Slytherin Relationships

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 116160


Tinks wrote:
> < A member of any other house could never find happiness with a
Slytherin, because the Slytherin would eat them alive, so to speak.>
> 
Saitana responded:
> Not really. Most Slytherin's would actually find it relaxing to be
with a Ravenclaw or a Gryffindor because they don't constantly have to
be looking over their shoulder for a knife in the back.
> 
> Dating/seducing/marrying for power, money, whatever is all well and
good, but when you come right down to wanting a happy, normal
relationship, a Slytherin would never choose one of their own unless
forced.
> 
> A Slytherin wants to be top dog, and to have the power.  To marry
another Slytherin would mean constantly fighting, trying to out play
the other person.  If they married from another house (another
personality type) this constant butting of heads would lessen.

Carol adds:
I've already put in my two knuts regarding the two Slytherin marriages
we know anything about, the Lestranges and the Malfoys, both
Slytherin/Slytherin and both pureblood/pureblood. These marriages may
have been arranged by the families but would also have been
satisfactory to the marriage partners in terms of the pureblood
philosophy. And it seems unlikely that either Rodolphus or Lucius
would object to having a beautiful wife. (Lucius, as a rich and
socially prominent man, may have initially regarded the somewhat
younger Narcissa as a "trophy wife" and found out later she was a
strong-willed, haughty Black who considered herself near-royalty. We
shall see.)

We do know of other Slytherins who are or were married (Crabbe Sr.,
Goyle Sr., Nott Sr.) but we know nothing about their wives (except
that Nott's is dead, and even that came from the website rather than
the books.) It's hard to conceive of anyone *wanting* to marry Crabbe
Sr. or Goyle Sr., especially if they closely resemble their sons in
appearance, behavior, and intelligence level, but obviously someone
did. And since they became DEs during VW1, that person was probably a
Slytherin. Nott Sr., though, appears to be considerably older, a man
of Voldie's generation, perhaps at one time a Peter Pettigrew type who
hung around Tom Riddle and his intimate friends (the ones who secretly
called him "Lord Voldemort".) I can see the older Nott marrying a
Ravenclaw before VW 1. His son Theo is clearly intelligent, more so
than Draco, if we trust the website as semicanonical, and Theo is a
loner who doesn't join Draco's gang until the end of OoP, if then. (I
can't see him becoming a Crabbe-and-Goyle style bodyguard/thug.)

But I would say that Slytherins are most likely to marry other
Slytherins for three reasons: 1) "pure" blood and fear of
contamination by "Mudbloods" (half-blood Slytherins would be partial
exceptions, but I think it applies to the Lestranges, the Blacks
(except Andromeda), and the Malfoys, at least, 2) a shared philosophy
indoctrinated into them from birth regarding "blood," the desirability
of ambition and cunning, and possibly the Dark Arts, and 3) the
apparent prejudice against Slytherin by the other houses (very
apparent in Harry's time, at least, and probably existing during
JWPP's and Snape's schoolboy time as well), which would foster or
reinforce an us vs. them mentality among Slytherins. Of course,
physical attraction could play into the picture in some cases, but I
don't think it's the primary factor.

Carol, thinking about Pansy Parkinson's interest in Draco and
wondering whether it fits the picture