Houses Unite!

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 90224

lizvega2 worte:
> <snip>
At the beginning of book 5 the sorting hat talks about how when the 
> founders first created the school they were the best of friends. The 
> hat states specifically that gryffindor and slytherin were BEST 
> friends while ravenclaw and hufflepuff were best friends. And, how 
> the houses were torn apart by bickering. Can anyone imagine 
> slytherin and gryffindor being best friends now?
> 
> It's been pounded into our heads just  how much slytherin and 
> gryffindor hate each other. Throughout all five books, the anamosity 
> is present and reinforced by jo. Doesn't Ron joke after the sorting 
> in book 5, after Hermione makes the comment about unity, that he 
> wouldn't ever become friends with slytherin's?
<snip>
> So, even if all of the houses have to unite there will still be 
> stragglers- some, like malfoy and the thugs and that cow parkinson- 
> probably won't join our side- but what about the rest of the 
> slytherin house mates? Are they all like Malfoy? I can't recall one 
> episode that Harry has had with a slytherin that has been positive, 
> so, what will finally convince Harry and Ron to forget about how 
> much they hate Slytherin?
> 
> Perhaps they need to find out about some decent 
> slytherin's......?????

Carol responds:
I can't find much good to say about Draco and his cronies (though we
may see some friction among them if Crabbe, Sr. is in Azkaban with
Lucius and Goyle, Sr. isn't), but even they stood up to toast Cedric
Diggory at the end of GoF (though they and some of their housemates
refused to do the same for Harry). And Pansy's pro-Slytherin
fanaticism may be mostly show. Did anyone notice that she was trying
hard not to show how much she liked the baby unicorns in GoF? And
there's also our mystery Slytherin, the "weedy" (or is it "stringy"?)
boy who saw the Thestrals, who is probably the "stringy" (or is it
"weedy"?) Theodore Nott--whose father is also, presumably, in Azkaban
but was openly neglected by Lucius Malfoy in the raid on the DoM
("Leave Nott! Leave him, I say!") If word gets around to Theo of how
his father was treated by Draco's, what little friendship they have
for one another may fall completely apart. And there's another
Slytherin boy in Harry's year who doesn't hang around with Draco, the
completely unknown quantity named Blaise Zabini. For all we know,
those two could be friends. Maybe they'll join the D.A.

I know this has been said repeatedly by other people, but Slytherins
can't all be bad. It would be inexcusable to sort any eleven-year-old
child into a house that would doom him or her to become a Dark Witch
or Wizard. Even Durmstrang, which teaches the Dark Arts rather than
just DADA, managed to produce Viktor Krum. Yes, I know he Crucio'd
Cedric, but he was under an Imperius curse himself. Aside from that,
he seems to be gruff and shy but basically decent. (He likes Hermione.
How bad can he be?)

I also see the theme of unity developing but thinks that a unified
Hogwarts, if it happens, will be a marriage of convenience, a
temporary alliance to defeat a common enemy. As for a unified WW, in
which Wizards and Centaurs and Goblins and House Elves march together
to Mordor--er, to the Riddle House or wherever Voldemort is staying--I
think there's a much chance of that as of Wizards openly apparating
and transfiguring on the streets of London.

Carol