good and bad slytherins/Disappointment and Responsibility

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 175190

Alla wrote:
> 
> I do not really care about Petunia's shortcomings for the purpose of
> this argument :) I do not like her at all, but my point is that at 
> the
> age of eleven, Snape seems to know quite clearly IMO that those who
> are muggleborns have lesser rights than purebloods in WW.( pause when
> he answers Lily and what he wants to call petunia IMO show that).
> 
> If Snape did not know that, how would he know to throw **this** at
> Petunia that she is just a Muggle? And not, say find something wrong
> with her looks for example - eleven year old girl certainly would be
> sensitive about that as well.
> 
> It seems to me that Snape knows really well where muggleborns and
> muggles stay in WW based on this. Speculation of course, but I 
> believe
> based on canon inference, I think word Muddblood rolled off his 
> tongue
> at that age.

carol responds:
As I said in an earlier post, contempt for Muggles and contempt for
Muggleborns are two different things. All we need to do to see the
distinction, us vs. them, Magic vs. Muggles, is to look at the young
*Dumbledore's* plans to rule Muggles for "the greater good."

I doubt that Severus's mother, who married a Muggle, went around using
the term "Mudblood" for Muggleborns. Nor do we ever see it "rolling
off [Severus's] tongue" at that age or any other. He uses it once in
all of canon, under great duress. We have Lily's word that he uses it
for others than herself but we don't actually hear him use it. He
certainly has never used it to refer to her until the SWM. She is his
first friend, and he knows from the outset that she's a Muggle-born.
Had he been raised to scorn "Mudbloods," I can't see that happening.

We never hear him use the term as an adult, and we hear him
reprimanding Phineas Nigellus for using it.

Somehow, I can't see the "greasy little oddball" sitting next to the
Muggleborn and naively hoping that she'll be sorted into Slytherin
"tossing that word around." It's not in canon. What we have in canon
is James and Severus sneering at each other's chosen Houses because of
misconceptions. Severus sees Gryffindor as a House representing
'brawn"; James sees it as a House of Chivalric heroes. Severus sees
Slytherin as the House of "brains." James sees it as something else,
something antithetical to Gryffindor, but we don't no what. No mention
is made of Dark Arts of blood prejudice.

And Sirius, who has not yet put up Gryffindor banners or posters of
Muggle girls in bikinis on his walls to show his rebellion against his
family, is surprised by James's prejudice against his family's House.
He doesn't smile at James's words, and when he says that all his
family have been in Slytherin, James says with surprise that he
thought Sirius was "all right."

Sirius, who has just found a new friend who, in contrast to Severus,
is not "a little oddball" but well-groomed and obviously well-cared
for, wants to stay on his new friend's good side. His asking James
what House *he* wants to be in suggests that unlike James, whose
attitude toward Slytherin *exactly parallels* Draco's toward
Hufflepuff (I have already pointed out the nearly identical wording),
he seems to have no set idea of which House he wants to be in. He had,
I am almost certain, expected to be Sorted into Slytherin based on
family tradition. Now he questions it, not on principle, not through
any visible opposition to his family tradition on this early age, but
because James scorns it.

James and Sirius don't know Severus at this point. They pay no
attention to him until he states that he wants to be in Slytherin.
They don't know how many hexes he knows or what his view on blood
prejudice are (he's sitting with a Muggle-born; they're both
pure-bloods). As for an interest in the Dark Arts, we see all of one
Dark Curse invented by him much later. There's nothing Dark about
Muffliato or Langlock or the toemail hex. And in this conversation,
there's no mention of the Dark arts at all, only Severus's contention
that Slytherin is the House of "brains" (presumably taught him by his
mother) and his belief that Muggle-born Lily might be Sorted into that
House.

James knows, based on what his father has told him, that he wants to
be in Gryffindor, which he associates with heroic battles (the
imaginary sword). Severus knows, based on what his mother has (perhaps
not accurately) told him, that he wants to be in Slytherin, which he
associates with brains (which he, and the reader, knows that he has).
Sirius knows that his family have all been in Slytherin but is willing
to buck tradition *to be with James*. At the end of the scene, these
chivalrous, would-be Gryffindor boys trip Severus and give him the
unearned nickname "Snivellus" based solely on James's prejudice
against Slytherin House. There is no mention of Voldemort, who is just
starting to come to power, no mention of political or philosophical
convictions of any kind, just uninformed little boys insulting each
other and becoming enemies solely based on House rivalry.

As for the actual Sorting, perhaps the Hat was torn between Slytherin
and Gryffindor for the arrogant little pure-blood with a reckless
streak and gave him the choice: Gryffindor vs. Slytherin, friend vs.
family. And, whether he chose Gryffindor or was place there based on
his reckless streak, we can be sure that his family was not happy with
that placement. And naturally, when Regulus did not buck tradition and
was placed in Slytherin, they would have considered him the good and
dutiful son in contrast to his Gryffindor brother. I see no canon,
however, to indicate a split between Sirius and his family before he
went to school. If James and Severus in that scene and Ron and Draco
in SS/PS are any indication, he would most likely have gone along with
his family. In fact, the only example of members of the same family
Sorted into different Houses that I can think of other than Sirius and
the rest of the Black clan is Padma and Parvati Patil, and even they
aren't Sorted into rival Houses.

Carol, who thinks that had James stated that he wanted to be in
Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw, Sirius would probably have gone along with
him just to be considered "all right" by his self-confident and
judgmental new friend