How could Slytherin House have helped Harry? Snape?

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 121629


In PS/SS, the Sorting Hat told Harry that Slytherin could help him on
the way to greatness (IIRC). In CoS, it tells him that he would have
done well in Slytherin.

Questions : why? How? What is it in Slytherin that could have been of
any help to Harry?

Possibilities:

1. Draco? Easy one : no, and the Sorting Hat knew it. If it can see
what's going on inside people's head, then it must have known that
Harry instinctively disliked Draco and that they would never get along.

2. Another student? Interesting possibility that takes us back to the
issue of the Good Slytherin. Is there in Slytherin another influential
student apart from Draco, who would have been on Harry's side and who
could have provided him with help? That's possible, and what's more
it's not too late for this to happen.

3. My favourite possibility : the Head of Slytherin, Snape. Snape
hated Harry from the beginning because he saw a reincarnation of James
in him: same looks, same apparent attitude, and same House. But what
would have happened if Harry had been Sorted into Slytherin? Snape is
good at denial, but this could have been too much even for him. What
could have told him more loudly that Harry is not James, than to have
Harry Sorted into the very House James despised so much? In fact, I
suspect this might have delighted Snape who would then have taken a
twisted pleasure into turning Harry into a true Slyhterin, just for
the fun of insulting James' memory.

So what if Snape had developed a positive prejudice towards Harry?
What if in turn Harry had learned to see Snape in a more positive
light, especially considering DD's support and approval of Snape? What
would this positive relationship have brought to Harry?

Let's imagine :
- no Snape systematically pitting his own House against Harry's House
- no Draco leading an entire House in an anti-Harry crusade
- no Snape continually trying to stop Harry from doing whatever he has
to do, and maybe even *helping* him do so!
- no Scapegoat!Snape to wrong-track Harry way too often
- Snape personally and voluntarily training Harry into all sorts of
more or less authorised magical arts. That would have meant no
Occlumency disaster for example.
- a powerful teacher always available to help Harry.

Of course, there would have been some drawbacks too:
- no Weasley friends
- no all-knowledgeable Hermione
- no Marauders' Map
- no Sirius! Both because Sirius would have been much less interested
in a Slytherin!Harry, and because Snape would have told Harry too many
bad things about Sirius for Harry ever to come to love Sirius the way
he did
- probably no Lupin either, though Harry might have been able to judge
Lupin on his own.

But all those drawbacks could have been compensated one way or another
(other friends, Snape's knowledge and guidance...), so that in the end
the result might still have been positive.

So could it be that Snape was what the Sorting Hat had in mind when it
told Harry that Slytherin could help him on his way to greatness?
After all, Snape does have the profile of the teacher supportive of
rule-breaking and dubious behaviour in his pet students, unlike
McGonagall who is constantly trying to restrain the Trio. A supportive
Snape would have been an immense asset to Harry, instead of the
constant antagonist that he became after Harry was Sorted into Gryffindor.

What do you think?

Del