OotP: Snape as a halfblood (OotP spoilers)

[Grey Wolf]

No: HPFGUIDX 62079

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "abha_j" <abha_j at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "saintbacchus" 
> <saintbacchus at y...> wrote:
> > Although the fact that Snape is apparently not on the tapestry is a 
> > strong point, I'm not convinced. Are half-bloods even allowed in 
> > Slytherin? 
> 
> Tom Riddle was a half-blood, and he was in Slytherin.

I'm afraid that, to this day, we have no canon beyond Hagrid and Ron's 
word that Voldemort was in Slytherin. Since very few people know that 
Voldemort and Tom Riddle are, in fact, the same person, Ron wouldn't 
know one way or the other except by word of mouth, and that method is 
very doubtful. Hagrid might know, but Dumbledore tells us that very few 
people could tell that Voldemort was once Tom Riddle, so maybe many 
people just assumed that he must have been a Slytherin (due to 
parseltongue and fondness for Snakes and Dark Arts), and the rumour 
grew strong, when Tom had really been in, say, Ravenclaw.

So we have shacky canon for Slytherin!Tom in one hand, and strong canon 
that Slytherin only allowed purebloods in his house in the other (Hat's 
song). Since Harry was offered Slytherin, we can assume that by 
Slytherin's definition, pureblood is someone with both parents wizards 
(unlike Tom's, which requires, it seems, more wizard ascendents unless 
he was lying to Harry in the CoS, which isn't impossible).

At any rate, many pure wizard families are missing from the Black Tree: 
Longbottoms, Potters, Bones (?), McMillian, Crouchs, etc. While they're 
very related between them, not *all* WW pure families are first cousins 
with each other (not yet, at any rate), so the chart might not include 
Snapes due to being too far.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf