#slytherins deserved better

[fanfic-lover-girl]

Weasley is Our King: Slytherin House is the Best House

And as Lee paused to listen the song rose loud and clear from the sea of green and silver in the Slytherin section of the stands: Weasley cannot save a thing, He cannot block a single ring, That’s why Slytherins all sing: Weasley is our King. Weasley was born in a bin, He always lets the Quaffle in, Weasley will make sure we win, Weasley is our King.

“— and it’s Warrington with the Quaffle, Warrington heading for goal, he’s out of Bludger range with just the Keeper ahead —” A great swell of song rose from the Slytherin stands below: Weasley cannot save a thing, He cannot block a single ring . . .

There was no sign of the Snitch anywhere he looked; Malfoy was still circling the stadium just like Harry. They passed midway around the pitch going in opposite directions and Harry heard Malfoy singing loudly, WEASLEY WAS BORN IN A BIN . . .

Harry zoomed around the end of the stadium behind the Slytherin goal hoops, willing himself not to look at what was going on at Ron’s end; as he sped past the Slytherin Keeper, he heard Bletchley singing along with the crowd below, WEASLEY CANNOT SAVE A THING . . .

Harry did not have to look to see what had happened: There was a terrible groan from the Gryffindor end, coupled with fresh screams and applause from the Slytherins. Looking down, Harry saw the pug-faced Pansy Parkinson right at the front of the stands, her back to the pitch as she conducted the Slytherin supporters who were roaring: THAT’S WHY SLYTHERINS ALL SING: WEASLEY IS OUR KING.

Talk about team effort!!!

This is why it is a hard pill to swallow that Draco did not have real friends when my boy literally has his entire house singing his song!

Also, I never cared about Dransy but after reading meta on her from a certain user on Tumblr and looking closely at these book snippets, I am digging Dransy more than Drastoria! I think it would have been powerful to see Draco and Pansy redeem themselves together instead of Draco getting with some Mary Sue NPC.

Slytherins may have their internal squabbles, but when it comes to house unity, these guys are the best in the books. They didn't ostracize Draco the way the lions did Harry and the trio over house points. And there has to be a reason why the snakes were the undefeated house cup champs. Slytherin is the best house and I am not taking criticism.

[fanfic-lover-girl]

I like Slytherin and Hufflepuff house and I am so sad that they are done so dirty in the books.

“And it wants all the Houses to be friends?” said Harry, looking over at the Slytherin table, where Draco Malfoy was holding court. “Fat chance.”

Harry immediately rejects the idea of house unity including Slytherin and nothing in the story ever acknowledges the tragedy of this. The post battle scene where all the houses are together was so unearned and Harry did nothing to deserve it as the protagonist. I believe with my full heart that Harry is a crappy protagonist and gives the chosen one trope a bad name.

“— then Slytherin House will have gained an excellent student, won’t it? It doesn’t matter to us, Al. But if it matters to you, you’ll be able to choose Gryffindor over Slytherin. The Sorting Hat takes your choice into account.” “Really?” “It did for me,” said Harry.

Even in the epilogue, nothing has changed. Scorpius is immediately put on a watchlist by Ron and Albus is scared about being sorted. And Harry's moment with Albus is ruined by his last lines. If it really didn't matter to the family, Albus would not be so nervous about it. But obviously, with an uncle like Ron, Harry is spewing crap. Oh and if it bothers you so much son, just ask the hat to put you in the good house like it did me :).

I really wish Harry had one Slytherin friend. Even if it was not Draco, someone, anyone! Harry ends the series having little connection with his Slytherin or Hufflepuff peers. So sad.

Anti-Slytherinism: the last acceptable prejudice in Harry Potter

Reading faramircaptainofgondor’s excellent meta about why Sorting in Harry Potter is an outdated, harmful institution that needs to die, It made me think about the truly awful rap Slytherin and to a lesser extent, Hufflepuff get in series.

When it comes down to it, the only Houses shown to be worth being in are Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. Gryffindors are brave, Ravenclaws are smart….and then Hufflepuffs are the kids left over after teams have been picked and Slytherins are evil because a load of Dark Wizards have been Slytherins.

