[HPforGrownups] Re: Why did the founders retain Slytherin's house?

[annegirl11 at juno.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 117885

Pippin said:
>  Since he was such a good friend of Godric Gryffindor, he probably
wasn't 
> evil to begin with. 

Whoaaa. Trippy, man. I'm now imagning the Founders as 11th century
Marauders! Godric as James, Peter as Salazar, Sirius as Rowena, and (out
of process of elimination, I must confess) Remus as Helga. ("Helga took
the rest" = Remus' loyalty? Oh, whatever, not the point.) Friends and
comrads at the start, but one of them was corrupted by evil, and it
busted their friendship apart. Possibly got some or all of them killed.
Destroyed the thing they worked so hard for, destoryed their camelot! 

> No doubt Salazar 
> believed that he, being of nature's nobility, was too noble to be 
> corrupted by it. 

This is an interesting comment on magic, power, and corruption. Imo,
"evil" or "dark magic" or what have you is a popular lit device because
it doesn't have to be an "evil overlord" who uses dark magic. The idea is
that evil/dark magic always taps into the darkest side of a person;
people have the potential to be good or bad. Imo, Peter Pettigrew wasn't
evil, he was weak; he saw the dark tide rising, and when someone
approached him to draw him to V's side, Peter didn't have the strength to
say no. Salazar, thinking he was on top of the world, being of the four
most powerful and influential wizards of his age, may have thought that
he could manipulate powerful dark magic without it touching him. 

> But Salazar left because he wanted *all* the houses to adopt his 
> purebloods only policy

Sounds like extreme egotism. He was hopped up on so much dark magic at
that point, he thought he was better than his co-founders. He couldn't
even entertain the possibility that their points of view could be more
correct than his.

Of course, I'm sure there was a whole political situation going on in the
background, spurring this on.

> So when Slytherin left, did he take all his students with him? I 
> doubt it.

Hmm, that's a good point. If he had taken his students, there would be a
second dark magic school and Hogwarts would be one house less. It's
starting to look like Salazar himself left (went uber-evil and was killed
by his friends? caused a war? left in a huff and is waiting in a cave in
Avalon to make his return? went mad and died of natural, pathetic
causes?) and the other three kept his house, for whatever reason. 

BTW, ITA that sorting kids into Slytherine is to keep an eye on them.
It's not giving up on them at all, it's taking the kids with the highest
risk factors and keeping an eye on them. Unfortunatly, I'm not convinced
the current head of house is doing his job in keeping an eye on the
potential problem kids.

Aura

~*~
"What he didn't like about heroes was that they were usually suicidally
gloomy when sober and homicidally insane when drunk."
- Discword
http://archive.skyehawke.com/authors.php?no=606