[HPforGrownups] OOP: In a view of a Slytherin

[J S]

No: HPFGUIDX 64808

Jessi's (A newbie!) questions regarding the Slytherin Characture...

Paige Woods wrote this...
>Okay, there has been several post stating that they hope to see a decent 
>Slytherin in the future. I'm going out on a limb and saying that I *do* 
>think that there's a half-decent Slytherin out there. However, it's where 
>peer pressure comes in. Let me explain with a bit of information 
>beforehand.
>
>The Slytherins have been called the "evil" ones. But I believe that it is 
>just a stereotype. Also, the Slytherins are together almost all of the 
>time. And the sorting hat describes the Slytherins as people with big 
>ambitions, not people with evil in their hearts.
>
>So, let's imagine you being in Slytherin. All around you are people who are 
>trying to live up with the stereotyping, hencing the bullying and 
>evillness. Soon you start to act like all of the other and older Slytherins 
>so you wouldn't look stupid and/or so the other Slytherin curse you in your 
>sleep. So, the next year it's the same, same sterotypes... and the next 
>year is the same, etc. But you still are good.
>
>Okay, is that picture in your head? Would you want to go out and say, "hey, 
>I am good, I like Muggle-borns" in front of people who are with you 
>everyday and can curse you in your sleep?
>
>So, with that in mind, there are probably good Slytherins but they are 
>afriad to go out and be different. I mean, they aren't the ones with the 
>so-called bravery... are they?


And several others wrote many things saying Slytherins are evil or future 
DEs, but also that we've only seen a few of them.

And  now my question:
In PS/SS Hagrid tells Harry that there's not a wizard who went bad who 
wasn't in Slytherin.  So all evil Hogwarts alumnae were in Slytherin, but 
not all Hogwarts alum from Slytherin turned evil...What about Peter 
Pettigrew?  I imagine James, Sirius, Lupin, and Peter were all in the same 
house.  Was Peter actually in Slytherin?  Was Hagrid wrong?  Is the 
stereotype that only Slytherin students can turn wicked in fact inaccurate, 
and students from other houses can also go down the wrong path?  I suppose 
this is a matter of all five books, not just OoP.

Happy Reading!
Jessi

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