The good Slytherin - Should we assume that S. House is not all evil?

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 131555

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

Alla:
> "Are we supposed to think that Slytherin house is not all Evil 
simply
>  because there is a possibility that we have not met some of its 
> members yet?"

Del:
> I can't believe that I'm reading something as fundamentally 
prejudiced
> as THAT, especially coming from someone who so adamantly claims to
> be against prejudice...

<Snip>

> "They are Slytherins, so they are evil." Disgusting, prejudiced,
> unfounded, and unworthy of the wonderfully intricate, subtle, and
> complicated world that the Potterverse is increasingly showing 
itself
> to be.

Geoff:
I agree but bear in mind that Harry has been encouraged towards that 
line of thinking - perhaps subliminally - in what has been said about 
Slytherin to him in his early days of contact with the Wizarding 
World:

'"And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?"
"School houses. There's four. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot 
o'duffers but - "
"I bet I'm in Hufflepuff," said Harry gloomily.
"Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," said Hagrid darkly. "There's not 
a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. You-
Know-Who was one."'

PS "Diagon Alley" pp.61-62 UK edition)

Now before you jump irately on me, I know that isn't quite what was 
in Alla's message but, to someone as new to the scene as Harry, it 
could be open to misinterpretion as meaning precisely that; hence all 
Slytherins are evil and lessen the chance of him seeing the 
possibility of "good" in the house.

Hagrid has been carrying a large responsibility in inducting Harry to 
the world of magic and unfortunately that comment might just have 
laid the foundation for future problems.