Silver and Green: Redeeming Slytherin House

"You could be great, you know, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that."- The Sorting Hat

I'll be honest, when I was asked to write an article redeeming Slytherin House, I knew that I had a difficult task ahead of me.

  As everyone knows, Slytherin has quite a bad reputation. Firstly, its founder was a pure-blood fanatic. Secondly, it produced the one and only He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and nearly all of his followers. So obviously, I took to the internet to search for some insight on some good qualities of Slytherins.

I didn't find much.

Mostly, everything I found talked about how Slytherins are power-hungry, muggle hating, dark wizards who are insanely selfish and weepy cowards. All of the "good" things I found about Slytherin had no substance. It was all stuff like, "We have the best common room," and "We're just the coolest House," and the worst one, "Everyone looks good in green."

 That is a nice hearth.

Yet there's so much more to being in Slytherin than just these dumb, shallow things.

The Pottermore Sorting Hat quiz placed me in Slytherin. No, I didn't expect it to. Honestly, I didn't think I possessed any Slytherin traits because, up until that point, I thought all of the Slytherin traits were bad. So I thought, if I got sorted into Slytherin, and I'm not a bad person, then what does that say about the other Slytherins? Maybe they're not bad people, either.

Some of the most common traits that Slytherins share are actually fantastic. Resourcefulness is a main one, being described as using skill and creativity to cope with new situations and difficulties. Now that doesn't sound so bad, does it? What about ambition and cleverness? Also common Slytherin qualities, and very useful ones at that. One of my favorite things about being a Slytherin though, is how fiercely loyal we are to our friends and family, almost to a fault.

This isn't working. I tried, guys. I really did. I gave it my best effort. You want to know the truth? Here it is:

I cannot come up with a solid argument in favor of Slytherins that outweighs all the bad they've done.

See, I had come to terms with my sorting. Remembering people like Severus Snape and Horace Slughorn led me to say, "Hey, being a Slytherin isn't too bad!" I got excited about my House. I have Slytherin t-shirts, socks, jewelry, and notebooks. I was all about some Slytherin Pride. However, having done more thorough research, I have recalled why I hated Slytherin so much in the first place.

Slytherins seem like such terrible people, and why wouldn't they be? Salazar Slytherin was literally the worst. He was OBSESSED with blood purity, so much so that he hid a huge freaking basilisk inside Hogwarts to petrify and murder Muggle-Borns. Lord Voldemort was a Slytherin student, along with every single one of the Death Eaters (with the exception of Peter Pettigrew, who was probably the ONLY Gryffindor student to ever become a dark wizard). The Malfoys, of course, are Slytherins and some of the most egotistical, cold-hearted people who have walked the earth. Speaking of the Malfoys, Draco is such an annoying snot that I found myself high-fiving the book when Hermione slapped him in the face in Prisoner of Azkaban. Also, if you'll all remember correctly, the Slytherins were sent away during the Battle of Hogwarts because of Pansy Parkinson and her big mouth. Lastly, the most HORRENDOUS character in the Harry Potter universe, Dolores Umbridge, is (you guessed it) a Slytherin.

The true face of purest evil.

Luckily though, there's a bit of redemption for a few of these characters. The Malfoys proved not to be wholly terrible at the end of Deathly Hallows. Apparently, some Slytherins came back to the Battle of Hogwarts with Slughorn when he was gathering reinforcements. Snape, of course, broke everyone's hearts with the backstory of his loyalty and sacrifice. Draco realized that he'd been a first class toolbag the whole time and I'm assuming he became a better person based on the epilogue in Deathly Hallows. And I even found Umbridge easier to deal with when she was being carried into the Forbidden Forest by centaurs in Order of the Phoenix.

Here's the thing, though. I know that it seems like I'm totally dogging out Slytherin right now, but I can kind of see where they're coming from. Think about it. If I had become a first-year at Hogwarts along with Harry Potter, I would've been a scared, shy little girl. I probably would've sat in a compartment by myself on the Hogwarts Express. Maybe other first-years would've talked to me. Maybe we would've discussed things like Quidditch and the Hogwarts Houses. I'm sure they would've mentioned that Slytherin was the worst House, saying that anyone who was sorted there would be destined for darkness.Then picture what happened when we got to Hogwarts.

The Sorting Ceremony having begun, McGonagall would've called my name, directing me to place the Hat on top of my head.With a bit of deliberation and a very loud shout,  it would've placed me in Slytherin. At that moment, I would've thought, this house can't be too bad, right? Yet then I would've noticed that hardly anyone clapped for me as I joined the Slytherin table. The people who I'd befriended on the Hogwarts Express wouldn't have anything to do with me anymore. Suddenly, I was a part of the "bad house", and therefore no good myself.

I would've realized that everyone else in the entire school booed our quidditch team as they entered the pitch. Realized that all the other Houses didn't trust us. I would've noticed that there seemed to be inter-House unity, but that it didn't seem to include my House.

I would've worked hard, along with my fellow classmates, to earn enough points so that Slytherin would win the House Cup at the end of the year. I would've been overjoyed when the Great Hall was decked out in green and silver, and elated when Dumbledore announced us the winners. Yet, as you all know, Dumbledore would wait until the last second to award just enough points to a few rule-breaking Gryffindors that would propel them to victory. The whole school, hearing of our demise, would fill the Great Hall with deafening cheers.

Right then, I would have developed a very bad attitude towards the other Houses, vowing to do anything I could to earn their hatred, even though I'd already received it.
See? It's a vicious cycle.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that although Slytherin's bad reputation is well earned, being in Slytherin doesn't mean that you're a bad person. Sure, we have our faults. Everyone has faults, no matter what House you're in. Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and even the lovely Hufflepuffs (who are totally underrated and should be proud of their House and what it stands for). We should all be proud of our Houses, because they're a reflection of who we are as people. We should be proud of ourselves. So maybe I can't redeem Slytherin House as a whole. Maybe it's past is just too dark. That's okay.

Some of the best people I know have the darkest pasts.