[HPforGrownups] Slytherin house

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 191609

Quoting jenn <fuzz876i at yahoo.com>:

> There's not a witch nor wizard that didn't go bad that came out of   
> Slytherin (Hagrid SORCERER'S STONE, US).

Hagrid is not, to put it mildly, an unbiassed or generally-reliable  
source of information.  He's got a heart the size of a five-gallon  
pail, but his brain, not so much.

   The worst was Tom Riddle
> and we know who he became.

I'll give you Tom Riddle, but I think he'd have gone bad no matter  
which House he was in.  When we see him getting notified by Dumbledore  
that he's a wizard and is going to be let into Hogwarts, he's already  
got some vibes coming off him that would scream "Danger Will Robinson  
Danger Danger!" to someone better-acquainted with child psychology  
than D'dore.


> Snape changed only to try to save Lily.

But he _did_ change.  And so did Regulus Black, who martyred himself  
to try to take out one of the Horcruces.  REgulus, you may note, was  
able to glag down all of that horrible potion, which was more than  
Dumbledore could do unassisted, all by himself.  He died a member of  
the Clean Plate Club!


>  McNair lied to stay out of Azkaban.  Many of the deatheaters were   
> in Slytherin.

Welcome to Great Britain.  Among the segment of the population that  
goes to boarding schools, particularly the real old sort that Hogwarts  
is parodying/modeled after, the friendships and connections made in  
school days are often kept up throughout one's life.  That's part of  
the rationale for sending one's kid to, say, Eton...in later life,  
he'll be able to call on old school friends and at least have a better  
chance of getting things done than some random stranger.



Lucius was a prefect in Slytherin.  Slytherin himself
> valued purebloods above all others and this supposedly caused a riff  
>  between Gryffindor and himself.

Given when Slytherin and Gryffindor operated, being wary of  
Muggleborns made good sense.  How do you know that a given Muggleborn  
isn't going to have a fit of repentance over his or her "evil ways"  
and betray the lot of you?


I appreciate a response or your
> opinions, thank you.

And here you are.

----------------------------------------------------------------
This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.