Our initial view of Slytherin and Hufflepuff is filtered through Hagrid and then Harry in a classic case of how prejudice is learned, not inherent. On re-reading it’s obvious how mistaken these assumptions are.

Hagrid first brands Hufflepuff “a load o’duffers”, then mentions Slytherin was Voldemort’s house. So we already have the Houses It Sucks To Be In established, and it never really changes. While Hufflepuffs are generally portrayed positively, after one song calling them ‘patient, just, true and unafraid of toil’ the Sorting Hat reverts to labelling them ‘the rest’, we spend most of Goblet of Fire being reminded that they’ve had no glory in centuries and are frequently patronised (of course, this isn’t at all contradictory to the collective resentment in Philosopher’s Stone at Slytherin winning the House Cup 7 years running, oh no). And notably, Hufflepuff beats Gryffindor at Quidditch not once, but twice and everyone gets super-pissy because HA HA IMAGINE LOSING TO HUFFLEPUFF - OH SHIT. Amos Diggory comes across as obnoxious for the way he crows about Cedric’s achievements, but I can’t really blame him when everyone else thinks Hufflepuff is a synonym for loser.

Good for you Hufflepuff, you show those jerk houses. Anyway, back to the House Everyone Hates.

Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin,” said Hagrid darkly. “There’s not a single wizard or witch that went bad who wasn’t in Slytherin.”

After PoA, we know this to be complete rubbish, as Peter Pettigrew was a Gryffindor and committed the vilest betrayal in the entire series. And while Hagrid isn’t aware that Pettigrew did this, at this point he thinks Sirius Black, also a Gryffindor, is responsible for betraying Lily and James and killing Pettigrew. This is how deeply ingrained anti-Slytherin prejudice is, that he completely forgets that to claim every wizard that’s gone bad has been Slytherin. By doing this, Hagrid transfers this prejudice to Harry. When he gets to Hogwarts, he thinks the Slytherins look “an unpleasant bunch” because he has been pre-disposed to believe them unpleasant by what Hagrid told them. And he begs the Sorting Hat not to put him in Slytherin, because he doesn’t want to be in the same house as his parents’ murderer, and thus begins a series of Slytherin House being collectively held responsible for the deeds of one egregiously evil wizard.

And unfortunately, even Dumbledore, for all his talk of the school needing to unite after Voldemort’s return, buys into and propagates this anti-Slytherin nonsense. In CoS, Harry is worried that he’s just like Voldemort because of the many similarities they share:

‘It only put me in Gryffindor, because I asked not to go in Slytherin.’ ‘Exactly,‘said Dumbledore, beaming once more. ‘Which makes you very different from Tom Riddle. It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.’

Admirable words…or they would be if Dumbledore hadn’t just used Harry’s decision to choose Gryffindor over Slytherin as a shining example of why he’s not evil like Voldemort. And then in DH, Dumbledore says something which suggests how Sorting is actually pretty awful, but it gets buried in yet more anti-Slytherin prejudice:

“Karkaroff intends to flee if the Mark burns.” “Does he?” said Dumbledore softly… “And are you tempted to join him?” “No,” said Snape. […] “I am not such a coward.” “No,” agreed Dumbledore. “You are a braver man by far than Igor Karkaroff. You know, I sometimes think we Sort too soon…”

Wow, nice backhanded compliment Dumbledore. The Head of Slytherin is brave, yes, but that doesn’t mean hey look guys, Slytherins have worthy qualities too! No, it just means Snape might have been sorted into the wrong house. And therein lies the problem with Sorting: it defines people by one prominent quality and ignores the rest. People are a mixed bag at any age; to pigeonhole kids with years of development ahead of them is crazy.

