The Houses, Finally

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 184596

I think I've got it -- the answer to the question that's been haunting
the list since DH came out. Yes, there is something we've been missing
about Slytherin House. 

The Gryffindors value moral courage. 

But it's the Slytherins who show us what it actually means to have it. 

The Gryffindors are physically brave, of course. 

But Snape, unlike Dumbledore, can manage an apology without making
excuses for himself. Unlike Harry, he bears his guilt without trying
to shift it onto someone else. He makes amends without complaint,
unlike Harry, who, even if he knows he deserves a punishment generally
thinks it should be a lighter one.

Snape humbles himself to the friend he has wronged and to the enemy if
it will save his friend. 

He does it alone, without instruction, without a chorus from the
spirit world to cheer him on, without expecting praise or recognition
or reward -- which is just as well, because he doesn't get any. He
does what he believes is right, even if it makes him unpopular, and,
in the view of the majority, dead wrong. And he never, never gives up.

It's not just him, of course: Slughorn, Regulus and Draco have the
same qualities. Their moral courage is hard to notice since their
Slytherin lack of  principle generally puts them on the wrong side. 
But as Rowling shows us in the second task (which takes place
underwater, in the Slytherin element), it's possible to show moral
fibre while exhibiting a complete lack of  faith in the judgments of
rightful authority.

The book does not end with the Houses united. But it does end with an
hope that union is possible. The Houses can   learn to trust one
another, as Snape learned to trust Dumbledore's values, and Dumbledore
learned to trust Snape's moral courage.

Harry's final words to Albus suggest that there may be quite a few
Gryffindors whose innate lack of principle would qualify them for
Slytherin, if only they had the innate moral courage to admit that
they belonged there.

Pippin