James the Berk?

[huntergreen_3]

No: HPFGUIDX 105609

HunterGreen previously:
>> As for teenage Snape, well, considering that he came to school with
>> all those ideas of dark magic, who's to say he wasn't raised that
>> way? (and yes, I know Sirius was too, but Sirius was sorted into
>> Gryffindor, and thus had someone else to make an impression on 
him).

Amey replied:
>>The point here is that he wasn't sorted into Slytherin. (I hear 
people shouting here... listen to me fully people). What I mean is if 
he was so interested in Dark Arts, he must have Wizard background, 
and must have heard about the Hogwarts houses and their qualities? If 
he had choice (like Harry), why didn't he choose any other house? 
(Ravenclaw would have suited him surely) So it is as much question of 
choice. So he decided to go that way, and chose his friends, peers 
himself. That is the difference between him and Sirius (considering 
they have similar Dark background).<<

HunterGreen:
You're looking at things too black and white. The Slytherin house 
*isn't* the "evil house". There have been many, many students in 
Hogwarts over the years, and since there aren't hundreds and hundreds 
of evil wizards running around, we can assume that there are plenty 
of former Slytherins who aren't evil. Slytherin is a house for the 
ambitious, those with (DD's words from CoS) resourcefulness, 
determination and a certain disregard for the rules. That doesn't 
translate into "evil". 
Besides, a student doesn't 'choose' their house anyway. With Harry, 
he requested to NOT be put in Slytherin, but there's no proof that 
the hat would have really put him there anyway. The sorting hat only 
thought of Slytherin after HARRY mentioned it. Harry never 
said "could you please put me in Gryffindor?" Harry was a special 
case any way, not all students get that moment of deliberation. Snape 
might have been sorted into Slytherin as fast as Draco, with no 
chance to talk the hat out of it. Sirius probably didn't ask to be 
put in Gryffindor either, he was sorted there. That's the purpose of 
the hat--if students could that easily pick their houses Hogwarts 
would just ask each first year to choose which house they want.

I'm not trying to excuse Snape's actions anyway. I'm just trying to 
explain them. Valky was talking about 'nobility' when it came to 
Snape and James, and I was trying to show how nobility is subjective. 
That Snape going for the dark arts and all that may have been the 
best choice based on his personal experience, and his own ideas of 
what is 'noble'. Of course, we all know Snape had it the wrong way 
around, he just took the long way to get to that conclusion.