With Snape, Slughorn and Regulus, Rowling’s clearly trying to show there are good Slytherins too to offset the “Slytherin = Evil” impression, but it doesn’t do nearly enough to eradicate 7 books’ worth of a narrative portraying Slytherins as the enemy. It’s not just that the books are from Harry’s POV - there are no Slytherins in Dumbledore’s Army, but the Inquisitorial Squad is composed entirely of Slytherins; during the resistance under Neville, there is no banner representing Slytherin in the Room of Requirement; and we actually had to be told by Rowling outside the book that the people who came charging behind Slughorn after Harry’s sacrifice were Slytherin students and their families because there was no way of telling that from the writing. Rowling is absolutely guilty of lazy characterisation.

Everyone in-universe constantly harps on about Slytherins being horrible, but does it ever occur to them that things like centuries of prejudice, the OTHER THREE QUARTERS OF THE SCHOOL hating them and actively rooting for them to fail, and the Headmaster cheating them out of a House Cup triumph might have something to do with it? Why on earth should Slytherins be nice to people who assume they’re scum from the age of 11? Frankly, those aforementioned Slytherins who came back from Hogsmeade to fight for Hogwarts are the biggest heroes of the book, because they had every right to tell Hogwarts to go screw itself for years of being heaped with guilt-by-association for other people’s sins, but they didn’t. Because Slytherins are much better people that they’re given credit for.

[regulusblock]

teen Regulus: what's an orgasm?

teen Barty: when you fold paper to make birds and shit

also teen Evan: that's oregano, bitch

[wtchyvibes]

[immadeofdustandshadows]

Marlene: who else is hiding in the laundry room trying to listen to Sirius and Remus's conversation?

Peter: me. I'm in the laundry basket

James: I'm in the washing machine

Regulus: I'm in the closet

Pandora: we accept you, reg 💕

Regulus: no I'm literally in the closet

Dorcas: LOVE IS LOVE 🏳️‍🌈

[fanfic-lover-girl]

I am still waiting for JKR to give warnings to fans of other characters. Draco deserved a better author. Most characters deserved a better author. Heaven knows the DEs and Slytherins overall needed a better author who didn't treat them like a cartoon joke.

I wonder how what masterpiece JKR could have given us if she spent less time resenting her own characters and punishing them as a way to get back at her bullies.

I wonder how different the books would have been if the movies hadn't happened before the story was done, like maybe Sirius wouldn't haved died and I think Draco could have gotten a better redemption arc too. Honestly authors like jkr just shouldn't have any connection with fandom if this is how they're gonna treat their character afterwards

I don’t think the treatment Sirius got had anything to do with the movies honestly. Sirius/Remus discussions etc started after POA book release and what her decisions were influenced in response to that in my opinion.

Draco is a different case though. She really disliked people finding Tom Felton attractive, as if that was the only reason people were interested in Draco. She wasn’t too happy with Tom Felton encouraging Drarry fans either lmao. She identifies Hermione with herself way too much and she was incensed that people shipped her with Draco. In my opinion, she dropped Draco’s redemption arc halfway because of her personal resentments.

She personalizes things way too much, see also Pansy about this. Pansy is “every girl who ever teased her at school” and “the anti Hermione”. She “loathes” her. She doesn’t approach Pansy like a dimensional character. It’s the same with Draco, she’s interacting with her idea of how Draco’s perceived. First signs of her “think about the kids” paranoia/bigotry in action really.

[norry-yippee]

Girls be like “this is my comfort character!” And the show a boy who died tragically at 18 alone failing his first and only mission 

[not-rab]

Regulus: Don’t fucking tell me what to do

James: I-

Regulus: But also could you write down what you want me to do in chronological order with more detail than you think is necessary?

James:

Regulus: Please

[isabel-lillah]

10 things only James Potter knew about Regulus Black

1) In July 1976, he came to the Potters through their floo together with unconscious Sirius. He left again before Effie and Monty came.

2) After his brother got away from home, he continued to secretly check on him.

3) He threatened Snape into not spreading the information about Remus being a werewolf.

4) He hexed another Slytherin for insulting Pandora.

5) He got punished for it by his mother. That was the second time he came through the Potters's floo.

6) He spent most of his nights at Hogwarts in the astronomy tower.

7) Regulus had violent nightmares that left him shaking. Sometimes, the shakes didn't stop for hours.

8) His touch was like the ocean - engulfing, gentle, but also powerful.

