Wh y S l y t h e r i n J a c k a s s ; A d e f e n s e b y a v e r y a n n o y e d

Ky ma n i

Recently, one of my favorite websites was having an event in which people were
assigned to Potteresque houses, and we competed against one another to get as
many people into our house as possible. One girl, intent on being a Claw, was
frustrated to be dragged into the Slyth-equivalent house, and insisted that someone
change her back before she turned into a self -centered jerk. I asked her if she was
insinuating that I was a self-centered jerk, but she said no and then asked isnt it
that way in the book? You know, ever since Pottermore came out, people have been
very passionate about where they think they belong. And although Pottermores
Slytherin has done well, many people have popped into our common room and
complained about how they dont belong i n Slytherin and that theyre offended
because theyre not mean. So, not to diminish my impending argument or anything,
but heres basically how I feel about that notion:

Since I feel so strongly about it, Ive decided that its high time to set this rumo r
straight. All Slytherins are NOT jerks. And heres why:
Let me start by debunking the relevance of the statement, theres not a witch or
wizard who went bad that wasnt in Slytherin. This is completely unrealistic. Its
an overexaggeration presented by a little kid. Rons own oldest brother supported
the Ministry to the very end because he was blinded. And to be realistic here, thats
ONE house of ONE school in the entire world! Theres simply no way all evil
people came from that house. And even if they DID, that doesnt mean all
Slytherins are evil. If half of the Slytherins were evil, and they comprised all of the
evil in the world, Rons statement would be accurate, but there would still be good
Slyths. Its like she Rectangle-Square rule. All squares are rectangles, but not all
rectangles can be squares.
Now, allow me to spell out qualities of a Slytherin. You probably remember the
most popular Slytherin quote from one of the Sorting Hat songs: Or perhaps
Slytherin is where youll find your true fri ends. Those clever folk will use any
means to achieve their ends. Sounds evil, doesnt it? Thats what we call bias.
Remember that were learning this from the point of view of Harry Potter and are
bread to have a distaste toward the house from his very meeting of Draco, whom I
will get to later. However, theres some truth to the statement. The sorting Hat told
Harry that Slytherin would help him on the way to greatness. Thats because what a
Slytherin most values is greatness. They want to be great; successful; the best. That
does not mean that they are all automatically Voldemorts who want to rule the
world. Remember that Voldemort is an extreme case of a child who was not born
out of love and thus NEVER loved. His heart only knew hatred, but thats not the
case for the average Slytherin. Greatness isnt the only trait of a Slytherin, though.
Take a closer look at any means to achieve their ends. That sounds a lot like
theyll use whatever it is they can to get what they want. This means, if theyre
charming, theyll use their charm. If theyre rich, theyll use their money. It doesnt
necessarily mean torture. And usually it wouldnt. Know why? Because a Slytherin
doesnt want to endanger themselves. Which brings me to my final main quality of a
Slytherin: Slytherins will do whatever it takes to protect who they care about most,
which would be themselves, and their closest friends and family. The truth is, these
people are some of the most loyal people in the wizarding world. Weve seen
Gryffindor turn against one another. Hell, even in the first book, when Neville
stood up to the trio and Hermione froze him, we see infighting within the house that
comes from a lack of communication (and trust that the guy wont snit ch).
However, at no point to Slytherins ever turn against one another. Being a Slytherin
is being part of a brotherhood. They protect themselves, and one another. You
NEVER leave behind your friend. And yet, people often mistake Slytherins for
being outright selfish. Do you remember the 7th book/8th movie? There was a part
in which Voldemort asked Hogwarts to hand over Harry and no one would get hurt.
One of the Slytherins asked what are you waiting for? Someone grab him! And a
lot of people moved to prot ect Harry. I firmly argue that this was a perfectly logical
question ask. One life for her own and the rest of the school seems like more than a
good deal. It wasnt that she was evil or hated Harry. She just saw it as the best way
out.
So. With that aside, I recognize that the easiest way to point at Slytherin as a bunch
of jerks is to look at the characters we know best. However, its unfair to base your
knowledge of an entire house off of two or three characters. Furthermore, Id argue
that all of the obvious examples are hardly example of evil jerks, and will note that
