Failed Friendships (was:Re:Draco, Narcissa and Harry)

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 179872

> Betsy Hp:
> Yes, I totally agree that one of the (many!) bad things about 
> Slytherin is their bigotry.  But I didn't get the sense that Harry 
> (or Gryffindor) was too concerned about challenging that bigotry.  
> The sense I got was that this was as a part of Slytherin as 
bravery 
> was a part of Gryffindor.  So rather than something to be tackled 
and 
> dealt with (as Voldemort was tackled and dealt with) it was just 
> something that was.
> 
> I think that Gryffindor and Slytherin were great friends while 
> Slytherin was a bigot (and Gryffindor was brave <g>) points to 
the, 
> in the end, non-issue of that aspect of Slytherin.  I'm not saying 
> that Gryffindors don't see the bigotry as bad (just as they see 
> Slytherins' practicing "dark magic" as bad, or their "ambition" as 
> bad).  It's just, I don't see it as the *source* of the rift.  
It's 
> not what they get into fights over in the halls.  Or into fights 
over 
> in epic show-downs for that matter.

Magpie:
I think I see what you mean. Slytherins suck in many ways. They're 
bigoted, but they are also petty, cowardly, mean, often ugly, vain, 
cruel, and interested in dark magic (in the bad way). Using the 
worst ethnic slur and wanting wands taken away from deserving 
Wizards like Hermione is just yet another way they show themselves 
to be awful.

You can't really separate out the bigotry from any of their other 
bad qualities or show that it's at the root of it, since bigotry 
doesn't make you any of these things. Bigots can be charming. The 
books also aren't looking at bigotry in itself and getting to the 
roots of it or trying to change it. There are some Slytherins who, 
especially if they've been spending time with Gryffindors, change 
some of their uglier ways of behaving when it comes to that subject, 
but there's no storyline of how someone actually learns they were 
wrong about this sort of thing, or what the beliefs mean to them to 
begin with. (According to JKR Snape even thinks he can impress his 
Muggleborn love by being the biggest baddest DE wannabe there is.)

Many have noted that bigotry appears throughout the books, that in 
fact the WW has different types of sentient beings who think and 
speak--which puts them at human level--institutionally treated 
differently according to their "race" or species if you want to call 
it that than Muggle Britain does, but this isn't a problem. When the 
good guys slip up and say something a little bigoted it really 
doesn't matter, because they're not DEs, they haven't joined the 
Slytherins. There's no moment where it's important for them to 
recognize this in themselves. It just makes them "real" or not goody-
goody or wonderfully flawed. It's not a danger sign. There's no 
corruption here. At base everyone agrees on the idea of superiority 
of some groups over others, the difference is in how you treat your 
inferiors. If the Gryffindors are the bright shiny face of Wizarding 
society, the Slytherins are the ugly side of it that needs to be 
regularly and symbolically beaten. 

Symbolically, since Slytherin House as a whole leaves before the 
battle. They aren't needed for the House to play its assigned part. 
They don't battle the rest of the school and get killed, nor do they 
recognize where their own best interests lie and battle their own to 
change what they stand for. Slytherin ends the series in exactly the 
same position it was in when Tom Riddle got to school. They're at 
peace, but why would they be friends? Every reason Harry heard for 
not being friends with Slytherins was proved in the book. The 
originally founding story, intriguing as it is, repeats itself. What 
does it mean that Slytherin is included as a founder of the school, 
and then symbolically walks away to achieve peace? The hat talks 
about being "sad" at Slytherin's leaving, but we never see any 
reason why we honestly should be so. Slytherin is the House that's 
not really a House. Having the absent founder is just yet another 
way that Slytherin is defined completely by negatives.

-m