Dumbledore's Worst Memories

[Nightcrawler]

''the world is not split into good people and Death Eaters''

Also, her heroes and villains are (almost always) very complex and have a depth not often seen in other books, particular in other children's books.

It has always bothered me how JKR has mad all of the Slytheryns seem bad. She has put so much effort into creating a world where characters are complex and political systems are realisticly corrupt, yet she makes one quarter of Hogwarts look like a bunch of bullys. I hope that this steriotype is broken in HBP or book 7.

JKR announced in an interview that Sirius was in Gryfindor, which I think is a shame. I was hoping that he would be an example of a good Slytherin. I mean, he is cunning enough to escape Azkaban and find Wormtail, and his whole family were Slytherins.

[Athena Appleton]

I do agree with you on that, Nightcrawler. It does seem odd that in a story that focuses as much as this one does in personal choices, it seems odd that all Slytherins are all bad. I mean, in the other houses, there are people who are not people we like (Percy in Gryffindor, Cho in Ravenclaw...) but it does seem as though there should be one student who has the basic Slytherin instincts (ambitious, resourceful) but who is appalled by the horrible behavior of Malfoy and Co. I feel sure that there will be one such student in book 6 or 7, or both.

As far as Sirius being in Gryffindor... well, I can understand why she did that, but I agree that it would have been nice to have him be the decent Slytherin. However, it would have caused some logistical problems, seeing as two students of different houses would have a most difficult time being "inseperable". Yes, they could be very good friends, but only two students in the same house could truly be inseperable, given the way the houses are in Hogwarts. If Sirius were in Slytherin, it would have been difficult to have him be best friends with a student in Gryffindor, and especially for the one to never be seen without the other. And James clearly couldn't be in Slytherin. So Sirius was in Gryffindor by default, I think. However, I wonder if she did toy with the idea of having Sirius in Slytherin. After all, in the beginning, it's said that there wasn't a dark wizard around who wasn't in Slytherin, and it seems odd that Sirius, argueably (sp?) the most famous "dark" wizard alive (or so everyone believes at that point), wasn't in Slytherin, but was in Gryffindor.

[Mistress Siana]

Maybe JKR does that on purpose...
The portrait we get of Slytherin actually corresponds to the view the wizarding community seems to hold of Slytherin. The point Athena mentioned, namely that it's a kind of absurd "common knowledge" that every bad wizard was in Slytherin, is in my opinion not a mistake in the book but an example of the wide-spred black-and-white thinking. However, as the story unfolds, we get hints that this view is not entirely in accordance with the truth. Take Snape as an example. He's proven his loyality countless times and yet, he's accused of beeing up to no good in almost every book. Only Hermione, so to say the logical voice of the trio, believes in his loyality to the order. Also, there are more and more people who support Sirius's opinion that the world cannot be "seperated into good people and Death Eaters", such as the Crouches, Percy and Pettigrew (as Athena mentioned), Umbridge, and even the picture we get of the marauders, especially the perfect James Potter, cracks. To me, it seems as if we're supposed to adopt the biased view and then realize how wrong we were and how easy it is the believe what seems like the easiest solution.

At least that's what I want to believe

[Herminny]

I agree, i have kinda always thought that maybe harry will come to realise that one of the slytherins (not Malfoy, crabbe, goyle or nott obviously) isn't that bad. I think there is a chance that he will learn the good side of a slytherin