Slytherins (was Re: /Hurt/comfort/Elkins post about Draco

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 156438

Jordan:
> And we haven't heard a single thing about Daphne Greengrass, Tracey
> Davis, in terms of looks _or_ personality.
> 
> Or most of the people in higher years than Harry, Draco, etc. or
> _anyone_ younger. And that's the real issue here.

Magpie:
I don't think that's an issue at all, because it's not important 
enough to be in the story.  We read getting information from what's 
written on the page, not by projecting into blank spaces.  

Jordan: 
> The one common thread between all our descriptions of slytherin
> [student] characters, is Draco. Even Pansy's "Gang of slytherin 
girls"
> doesn't merit identification, I'm sure we only see Pansy herself
> mentioned by name because she's Draco's girlfriend. Forget 
the "Harry
> filter", we're seeing the entire house of Slytherin through a Draco
> filter. We're only told anything about any slytherin student 
character
> in so far as they relate to Draco.

Magpie:
Harry looks at Slytherin through Draco and Snape first, but that 
doesn't change what he sees happening in front of him.  Pansy's gang 
isn't identified by name, but he notices them because they are 
cackling with her at him. He notices lots of Slytherins cackling at 
him--the Quidditch team and their hangers-on, for instance. The 
older kids who laugh at Draco's impressions of him. The whole 
section of Slytherin seems to join in in singing at Ron when he's 
having trouble. On the field the team is usually described playing 
in an underhanded way. Blaise talks about blood traitors, the "prat" 
replacement for Draco in HBP also makes a bigoted remark iirc.  The 
entire IS is made up of Slytherins. Millicent isn't described very 
nicely. 

Draco is certainly related to these incidents storywise, but that's 
still an awfully lot of Slytherins being bad examples for Harry. Not 
to mention there's Snape and his own gang of Slytherins who all 
became DEs.  The boys in Harry's year are all but one sons of DEs, 
and the one who isn't still seems to go along with the ideology.The 
one Slytherin we might have known, Ron's cousin, was described as a 
horrid child.


Harry's problem, it seems to me, is not that he's unfairly 
generalizing about Slytherin and so missing all the nice people.  If 
the nice people are there, they are so unimportant they are not in 
the story--and I don't really think they are there.  Even JKR's 
defense of Slytherin is kind of weak: they're not all like Draco, 
they're not all DEs, there are DE kids in other houses.  That's a 
different kind of lesson for Harry to learn: they're not all like 
that, look here's a nice Slytherin who's cool so you don't have to 
hate everyone in the house on principle now.  I don't think that's 
where JKR is going--and good thing too, because that just means 
Harry doesn't have to deal with people he doesn't like. 

Jordan:
We see a lot of "badness" from very
> few Slytherins, and I'd be very disappointed if Harry's judged them
> all on this basis. (Not wanting to be in the house is different - 
he'd
> have to share a room with Draco, personally, for seven years)

Magpie:
But isn't it clear by this point that Harry does judge them all on 
this basis?  It's not like it's hidden or has ever been said to just 
be about Harry not wanting to share a room with Draco personally.  
Harry and Blaise hate each other "on principle."  Slughorn notices 
Harry's immediate negative reaction to his house and asks him not to 
judge him harshly on it. Harry tells Neville he's better than Draco 
since after all Neville's in Gryffindor and Neville's in stinkin' 
Slytherin. When the hat councils the houses to work together Harry 
laughs at the idea of working with Malfoy, but as a symbol of why 
working with Slytherin at all is out.

-m