First meetings; Poor poor Slytherin at the House Cup

[darrin_burnett]

No: HPFGUIDX 71382

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Kathryn Cawte" <kcawte at b...> 
wrote:
>  
> 
>  --Random832
> Hagrid has already demonstrably lied about the absolute "fact" of all 
> evil wizards being slytherin. We've no better evidence than his own 
> claim that Riddle even _was_ in slytherin... How do we know Hagrid even 
> has any inkling of Voldemort's true identity, anyway? He could have been
>  
> Me -
> 
> Goodness - that's a very good point that I must remember to include next
> time this arguement comes up. Yes Dumbledore has said that not many 
people
> know that Voldemort ad Riddle are one and the same so if they don't know 
who
> Voldemort was when he was at school (explaining why they don't know that 
he
> s not a pureblood) then how can they know he was a Slytherin. the fact that
> he actually *was* is irrelevant - they are basing that assumption on no
> actual evidence, just blind prejudice. And before someone tries arguing that
> the fact they are correct doesn't have bearing on it look at it this way -
> if someone breaks into my car and I don't see them but tell the police he
> was black because I believe that all thieves are black men and then the
> thief is caught and he actually turns out to be black that doesn't make my
> assumption less racist, it just means that I happened to get lucky and be
> coincidentally correct. Hagrid after all has good reason to be biased when
> talking about Slytherins - one was responsible for his expulsion. We need to
> examine how reliable our source is and in this case I'm afraid he really isn
> t.
> 


So the upshot seems to be this:

An 11-year-old who has had his head spun around in the last month, learning 
he was a wizard, his parents were killed by a Dark Wizard, learned from a 
source he has no reason to distrust that Slytherins have a greater chance of 
turning out bad, seeing a boy who insulted his two friends in the Wizard World 
is burning to become a Slyth must make a decision that will "unite the houses" 
(another thread) by ignoring the friends he's made so far and joining with 
House Slytherin, which he could have done had he wished it.

Whew, let's ask him to cure cancer while we're at it.

Since we're so fired up to espouse Draco's point of view, I thought I'd bring 
back Harry's.  Just for fun.

And while Hagrid certainly is guilty of exaggeration, it is not logical to assume 
he would lie about the very house V-Mort was in. Such things can be easily 
checked. As has been pointed out, we aren't entirely sure which house Sirius 
was in. Given the revelations about his family in OoP, it is no longer so 
obvious. It makes me wonder about the Sorting Hat on top of the 11-year-old 
Sirius' head. 

But, for the moment, let's assume  that all were in Gryffindor, notwithstanding 
the questions about Sirius. 

Let's further take the notion that if Harry had known about Sirius. "Ter's not a 
witch or wizard went bad that weren't in Slytherin, except your father's best 
friend, who was seduced by the Dark Side and betrayed your parents" he 
would have not wanted to be in Gryffindor, or at least, questioned it more.

Harry's parents were, apparently, there. The other two of his parents' friends 
who didn't betray them, Pettigrew and Lupin (again, going with the accepted 
story at the time) were, apparently, there. And if Harry were to learn the story 
of Sirius wouldn't he have also learned about Lupin and Pettigrew and their 
courage?

Rather than say, "Well, Sirius was a Gryffindor, so I shouldn't be one" when 
his parents and two other friends were Gryffs, maybe he'd say, "OK, that one 
went bad, but the odds are still better than if I were in Slytherin."

So, had Harry been armed with all the information, I submit he still chooses 
Gryffindor 100 times out of 100. 

Now, onto the Poor, Poor Slytherin at the House Cup, a few things.

1) I've just been in a thread where I was told essentially, that UK school 
culture is to suck it up and get on with it. and disappointments, sarcasm and 
meanness are good training tools for life. So,  perhaps Slytherin should get 
over their disappointment already.

2) The whole school knew what happened down there, that the spirit of V-Mort 
was there. D-Dore was still teaching when he gave Gryff the points. He 
essentially said, "Stand against V-Mort, and you will be rewarded."  Right 
path, easy path, etc...

3) The "slap in the face" to the Slyths. As we've already disagreed, Harry and 
company DID save the stone, and I'll not recap greatly here except to say that 
V-Mort standing in front of the mirror was not a good thing and that the idea 
that if Harry's mother's protection only extended to physical touch and AK, 
then I hope she saved the receipt from the Sacrifice Store, because she got 
ripped off.

So, no, I don't believe an offensive spell would have worked. That stone was 
just as safe, if not safer, in Harry's pocket than in the mirror.

But anyway, they were rewarded for, not only saving the stone, but for 
outsmarting the obstacles their teachers set forward. "OK, you were out of 
bed, but geez, nicely played" seems to be the sentiment. Ron beat McG's 
chess set; Hermione beat Snape's logic puzzle in about 12 seconds and 
Harry showed incredible guts. Not to mention, Neville grew a spine for the first 
time in his life.

Three out of the four -- Hermione seems unscathed -- were injured to varying 
degrees in this endeavor.  To brush off this physical sacrifice with some 
backroom ceremony so as not to hurt the Slyth's feelings, especially when the 
Slyths need to learn a lesson about which side is the best one to be on (which 
might help them with their oh so crippling moral dilemma, no?) is a slap to 
Harry, Ron, Neville and Hermione.

Darrin
-- I'm going to be gone from the boards a few days. Anyone wants to continue 
on any thread, I'll be checking my e-mail.