Scapegoating Slytherin (was:Punishing Draco ) LONGish

[spotsgal]

No: HPFGUIDX 144022

zgirnius:
> First, the requirement (such as it is) stated by the Sorting Hat, 
> which ought to know, is not that they be bigoted, but that they be 
> pureblood.

Christina:

At one point, the Sorting Hat says that, in the beginning, Salazar
Slytherin chose to take only purebloods that were cunning.  But we
KNOW that Slytherin has students of other ancestries, so obviously it
does not take only purebloods anymore.  Therefore, it is NOT currently
a requirement to be in Slytherin house, nor do we have evidence that
it is even so much as a preference.

> zgirnius:
> How to resolve this apparent contradiction? To me it seems the only 
> way is to admit that purity of blood is a criterion which MAY in the 
> absence of other relevant criteria lead to sorting into Slytherin. 
> But most often it is not present in Slytherins. They get Sorted in 
> for the other reasons. (Cunning/ambition). 

Christina:

I agree that this is a huge contradiction.  To be honest, I really
don't think purity of blood has much to do with being sorted into
Slytherin at all anymore.  Like LV allowing half-bloods to work with
him, there just isn't a way around it.  How many pureblood families do
we know that currently have children at Hogwarts?  The Malfoys, the
Longbottoms, and the Weasleys.  That doesn't mean that there aren't
more, but I doubt there are very many additional pureblooded families
that we haven't seen.  As Sirius said, most of them are interrelated.
 Just by looking at the numbers, Slytherin house must have a fair
number of non-purebloods.  Even Slytherin's head of house is a half-blood.

I'm reminded of the curious case of Percy Weasley, who I personally
just can't figure out.  He's one of the most ambitious characters
we've ever seen, and a pureblood, and yet he still is sorted into
Gryffindor.

> zgirnius:
> I would say that the Slytherins we do not know are therefore quite 
> likely to be half-bloods or even Muggle-borns. Who are ambitious 
> and/or cunning, and not particularly good fits for other Houses. But 
> they do not belong to Draco's clique for obvious reasons, so we have 
> no reason to meet them.

Christina:

Exactly.  It's just like being surprised that we don't any first-year
Gryffindors.  Why would we?  Harry doesn't hang out with them, so we
have reason to see them.  The only Slytherin students we ever get to
meet are though Draco Malfoy.  We all know the kinds of people that he
is going to hang out with.

Christina