Why did the founders retain Slytherin's house?

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 117900


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lupinlore" <bob.oliver at c...> wrote:
> 
> 
> Lets delve a little into that ever-popular topic, Slytherin House.  
> 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.  ...
>
> ...edited... 
> 
> Lupinlore

bboyminn:

Why did the school retain Slytherin's identity after he left?

Simple, he bought and paid for it.

First, let's look at the building itself. This is the largest and most
massive pre-modern/medieval building ever constructed. Eight floor
main wings (ground plus 7 floors) which based on architecture of the
day would have had very high ceilings. That makes it close to,
conservatively, the height of a 12 to 14 story modern office or
apartment building. And that's just the main wings, we add to that
four towering towers, one of which we can assume is 14 to 16 floors,
again with high ceilings, making them closer to the height of a +20
story modern office building. In addition, we appear to have a few to
several minor towers, an enclosed courtyard, substantial grounds, and
extensive furnishings.

Currently, Windsor Castle is the largest working castle in the world.
'Working castle' means it still a family residence rather than a
museum. Windsor would look like a country cottage along side Hogwarts.
OK, I understand that Hogwarts in fictional and Windsor is real, but
in the Potterverse, they are both real.

Point: even with magic, a castle of that massive substance was not
cheap to create.

Private schools of this nature are almost always created on benevolent
grants and endowments by the founders. That means that one forth of
the school belongs to Slytherin by virtue of the fact that he paid for
it. His house/sub-school continues to exist, because he donated grants
and endowments which would allow it to exist in perpetuity (assuming
the endowments aren't mismanaged). To kill Slytherin House would be
like stealing that money.

In addition, and regardless of what the books would lead us to
believe, being ambitious and cunning are not crimes. You are not evil
by virtue of the desire to be successful. But among successful and
ambitious people, there are those, those but not all, who will 'use
any means to achieve their ends'. And that is not a tendency that is
limited to Slytherin. 

True, many extremely ambitious people, in the fictional world and the
real world, make morally, ethically, and legally unsound choices, but
that's human nature, and not something reserved exclusively for
Slytherins. And, is not a require trait to be successfull.

So, why does does the school continue with Slytherin House, because
Slytherin created and paid for Hogwarts to teach his unique type of
magical students. To not continue with it, or to remove Slytherin's
history from the school would not only be a form of stealing money,
but it would be a form of stealing history. I'm alway very wary of
people who want to rewrite history to their own convinience.

Remember, we learn from each other by being different, not by all
being the same.

Just a few thoughts.

Steve/bboyminn

(sorry for misspellings, I'm not on my own home computer; no on-line
dictionary)