Villain!Dumbledore // Cunning in Slytherins

Jen Reese stevejjen at earthlink.net
Sun Oct 7 03:55:31 UTC 2007


No: HPFGUIDX 177788

zgirnius:
> Pureblood supremacy was championed by Salazar Slytherin, and more 
> recently by Tom Riddle and his followers. It is not, however, a 
> selection criterion for Slytherin House, unless the Hat has 
> consistently forgotten to mention this fact in all its songs. It is 
> just an idea with some support in wizarding society broadly, which
> has historically received more support and emphasis in that house.
> Looking down on all members of the house is not the same as 
> repudiating the pureblood ideology, any more than looking down on
> white Southerners in the US would have been a repudiation of racism 
> after the Civil War.

Jen:  Most of what you said I agree with, particularly the fact that 
the 6-7 prominent Slytherins in Harry's year don't have to be a 
representative sample of all Slytherins.  To back that up, we know 
Slughorn was Head of House for many years, and according to DD, he 
had an 'uncanny knack for choosing those who would go on to become 
outstanding in their various fields.' (HBP, chap 4)  Those students, 
still considered cream of the crop years later by Dumbledore, didn't 
go on to become DEs because Riddle's group were the first, 
the 'forerunners of the DEs.' 

The only thing I really question is this bit in the OOTP Sorting 
song:  'We'll teach those whose ancestry is purest' doesn't sound 
like pure-blood supremacy so much as setting up the conditions for 
it.  So whenever the Sorting Hat is placed on the head of a child 
whose family has drilled into him/her how important their pure blood 
is, the hat sees it ('there's nothing hidden in your head' PS) and 
will place them in Slytherin unless asked otherwise (my conjecture 
there).  Or at least it won't place the child in some other house if 
he desperately wants to be in Slytherin so as not to mingle with 
those of 'inferior' blood.  

Hmm, not sure where I'm going with this exactly.  I suppose I'm 
curious what others think about that particular phrase?

Also, re: cunning, Dumbledore praises Draco for outsmarting him when 
he finds a way to let the DEs into Hogwarts.  He also praises Snape 
as the only person he would entrust with the job of fooling 
Voldemort.  I read those moments as high praise for cunning and 
ambition in Slytherins.  In addition, Regulus exhibited bravery to 
cross Voldemort like he did; the plan itself can't be called brave 
though, it required ambition and cunning to carry out imo ('crafty, 
wily, dexterous, involving keen insight or trickery' according to my 
dictionary).  
  
Jen





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