Slytherin

**Slytherin** was one of the four Houses at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, founded by Salazar Slytherin. In establishing the house, Salazar instructed the Sorting Hat to pick students who had a few particular characteristics he most valued. Those characteristics included cunning, resourcefulness, leadership, and ambition.

The founder highly valued and favoured pure-blood students and the Sorting Hat admitted that it could be a factor when being sorted. Students of any blood status could be placed in the house. However, a Muggle-born student from that house was considered to be quite rare. The emblematic animal of the house was a snake and the house's colours were green and silver. The patron ghost of the house was the Bloody Baron.

Slytherin corresponded roughly with the element of water due to serpents being commonly associated with the sea and lochs in western European mythology, as well as serpents being physically fluid and flexible animals. Similarly, in Celtic mythology, water is seen as a portal to another world, leading some to believe that the element was chosen to symbolise a Slytherin's dream for a world in which their goals and ambitions had finally been achieved. Others speculate that it was chosen to symbolise many Slytherins' hope for a pureblood-only wizarding society.

The colours also corresponded with waters around lakes and lochs often being green, and silver being often associated with grey rainwater.

## History

Salazar Slytherin was a proponent of pure-blood supremacy who considered Muggleborns too untrustworthy to be taught magic. Slytherin's views at the time could be attributed to the persecution of witches and wizards at the hand of Muggles during his era.

Slytherin's opposition to allowing witches and wizards of Muggle heritage to enrol created great controversy at Hogwarts, and it became the root of a feud that would destroy his friendship with Godric Gryffindor. According to the Sorting Hat, their dispute would erupt into a duel between the two former comrades or a civil war between their students. Slytherin ultimately decided to leave the school when he was unable to persuade the other founders to join his side in their argument. The legacy of his feud with Gryffindor has continued in modern times with their two houses sharing the most intense rivalry at Hogwarts.

When Slytherin departed Hogwarts, he left behind the Chamber of Secrets with the purpose of an heir opening the chamber one day and unleashing a means to 'protect' the school from those who, in his view, were unworthy to study to magic: Muggle-borns. The chamber was opened twice and the Serpent of Slytherin was killed the second time by Harry Potter in 1993.

## Traits

Slytherins tended to be ambitious, shrewd, cunning, strong leaders, and achievement-oriented. They also had highly developed senses of self-preservation. This means that Slytherins tended to hesitate before acting, so as to weigh all possible outcomes before deciding exactly what should be done.

According to Albus Dumbledore, the qualities which Salazar valued in the students he had chosen included cleverness, resourcefulness, determination, and "*a certain disregard for the rules*". Dumbledore noted that all of these were qualities possessed by Harry Potter, who was a Gryffindor but was almost placed in Slytherin.

Slytherins tended to take charge and possessed strong leadership skills. They were often self-assured and confident of their own competence and can be very loyal.

Another characteristic some Slytherins share was a tendency towards deep, unrequited love. Severus Snape and the Bloody Baron held abiding but unreturned feelings for Lily Evans and Helena Ravenclaw, respectively. Although some Slytherins, such as Tom Riddle, were incapable of feeling love at all, those that did were known to cherish their passion abidingly and unconditionally, although often tragically due to an inability to act appropriately on their feelings. Interestingly, Bellatrix Lestrange held feelings for Tom Riddle himself, which was a factor in her fanatical devotion to the Death Eaters; although Lord Voldemort was incapable of loving her in return, the existence of Delphini suggests that there was at least some kind of intimacy between them.

Although Merope Riddle likely never attended Hogwarts and therefore wouldn't have been sorted into Slytherin at all, she was a descendant of Slytherin himself and fit the pattern of those sorted into his house, as she held deep and unreturned feelings for Tom Riddle Snr, who often travelled by her house on his carriage.

### Blood purity

The Sorting Hat claimed that blood purity was a factor in selecting Slytherins. It was not the main factor, but it suggests that the Sorting Hat took into account the lineage of the student as well as traits. Muggle-born Slytherins existed, but were very rare, as noted insultingly by Scabior the Snatcher.

