[HPforGrownups] Re: The good Slytherin - Shades of Grey

[Magda Grantwich]

No: HPFGUIDX 131403

-- Steve <bboyminn at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Slytherin probably are selfish and ambitious, which is exactly how
> they got into that House. The probably do lean toward believing
> that there is something to being a pureblood. But there are all 
> kinds of people who elevate themselves for a variety of harmless 
> reason. Some
> people in the USA take great status in saying there ancestors came
> over on the Mayflower. Personally, I just discovered that a
> relative on my father's side of the family signed the Declaration 
> of Independance. 
> 
> ....Being able to take pride in being Pureblood isn't really any 
> different that taking pride in being among
> the aristocracy. Yes... yes.. I know everyone equates it with
> racism, and for Draco that is true, but for other Slytherins, 
> rather than being a psychotic obssession, it may simply be a point 
> of pride. 


Steve has an excellent point and it speaks to something that's been
bothering me for a while, which is that I think a lot of posters are
assuming that the extreme form of pureblood worship that the DE's
espouse is quite common throughout the WW and is held in check only
by the dedicated efforts of Gryffindors, young and old.  

I think we have to take the middle ground - the grey area, if you
will - and realize that you can be a total snob about your wizard
heritage and yet not be a wanna-be mass-murderer or muggle-hunter. 
Sirius - who has no reason to put his parents' beliefs in a good
light - says that his parents were all in favour of Voldemort until
they realized what he was really after.  

It strikes me that this is one of the reasons the WW was so slow to
react against the DE's during the first war: they were literally
something the WW had never encountered before, the embodiment of
blood-pride descending to the level of atrocity and killing.  However
Voldemort was selling membership cards, it likely wasn't an up front
appeal to come join the muggle extermination league.  With Barty
Crouch Jr. he seems to have stressed the similiarity in their
backgrounds as unappreciated by stupid fathers and holding out the
opportunity to be revenged on those fathers in the worst possible
way.  

Harry and company hasn't confronted this grey area yet and in Harry's
case he probably doesn't know it even exists.  He's still in good
guy/bad guy mode.  (This is another reason, IMO, why Sirius was not a
good mentor for Harry; Sirius had way too much emotional baggage
concerning his family to give Harry clear and objective guidance
about seeing the big picture of wizard society.)

Magda


		
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