Harry the heir of Salazar?

[dicentra_spectabilis_alba]

No: HPFGUIDX 36522

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Gautam_Ghosh <gautam_ghosh at s...> wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I am new here...so my apologies if I make some blunder while
delurking...
> 
> My first point is:
> 
> 1. Could Harry be the heir of Slytherin himself?
> 
> Hold on, lemme explain...
> [a] He can speak Parselmouth
> [b] He has a wand that's someway related to the wand of the person
who wants
> to be Slytherin's heir himself....Voldy...
> [c] The fact that he was sorted into Gryffindor also has to do with the
> good-moral picture he has given to them versus the
Slytherin's....could it
> be JKR's query about the ages-old psychological question..."is it
nature or
> is it nurture" ?
> [d] He has pots of inherited money which is so far unaccounted !
> 
> I tend to think so because....as somebody mentioned recently, Malfoy was
> attracted by the power he sensed around Harry [a very Slytherin
trait] and
> constantly tries to goad him to compare himself...?
> 
> Ok, bouquets and brickbats welcome ;-))

I guess this will have to be counted as a brickbat, but I'll swing
slowly...  :D

[a]Dumbledore tells Harry that he can speak Parseltongue because
Voldemort left a little of himself behind when he cast the failed
curse on Harry. (CoS 332)

[b]Harry and Voldemort's wands are brothers by virtue of their
phoenix-feather cores coming from the same bird. Voldemort does not
aspire to be the heir of Slytherin, he IS the heir of Slytherin. (CoS
332; if your edition says V. is the last remaining ancestor of
Slytherin, correct it to say decendant. One of JKR's editors goofed.)

[c]JKR is addressing choices vs. inborn abilities with the Sorting
Hat. Harry's natural abilities should have landed him in Slytherin,
but he didn't want to be there. So the Hat put him in Gryffindor. 

[d]Harry's fortune in galleons he inherited from his parents. Canon
doesn't say how the Potters got so rich.  Yet.

Much of what happens in CoS is designed to make us--and Harry--think
that he might be the heir of Salazar Slytherin.  It disturbs Harry
immensely to think that he might be a monster deep down inside (just
like Ender in Ender's Game).  Draco, on the other hand, would have
been delighted to be the heir. 

Dontcha hate it when you think you've found something and it turns out
you haven't?

--Dicentra, who's done it dozens of times.