Not Slytherin, not Slytherin

[Andrea]

No: HPFGUIDX 51380

--- Dicentra wrote:
> JKR is most definitely biased against House Slytherin, but it's
> because Salazar Slytherin hates "Mudbloods" and wanted to impose that
> value system on Hogwarts admissions policy.  Good heavens, the man hid
> a *basilisk* in the castle to wipe out "undesirables" centuries after
> his death.  His heir--Tom Riddle--mounted an enormous campaign to
> "cleanse" the WW of "the wrong sort."

*coughs* Excuse me, but no. :)  We don't really know all that much about
Salazar Slytherin, and once again I step forward to say the man is NOT
evil, dangit!  We know only that he disagreed with Godric as far as
admitting Mudbloods, not that he hated them in general or wanted them
killed.  Prof. Binns explained, "Slytherin wished to be more *selective*
about the students admitted to Hogwarts.  He believed that magical
learning should be kept within all-magic families.  He disliked taking
students of Muggle parentage, believing them to be untrustworthy." (Ch. 9,
COS)

Being selective, beliving them untrustworthy -- this is a FAR cry from
"let's kill 'em all!"  Given the attitude people had towards magic a
thousand years ago, I'd be a little wary if I was an actual witch as well.
 Salazar could have thought that it was *dangerous* to bring Muggle-born
students in, because it would be revealing the school to Muggles who
mostly hated magic, and thus been trying to protect the rest of their
students!  Nothing ever indicated that he was leading some campaign to
wipe out Muggles in general.  Just because Godric turned out to be right
(as far as we know) doesn't mean that Salazar didn't have valid points.

As for the basilisk, I return to my argument that we don't have anything
to show Salazar actually intended the basilisk to hurt the Muggle-borns,
except a thousand year old legend perpetuated by those who stayed at the
school and were thus *against* Slytherin in the argument.  (Try playing a
game of Telephone and see how mangled the message gets in a few minutes. 
Multiply that over a thousand years.)  The basilisk was confined to a
chamber that only Salazar (at the time) could open.  That could have been
as much for safety as anything else.  If a man does dangerous experiments
in a laboratory he locks so only he can open it, but then someone else
later opens it and causes damage with the experiments, should we blame the
original guy or the one who caused the problems?  Don't blame Salazar for
what Voldemort did.  Wait until we know a little more about Salazar
himself.


Andrea

=====
"Reality is for people who lack imagination."

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