good and bad slytherins/Disappointment and Responsibility

[hickengruendler]

No: HPFGUIDX 175008

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "sistermagpie" 
<sistermagpie at ...> wrote:
>
> > > Prep0strus:
> >
> > > But more importantly, are there any ADMIRABLE slytherins? Any
> > > likable? Any one would like to emulate?
> > >
> >
> > Hickengruendler:
> >
> > What about Mrs Tonks? Granted, she is a very minor character, but
> she
> > married a Muggleborn, much to her family's displeasure. This
> > definitely shows some positive character traits.
> >
> > Snape's mother, too, was a Slytherin, who in spite of any 
pureblood
> > biases in the house married a Muggleborn. Granted, it's hard to
> call
> > her admirable, since she seemed to have been a very phlegmatic
> woman,
> > who let herself bullied by her husband, in spite of the fact, that
> > she was the witch. (On the other hand, it does show, that she was
> > unwilling to use her powers against someone, who doesn't have 
them,
> > which is a virtue Hagrid or the Weasley twins did not share).
> 
> Magpie:
> These examples suddenly made me think of Monty Python and the Holy
> Grain: "...and also, Sir Not Appearing in this Film."
>  

Hickengruendler:

Yes, you are of course totally right. I thought something like this 
would come up, and I agree with you. 

However, that's what I expected. JKR didn't give us any 
major "admirable" Slytherins (in the sense that they are perfect role 
models) in the first six books, and I didn't expect them to pop up 
suddenly in book 7. In fact, I think I would have found it a cop out. 
What I wanted to see were Slytherins, who overcame their flaws and 
worked for redemption. And I was satisfied with it thanks to the 
portrayal of Regulus, Slughorn and especially Snape. 

Regulus basically was a youth, who happened to get disllusioned once 
he saw what Voldie did to Kreacher, and tried to stop him, which is 
pretty much what I expected from such a relatively minor character. 
He also showed real heroism in drinking the Potion himself, instead 
of, as Harry at once suspected, made Kreacher do it. And the reason, 
why Kreacher led the house-elves into battle, was not because of 
Harry, but because of "Master Regulus, the defender of House-Elves". 
His respect for a creature is something not many of the other wizards 
(including the Gryffindors) share, and it is definitely something I 
find admirable.

Slughorn was always presented as a character, for whom safety came 
first. That's why he moved from house to house, once Voldemort 
returned. That's why he at first hesistated to start teaching at 
Hogwarts. And that's why he at first left the castle, before the 
battle started. But he returned, and ended even up fighting Voldemort 
himself, overcoming his cowardice. That's something I find admirable.

Snape was presented as someone, who since his youth basically only 
cared for one person, Lily. Lily alone was the reason he changed 
sides, and in the beginning he even had no qualms about what happened 
to Harry and James, which is, as Dumbledore correctly said, 
disgusting. But during the Pensieve memories, I also saw a man, who 
changed. I'll use two sets of Pensieve scenes as example. The first 
one is, where he tried to apologise for calling Lily a mudblood, and 
Lily pointed out, that he calls everyone of her birth a mudblood, so 
why should she be any exception. This is contrasted with the scene, 
where he told Phineas not to call Hermione this. This shows a 
progression for Snape. The other example, and maybe the more 
significant one, is the scene, where he admitted in front of 
SDumbledore, that he asked Voldemort to spare Lily in exchange for 
James and Harry. This is till the old Snape, only caring about Lily 
and nobody else. But one of the last Pensieve scenes, shows him 
trying to save Remus Lupin from another Death Eater. This is a big 
change in Snape. Not only has Remus nothing really to do with Lily, 
he even was a person, who is closely connected to James, and who was 
hated by Snape. Yet Snape didn't hesistate a second trying to save 
him. This shows an enormous change in Snape's character. And in spite 
of the fact, that he only agreed to work for Dumbledore, to save 
Lily's son, he did not stop working for the good side, once he 
thought Harry had to die.

I also saw a change in Draco in Deathly Hallows, even though he never 
became directly heroic the way Snape, Slughorn or Regulus did, but he 
was not the same boy, he was in the beginning of the series.

Therefore  for me, the, as correctly pointed out, minor characters of 
Andromeda and Eileen are just additional characters to show a better 
side of Slytherin, and that the more major characters got more major 
parts in this regard. 

Potioncat asked, if we know, that Andromeda and Eileen are Slytherins:

Hickengruendler:

Sirius still considers Andromeda as family, and he said, that every 
family member was a Slytherin. So I think it is at least likely that 
Andromeda was as well. And Snape was that eager to get into 
Slytherin, that I find it likely, that his family was as well.