Heir of Slytherin

[Grey Wolf]

No: HPFGUIDX 78458

BubbaQRib wrote:
> Has there been any evidence to say that Harry is not the heir of 
> Slytherin?

The short answer is no. But then, there has been no evidence that Harry 
is not the Heir of Gryyfindor, or of Hufflepuff, or Ravenclaw or the 
English Royal Family or even George Washington. Logic implies that you 
cannot prove a negative, anyway.

> I ask this question first based on the statement by JKR that one 
> scene had to stay in CoS because it was important long term to the 
> story.  I'm thinking of the scene where Hermione says "Harry for all 
> we know you could be the heir of Slytherin". 

IIRC, the scene she was refering to was one in the chamber of secrets, 
but don't quote me there. I've never been sure where that statement 
comes from, anyway (could someone provide a link? Thanks).

> I'm also struck by 
> this because of Hermione's track record on statements like this.

Oh, and that statement is perfectly correct - after 1000 years, 
*anyone* can, theorically, be a descendent of any given individual. The 
blood mixes so much over the years that it is very easy to track back 
to a particular person. Take my favourite (and often-used in this list) 
piece of maths for ascendents. Assuming all your greatgrandpas of the 
time were different people, how many grandpas did you have 1000 years 
ago? Assuming a (very low) rate of 4 generations per century, you 
would've had 2^40 grandfathers (about an European billion, an American 
trillion - a million million). Obviously, this cannot be, since there 
have never been so many people alive at the same time. Many of them are 
the same person. But really, who is to say that one of those million 
million wasn't such and such (in this case, Slytherin)?

By those maths, Harry (and everyone else in the WW) might be descendant 
of Slytherin. Of course, now we get into the tricky part. What makes a 
descendent the Heir? Well, there have been many rules - from first born 
to first male born to first female born to first male born and if not 
first female and even selected by the previous heir between all 
candidates. Thus, depending on what rule of heir you use, if Harry 
indeed descends from Slytherin (which has not been proven nor even 
suggested) he could be the Heir.

So Hermione is right - for all they know (i.e. nothing) Harry could be 
the heir. And so could Ron.And even Hermione.

> Second I ask this because Harry is a Parselmouth.  He often has been 
> mentioned with snake like terms.  Example is Malfoy in front of 
> Fudge and there has been other casual reference to snakes in suttle 
> ways.

It is canon that Harry is Parselmouth because Voldemort passed that 
power (and many others) onto him during the fateful night through the 
failed AK. Besides, being parselmouth doesn't make you heir of 
Slytherin in the usual sense - Slythering looked for parselmouths in 
his time, so they weren't restricted to his family. There is a theory 
(which I myself like) that says that anyone that speaks parseltongue is 
de fact Heir of Slytherin, since you can enter the chamber of secrets, 
but that's got nothing to do with the concept of "main descendant" heir 
that (I think) you are refering to.

> Third is the sorting hat it wanted to put Harry in Slytherin.  

Harry does fit in Slytherin. He disobeys rules, cheats and steals (when 
the circunstances require it) and doesn't trust authority and all those 
other characteristics Dumbledore mentioned. He also fits in Gryffindor 
(and many members have pointed out how he fits in Ravenclaw and 
Hufflepuff too), though. And of course, just being in Slytherin doesn't 
make you the heir (or else, there are several hundreds of them walking 
around).

> But 
> he wasn't because of the choices he made not because of who he is.

He was placed in Gryffindor because of what he is too - he never asked 
to be in Gryffindor, just *not* to be in Slytherin. So the hat still 
chose for him between three houses, and placed him where he fit best of 
the three (we assume. Maybe he just throws dice to decide).

> I'm not saying Harry is the Heir of Slytherin.  But like Hermione 
> says for all we know you could be.

Yes, indeed, and all Hermione knows is, in this case, equivalent to 
cero. They know *nothing* of Harry's family, and even if they knew, 
1000 years have passed, and that is a *long* time.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf, who won't discard the theory but that wants to point out 
that there is little canon in its favour, in his opinion