9) Before he left for the cave, he obliviated James in his sleep.

10) The obliviate didn't work.

[fanfic-lover-girl]

What a brilliant analysis. I find Snape very inspiring despite how terrible his life was. I try to imagine how I would have coped in his shoes, and I honestly can not.

It's incredible how deeply JK wrote some of these characters. Even some characters she intended to be shallow or for the readers to hate (cough*Slytherins*cough) have a lot of depth if you look at them closely. Sometimes, I wonder if it's the readers who genuinely bring these characters to life. For example, I have read pages worth of meta on Draco Malfoy and greatly appreciate his character. Yet JK thinks fans like him because Tom Felton is hot. Ugh, seriously! It's like this woman does not know her own character!

A complex and many-layered thing

But Harry’s anger at Snape continued to pound through his veins like venom. Let go of his anger? He could as easily detach his legs. . . .

This is the first Occlumency lesson. Harry is right, of course. Feelings don’t go away because you want them to. To let go of them when they’ve not been addressed or validated can be as hard as detaching a leg. And yet, it’s what Dumbledore asked Snape to do, and it’s what Snape had to do to survive the first war as Dumbledore’s spy. You have to ask yourself… how?

Trapped animals chew off their own legs to escape. It’s a sacrifice they make to survive.

If there’s one thing in a fic that turns me off it, it’s the idea that Occlumency shields are a thing, that Severus was so gifted at it because he’s got some power like Second Sight or being a metamorphagus. I always preferred to think of Occlumency and Legilimency as skills that can be learned, even if some have more aptitude for it than others.

Severus entered Hogwarts with the kind of life experience that primed him for developing these skills, and left it with even more. Occlumency is magical dissociation, a post-traumatic coping mechanism, and Severus has C/PTSD. More under the cut; tw: just general angst.

To survive, he would have had to develop a knack for telling how explosive and unpredictable people feel. Over his life, he faced at least two egregious examples of what Pete Walker, author of “Complex PTSD” calls “the Charming Bully”.

Especially devolved fight types can become sociopathic. Sociopathy can range along a continuum that stretches from corrupt politician to vicious criminal. A particularly nasty sociopath, who I call the charming bully, probably falls somewhere around the middle of this continuum. The charming bully behaves in a friendly manner some of the time. He can even occasionally listen and be helpful in small amounts, but he still uses his contempt to overpower and control others. This type typically relies on scapegoats for the dumping of his vitriol. These unfortunate scapegoats are typically weaker than him. […] He generally spares his favorites from this behavior, unless they get out of line. If the charming bully is charismatic enough, those close to him will often fail to register the unconscionable meanness of his scapegoating. The bully’s favorites often slip into denial, relieved that they are not the target. Especially charismatic bullies may even be admired and seen as great.

These would be James Potter and Tom Riddle, who are distantly related, I might add. Harry inherited the tendency to default to the fight response, but since he grew up the scapegoat and not the golden child, he never becomes quite as appalling, and after all, a fight response is normal when they are after you. Even so, Harry, who has both James and Voldemort inside him, triggers Severus to no end. It’s not a coincidence that the memories Harry sees when he is with him are largely horrible, and vice versa. There had to be happy or at least neutral or even boring moments, but these two detest each other, and they know they detest each other. Negative emotions and associated memories are so close to the surface they can’t be contained. This is the purpose of the Pensieve in this context - to contain the emotions. Since Severus knew what was in there when he pulled Harry out, my theory is that you don’t suddenly forget the memories you placed there, but rather you make them less fraught with emotions.

“Get up!” said Snape sharply. “Get up! You are not trying, you are making no effort, you are allowing me access to memories you fear, handing me weapons!”

Harry stood up again, his heart thumping wildly as though he had really just seen Cedric dead in the graveyard. Snape looked paler than usual, and angrier, though not nearly as angry as Harry was. “I — am — making — an — effort,” he said through clenched teeth.

“I told you to empty yourself of emotion!”

“Yeah? Well, I’m finding that hard at the moment,” Harry snarled.

