Why did the founders retain Slytherin's house?

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 117799


Lupinlore wrote:
"We know that Salazar departed in a huff when the other founders 
didn't agree with his pureblood policies.  Why then, did the other 
founders allow his House to remain part of Hogwarts."  

(snip)

" 5) The most interesting possibility, as flypaper for Dark Wizards
and racists.  They may have realized/expected that most students with 
> Dark tendencies would end up in Slytherin.  By allowing the House to 
> continue they insured such students would be easy to spot and 
> observe."

Del replies :
Interesting. However, we then have to ask : what did they intend to do
with those students, once spotted ? It's all very nice to spot the
troublesome bad seeds, but it's quite stupid to then allow them to
take root and develop. Unless they intended to *do* something to/with
those Slytherins, I see no point in setting them apart.

I have a sixth option : they couldn't do away with Slytherin House
because of some magical contract they had all agreed on when founding
the school. The 4 Houses were the 4 pillars of the school : either you
keep them all, or you destroy them all (and the school with it), but
you can't destroy only one.

This would open interesting theories for the future : will some of the
kids put an end to the flawed House system of Hogwarts, and rebuild
the school on another system (or another set of Houses) ? I somehow
doubt it, but that would give a nice bit of work to do to people like
Hermione.

Del