There had also been definite examples of half-bloods sorted into the house, including Tom Riddle, Dolores Umbridge, and Severus Snape. Harry Potter, a half-blood, was nearly sorted into Slytherin, but because he asked not to be, he was placed in Gryffindor instead. Also, pure-bloods were not automatically placed in Slytherin. There had been various examples of pure-bloods sorted into other houses; the Weasley family, Sirius Black, Neville Longbottom, and James Potter were all sorted into Gryffindor house, and Ernie Macmillan was sorted into Hufflepuff.

The concept of blood purity playing a part in picking students for Slytherin house stemmed from the founder Salazar Slytherin, who wanted a stricter policy of admission to the school — one limited strictly to pure-blood students. This was contrary to the wishes of the other founders at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, who wanted to accept students of any blood status.

It is important to note that not every student in Slytherin agreed with the idea of blood purity; the great wizard Merlin was in Slytherin and he was a champion of Muggle rights, however every member of Slytherin house would still be affiliated with their founder's reputed views a thousand years later. Since the Sorting Hat would nearly always select students who shared his view for the house, many members would still give that impression of the house during their time at Hogwarts. For example, in December 1992, the password for the common room was "pure-blood".

### Rivalries

Slytherin and Gryffindor were generally rivals in Quidditch and for the House Cup, of which the former had won six years in a row prior to Harry Potter's arrival at Hogwarts in 1991. It was also rare for Slytherin and Gryffindor students to be friendly with one another, and was also quite common for them to share animosity. There were exceptions, such as Slytherin Merlin who had a friendship with Gryffindor Sir Cadogan and Slytherin Severus Snape and Gryffindor Lily Evans, who were best friends until Snape's use of the slur "Mudblood", as well as his aspirations to be a Death Eater, caused Lily to sever their ties.

Their rivalry was particularly the case during the First and Second Wizarding Wars. During the second war, no Slytherin student joined the association known as Dumbledore's Army; however, this is likely the fault of Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, and Harry Potter, who only invited people they trusted, and they were known for not trusting any Slytherin due to the often rivalries they had with people from that house.

There was a terrible tension, rivalry, and dislike among Gryffindors Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ronald Weasley, and Slytherin Draco Malfoy to the point that Hermione even once punched Draco. Also, from the moment Harry and Draco met, they became immediate enemies, which was even before they were sorted into their respective houses.

Slytherin's relationship with the other two houses, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, was variable. By the time of Harry Potter's years at Hogwarts, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were frustrated at Slytherin's six-year winning streak and readily supported Gryffindor in their efforts to break it, to the extent that they even turned against Harry and his friends when their rule-breaking cost Gryffindor 150 points (and thus the lead) with Slytherin rubbing it in at every opportunity. This persisted generally with Quidditch matches, where Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff supported Gryffindor by default if they were facing Slytherin.

When Harry was named as a Hogwarts Triwizard champion alongside Cedric Diggory of Hufflepuff, the three other houses assumed he was trying to steal Hufflepuff's glory and supported Cedric as the "real" Hogwarts champion, though the Slytherin house may have likely only done this out of spite for Harry rather than any actual support for Cedric. After Cedric's death by Lord Voldemort's hands, the Slytherins joined the rest in toasting his memory but some, like Draco Malfoy, were not actually saddened by his death.

## Reputation

Slytherin had a well-known reputation for creating Dark witches and wizards that many would even say that every Dark witch or wizard was actually in Slytherin (it also didn't help that Voldemort himself was in Slytherin too when he was a student at Hogwarts). While it was true that many were in the house, it was untrue to say every single one of them was, as Peter Pettigrew, betrayer of James and Lily, was in Gryffindor, Quirinus Quirrell was in Ravenclaw, and Cedric Diggory, who turned to the dark side in an alternate reality, was in Hufflepuff.

It appeared that reputation had led to an ironic prejudice against the entire house. It is unknown how many Dark witches and wizards were from this house before Tom Riddle began recruiting Death Eaters, but many of them came from a family that valued blood purity and would prefer, like Riddle, to be in the house and recruit from there.

In fairer terms, there were many good witches and wizards in the house who opposed the use of the Dark Arts, as well as discrimination based on blood purity, such as Horace Slughorn, Andromeda Tonks, and Leta Lestrange. Andromeda was related to many dark witches and wizards, such as her own sister Bellatrix Lestrange, and brother-in-law Lucius Malfoy, but she chose to forsake the loyalty to her family in favour of marrying the Muggle-born Ted Tonks.