“Then you will find yourself easy prey for the Dark Lord!” said Snape savagely. “Fools who wear their hearts proudly on their sleeves, who cannot control their emotions, who wallow in sad memories and allow themselves to be provoked this easily — weak people, in other words — they stand no chance against his powers! He will penetrate your mind with absurd ease, Potter!”

A lot to unpack here.

“Memories you fear,” “weapons”, “easy prey”.

Fearing your own memories, viewing your own lived experiences as weapons to be used against you, being easy prey… Severus could not be speaking louder of himself here. He is the one whose mind had been penetrated with absurd ease, he is the one who handed weapons to Voldemort, and he is the one who had to do the psychological equivalent of detaching his own leg – again and again – to survive.

I’ll argue that Severus developed a fawn response and a flight response, as fighting had never really worked out for him if it was possible at all. He had at least two more people I’d describe as bullies in his life, Tobias and Lucius.

Again from Pete Walker:

These [fawn] response patterns are so deeply set in the psyche, that as adults, many codependents automatically respond to threat like dogs, symbolically rolling over on their backs, wagging their tails, hoping for a little mercy and an occasional scrap. Webster’s second entry for fawn is: “to show friendliness by licking hands, wagging its tail, etc.: said of a dog.” I find it tragic that some codependents are as loyal as dogs to even the worst “masters”.

Remember what Sirius called him? Lucius’s lapdog. Bellatrix called him Dumbledore’s pet, Dumbledore said he dangles on Voldemort’s arm, the narrative compares Snape to a rabbit in SWM and Harry compares the Half Blood Prince to a beloved pet who had gone feral (yes, this does mean a lot to me on a personal level, yes my username is not a coincidence).

His unconscious fawn response might have been his undoing, drawn as he was to figures like Lucius and Voldemort. As an adult, I think he utilized the skills he had developed to survive in order to stitch these people up, and involuntary dissociation and fawning became Occlumency, which to me, is his signature magic. Harry needed only to banish Voldemort from his mind; Severus could not settle for this. He had to give Voldemort something, and knowing how to fawn meant knowing what to give him and how to draw himself in such a light that Voldemort would believe it. We see how he wanted to be seen by the Death Eaters: a self-serving coward who sought to hide behind Dumbledore’s apron, playing his pet. But that’s Pettigrew, not Snape. Imagine the self-immolation, the self-violation, it must have taken to convince everyone that you’re an ersatz Wormtail! Snape is a man and a prince, and the text recognizes this as Harry calls him, in the end, Dumbledore’s man, the bravest man, and as that chapter is called “The Prince’s Tale”. Voldemort thought Snape was nothing more than a “good and faithful servant,” and that his last words were “My Lord”.

But Severus had an unequaled gift for Occlumency, specifically against Voldemort, because Voldemort could not legilimens what he couldn’t feel; and he couldn’t feel love, grief, guilt, and remorse. This was Severus’s secret weapon, which would not have worked against Harry - who can feel these things, and who is also Lily’s son. I can prove it. The first time Harry gets the hang of Occlumency is after Dobby dies:

His scar burned, but he was master of the pain; he felt it, yet was apart from it. He had learned control at last, learned to shut his mind to Voldemort, the very thing Dumbledore had wanted him to learn from Snape. Just as Voldemort had not been able to possess Harry while Harry was consumed with grief for Sirius, so his thoughts could not penetrate Harry now, while he mourned Dobby. Grief, it seemed, drove Voldemort out . . . though Dumbledore, of course, would have said that it was love. . . .

Harry learned to dissociate, though fortunately in a healthier way than many of us ever get to.

Of course, Snape was a good and faithful servant… to Dumbledore, which brings us to the flight response. The chapter wherein he escapes after killing Dumbledore is called “Flight of the Prince”. He should be fighting, he had just proven that he can cast a killing curse, and yet he flees. He can literally fly, in fact: He, Lily, and Voldemort are the only ones we see pulling this off.

