Slughorn "clearly good"?

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 137763

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Wood, Susan" <swood at c...> wrote:
> Prep0strus wrote:
> 
> "And I always think of Slugworth as well... Slughorn really is a gross 
> name. It just doesn't seem slick enough a name for a networking 
> Slytherin.  But, then, he's not very slick really.  I think 
> Dumbledore's affection for him is strange.  He's clearly a 'good' 
> person, who doesn't go in for actual evil.  But he's not a nice 
> person, not a fair person, and not a person who stands for much that 
> Dumbedore stands for - but then, neither does Snape.  When will we 
> see a TRULY good slytherin."

houyhnhnm:

It is now canon that each house is associated with a different element.

JKR: Probably. I hear you. It is the tradition to have four houses,
but in this case, I wanted them to correspond roughly to the four
elements. So Gryffindor is fire, Ravenclaw is air, Hufflepuff is
earth, and Slytherin is water, hence the fact that their common room
is under the lake. So again, it was this idea of harmony and balance,
that you had four necessary components and by integrating them you
would make a very strong place. But they remain fragmented, as we know.

If Slytherin is water, then maybe there is a clue in the natures of
the water signs.  Cancer can give a love of the old, a clinging to the
past.  We see this trait expressed in a perverted way in the pedigree
worship and pure-blood ideology of LVs supporters.  But is there a
good way this trait could be expressed.  

Scorpio is supposed to be expressed on three levels--the scorpion, the
eagle, and the dove.  The scorpion uses people selfishly and
destructively.  The eagle makes use of other people's resources but
does so in a way that benefits everyone including himself.  I think
Slughorn is a good example.

The dove is a healer and metaphysician who can drain negative energy
from others and repolarize it, sort of a n anti-dementor.  We haven't
seen one of these.  I'm not sure where Pisces fits in.

I see the Slytherin principle as being about imposing the will. Then
maybe there would be no magic in the first place without it, at least
not as an organized body of knowledge. There would be individuals with
magical power, but it would be unfocuses and uncontrolled.   



Sue. W.

> I'm interested in your reading of Slughorn as
> 'clearly a 'good' person'.  I agree that he is not nice and not
>fair, but I don't see what evidence there is that he is a good >person.

houyhnhnm: 

I think he's meant to be seen as having a passive kind of goodness. 
He doesn't wish anyone harm. He is genuinely appalled by the
conversation with Riddle. He has a better nature that can be appealed
to, though it takes bribes and alcohol to bring it out. He's selfish
but he tries to see to it that the others get something out of the
deal.  It's not my idea of *good*.