Slytherin Family

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## Family Heritage

### Species

* Wizardkind
* Witch
* Hybrid
* Tribrid

### Blood Status

* Pure-Blood
* Half-Blood

## Relationships

### Related Families

* Gaunt Family
* Riddle Family
* Black Family
* Mikaelson Family
* Labonair Family
* Gryffindor Family
* Ravenclaw Family
* Dahlia and Esther's Family Bloodline
* Ansel and Niklaus Mikaelson's Family Bloodline
* Peverell family
* Sayre family
* Steward family
* Many other distant relatives

## Affiliation

### House(s)

* Slytherin
* Gryffindor
* Ravenclaw

**The Slytherin Family** was the surname of a pure-blood wizarding family with several notable members, particularly Salazar Slytherin. Salazar was one of the four co-founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and the founder of Slytherin house. He lived in the 10th century.

The family had the ability to speak Parseltongue, which was passed down for generations. While very little was known about the family, it's very likely they had a tendency of marrying their cousins to keep their blood pure and to retain the traits of their ancestors like their descendants, the Gaunts, and several other pure-blood families did.

The family was known for producing Dark wizards and witches, including Salazar and Tom Riddle.

## History

### Early History

The Slytherin family was a prominent one in the wizarding world, as demonstrated by their famous ancestor, Salazar Slytherin. However, over time their gene pool became unstable due to a habit of inbreeding. By the time their last descendants, the Gaunt Family, they had slowly squandered their wealth, which was completely non-existent.

### Recent History

By the early twentieth century, the family was extinct in the male line. Marvolo Gaunt, their last known descendant from the female line, had only two children, Merope and her brother Morfin. While Morfin regularly used magic to terrorize Muggles and spoke almost exclusively in Parseltongue, his sister exhibited no dark qualities. She was so traumatized by emotional abuse inflicted upon her by her father and brother, that she was barely able to use magic and often presumed to be a squib.

Merope later ended the pure-blood line of her family by marrying a Muggle from a nearby town, Little Hangleton, and having a half-blood son and daughter, Tom and Ava Riddle, who the son would later became the infamous Dark wizard, Voldemort. When she died, the Slytherin family continued through Tom and Ava until their deaths. The last of the line are Mattheo, Nova, Aurora, Link, Loki, London, Apollo, Artemis, Nik, Ava, Ares, and Athena.

## Family Members

### Salazar Slytherin

Salazar Slytherin was a great wizard of Medieval times. He was a Parselmouth (a wizard with the rare ability to speak with snakes), and skilled at Legilimency. Salazar was one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As he didn't trust Muggle-born students, he expressed his opinion against accepting them at Hogwarts. However, when the other founders didn't agree, Slytherin left the school and did not return. It is unknown when he died. Salazar Slytherin's portrait still remains at Hogwarts.

### Descendants

The Slytherin family, like many of the pure-blood families, had some relation to many other families in the wizarding world. The Peverells, Gaunts, Blacks, Malfoys, Potters, Weasleys, Prewetts, and other families are all linked to one another through bloodlines and intermarriage.

The only known direct descendants from Salazar Slytherin were the Gaunts, who for the most part shared their ancestor's beliefs in the purity of wizard blood. They also spoke in Parseltongue between themselves. Tom, Ava, Mattheo, Nova, Aurora, Link, Loki, London, Apollo, Artemis, Nik, Ava, Ares, and Athena were the last known descendants of the Gaunt family and spoke Parseltongue as well.

The Gaunt family was also descended from the Peverells, although it is unknown if one of the two infamous bloodlines preceded the other or if they simply merged at some prior point.