As a child, we see this too: He copes with his home situation by reminding himself “it won’t be long and I’ll be gone.” He is thrilled when he imagines Hogwarts, his escape; he follows Lily out of the carriage instead of confronting James and Sirius head-on (which might have saved them all a lot of pain eventually). But this doesn’t work out, we see that in terrifying detail. The next attempt at an escape is joining the Death Eaters, but this too doesn’t work out.

He can’t flee anymore.

“Severus, you cannot pretend this isn’t happening!” Karkaroff’s voice sounded anxious and hushed, as though keen not to be overheard. “It’s been getting clearer and clearer for months. I am becoming seriously concerned, I can’t deny it —”

“Then flee,” said Snape’s voice curtly. “Flee — I will make your excuses. I, however, am remaining at Hogwarts.”

Shortly thereafter:

“Severus,” said Dumbledore, turning to Snape, “you know what I must ask you to do. If you are ready . . . if you are prepared . . .”

“I am,” said Snape.

He looked slightly paler than usual, and his cold, black eyes glittered strangely.

He was ready, and he was prepared. He didn’t fly; he walked toward what might well have been his end with open eyes, armed only with the strength of his mind. Before Voldemort killed him, he looked pale, again, and terrified.

“I sought a third wand, Severus. The Elder Wand, the Wand of Destiny, the Deathstick. I took it from its previous master. I took it from the grave of Albus Dumbledore.”

And now Snape looked at Voldemort, and Snape’s face was like a death mask. It was marble white and so still that when he spoke, it was a shock to see that anyone lived behind the blank eyes.

I ask myself if this was the moment he realized he had been betrayed, that by giving Dumbledore a painless death he had secured his own. Maybe he wasn’t pale because he was scared; maybe he was pale because he was shocked. He was at his absolute limit, Occluding with all his might when he could have easily saved himself. The dam is about to break. All the memories he feared, all the weapons, the entire content of his heart is about to spill through - literally.

He fawned for Voldemort, the worst of all possible masters, but in the end, he was Voldemort’s undoing. All the ways in which he was weak and powerless against Tobias, James, Lucius, et al., proved to be part of goodness and source of his power. It doesn’t surprise me in the least that Snape is so loved. I’ve never actually seen such love for any other fictional character. He represents a kind of courage that many of us need to get by, lest we simply become evil or give the fuck up (“I wish I was dead”). A kind of courage rarely celebrated. The more time I’ve spent in the fandom in general and in the Snapedom in particular, the more I am convinced of this.

[nixnight1]

Platonic moonwater when they fight

(with that one scene from the big bang theory)

Remus: Well, Regulus, make a wish and blow out your candles

Regulus: *thinks for a second and blows*

Remus: *is fast to block one candle and the fire of that one doesn't die* oops, missed one. Now your dreams won't come true

Regulus:...

Regulus: Lucky for you 'couse I wished you were dead

Sirius: I can't believe you two!

[fanfic-lover-girl]

Of course Regulus is not as handsome as Sirius

Regulus was instantly recognizable as the boy sitting in the middle of the front row: He had the same dark hair and slightly haughty look of his brother, though he was smaller, slighter, and rather less handsome than Sirius had been.

Chapter 10, book 7

Of course, the Slytherin brother is not as attractive as the Gryffindor brother. If he could, I bet Harry would say Regulus' junk is smaller too. Harry is definitely the type of guy to do that.

[writtenicarus]

you know, i totally get that people want to stick to regulus being tough and cruel because we have softened him too much, and i agree at the most part, but i also feel like regulus is so sensitive. he was a caring, loving child, the complete opposite of who he became. so within that, if you find a way in, he becomes just as sickenley loving. he cannot bare anything casual. he loves with his whole being. consumes. engulfs. he sleeps with stuffed animals. he needs barty to hold his hand when he panics in class. he is, in the words of mistki, a tall child.

[regulusblock]

Regulus: can you guys at least try to see this from my perspective?

Barty: [crouches down]

Evan: [gets on knees]

Regulus:

Regulus: I hope you both end up in hell!

[fae-whispers]

evan “go fuck yourself” rosier and barty “fuck me yourself” crouch jr

[wtchyvibes]

Reggie listening to his sad boy music