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

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 143945

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "horridporrid03" 
<horridporrid03 at y...> wrote:
<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.

Actually, I think there *is* a greater propensity for evil in 
Slytherin House, plain and simple.

I am not as sanguine as many readers in eliding out the blood factor, 
which seems to have faded from this whole consideration.  But it's 
expurgation to do that.  Whether for safety or general bias, the 
Sorting Hat and Binns both tell us about Slytherin's principles.  The 
SH makes it pretty explicit, the valorization of bloodline.  *None* 
of the other Founders discriminated on similar categories.

> Betsy Hp:
> As obvious as her valuing cunning, yes.  I'm trying to figure out 
> what's "generous" about courage.

Courage puts oneself on the line, facing difficulty and danger, quite 
often not only for one's sole benefit.  One can be courageous for 
oneself, but it's more often in the service of a group endeavour.

> 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.

I think (I think) JKR tends to think of the qualities of Gryffindor 
as tending to positive uses more often than negative, while ambition 
is inherently genuinely amoral: it has no regulation even implied.  
Courage and the Gryffindor like can be twisted, yes, but they're 
thought of as virtues in the medieval sense instead of the 
Aristotelian for a reason, I think.

-Nora finds the blood foundation of Slytherin House about as 
distasteful, in the realm of education, as it gets