they all came around in the end. But dont worry, I wont leave this without
examples.
Draco Malfoy, whom I would see as the first counterargument, was largely
influenced by what his father told him. He is no different than any other spoiled
brat. We happen to see him as a jerk because we read the story through Harrys
eyes. And let us not forget that Harry allowed himself to become so blinded by
hatred that he accused Draco of being the heir of Slytherin just because he hated
him, and vastly misjudged professor Snape. But going back to Draco, at no point
was he ever evil. He admired his father. His father bought him things, and he
wanted to be friends with a famous wizard. Wouldnt you? He was rejected
publicly humiliated, no lessand so he held a grudge against Harry. This is
completely reasonable. In fact, on few occasions did Draco ever take his hatred as
far as Harry did, who consistently accused Draco of very serious crimes and even
practiced new and dangerous spells on the guy because he allowed himself to be so
blinded by his bias. But as Draco got older, and it became clear that his father was
dragging him into the Dark Lords path, he became scared. He didnt know what to
do with himself. He broke down by the sixth book, when he was drafted into the
Death Eaters. And he DID NOT want to kill Dumbledore. We saw that he couldnt.
He was crying, and its clear that he felt blackmailed. In the seventh book, he had
the chance to reveal Harr y Potter to his family. He knew who he was, yet Draco
kept his mouth shut. He wanted to be saved, and so he simply couldnt reveal him.
Hes a kid who simply wanted to be a kid. At the end of the day, Draco only did
what his parents told him.
Lucius Malfoy, by the way, also learned his lesson, albiet the hard way. He lost
favor in Voldys eyes, and suddenly hes just doing what he needs to to survive. Its
unclear what his motives were, really. Perhaps he was closer to the original
Slytherins ideas of puri ty in the blood and saw Voldemorts ideas as perfectly
reasonable, and thus didnt realize what he got into. Theres no
really evidence either way. What we all know though, is that the guy got bitch
slapped by Voldemort. Hed fallen, and just wanted to escape, but had no idea who
to turn to.
Which brings me to a Slytherin that people forget about: Narcissa Malfoy. She is
one woman who always, always, always had her priorities straight. And that was:
her family and her son came first. We never met her really until the 6th book, when
her son was drafted to kill Dumbledore. From the moment we meet her, shes
willing to put her life on the line to reach out to Snape, the one person who might
be able to save her son. By the seventh book, we see her in action. Shes quiet when
she needs to be, loyal to Voldemort when she needs to be, but always a step ahead.
When she realizes that Voldemort is nothing but a threat to her family, shes done
following him. Shes the one who saved Harrys life by pronouncing him dead. She
did this to get her son back and get that poison out of her familys life. Shes an
example of the upmost loyalty, an example of cunning and thinking things through
before she acts. She used her position and trust to defeat the Dark Lord. And she
did this with entirely Slytherin-like qualities.
And really, Im not going to spend very much time Snape, the HEAD of the
Slytherin house, because anyone who has read the books or seen the movies would
know that he ends up being a vital hero to the story. His patronus changed to that of
the woman he loved because he was simply so devoted to repenting and becoming
deserving her love, even though he would never have it. He risked his life countless
times, over a boy that he resented for his similarities to his father, out of love. Hes
a character that grew, even though hes quite loyal to his house.
A true Slytherin values greatness over anything else. They recognize power in
multiple ways. They are ambitious, and they have the skill and cunning to back up
their ambitions. They are loyal to their house and their friends until the veryend.
They think things through before they do it to ensure that its going to be the most
beneficial to those they care about (yes, including themselves), with the least
amount of repercussions, but will die for what they believe in if it comes to it.
So no, it is not fair to insinuate that all Slytherins are jerks. Just because I want to
be a star someday, have faith that I will be, and am willing to use my assets to get
there, does not mean I am evil, and the same goes for the rest of the Slytherins. We
may have our share of evils, but so does every other house. Theyre just too
ashamed of themselves to admit it. If youre sorted into Slytherin, beproud. The
sorting hat saw something great in you. Something to which no one will ever be
able to compare.
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