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

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 179900

> Magpie:
> 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). 


a_svirn:
I agree that bigotry is by no means the only failing of the House in 
question, but I think that it is supposed to be absolutely the worst 
one. You can be ambitious and be a good guy – look at Harry. You can 
practice the Dark Arts and be a good guy – look at Harry. You can 
even attempt a murder of your school-mate for no better reason, that 
he is too nosy (in every sense of the word) and *still* you can be a 
good guy – look at Sirius. But you can't be anti-Muggle and good. 

> Magpie:
> 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.

a_svirn:
Yes, I agree. It drives me mad, because the situation where a quarter 
of students sorted into some sort of ghetto instead of a normal house 
is absolutely insupportable. Why didn't they disband the house, after 
Slytherin left? The Hat has been picking students according 
Slytherin's own guidelines, which means that it singles out bigots 
and helps them to form an entity. Has been on and on for thousand 
years. What for? To ensure that the history would repeat itself?