Slytherin's Reputation was Re: CHAPDISC: DH, EPILOGUE

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 185630

> Magpie:
> It's a pretty weak maybe since they don't come back. After all, it's
> not like Minerva accuses them all of being DEs and sends them to LV.
> She just gets them out of the school before the battle starts. She
> does that with some students she considers innocent too. It's a
> precaution to not have any of them there and according to the words
> on the page the battle was won without their help.
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Well, I cannot agree that battle was won without their help 
> necessarily, but the reason I brought up Minerva's actions is not 
to 
> say that I judge her one bit, because I describe her actions 
exactly 
> as you did.

Magpie:
Oh, I didn't think you did judge her. 

> Pippin:
> <SNIP>
> For example, Regulus doesn't count because he's not a current 
student.
> Draco doesn't count because he didn't renounce blood-ism. Slughorn
> doesn't count because he's snobbish. Narcissa doesn't count because
> she was selfish. Andromeda doesn't count because Harry never
> explicitly thinks of her as a Slytherin. Snape doesn't count because
> he might have been a Gryffindor if he'd been sorted later in life. 
(So
> might many others.)
> 
> And yet they all risked their lives to defy Voldemort and they all
> helped to save innocent lives. If they'd done as much against the
> Nazis, IMO they'd have memorials at Vad Yashem.

Magpie:
Actually, I don't think anyone has said they didn't count. I, for 
instance, just point out that Slytherin's character is consistent. If 
they love someone they can be moved to brave acts, including brave 
acts against Voldemort. Nobody's denying their memorials in Vad 
Yashem, neither readers nor characters. I still don't think that 
implies any sort of bias on the part of readers if they don't see 
this alleged intention of JKR's to show us how biased we and the 
heroes are about anybody. Obviously they count. Slytherin is still 
around at the end of the series. Harry references Snape as a 
Slytherin who was brave. They all also get connected to the blood 
prejudice that's presented as the defining evil of the series in ways 
other Houses aren't. It seems like one has to ignore a lot to think 
of Slytherin as just another equal House that's being judged unfairly 
by anybody.

Pippin:
Phineas was not using the word in the presence of a Muggleborn, or to
stir up feelings against Muggleborns. He was using it to provoke
Snape, IMO, in the same way as Hermione used the word "horse" to tease
Lavender about Firenze. 

Magpie:
Are you suggesting that it's not just racist to use the word if he's 
not using it in the presence of a Muggleborn, or because he's using 
it to "rile up" Half-blood Snape over his dead Muggleborn friend? 
(Not that I agree he's doing that at all--I think he's just using the 
word because that's who Hermione is to him.) Whether one wants to 
think being a bigot makes one not a decent human being or not, I 
think Phineas is just being a bigot here, just as much as he would be 
if he used the word to Hermione's face.

-m