[HPforGrownups] Slytherins (was Re: /Hurt/comfort/Elkins post about Draco AND Philosopher stone

[Jordan Abel]

No: HPFGUIDX 156242

Alla:
> Eh? You mean I never met them? Well, of course not, but since we had
> been told that this is one of the criteria based on what they are
> getting sorted in Slytherin, I think it is a valid one.

But it's not the _only_ criteria (criterium? *looks it up* ah.
criterion.) and there's no reason to think it applies to everyone.

And I think that from what we're actually told, the criterion is more
one of _being_ pureblood (or at least halfblood, as we certainly have
several examples) than believing any ideology.

Alla:
> I mean I understand the argument that since we did not meet many
> Slytherins, maybe not all of them support the ideology, but I just
> don't buy it. I can be wrong of course. I think Slytherins we met are
> meant to be the representatives of that House

They're representatives of those who are most visible to Harry - the
"leader" types among his yearmates of that house. There are twelve
other years of slytherins (counting next year's first-years)
contemporaneous with Harry's time at Hogwarts, many of whom we don't
even have names for. What do you mean "meant to be" - they appear so
because they're the ones who end up in Harry's path.

> and we are meant to form an opinion based on them,

They're the ones who stick out - who Harry, and by extension our
Narrator, sees. Remember he hasn't had a single harsh word for Blaise
Zabini in five books. Don't you think that if he really bought into
that pureblood crap (instead of putting on a show for Draco - It
wouldn't, after all, be very Slytherin to pointlessly defend one's own
beliefs at the cost of losing favor with someone who might well end up
being on the winning side), we'd have heard him say "mudblood" once to
Hermione's face? His pureblood supremacy ideology is conspicuous by
its absence in the first five books, and only visible for one scene in
the sixth.

And Draco is a powerful figure. Maybe, even if Blaise _does_ agree
with him, he only developed that ideology after several years at
Hogwarts, rather than having come to hogwarts already indoctrinated.

Alla:
> not on the **name only** characters, whom we know nothing about.

> Embarassingly, I am drawing a blank early in the morning, but the
> Slytherin who substituted for Draco in Quidditch in HBP, appears very
> briefly and still says **mudblood**, didn't he?

Maybe not everyone knows how offensive the term is. It's certainly
obvious that the targets themselves have to have it explained to them.
If I accept the argument that every slytherin (or even, and i'll agree
to this, some of them) have been raised into the ideology, how should
they have heard of any _other_ term?

-- 
Random832