Scapegoating Slytherin (was:Punishing Draco (was:Re: Snape, Hagrid and Animals)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 143938

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > <snip>
> > Actually, the biggest known Muggle murderer, number-wise, is a  
> > Gryffindor. 

> >>Nora:
> Not even canonically: Voldemort is responsible for the bridge 
> collapse (or a minion), and that killed more people.

Betsy Hp:
Please note my use of the qualifier "known". And then please point 
to the canon stating the number of Muggle deaths *directly* caused 
by Voldemort.  I'm fairly confident that Voldemort has been the root 
cause of many more deaths than Peter Pettigrew.  (Voldemort is the 
root cause of Peter's killings, after all.)  But by the numbers 
we've been given, Peter is a little killing machine. 

> >>Nora:
> Even going on what ancedotes we have in the text, you get to stack 
> that up against Lucius "always up for a spot of Muggle torture"    
> Malfoy...

Betsy Hp:
Since torture doesn't always lead to killing (while killing can only 
mean that, well, people were killed) I actually should *not* stack 
Malfoy's work up against Peter's.  Apples and oranges in the end.  
Especially since I wasn't trying to identify "most evil minion".  
Though I think Peter could give both Lucius and Bellatrix (who is a 
leading candidate for my vote) a run for their money.

> >>Betsy Hp: 
> > I have believed, pretty much from my first reading of PS/SS that 
> > the so-called sins of Slytherin are really in the eye of the 
> > beholder.

> >>Nora: 
> All?  
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
I don't think I'd go that far.  As each house has it's strengths, 
each house has it's weaknesses.  And I don't think Slytherins' 
weaknesses have been made up wholecloth.  However, I do think the 
idea that Slytherin is somehow inherently evil or has a greater 
propensity for evil is an illusion the other houses (or some of the 
more simplistic thinkers in the Potterverse) use to keep themselves 
warm at night.  Every house has the potential for turning out the 
next dark lord.

> >>Nora:
> <quoting JKR>
> "...I suppose it's that craving for unity and wholeness that means 
> that they keep that quarter of the school that **maybe does not 
> encapsulate the most generous and noble qualities**, in the hope, 
> in the very Dumbledore-esque hope that they will achieve union,    
> and they will achieve harmony."
> 
> Emphasis is mine, but that's not what you say if you consider      
> their qualities to be of equal 'quality' with the others.  She's   
> said before that courage is the quality that she values the most  
> highly, but that's obvious, isn't it?

Betsy Hp:
As obvious as her valuing cunning, yes.  I'm trying to figure out 
what's "generous" about courage.  Or "noble" about wit.  Both 
qualities could be used generously or nobly, but so could ambition.  
And that's my point.  Each house has qualities it favors, and each 
of those qualities can be used in a negative or positive fashion.  
And that does, it must, include Slytherin.  A harmonious union 
generally requires equality.  At least, IMO.

Betsy Hp