Villain!Dumbledore // Cunning in Slytherins

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 177835

> johnson_fan4evre48:
 
> Jen, I do agree with you on some of your points but others I do 
> not. I would like to know what you think of the fact that Regulus 
> did choose to leave the DE's. He was a Slytherin that went bad 
> and chose to be good. As did Snape.

> So many people have made the remark that all those who went to
> Slytherin went bad, (as Ron Weasley said SS) I agree with you on 
> the point that Slughorn did not go bad but he did have it in his 
> mind that half bloods were inferior to whole bloods, and was 
> always truly exceptionally suprised to see Half blood or people 
> like Hermione.
> 
> It leads people to believe that the struggle within was always 
> about the purity of one's heart, being the life force of all 
> magic had to do with the blood.

Jen: I think you're saying you see Regulus and Snape as good for 
making the choices they did, but I'm a little confused which side 
you're coming down on in the rest of your post?  Do you see Slytherin 
house as all bad or evil and some escape their fate, like Snape or 
Regulus?  

In my last post, my main point was that I see Slytherin house 
presented as tainted by wanting to teach 'those whose ancesty is 
purest,' all the way back to the time when Salazar Slytherin chose 
that particular criteria for his house. I also think since the hat 
says 1) 'nothing is hidden' in a child's mind; 2) children are shown 
to have some choice in the sorting process; and 3) there are no 
Muggleborns in Slytherin, there's a strong likelihood that children 
sorted to Slytherin have some belief going in that they are superior 
to other kids for a an inborn reason - almost royalty in other words, 
a concept that appears in the story several times with the Black 
family and the Half-Blood Prince.  For some who grew up in families 
with a strong prejudice against non-purebloods, like Draco, that 
translates to pure-blood superiority.  For others like Snape, 
Slytherin was seen as the superior house in Slytherin families for 
someone already showing signs of being gifted in magical ability.  

(That's not exactly stated in text but since Snape considered it the 
house of brains and his potions book indicated he was gifted, I'm 
extrapolating he believed Slytherin was the place to hone his natural 
gifts.  Also, Lily's magical ability attracted him just as Slughorn 
is attracted to natural talent regardless of blood.  I see it as a 
permutation of blood superiority in Slytherin house. IOW, if someone 
can't be pureblood, they can still be superior by natural magical 
talent.)

Any wizard sorted into Sytherin who had the ability to overcome a 
prejudice was a character I read positively in the story.  Characters 
who realized human attributes of love, loyalty, or remorse meant more 
than inborn traits were exhibiting some level of change and growth in 
the story imo.  All Slytherins started from behind though, because 
the point of the story was to reject that someone can be great merely 
by circumstances of which family they are born into or if they are 
born magically gifted in a Slytherin family.  I don't translate that 
to mean all Slytherins are bad or evil though.  It was more an 
overturning of a blue-blood, royal ideaology in favor of a more 
populist, power to the people agenda.

johnson_fan4evre48:
> With all the knowlege the hat had why did he allow the children 
> to choose. He could of steered the weaker ones away so they could 
> become better and bolder witches and wizards.
> 
> To continue on with my answer was I feel the Sorting Hat has as 
> much to deal with the prejudice in the houses as well as all the 
> other charaters.
> 
> I also feel the Heads of Houses did not alleviate it either but to 
> put all the blame on one House was a bit much.

Jen:  I didn't read the hat as capable of acting on its own past 
whatever 'brains' were put in there by the founders.  If children can 
choose, that means it's written into the hat's script for how to 
quarter the school. 

Re: putting the blame on one house, yes, there was a flaw inherent in 
the system that was never addressed and finally came to a head in the 
story.  There's not much information about why it took centuries for 
the problem to come to a head.  My guess is the story is supposed to 
mirror the story of the four founders, that the four houses were able 
to work together for many centuries but Slytherin house, like Salazar 
Slytherin, would eventually split off from the others again and 
Voldemort was the catalyst for the second split as Slytherin's heir.

Jen