The two good Slytherins

[allthecoolnamesgone]

No: HPFGUIDX 176340

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "eggplant107" <eggplant107 at ...>
wrote:
>
> Before book 7 people complained that JKR gave us no good Slytherin,
> well now we have two, Snape and Slughorn. Snape had committed more
> evil than the average person but he had also committed far far more
> good as well. And if we use the ultimate test for virtue we would
> find that the world would be a far poorer place if Snape had never
> been born; but it must be said, the man is still very unpleasant
> company.
>

I watched some of JKR's interviews on the Leaky Cauldron last night and she was astonished that people think Snape a hero! The most she would concede is that he is brave. Yet she then went on to say that the most important virtue, she felt, was courage and that she hoped she would be 'worthy' to be a Gryffindor.

That has left me puzzled over her attitude to Snape (and the rest of
the Slytherins) and unsure that she really understands her own
creation. She gave Snape the primary Gryffindor virtue, to her it
seems, his only virtue yet placed him in Slytherin, which does seem in her universe to be the House of the 'damned' which only a very very few escape. Yes he had 'love' as a virtue but JKR doesn't seem to treat love as a virtue, more a reason to be virtuous. In any case his ' love' was self centred and had to change a lot before he was finally able to 'see' Lily in Harry's eyes.

I too like Slughorn, but was suprised to find him in Slytherin but then that maybe because I had accepted fully the 'Slytherin is evil' slant of the books prior to when we first met him in HBP. He does not fully act like a Slytherin but on the other hand he is not a Death Eater and every other adult Slytherin we meet is, or is married to one.  I was therefore not surprised when he fought in the battle as I had not fully labelled him a Slytherin in my mind. Perhaps he 'chose' Slytherin only due to ambition and the desire to rub shoulders with 'the right sort.'  A real life equivalent might be Oskar Schindler who was part of the Nazi 'War Economy' but came to the realization that his only hope of redemption was to use that position to fight it (albeit covertly) and save lives. Similar then to Slughorn's decision to hand over the 'real' memory about the Horcrux info to Harry.

The Malfoys are another bunch who joined up from ambition and then
found that the price was far higher than they were prepared to pay. It was their love for one another that kept them from total damnation, which is completely consistent with the books theme. Draco is the most hopeful of the Slytherins to me. Love for his parents is the sole reason he is trying to kill Dumbledore in the first place and by then he knows that Voldemort is evil and he is on the 'wrong' side. He must have been utterly terrified when the man who had just thrown his whole family a lifeline is murdered in front of him and it snatched away. I don't get any sense of Draco willingly leaving Hogwarts, Snape seems to be forcing him to leave. He is then reluctant to identify the captives at Malfoy Manor so is developing some bravery and then that is fully realised in the fire when he stays to rescue rather than saving his own skin. It was a pity I feel that we did not see a fuller resolution for them in the aftermath. I wanted Harry to go to Slughorn, Lucius and Draco in the hall and ask for their help to bring Snape's body back into the school. There should have been one body there with a Slytherin banner laid over it. Voldemort and his minions didn't earn any banners.  That would have tied up a few loose ends for me.

Regulus was a character who fully redeemed his Slytherin and Death
Eater past.

Snape reamins for me the most compelling character in the books.
Undoubtedly unpleasant, but a brilliant mind, courageous with a lonely quiet bravery that went on and on and on. The thought of what the last year of his life must have been like still brings tears to my eyes. He was unpleasant to the children he taught but he had not chosen teaching as a career, he had been forced into it. He sought the post at Hogwarts first at Voldemort's bidding to be a spy and then remained there on Dumbledore's orders to retain his value as a double-agent for the future return of V. I should think he viewed most of his time in the classroom, other than that with his NEWT students, as an utter waste of his undoubted talent. I'm sure he wanted to be in his dungeon creating and refining potions and spells, not teaching dullards who melted their cauldrons at the first simple recipe. I tend to think of Stephen Hawking (I know nothing of his personlity, I merely cite him as a man at the peak of his field) being made to teach Physics to a year 7 class in a Comprehensive school, year after year. That helps me to understand Snape a little better, not justify him, just understand him. If he had had a better childhood himself and not been bullied into isolation at school perhaps he could have seen the children for their potential and
then taught them accordingly. That he couldn't is part of his tragedy.
His role as Dumbledore's agent in place locked him into his cover story and threw the key away. Other than brief moments with Dumbledore he was 'in cover' and only at the moment of his death and in the Prince's Tale do we see the real man.

I hope he is resting in peace, he earned it.

allthecoolnamesgone