HarryPotter/SlytherinHouse

Slytherin is the *bestest* house! Because they are cool and evil, and yeah, cool. -- Naath feeling incoherant today.

This is beginning to sound like the Attribute auction in an Amber DRPS game... -- Senji

: Damn but that strikes me as funny. Now Slytherin, as we all know, is the most important house. Members of Slytherin get to talk to snakes, craft the most devious plans and the purity of their blood leads to incredible informal influence in politics. And don't forget their patrons connections! Yes, some would say that Slytherin is dark, but hey - that's all the better, right? In short, if you aren't Slytherin, you're as good as dead. So - what am I bid? --Vitenka (It's all coming back to me! The horror! And I'll leave it to your fertile minds whether I'm talking about Amber or the books.)

[Discussion moved here from /RavenclawHouse ]
Slytherin is for the 'ambitious' or people who want power. Death Eaters want pure-bloods and there is certainly a bias towards pure-bloods in Slytherin because of this but there are also pure-bloods in the other houses. Ron, for example is about as pure blooded as you can get, I believe. --Kazuhiko

I always interpret Slytherins as a house for goal oriented people who wouldn't mind a little bit of sacrifice to get what they want... a bit selfish, even. Being pure-blood is sort of a bonus when it comes to being in Slytherin. Hermione seems to fit in that catagory. -ColinLeung

: I would agree (and that's what I meant by ambitious and want power). I was more argueing against M-A's point that "Sytherin is for pure-blood". I guess it's just a case of /GryffindorHouse being better for Hermione than Hermione being most suited /GryffindorHouse. --Kazuhiko

Have neither of you read any of the /SortingHat's songs? Pure blood is a *minimum* for being in Slytherin, although not the only criteria, I'll admit. I don't have a book on me, though so I can't quote directly...

Drat, I'll take that back; I've just found the songs on the [internet] (should have checked first, really...) Even still, given a choice of "brave", "hard-working", "clever" and "power-hungry", I can't say that Hermione ought to be in Slytherin.

No, I think you're right. In OotP? we get the Sorting Hat saying "Said Slytherin "We'll teach just those whose ancestry is purest"... each of the four founders had a house in which they might take only those they wanted, so for instance Slytherin took only pure blood wizards of great cunning" - Sally

: (PeterTaylor) OTOH, Tom Riddle got into Slytherin, didn't he? (Don't have my bookmarks for authoritative references with me). And the /SortingHat wanted to put Harry into Slytherin, even though his mother was a mudblood (no pejorative intended). As to Hermione - I think she would have fit into any house other than Slytherin. Some fanfics explicitly state that the /SortingHat is supposed to put people into the house they want to be in, and Harry's experience is probably the origin of that. If true, that would be an answer, and give a bit of a psychological insight into Hermione.

: I was just about to go check that :) I think she is to a certain extent. Certainly if Slytherin didn't have the evil overtones, I think she would have been happy there. - Kazuhiko

I think we can assume that either the /SortingHat has a sense of humour, or picks where the person would do best --Kazuhiko (who is still dissapointed at the lack of an intelligent Slytherin student)

Draco and Pansy don't strike me as stupid -- Senji.

Sorry, I meant... Umm. What do I mean... Ah yes, a non-evil Slytherin student. 'Evil' is not actually part of the Slytherin job-description but seems, so far, to be the only variety. In fact, make that an intelligent, non-evil Slytherin. --Kazuhiko

Well, there are Slytherin students that we haven't really met. In fact there's one that we don't even know the gender of! (Blaise Zabini) -- Senji

All the ones we have met are either small, evil and cowardly (Malfoy) or large and stupid people who exist only to serve the small people (Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy, Flint, rest of /SlytherinHouse Quidditch team). --FR

Agreed. There's this thing called enlightened self-interest, which none of the Slytherins seem to have heard of. Actually, I'd expect the members of a house devoted to personal success to be more, well, successful... - CorkScrew

If you count Tom Riddle, he's evil but not small or cowardly, and definitely not stupid or unsuccessful. --Rachael

: Severus Snape is non-stupid and successful... -- Senji
: Also, Slughorn isn't really evil -- Senji

But not being evil wouldn't be playing the character class properly!

But just think of the wonderful AngstPoint?s you could earn...

: If you get to ten AngstPoint?s then they bleed off in an uncontrolled manner, turning holy symbols to dust within D10D10 yards and making your eyes flash purple.