Dark Book

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 176987

Jen earlier: 
> > > First of all, McGonagall made it very clear to Slughorn that he
and his students could evacuate if they chose to do so but now was the
time to decide upon loyalties.  Then the entire house shows up in  the
Great Hall!  What's McGonagall supposed to think happened there except
that Slytherin has decided they want to take part in securing the
castle against Voldemort?  They haven't evacuated, they arrive with
the other students.  You don't offer evacuation to victims you're on
the brink of exterminating, btw.  
>  
lizzyben responded: 
> > Oh yeah you do. That was a threat, pure & simple. You've bought
into the Slytherins=Death Eaters mindset. Why wouldn't she think that
Slytherin students wanted to fight too? Or that they hadn't evacuated
yet, or didn't know what to do, or were looking for safety? Why assume
that the Slytherin students' presence in their own school, their own
home, was part of some insidious plan to let in Voldemort? Because
Slytherins have *already* been rejected from Hogwarts society & are
now totally classed as an "Other" that doesn't belong there, anymore.
> <snip>
> > Yet when the Slytherin students do as they're told, that's a sign
of their disloyalty, evilness & Death Eater loyalties? What would make
you come to that (IMO irrational) conclusion? 
> 
Jen replied: 

> I left my previous comment for you to re-read.  If my rhetorical
question was confusing, I'll say it plainly:  When Slytherin house
appeared in the Great Hall, McGonagall assumed they were there 
because they wanted to take part in securing the castle against 
Voldemort.  Seems the argument about my 'mindset' and irrational 
conclusion is based on a misreading.
>

Carol responds to both:
I don't understand this argument. McGonagall tells Slughorn, "I shall
expect you and the Slytherins in the reat Hall in twenty minutes" (DH
Am. ed. 601), which is exactly what she tells Flitwick with regard to
the Ravenclaws. She adds that Slughorn can evacuate with his students
if he chooses, but that they'll kill any Slytherin who attempts to
sabotage the resistance (601). So, she's already assuming that
Slytherins will support the wrong side, but she's giving them the
opportunity to evacuate along with the younger students from all
Houses. But first, all students of all ages from all Houses are to
gather in the Great Hall for an organized evacuation. The evacuation
takes place *from* the Great Hall, and the younger students from *all*
the Houses would have been evacuated in any case.

Pansy Parkinson's remark causes McGonagall order the entire house to
be evacuated. IOW, if it hadn't been for Pansy's remark and the
reaction by the other Houses, standing up and pointing wands at the
Slytherins, ickle firsties and all, it's conceivable that some of the
older Slytherins might have stayed back to fight for Hogwarts as the
students from other Houses did. McGonagall's order makes that
impossible. However, given the reaction of the other three Houses and
McGonagall's previously stated assumption, any Slytherin (say Blaise
Zabini or Theo Nott) who had chosen to fight for Hogwarts would
probably have been assumed to be a Voldemort supporter. Their only
option at that point is to be evacuated (but that would be the only
option for the under-seventeens in any case).

Slytherin House is still being judged, entirely unfairly, as the House
of Death Eaters, in part because Snape is assumed to have murdered
Dumbledore and to have been friends with the Carrows and in part
because a total of four Slytherins (AFAWK) have DE fathers.
Unfortunately for everyone concerned, IMO, Pansy Parkinson's remark
"proves" to McGonagall and the students from the other three Houses
that Slytherins are untrustworthy, and they are summarily dismissed
from the Great Hall, with the entire House treated as, in effect,
naughty children--except that Slughorn knows that McGonagall is
shooting to kill. The entire House is judged as guilty until proven
innocent, but showing up in the Great Hall as ordered has nothing to
do with that judgment.

At any rate, *of course*, the Slytherins showed up in the Great Hall.
That's where McGonagall ordered them to be. None of the students were
supposed to have been evacuated yet. The evacuation took place *from*
the Great Hall, and it involved the great majority of students from
all four Houses. Only some seventeen or so Slytherins (the seventh
years and most of the sixth years) out of seventy (assuming a normal
enrollment for that House, which contains no Muggleborns) would have
been old enough to join the fight on either side.

Carol, again not approving of McGonagall's conduct and noting that her
preconceptions are proven false by the story itself