The good Slytherin (mild TBAY)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 131656

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "nkafkafi" <nkafkafi at y...>
wrote:
>  
> > Neri wrote:
> > "Umm, I guess you have a perfectly reasonable and innocent reason
why old Sally sneaked a XXXXX classified monster into a school? "
> > 
> > Del replies:
> > Go ask Hagrid. He does that all the time. He even deliberately
puts his monsters in contact with the kids, which Slytherin didn't do.
> > 

Pippin: Better yet, ask Dumbledore. What about that three-headed dog,
eh? If Dumbledore had been driven from the school (which has happened
twice now), leaving behind only the warning that anyone who ventures
into the third floor corridor will meet a sudden and violent death,
who knows what sort of wild stories would have grown up after a 
thousand years?

I doubt the Chamber has yielded up all its Secrets. It could be the
basilisk was meant to be a treasure guardian, not an instrument of
genocide.

> 
> Neri:
> You still didn't give any explanation. In Hagrid's case the
 explanation is obvious: he was a stupid and lonely 13 yrs old kid.
Moreover, Hagrid's baby monster complex is painted as a rather
amusing flaw in a person who is otherwise good and kind, but Salazar's
basilisk fits right there with his pureblood mania, his monumental
self-portrait and his noble heir, as corroborated by multiple canon
sources such as the Sorting Hat, Binns, Dumbledore and Riddle.  

Pippin:
The Sorting Hat also tells us that Slytherin and Gryffindor were
good friends. So either Slytherin was always a phony (and some
how I think old Godric was more discerning than that --- he
hasn't picked  many phonies for Gryffindor House, has he?)
or Slytherin deteriorated *after* his brains were picked for the
Hat. In which case the Hat may be only looking for ethnic 
pride, not racism. There is a difference.

> Neri:
> The number of the DEs is limited. Of course not all Slytherins will
become DEs. But Voldemort (and the story) also need supporters who
aren't DEs, and almost all Slytherins in canon, even those who
aren't DEs, demonstrate that they would gladly support people like
Umbridge.
>  
> But I noticed you didn't address my point at all, so may I ask you,
> who will the war be fought against? Who will be Voldemort's soldiers
> and supporters? 


Pippin:
According to Sirius, mostly people he has tricked, jinxed or
blackmailed into following him. Plus that army of 'creatures whom 
all fear' Voldie talked about in GoF, and which we saw him recruiting 
in OOP. Giants, goblins, dementors and others with a grievance
against wizardkind. 

And, sadly,  a few individuals so damaged that they take joy in evil. 
But Slytherin initially was not one of those, to judge by his
friendship with Godric, and it's not clear that the Hat
preferentially puts  such people  in Slytherin. To embrace murder as
a way of life, JKR seems to be saying, you need a flawed character
*and* a flawed ethical system. It is not clear that the people the
Hat picks for Slytherin have more character flaws than the others.

Draco seems to be one of those who takes joy in evil, but we know  
nothing about whether the rest of the  Slyths are like that. 

Pippin