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Jul 10, 2023 · There are multiple "Harry Potter" characters who could be considered Salazar Slytherin's heir, but only one can call himself a direct heir to the character.
- Overview
- History
- Traits
- Reputation
- Common room
- Head of House
- Behind the scenes
- Appearances
"Or perhaps in Slytherin,
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folk use any means,
To achieve their ends."
— Sorting Hat
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.
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.
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.
"There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin."
— Wizarding prejudice against Slytherin House
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.
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 me...
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 a...
•The fact that J. K. Rowling intended to place a character named Mafalda, who was the daughter of a Squib and a Muggle, in Slytherin, suggests that Rowling at least does not view the Slytherin House desire for blood-purity as particularly influential upon the Sorting Hat. Also, as Voldemort and Snape are both half-bloods, there seems no reason to suspect a "blood-pure" Slytherin.
•Slytherin students seem to possess a certain skill in Potions. Harry's two Potions masters, Severus Snape and Horace Slughorn, both belonged to the Slytherin house. However, it is possible that this talent in Slytherin students could merely be a coincidence, as students from other houses at Hogwarts also shared this talent, such as Harry Potter's mother, Lily Potter (nee Evans) (whose skills were shown through Slughorn's many references to her skill in the subject throughout most of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince), and Hermione Granger who were both Gryffindors, and Penny Haywood who was in Hufflepuff.
•Slytherin students also seem to be gifted in Occlumency. Most of the known Occlumens in the books come from Slytherin (namely Voldemort, Severus Snape, Bellatrix Lestrange, Draco Malfoy, and Horace Slughorn).
•J. K. Rowling stated in a PotterCast interview that some Slytherins were among the reinforcements brought by Slughorn during the Battle of Hogwarts.
•J. K. Rowling stated that by 2017, Slytherin is no longer the pure-blood bastion that it once was. However, its dark reputation still lingers, hence the reason for Albus Potter's fears.
•It is interesting to note that Slytherin is both the first Hogwarts house mentioned in the series (by Draco Malfoy), as well as the last mentioned in the series (by Albus Potter).
•Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (First appearance)
•Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film)
•Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game)
••Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
•Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game)
••Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
Seeing as there were centuries of procreation between the time Salazar Slytherin was alive until Tom Riddle's birth, why did it take until 1926 for Slytherin's true heir to be born? Is the implication that the true Heir of Slytherin had to imbue certain qualities that Tom Riddle possessed?
Aug 23, 2023 · The true heir of Slytherin is revealed to be Tom Riddle, also known as Lord Voldemort, who had a direct bloodline connection to Slytherin through the Gaunt family.
- TV/Movies Features Writer
Salazar Slytherin (fl. c. 993) was a pure-blood wizard, noted for his cunning and determination. He was regarded as one of the greatest wizards of the age, regarded for his abilities as a Parselmouth[4] and as a skilled Legilimens.[6] Slytherin was one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of...
- 3 min
Slytherin 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.
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Salazar Slytherin was one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and the least open to the idea of non-magical families sending their children to the school.
