Slytherin corresponds roughly with the element of water with serpents being commonly associated with the sea and lochs in western European mythology as well as serpents being physically fluid and flexible animals.[8] The colours also correspond with waters around lakes and lochs often being green, and silver being often associated with grey rain water.
Traits and values
Qualities
- "You could be great, you know, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that."
- —The Sorting Hat to Harry Potter[src]
Slytherins tend to be ambitious, shrewd, cunning, strong leaders, and achievement-oriented. They also have highly developed senses of self-preservation.[9] This means that Slytherins tend 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 chose 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 in Gryffindor.
Blood purity
- "I always knew Salazar Slytherin was a twisted old loony, but I never knew he started all this pure-blood stuff. I wouldn't be in his house if you paid me. Honestly, if the Sorting Hat had tried to put me in Slytherin, I'd've got the train straight back home..."
- —Ron Weasley expressing his claims about Slytherin's views.[src]
Slytherin's founder,Salazar Slytherin
The Sorting Hat claims that blood purity, is a factor in selecting Slytherins. This suggests that it bases its decisions more upon the views of its members than on any accurate test of a student's lineage.Muggle-born Slytherins exist, but are very rare, as noted insultingly by Scabior theSnatcher.[10] There have also been definite examples of half-bloods sorted into the house, including Tom Marvolo Riddle andSeverus Snape. Harry Potter was nearly sorted into Slytherin, but ended up inGryffindor instead. Also, pure-bloods are not automatically placed in Slytherin. There have been various examples of pure-bloods sorted into other houses, including the Weasley family, Sirius Black, Neville Longbottom, and James Potter I all being sorted intoGryffindor house, Ernie Macmillan being sorted into Hufflepuff, and Morag MacDougal and Stephen Cornfoot being sorted intoRavenclaw.
Contrary to the wishes of the other founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Salazar Slytherin wanted a stricter policy of admission to the school —one limited strictly to pure-blood students. The controversy this created apparently led to him leaving the school and the Chamber of Secrets behind. A millennium later, the house's students are still considered affiliated with Salazar's reputed views, and open expression of pro-blood purity sentiment does seem to be more common in Slytherin than in other Houses.
This disagreement over blood purity, which caused Salazar Slytherin's friendship with Godric Gryffindor to break, is the origin of the feud between Slytherin and Gryffindor, the two most competitive of the houses. Slytherin and Gryffindor are generally rivals in Quidditch and for the House Cup, which the former had won seven years in a row prior to Harry Potter's arrival at Hogwarts in 1991. It is also rare for Slytherin and Gryffindor students to be friendly with one another, and common for them to share animosity. This was particularly the case during the Firstand Second Wizarding Wars. During the latter conflict, no Slytherin students joined an association known as Dumbledore's Army; however, this could be explained by the fact that only thoseHermione Granger, Ron Weasley, and Harry Potter trusted were invited. Some Slytherins declined to defend their school in theBattle of Hogwarts, with some joining the Death Eaters. However, there are exceptions, such as Slytherin Severus Snape and Gryffindor Lily Evans, who were best friends until Snape's use of the slur "Mudblood" and his aspirations to be a Death Eater caused Lily to sever their ties.
Common room
The Slytherin common room is found in the dungeons of Hogwarts Castle, and is located underneath the Black Lake. Because of its location, the light in the common room is 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 damp stone wall; once the word is uttered a concealed stone door will slide aside leaving a rectangular hole in the wall leading to the Slytherin common room. The only known Slytherin password is pureblood, used in 1992.
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