CHAPDISC: DH, EPILOGUE

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 185521

Carol earlier:
> > 
> <snip> I agree that JKR had another purpose, which I take to be
moving forward to the next generation to show Harry being what he's
always wanted to be, Just Harry, a happily married family man with
normal kids who somewhat resemble him and Ginny, along with his
happily married best friends and their children. She gives us a
glimpse of Hogwarts, letting us know that in many respects its still
what it was when we originally became enchanted by it, and yet there's
hope for a reconciliation with Slytherin that did not exist when Harry
entered the school... <snip>.
> 
Laura responded:
> 
> Carol, I wish I could share your optimism about student relations at
Hogwarts, but I suspect that more parents share Ron's attitude than 
Harry's.  I'd be less pessimistic if JKR had shown more Slytherins in
the Battle of Hogwarts, but one Slughorn doesn't compensate for the
rest of the house deserting the school as quickly as they were able. 
No Slytherin parents participated either, except for Narcissa Malfoy,
and she did the least possible to find out whether her son was alive.
There will still be too many orphaned children at Hogwarts for the
school to be truly at peace.  <snip>
> 
> Again, I think you're overly optimistic.  The kids will know very
well who the bad guys were in the 2nd war.  I have no reason to
believe that the Slytherins of Draco's generation are repentant, and
their kids will have absorbed that attitude.  

Carol responds:

I'm not sure exactly what the Slytherins of Draco's generation are
supposed to "repent." Draco hated being a Death Eater, failed to kill
Dumbledore, reluctantly Crucioed other DEs only out of fear of
retaliation against himself or his family, and refused to clearly
acknowledge that he recognized HRH. He also showed real friendship for
the unconscious Goyle, pulling him out of the flames and huddling with
him, fully expecting Harry and his friends to leave them to die. His
nod to Harry acknowledges his (perhaps grudging) debt to Harry for
saving his life and Goyle's.

Goyle is too stupid to count, and Crabbe, who did go over to the DEs'
side completely, is dead. Pansy Parkinson admittedly advocated turning
Harry over to Voldemort, whieh *to her* seemed like the sensible and
obvious way to save the school from Voldemort's vengeance, but no
other Slytherin echoed her view. They left the school because
Mcgonagall ordered them to do so. (I wouldn't call that "deserting the
school" since the underage students in all four Houses did exactly the
same thing, again because McG ordered them to do so.) If the (of-age)
Slytherins returned to fight, as JKR says that they did in an
interview (which has no more and no less authority as canon than her
outing of Dumbledore, whcih you accept as fact even though canon
evidence is ambiguous), they've redeemed themselves. If they didn't
return, all they did was save their own skins on McGonagall's orders.
Volemort to the contrary (and we know that he's not a trustworthy
authority), we see no Slytherins fighting on the side of the Death
Eaters. The narrator identifies the people in the clearing with
Voldemort as he gets ready to kill Harry, and no students are among them.

i've already made my arguments supporting Phineas Nigellus's assertion
that Slytherin "played its part," so I won't repeat them here.

Carol, sorry that Laura can't share her optimism about the new
generation of Slytherins