The good Slytherin

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 131305

>>Alla:
<snip>
>...this person (hypothetical good Slytherin) should reject 
Slytherin's "purebloodism" and absolutely hold on to Slytherin 
strengths, but the problem is that so far to me - 
the "purebloodism" , NOT Slytherins's strengths is what defines 
Slytherin House.
<snip>
>As you probably know, I share POV that in "potterverse" ideological 
lines are drawn quite clearly and the site of "purebloods are better 
than anybody else" is not  the one to be on, IMO.
>Therefore I don't see anything wrong in admitting by "good 
Slytherins" that their thinking is flawed on so many levels.<
<snip>

Betsy Hp:
Okay, make sure you're sitting down, because I actually agree with 
you.  A little bit anyway <g>.  Because I *do* agree that the 
interest in pure-blood is the negative aspect of Slytherin house 
that *must* be changed in order for Hogwarts to work as one.  It's 
that negative ideology that Voldemort played on to gather his Death 
Eaters and so it falls under the "Voldemort's Shadow" that I see as 
darkening Slytherin house.

However, I don't think pure-blood is the only ideology of Slytherin 
house, and I doubt it's even the prevailing ideology.  (We know of 
at least two half-bloods, Harry and Tom, who were wooed by house 
Slytherin.  And, with the Weasley that never happened, JKR tells us 
that a girl born of a Squib and a Muggle would have been sorted into 
Slytherin and done quite well there.)  But, more than any other 
house, Slytherin has an unhealthy interest in blood.  That interest 
does need to be changed.

That's why I think the "good Slytherin" needs to be a very strong 
Slytherin, someone the entire house looks to.  An outsider could 
never bring about the kind of change Slytherin needs to experience.  
A Luna type character, rejected by their house, would never work, 
IMO.  But someone who can say, "look this is what's cool about being 
a Slytherin, this other bit has to go, was never really us in the 
first place" could well do the job I think is required and bring 
Slytherin back into the Hogwarts fold. 

>>Alla:
>The reason why I think that "purebloodism" IS Slytherin's house 
ideology is because we have not seen ANY Slytherin yet  (in the 
younger generation at least) who does not share  such ideology.
>Now, you may argue that we have not seen any Slytherins but Draco 
and his cronies sharing this ideology either, but is the absence of 
the evidence equals evidence to the contrary?<
<snip>

Betsy Hp:
No, it's evidence of Harry's blinders when it comes to that 
particular house.  He's decided they're all bad, so they're all bad 
and none of them are worth listening to.  In many ways I think the 
appearence of the "good Slytherin" will come at a maturing of Harry, 
a willingness on his part to stop seeing the world in such 
uncompromising black and white.

>>Alla: 
>I am not so sure. Since JKR does not have book space to develop 
every secondary character, I create an impression of Slytherin House 
based on representatives of Slytherin house I read about so far and 
if you don't know yet, they REALLY don't appeal to me that much. :-)<

Betsy Hp:
Of course they don't.  Because they don't appeal to *Harry* that 
much.  Until Luna came along the books implied that all Ravenclaws 
were book-loving, library-living, nerds.  Until we met Cedric all 
Hufflepuffs seemed like rule-following, stay-with-the-herd, 
lemmings.  And until we meet the "good Slytherin" all Slytherins 
appear to be rasicist little facists, hiss worthy at age eleven.  

The only house that didn't fall immediately into a stereotype was 
Gryffindor, but that was because Harry met Gryffindors right off the 
bat.  Slytherin had the dubious honor of being stereotyped right 
from the very beginning. (And completely incorrectly we quickly 
learned, though Harry didn't: not all evil wizards came from 
Slytherin; Draco is many things, but he's certainly not the 
wizarding equivelent to Dudley.)  I imagine the de-stereotyping of 
Slytherin will come about with the biggest bang.

And just to throw a monkey wrench into the entire works <eg>....  In 
the only instances witnessed by the reader where a wizard openly and 
without a mask singles out and attacks a muggle, the perpetrator was 
a Gryffindor.  Hagrid attacked Dudley in PS/SS and the twins 
attacked Dudley in CoS.  Slytherin, by no means, has the corner on 
wizarding cruelty. 

Betsy Hp