The strange thing about Hogwarts houses, especially considering they are assigned at the ripe old age of <\/span>eleven<\/span><\/i>, is that they aren\u2019t something you can just decide isn\u2019t for you anymore, like black nail polish or clunky heels. Once you\u2019re assigned to your house, that\u2019s it. You are Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, or Slytherin for the rest of your days.<\/span><\/p>\n You know this, even before you\u2019re old enough to receive your Hogwarts letter. You know the weight your House carries. <\/span><\/p>\n Imagine being ten years old and listening to your parents talk in hushed voices about how happy they are that your older brother was sorted into Ravenclaw, and how worried they were that he might be in Slytherin. Imagine knowing how the relief in their voices will turn to dread if they discover your darkest secret: that you suspect that you might be Slytherin.<\/span><\/p>\n Because the thing is? You\u2019ve always kind of identified with Slytherin House. Not the awful stuff, of course — not the hatred and meanness and anger. But with the tenets of Slytherin house as it was intended: creativity, resourcefulness, ambition, cunning, loyalty. <\/span><\/p>\n You hold this list of traits sideways, squint at it a little, turn it upside down. It still doesn\u2019t seem bad. Creativity is good, isn\u2019t it? You\u2019ve always had a vivid imagination. Your parents and teachers have praised you for it. And resourcefulness seems positive. You have a gift for looking at your surroundings and seeing tools. Ambition? You have great dreams, dreams of doing good in the world. That can\u2019t be bad, can it? Cunning\u2026 cunning may be bad. It could be viewed as manipulativeness, and that isn\u2019t a trait you wish to embody. But on the other hand, it could be cleverness, the ability to read a situation and use it to your advantage. Sure, that can be bad, but it doesn\u2019t <\/span>have <\/span><\/i>to be, right? And loyalty is certainly good. It is what makes you a good friend, a good family member. It is you holding the line with the people you love instead of abandoning them when things get hard.<\/span><\/p>\n Those traits are all <\/span>good<\/span><\/i>, aren\u2019t they?<\/span><\/p>\n But they are bad. They <\/span>must <\/span><\/i>be bad. Because Slytherin house is bad. <\/span><\/p>\n Imagine being eleven years old, riding the Hogwarts Express for the first time, your stomach full of butterflies. You share a compartment with other children your age, who you hope might become your friends. Inevitably, the conversation turns to Sorting. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhere do you hope the hat will put you?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAll my family\u2019s in Gryffindor.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy sister\u2019s in Ravenclaw.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI think I might be in Hufflepuff.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n An awkward silence.<\/span><\/p>\n One kid speaks up, hesitantly. \u201cMy mom was in Hufflepuff. She said it was nice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The others nod enthusiastically, trying to cover their earlier reactions. \u201cI\u2019m sure it\u2019s very nice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAs long as it\u2019s not Slytherin, right?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The children laugh knowingly, glad to all be on the same side again. Because of course, <\/span>nobody <\/span><\/i>wants to be in Slytherin.<\/span><\/p>\n You decide to take a walk. The butterflies in your stomach have turned into something sharper, their little wings scratching like fingernails. You want so badly to be liked, to fit in. You don\u2019t <\/span>know <\/span><\/i>that you\u2019re Slytherin, you tell yourself. It\u2019s only a suspicion. You can\u2019t possibly know it for sure until you\u2019re Sorted. <\/span><\/p>\n You\u2019re probably not even Slytherin, anyway. You\u2019re probably Ravenclaw, and just <\/span>thought <\/span><\/i>you were Slytherin. You probably are worried over nothing.<\/span><\/p>\n You pass a compartment and hear voices trickle out. \u201cI hope I\u2019m in Slytherin!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Your stomach flips. You stop walking. You wonder if you should knock on the compartment door. Instead, you press your shoulder to the wall, your ear to the crack of seeping voices. You hold your breath, wondering if maybe these kids are like you.<\/span><\/p>\n Then you hear words like <\/span>mudblood <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Death Eater <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Dark Lord <\/span><\/i>and the flutter in your stomach turns into a solid lump. These kids aren\u2019t like you. These are the <\/span>real <\/span><\/i>Slytherins. The ones you\u2019ve heard about. These kids are the reason no one respectable, no one nice, no one like <\/span>you <\/span><\/i>would ever want to be in Slytherin.<\/span><\/p>\n One of them pushes their way out of the compartment, causing you to stumble back. They laugh at the mortified shock on your face. You hurry back to your compartment, to the safety of children who say things like <\/span>I\u2019m sure it\u2019s very nice, <\/span><\/i>and breathe a sigh of relief that you never said anything about your Slytherin suspicion. <\/span><\/p>\n Imagine you are stepping into the Great Hall for the first time. You watch the children from your compartment have the Sorting Hat placed on their heads, one at a time. <\/span>Gryffindor! Ravenclaw! Hufflepuff! <\/span><\/i>They join their House tables with ear-to-ear grins. They receive claps on the back and happy side-hugs. The butterflies in your stomach have razors for wings.<\/span><\/p>\n You watch the child from the compartment you\u2019d eavesdropped on lower themselves onto the stool and have the hat placed on their head. You hear it shout <\/span>Slytherin!, <\/span><\/i>see the smirk on their face, look at the faces of their classmates at the Slytherin table. You imagine they are all sneering at the rest of Great Hall, thinking terrible thoughts. Perhaps they are.<\/span><\/p>\n Your name is called, and your feet propel you forward. You are sweating from every gland in your body. The butterflies in your stomach have given up on blades and have progressed to guns. <\/span><\/p>\n The hat is placed on your head. <\/span>Ravenclaw,<\/span><\/i> you think. <\/span>I am not Slytherin. I am Ravenclaw. I was never Slytherin. I was always Ravenclaw. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Are you sure, <\/span><\/i>the hat asks. <\/span>You would do well in Slytherin<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n I am Ravenclaw. <\/span><\/i>Your eyes are shut so tightly your head hurts. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cRavenclaw!\u201d the hat shouts.<\/span><\/p>\n Relief, like a rush of cool water on a hot day. You knew it. You were being silly to think you might be Slytherin. You were never in any danger of that. You were always Ravenclaw. <\/span><\/p>\n Yes, you still possess many of the traits valued by Slytherin House. Maybe all of them, which is why the Hat thought you\u2019d do well. But that doesn\u2019t mean anything. <\/span><\/p>\n Imagine that you are thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. You are doing well at Hogwarts. You\u2019ve made friends, you love your classes, you are studying for your OWLs. You\u2019ve never forgotten your anxiety about being Sorted, but have chalked that up to youthful ignorance. It was ridiculous to fear being put in Slytherin. Over the past few years, you\u2019ve seen what the kids in Slytherin House are like. Everyone was right — they\u2019re terrible. You\u2019re so glad you\u2019re not in there. <\/span><\/p>\n But you were never in danger of being put in Slytherin, of course. Because you\u2019re Ravenclaw. No point in being relieved over something that never had any chance of happening.<\/span><\/p>\n Imagine you\u2019ve graduated from Hogwarts. For seven years, you\u2019ve observed some of the\u00a0inhabitants of Slytherin House bullying the other students, spouting their toxic pureblood supremacist nonsense, urging violence. There are a few quiet Slytherins, of course — muggleborns who didn’t know the about stigma against Slytherin house before they were Sorted. They\u00a0don’t heckle or insult, but they also never attempt to socialize outside their house, probably because they don’t like the rest of you. You, of course, never attempted to befriend them either, but only because you’re sure they would’ve given you the cold shoulder. After all, muggleborn or not, they’re still Slytherins.<\/span><\/p>\n You’ve observed how the students from other houses look at them sideways, narrow their eyes, and slide to the far side of the hallways when they pass. You’ve heard the story\u00a0of how Slytherin House once won\u00a0the House Cup, only to have it taken from them at the closing feast in a flurry of last-minute points. You’ve heard how Slytherin House was unceremoniously locked in the dungeons during the Battle of Hogwarts. You assume that these were\u00a0the right decisions, as\u00a0you’ve heard Dumbledore was a good Headmaster, and Slytherin House probably deserved it anyway.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n By now, you\u2019ve become comfortable enough that you\u2019ve told a couple friends that when you were young, you thought you might be Slytherin. They laughed, of course. Why would someone like you<\/em> ever be put in Slytherin House? <\/span><\/p>\n Imagine you are several years out of Hogwarts, working your first job. You meet someone — a kind Hufflepuff, perhaps, or an outgoing Gryffindor — fall in love, have a child. As your child grows older, their personality emerges. They are kind and clever and funny, and even at a young age, you can tell they will be such a force for good in the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This world hasn’t changed much from when you were a child. It’s still a\u00a0world where three out of four houses are fine — well, Hufflepuff feels like a bit of a concession, to be honest, but it\u2019s still <\/span>fine <\/span><\/i>— but the fourth isn\u2019t for respectable folk. No one\u00a0good\u00a0<\/em>gets put in Slytherin. You know this to be true. You’ve seen it with your own eyes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n You see so much of yourself in your child. Sometimes it scares you, how similar to you they are. They are creative. Resourceful. Loyal. They dream big, and know how to read situations and use them to their best advantage.<\/span><\/p>\n You know what this might mean. You know what you once feared it meant.<\/span><\/p>\n But you know that’s an unfounded fear.\u00a0Good children like yours don’t get sorted into\u00a0Slytherin House. It doesn’t matter what the house once stood for. You know the kind of folk who are in there now.<\/p>\n When their Hogwarts letter comes, your child\u00a0chews their lip. They\u2019re nervous. You ask them what they\u2019re afraid of. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat if I\u2019m in Slytherin?\u201d they ask in a tiny, trembling voice.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re in Slytherin, of course we\u2019ll love you anyway,\u201d you say, choosing your words carefully. <\/span>Anyway <\/span><\/i>is important. It makes it clear that while Slytherin House is less desirable than the others, you will still be loving parents.<\/span><\/p>\n But then you make sure to add, \u201cBut if you don\u2019t want to be in Slytherin, the hat lets you choose.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Now imagine it isn’t just your life that looks like this, but the life of every child who is raised to think of Slytherin as the enemy, as the house of\u00a0mean kids and bullies and terrorists. All throughout the Wizarding World, children are brought up knowing that they can be sorted into any House and be okay — except Slytherin. Every year, slews of cunning, creative, ambitious first-years parade through the Great Hall, sit on the stool, and beg the Hat to place them\u00a0in any House other than the one they are best suited for.<\/p>\n Except, of course, for the students who have no problems with Slytherin’s reputation. The students whose parents were in Slytherin, or whose families and friends embrace the more unsavory aspects of Slytherin House. The Draco Malfoys, the Pansy Parkinsons, the Crabbes and Goyles. These are the children who allow the Hat to place them in\u00a0Slytherin House year after year, the children who grow up hated by the rest of their school and, in turn, hating the rest of their school.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.amz.mshcdn.com\/1DESZSzrq3-PapEIXBsmpd9K208%3D\/fit-in\/850x850\/http%3A%2F%2Fmashable.com%2Fwp-content%2Fgallery%2Fsnape-death%2Frobes.gif\")
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