[HPforGrownups] What's Going On In Slytherin House During Year 7?

[Christine Maupin]

No: HPFGUIDX 175258

I will admit that I can not keep up with all of the discussion surrounding Slytherin House and good Slytherins vs. bad Slytherins, etc. -- there are just too many emails...  So, if I'm bringing up something that has been discussed, I am sorry and hope someone will point me towards the specific discussion so I can go back to it.  If it hasn't been touched on, I would be interested in hearing what others think.

In Chapter 30, The Sacking of Severus Snape, after Snape has fled and Flitwick, Sprout, and McGonagall decide to make a stand and gather their students in the Great Hall, McGonagall has an interesting confrontation with Slughorn:

"We shall meet you and your Ravenclaws in the Great Hall, Filius!" said Professor McGonagall, beckoning to Harry and Luna to follow her.

They had just reached the door when Slughorn rumbled into speech.

"My word," he puffed, pale and sweaty, his walrus mustache aquiver.  "What a to-do!  I'm not at all sure whether this is wise, Minerva.  He is bound to find a way in, you know, and anyone who has tried to delay him will be in most grievous peril --"

"I shall expect you and the Slytherins in the Great Hall in twenty minutes, also," said Professor McGonagall.  "If you wish to leave with your students, we shall not stop you.  But, if any of you attempt to sabotage our resistance or take up arms against us within this castle, then, Horace, we duel to kill."

"Minerva!" he said, aghast.

"The time has come for Slytherin House to decide upon its loyalties," interrupted Professor McGonagall.  "Go and wake your students, Horace."
(p. 601 & 602 US)

"The time has come for Slytherin House to decide upon its loyalties..."   We know from Neville that Crabbe and Goyle love practicing the Cruciatus Curse on students in detentions; we know that Pansy would have gladly turned Harry over to Voldemort.  But, Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle are just a small fraction of the Slytherin House student body -- where do the others stand?

>From McGonagall's comment, it sounds as if Slytherin House has tried to remain neutral even though Death Eaters now run Hogwarts.  I can definitely see Slughorn being as neutral as he can.  If he has remained neutral, has the majority of Slytherin House tried to follow his lead?  When Pansy "raised a shaking arm and screamed, "But he's there!  Potter's there!  Someone grab him!" we see how members of the other Houses react, but not how any of the Slytherins react -- we see no Slytherin either support or challenge her.  Are they keeping their heads down, reluctant to choose one side over the other?  I even wonder if Pansy's reaction was out of fear or ideology or both?  I wonder what Slughorn told his students when he gathered them from their dorms...

Year 7 can't have been an easy year for any Slytherin who did not support Voldemort.  Self-preservation might have dictated one be as quiet and unnoticeable as possible -- and Headmaster Snape might have encouraged them to do just that; that might have been the best way he could protect those students -- esp. the younger ones.  If so, in the Slytherin House, good or bad debate (not to be confused with the individual good vs. bad Slytherins), does neutrality signal what could be the start of a reversal?  Is neutrality better than blindly following or following only because your parents do?  (I'm neither condoning nor condemning such neutrality...The old adage if you don't stand for something, you fall for everything keeps running through my mind though...)  After reading so many (but not all) of the emails, I feel I need to re-read the books to concentrate solely on Slytherin House.

I would like to think that Harry's exchange with Albus Severus is indicative of a change of attitude regarding house loyalty and prejudice that could permeate the whole WW, if it hasn't already -- that Harry and his peers, who lived through Voldemort's second rise to power, and who, in the epilogue, are approaching middle age and raising their own kids will in remembering history avoid repeating it.  (I do see big brother James's attitude as nothing more than teasing his younger brother -- I see such exchanges between my 14- & 12-year-old nephews all the time.  I liked how one poster equated the argument among James & Sirius & Snape on the Hogwarts Express of wanting to being in one house over another to wanting to be in one fraternity over another.)

Christy, who is very curious about how the Slytherins we don't know survived year 7 and is interested in the opinions of others even though we have little canon to support our thoughts beyond inference
 
       
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