good and bad slytherins/Disappointment and Responsibility

[prep0strus]

No: HPFGUIDX 175075

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" <justcarol67 at ...>
wrote:
>
> Magpie wrote:
> <snip> Sirius was born into a Slytherin, Pureblood supremist family,
> but by 11 was already showing by his choices he  was a different
> person. <snip>
> 
> Carol responds:
> Sirius chose to be in Gryffindor to be with his new friend, James, who
> hated Slytherin. And both of them turned up their noses at Severus's
> choice to be in the house that he thought stood for "brains, not
> brawn," labeling him as "Snivelllus" for no other reason than that he
> saw Slytherin as a place that would accept a Muggleborn and honor
> intellect. (If James knew differently, perhaps he ought to have said
> so. And Sirius, who doesn't even know Severus, accuses him of having
> neither brains nor brawn, the pot calling the kettle Black.)  We're
> looking at children's prejudices and mutural ignorance here, not a
> choice based on principle or a rejection of pure-blood superiority or
> the Dark Arts. Even James's choice is presumably based on his father's
> having been in Gryffindor, just as Severus's choice of Slytherin seems
> to be based on his mother's placement there.
> 
> Had Sirius not met the less than loveable James Potter and wanted
> James to view him as "all right," he would probably have ended up in
> Slytherin like the rest of his family. there's nothing to indicate
> that he thinks it's a Dark or prejuciced House. And do we ever hear
> Sirius expressing his views on Muggle-borns vs. pure-bloods? I don't
> recall it. He certainly doesn't care about the rights of house-elves.
> 
> Carol, who sees nothing relating to principle in Sirius's choice of
> Gryffindor and nothing to admire in the choice
>


Prep0strus:

It seems a lot to ask that if James knew differently, he say so... in
the one of a very few scenes we see from Snape's perspective.  Now, we
know James became a bit of a bully, but it's absurd to think that that
was all there was too it.

In a few years, Lily would come to accuse Snape of wanting to join up
with Voldemorte with his friends.  Clearly, there were forces about in
the world - Voldy might not have been at his height, but he was out
there, spewing his filth, and his followers were Slytherins.  There is
no way that that pureblooded families wouldn't have known what was
going on.

That means that James, in a Griffendor family, would be coming into
school with an anti-Slytherin mentality (as Snape was coming in with
an anti-griffindor mentality, already thinking of them as dumb jocks)
but also with the knowledge that there was evil in the world being
done by Slytherins.

And Sirius? Well, Sirius would be at home listening to his
dark-supporting family probably PRAISING the actions of voldemorte and
cronies, and certainly talking down muggleborns, muggles, and
griffendors - a person who was the first in his family to buck a
tradition of rivalry.  In order to even be open to James as a friend,
I think there has to be a lot more to him - a lot more good and
righteousness.

And Sirius was a member of the Order of the Phoenix.  Before being
framed, before years in Azkaban.  He was on the side that fought
against prejudice, against hatred.  Before voldy came out as truly
evil, his group would have been one of racial superiority.  Of intense
interest in the dark arts. And a Slytherin boys club.  And Sirius DID
revolt against that.  Going against everything he would have heard in
his family for 11 years, he chooses something different.  And what's
more, he sticks with it - he isn't tempted away by the dark arts and a
distaste of muggleborns. He doesn't ignore the cause and do his own
thing either. He takes up the good fight.  Which was likely partially
due to the influence of James and Lupin, but that only makes me
respect James more.

Whatever people may think of the Marauders as kids, they grew up to be
good men who not only didn't stray towards evil, they actively fought it.

I find it difficult to believe that Sirius going against generations
of tradition and indoctrination by his family was 'whim' or that James
would be utterly ignorant of what was going on in the world in regards
to Voldy and his followers.

In a few years those boys that James and Sirius disdained would be
full fledged death eaters - killers, torturers.  And he and Sirius
would be dying and being imprisoned for their fight against them.

JKR likes to show us a little of the good in evil people, and a little
of the failings of good people, but I don't think we should forget who
is who.

~Adam (Prep0strus)