No progress for Slytherin? (Was: Slytherins: selfish, not evil)

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 173113

> Carol responds:
> I think that the epilogue reflects a natural, slow progression 
toward
> prejudice against slytherin. 

Magpie:
Why would that happen? It seems like if anything the events of the 
book would give far more reasons to mistrust them. Snape himself may 
have won himself an Order of Merlin, but he was a special case even 
to himself. 

Carol:
> 
> The Sorting Hat, which has been preaching unity, is likely to keep 
on
> advocating that message. It would help if it stopped bringing in
> Salazar Slytherin's faults "power-hungry Slytherin" and Slytherin
> wanting only "those whose blood is purest." Snape, it could be made
> known to the Slytherins, was a half-blood. And Draco has 
undoubtedly
> learned some lessons about blood purity not making a wizard 
superior,
> which we can hope he passes on to his son. 

Magpie:
I go with JKR's own thoughts on this as expressed in that interview 
to Emerson: "Well, the deeper answer, the non-flippant answer, would 
be that you have to embrace all of a person, you have to take them 
with their flaws, and everyone's got them. It's the same way with 
the student body. If only they could achieve perfect unity, you 
would have an absolute unstoppable force, and I suppose it's that 
craving for unity and wholeness that means that they keep that 
quarter of the school that maybe does not encapsulate the most 
generous and noble qualities, in the hope, in the very Dumbledore-
esque hope that they will achieve union, and they will achieve 
harmony. Harmony is the word."

I mean, the Hat was preaching unity for two books in canon and it 
didn't have any effect except for the other three houses to be 
united. Even Hermione didn't start reaching out to Slytherin. They 
encapsulate the not generous or noble qualities, but not actively 
working for this union was exactly what I thought was going to 
happen in the book but didn't.

Carol:
The next step is for Albus
> Severus and the other kids to treat Scorpius Malfoy civilly, even 
if
> they're not friends with him, just as they've seen Draco and Harry 
nod
> to each other. Contrast James's and Sirius's treatment of Severus 
(and
> Lily!) on the Hogwarts Express and Mr. Weasley's lifelong enmity 
with
> Lucius Malfoy (adult men fighting in a bookstore like boys on a
> playground). 

Magpie:
Harry was never overly rude to Malcolm Baddock, but I don't know if 
that made the gap less. We don't know if people are still hissing 
newly-sorted Slytherins, but I never got the impression the twins 
were judged too harshly for doing that. Harry's son doesn't want to 
be in Slytherin. Harry's words to him sounded to me like a loving 
father saying the right thing to his kid--but also something that 
rather went against everything that the story had just said. I can 
only think he felt the need to be respectful to Snape in the same 
way Snape protected him because of Lily. 

For me the problem for me doesn't seem to be just about other houses 
treating Slytherins with less hostility. Slytherin and Slytherins 
seem to have their own problems that imo need to be worked on 
independently as well. And the way the right side was handled in the 
book left me thinking they didn't really have the ability to reach 
out the way it seemed necessary to me either.

Carol: 
> To return to the Sorting Hat, why not use a more or less neutral
> criterion like "ambition" for Slytherins, and eventually, when the
> prejudice has died down, allow Muggle-borns in if they feel
> comfortable there? Or pure-bloods like Percy, who have the ambition
> without the pure-blood prejudice? Waiting to sort the students and
> allowing them to mingle instead of sitting at their own tables 
would
> be a start. And how about more classes together, instead of just a 
few
> mixed Gryffindor-Slytherin classes, one mixed Gryffindor-Hufflepuff
> class, and none at all with the Ravenclaws? Harry at least knew the
> names of four Slytherins (six by fifth year). He didn't know the 
names
> of *any* Ravenclaws until the first DA meeting. (I wanted to get a
> least a glimpse of Theo Nott. At least he apparently didn't become 
a
> Death Eater.)

Magpie:
I think these ideas would be great--but then, I consider Slytherin's 
position a serious problem. 

Carol: 
> You can't expect miracles, but it's a step in the right direction. 
And
> Hermione, we can be sure, is working for house-elf rights and an 
end
> to bigotry in her position in the MoM (confirmed by JKR in an
> interview). Teddy Lupin will be living proof that werewolves don't
> produce "cubs."

Magpie:
But what's a step in the right direction? I mean, they haven't done 
any of these things that we know of. 

Carol: 
> Did anyone really expect a wholly revolutionized WW, with no 
prejudice
> and no problems? 

Magpie:
I wasn't expecting a wholly revolutioned WW--definitely not. I admit 
I *was* expecting something that felt like a definitive step towards 
house integration, meaning a real reaching out and compromise on 
both sides. That's exactly what I felt JKR was putting her authorial 
foot down on on all sides. She really doesn't seem to consider it 
the big problem I do, more just the way things are--in her words, 
something we could hope would be better, but seems out of reach and 
not a priority to work for. 

Carol:
What we see in the epilogue is a WW at peace--the Hogwarts
> Express as it always was, diagon Alley presumably restored to 
normal,
> no harassment for Muggleborns (Hermione is in no danger), and a
> glimmer of an end to the division between the houses. 

Magpie:
I saw the first, but not much the second. It seemed like the world 
was at peace, and there was less open hostility, but if things got 
bad again I'd expect that never-addressed crack to open up again. 

Carol:
> The epilogue gives Harry what he wanted a chance to be Just Harry 
and
> have a happy family. No more being the Chosen One forced to fight 
Dark
> wizards whose powers are far beyond his. 

Magpie:
That's the main thing I got from the epilogue, that Harry got to be 
Just Harry with a happy family. He no longer had to be the Chosen 
One because his assigned Dark Wizard had been defeated.

-m