Slytherin house

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 191618



--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "jenn" <fuzz876i at ...> wrote:
>
> There's not a witch nor wizard that didn't go bad that came out of Slytherin (Hagrid SORCERER'S STONE, US).  The worst was Tom Riddle and we know who he became.  Snape changed only to try to save Lily.   McNair lied to stay out of Azkaban.  Many of the deatheaters were in Slytherin.  Lucius was a prefect in Slytherin.  Slytherin himself valued purebloods above all others and this supposedly caused a riff between Gryffindor and himself.  I appreciate a response or your opinions, thank you.  Jenn fuzz876i
>


Pippin:
I haven't got my books with me, but I believe it's in GoF that Harry watches the Sorting and wonders if a new Slytherin knows that Slytherin House has produced more dark wizards than any other.  Harry still has a negative opinion of the House, but he's no longer willing to believe that it's the sole source of Dark wizardry. (We will also learn of foreign wizards like Grindelwald.)

Now,  as far as we know, Harry's observation about Slytherin, unlike Hagrid's,  is accurate. But it need not mean what he thinks it means. Correlation is not causation. Possibly more dark wizards come out of Slytherin House because the factors which help one excel as a Slytherin help make one excel as a dark wizard also: determination, resourcefulness, and a certain disregard for rules. And, I might add, the tendency to be disagreeable, ie, to hold out for one's own point of view despite what the rest of the group thinks is good. 

Or it could be that Harry is right, and being in Slytherin encourages people to make bad choices. But--

There is a simple question which no one ever asks. 

 Slytherin may produce a disproportionate share of dark wizards, but does anyone consider this true of Hogwarts itself?  

  Certainly no character expresses this opinion, and I don't think I've ever heard it from the fandom either. We don't imagine that Britain  produces more dark wizards than other areas with the same population, right? 

But if Hogwarts is *not* producing a disproportionate share of dark wizards,  then Sorting itself must be neutral -- it either has no effect on the number of dark wizards over all, or the negative effects are being offset by the positive.  

Of course   we could take the chauvinist view  that Hogwarts wizards ought to be  *more* moral than wizards elsewhere and this natural superiority is being undermined by the Sorting process. But we don't believe that, do we? <veg>

Pippin