HatingDH/Dementors/...Draco/.../KeepSlytherin House

[lizzyben04]

No: HPFGUIDX 177609

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Irene Mikhlin 
<irene_mikhlin at ...> wrote:
>
> bboyminn:
> 
> 
> I think people are over reacting to Slytherin House.
> Being sorted there does not guarantee that you will
> go on to be a Dark Wizard and live a life of crime. 
> That's ridiculous in my opinion.
> 
> Irene:
> 
> But that's what the books strongly suggest. For example, in book 
2, when Harry is worried that he is too similar to Voldemort, and 
Dumbledore talks about the choices that show who you are, he does 
not say that Harry had chosen to be a good person (and would have 
stayed a good person even if sorted into Slytherin).
> Dumbledore says that by the very action of actively choosing 
Gryffindor, Harry has demonstrated his superiority to Vodemort. It 
seems to suggest to me that going into Slytherin is by itself a 
demonstration of evil predisposition, even before the child had 
actually performed anything dark.
> 
> Irene

lizzyben:

Dumbledore's words are reinforced by JKR as well:

JR: New pupils at Hogwarts try on a talking magic hat. But Harry is 
disturbed by what the hat tells him.

JKR: What I'm working towards there is the fact that our choices, 
rather than our abilities, show us what we truly are. That's brought 
out in the difference between Harry and his arch-enemy, Tom Riddle. 
In Chamber of Secrets, Harry is told by the hat that if he goes into 
Slytherin house, home of warped wizards, he will become a powerful 
wizard. He chooses not to do that. But Tom Riddle, who has been 
twisted by ambition and lack of love, succumbs to the desire for 
power. 

http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2001/1101-candis-renton.html

When the Sorting Hat offered Harry Slytherin House, that was Harry's 
temptation to evil. It's the house of "warped wizards", power & 
ambition. Harry chose instead to enter Gryffindor House with Ron & 
Hagrid. In that moment, he chose friendship & love over ambition & 
power - and that choice showed his essential goodness.


lizzyben