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

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 156480

 
> Carol responds:
> At any rate, *one* of the lessons Harry needs to learn is tolerance!
> Another (IMO) is that the pursuit of vengeance is evil in itself.
> 
> That aside, I agree with your post, except that I'm not quite sure
> that I understand the last two sentences. Wrong about Gryffindor in
> what respect? And I don't understand what you mean about being wrong
> without having doubts.
<snip>
> 
> Carol, wondering how Dumbledore could be so objective about Slytherin
> in that scene yet still imply Harry's choice of Gryffindor *in itself*
> indicates that he's better than the young Tom Riddle
>
Pippin:
Maybe Harry's reasons for rejecting Slytherin don't matter as much
to Dumbledore as the fact that Harry wanted his choice considered
at all. 

Riddle/Voldemort talks a lot about his destiny, which  shows us
he doesn't want to have choices. He wants to think there's something 
making his choices for him. He easily accepts that he's a wizard, and 
easily lets the Hat choose his House "almost the moment the Sorting 
Hat touched his head." Harry did not "choose Gryffindor", but he
was not entirely willing to have the Hat choose for him, and that in
itself shows that he was a different sort of person than Riddle. 

We may suppose that Harry rejected Slytherin for the same reason
that he rejected the Nimbus 2001: he didn't want anything Draco
thought was good. He is going to have to modify that attitude if
he is ever to accept the Slytherins  as  rightful members of the
Hogwarts community instead of a necessary evil. OTOH, I don't
think JKR is a multi-culturist where ethics are concerned. She
really does believe that some ethical systems are better than others,
and specifically that Gryffindor chivalry is better than Slytherin
opportunism. 

But I think Harry will see that there is a paradox: the path towards
unity is in accepting difference rather than trying to force it out of 
existence. 

Harry needs to find a way of thought that will allow 
him to believe that his house ethic  is superior and yet treat 
the others, including Slytherin, as his equals. We don't know of 
course how he would do this, but there is a clue, it seems to me, 
in what Dumbledore is constantly saying in HBP -- that although he 
feels very sure of what he is telling Harry, he could be wrong. 

This is not doubt  in the sense that Dumbledore is questioning
his beliefs. He simply accepts that they might be questioned.
It seems to me that is the secret of Dumbledore's tolerance. He
has the humility to accept that his choices may be wrong, and so
where others have a choice, his moral duty is to let them 
choose freely,  even when he is sure his choices would be better. 

Pippin