would theoretically
cut in half the number of potential decedents of Slytherin who could
find the Chamber. It seems logical, that if you wanted your Chamber
to be found by someone with the exceptionally rare ability of
Parsel-mouth, you would not place it in such a limiting location. 

 	Also, if you were one of the four greatest wizards of your time,
why would you leave a creature so weak as your ultimate weapon? A
second year student figured out what the basilisk was. I acknowledge
that Ms. Granger is exceptionally bright, but if a second year can
figure it out, any competent Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher
should have too. And after knowing what the creature is, it seems
easy enough to kill. How hard is it to find a rooster? Or record the
sound of one crowing? Even without such foreknowledge of the
basilisk's weakness, a twelve-year-old boy and an intelligent
bird defeated it. Does that really sound like the type of creature
that could "purge the school of all who were unworthy to study
magic?" (CS 9)
	
 	And why was the Chamber of Secrets so ornate and grand if its only
purpose was to store a big snake? It seems like Slytherin went to a
lot of effort carving out a secret chamber if the only people he
thought would see it were a basilisk and his Heir. 

 	So, why did Slytherin want a hidden chamber if not for a place to
hide his ultimate weapon against muggle-born? Well, first of all, the
secret chamber is at Hogwarts. At Hogwarts you have to talk to the
paintings to find your classes, and use passwords to get into your
living area. Even the Headmaster's office (which I assumed once
belonged to Gryffindor, based on the golden griffin on the door) is
hidden behind a Gargoyle and is protected by a password. Slytherin
was just more secretive about his office/vault/shrine-to-himself, and
far better at hiding it. 

 	In my opinion, the Chamber of Secrets was probably a vault
Slytherin used to hold some powerful magical artifacts, and the
basilisk was his version of a guard dog. (See Fluffy) When Slytherin
left Hogwarts, he took his artifacts with him, but left his guard
behind for some reason. Maybe he forgot about it, maybe he didn't
care enough about it to move it, or maybe it would have been too
difficult to transport a fifty-foot serpent that kills anything it
looks at.

 	As for the legend of the Chamber, rumors tend to spread quickly
around any school, and a rumor of this nature is almost like a muggle
ghost story. I can imagine seventh-year students sitting around a
campfire or the common room at night telling this story to naïve
first years just to scare them. The story was embellished, the
motives changed, and any hard facts about the chamber were lost over
the thousand years it took for the rumors and scary stories to change
into legend and myth. 

 	Or the legend could have been created fifty years ago by Tom
Riddle. Just like Hitler, the boy who grew into Voldemort was an
expert at deceit, lies, and propaganda. By creating the myth of the
Chamber, Voldemort instills fear in his enemies, creates artificial
divisions between "pure-bloods" and "muggle-borns",
and validates his own goal of world domination. If Voldemort did
start the legend himself, it would have been a great achievement.
Terrible, but great. First, he grants himself the name "Heir of
Slytherin". As a propaganda tool, such a title is priceless,
because it aids in the recruitment of new pure-bloods, and because it
allows him to distance himself from his muggle father. In
Voldemort's mind, no one would dare call the "Heir of
Slytherin" a half-breed. Also, the legend of the Chamber of
Secrets inspires fear and distrust between pure-bloods and
muggle-borns. Muggle-borns are not certain which purebloods to trust,
and even begin to resent their relative safety. Purebloods might
begin to fear retribution from the muggle-borns. The legend itself is
a weapon that creates the environment where Voldemort's insane
rhetoric thrives. 

 	So, what should we believe? Was Slytherin a bigot or was he a
pragmatist? Did Slytherin intend to kill with the basilisk he left in
his chamber, or was he simply careless? Was Slytherin evil and insane
or was he just ambitious? I don't think we have enough facts to
be certain. Is it unbelievable that Salazar Slytherin could have been
a hero, not a villain? Yes, certainly. It is as unbelievable as a
baby defeating a powerful Dark Lord at the age of one. It is as
unbelievable as a twelve-year-old defeating a thousand year old snake
with a bird, a sword, and a hat. It is as unbelievable as Ron's
rat being an unregistered animagus traitor. It is as unbelievable as
thinking anything in a Harry Potter book is exactly as it appears.  

-Treyvan