Leta was quite different from the majority of her family with her kind — albeit self-deprecating and bitter — personality, her love for both Newt Scamander and Theseus Scamander, her career ambition without ruthlessness, and her self-sacrificing bravery in the face of Gellert Grindelwald, in stark contrast to the usually compassionate Queenie of house Pukwudgie, who joined Grindelwald rather quickly. Also, the allegiance of Severus Snape was found to ultimately be towards Albus Dumbledore to the point of serving as a triple agent for the Order of the Phoenix, in stark contrast to Peter Pettigrew, the former Gryffindor who became a double agent for the Death Eaters instead. Merlin (of King Arthur fame) was also a Slytherin.

It might also be possible (though quite unlikely) that the Sorting Hat simply sorted anyone with ill intentions into Slytherin, regardless of whether they possessed cunning and ambition, which helped to unfairly give this house a bad name. Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle were both incredibly stupid and did not have clever or cunning minds, but were still sorted into Slytherin. They could have possessed one of the minor traits as even Peter Pettigrew was not placed into Gryffindor for bravery, but for chivalry instead.

It is also likely that Crabbe and Goyle were simply placed there by process of elimination since they exhibited virtually none of the qualities valued by any of the other houses (lacking the work ethic or honesty of Hufflepuff, the academic prowess of Ravenclaw, or the bravery of Gryffindor). The Sorting Hat simply could have taken into account what house they wished to be placed in which, with their family history, was most likely Slytherin.

The behaviour of Slytherin house at the Battle of Hogwarts is also debated. The majority of their members departed Hogwarts before the battle started and a few joined their families in becoming Death Eaters. However, many of them returned to Hogwarts to fight against the Death Eaters and were led back by their Head of House, Horace Slughorn.

The traits of the house were considered obvious examples of people turning toward an ill purpose such as cunning and ambition, but they were not inherently negative. Furthermore, traits from the rest of the houses such as daring, intelligence, and loyalty could also become easily negative.

Another trait that could be seen as a negative one was self-preservation. The idea that many of them seemed to value their own lives more than the lives of others could make them less thought of and trusted, but that was not always the case. Phineas Nigellus Black gave that impression when he saw Harry Potter trying to run away because he was afraid that his presence was putting his friends in danger. He stated that "*We Slytherins are brave, yes, but not stupid. For instance, when given the choice, we will always choose to save our own necks*".

There were exceptions to this rule, however, such as Snape, who Harry said was a "*Slytherin and... probably the bravest man I ever knew*"*,* and Regulus Black, who gave his life in an attempt to destroy one of the Horcruxes of Lord Voldemort and told his house-elf Kreacher to save himself and leave.

The truth is that while most Dark wizards were Slytherins, many members of Slytherin House did not have dark leanings and were even kind and accepting, while smaller groups of Voldemort's supporters were aligned with the other three Houses. During the Battle of Hogwarts, while all of the Slytherin students left the school before the fighting started, several of them did return with Professor Slughorn as reinforcements to join the fight against Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters, and some decided to fight as a part of Dumbledore's Army.

## Common Room

The Slytherin common room was in the dungeons of Hogwarts Castle and underneath the Black Lake. Because of this, the light in the common room was green. Harry Potter along with Ron Weasley entered the common room in his second year to find out if Draco Malfoy was the one opening the Chamber of Secrets. To enter the Slytherin common room one must merely speak aloud the current password in front of a stretch of a damp stone wall; once the word was uttered a concealed stone door would slide aside leaving a rectangular hole in the wall leading to the Slytherin common room. The only known Slytherin password was "pureblood", used in 1992.

## Head of House

Slytherin's Head of House for Harry's first six years of school was Severus Snape; however, as he fled with the Death Eaters in 1997 at the end of Harry's sixth year, Potions Master Horace Slughorn became the head of Slytherin House. Upon Snape's return as Headmaster later that year, he apparently approved of Slughorn's appointment, as he did not assign any Death Eaters as the new Head of House.

## Trivia

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