- "Or perhaps in Slytherin,
You'll make your real friends,
Those cunning folks use any means,
To achieve their ends." - — The Sorting Hat[src]
Slytherin is of the four houses of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was created by one of the founders, Salazar Slytherin. The emblem is a snake with its common room located in the Slytherin Dungeons. Its colours are green and silver.
About[]
The house was created by one of the four founders of Hogwarts, Salazar Slytherin. He chose students who were cunning, ambitious, determined, clever and with a sense of fraternity. Salazar was a proponent of pure-blood supremacy, preferring students with the blood status because he thought they were more worthy of learning magic. The house has produced more Dark witches and wizards than any other house.[1]
The common room was the Slytherin Dungeons. The entrance was a wall which opened after hearing the password.[2]
History[]
Salazar Slytherin thought Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry should only accept pure-blood or half-blood students. He advocated for the banishment of Muggle-born students who he felt were untrustworthy. The other founders refused his proposal. Slytherin left the school after he argued with Godric Gryffindor, creating a great rivalry between the Gryffindor and Slytherin students which persisted for centuries. Before he left, he built the Chamber of Secrets in a secret location beneath Hogwarts Castle with a Basilisk lurking within it. He hoped the Serpent of Slytherin would be unleashed by his heir to purge the school of those he considered unworthy of studying there.[3] With the values and legacy he left, members of Slytherin tended to pure or half-blood. It was very rare for the Sorting Hat to put a Muggle-born in Slytherin.[4]
In 1942, his heir Tom Riddle opened the Chamber of Secrets. When a student was killed, he closed it out of fear Hogwarts would be shut down. Half a century later, his diary possessed Ginny Weasley who reopened it. Several students were Petrified but Harry Potter of Gryffindor killed the Basilisk with the Sword of Gryffindor.[5] Riddle created the Death Eaters while he attended Hogwarts. The group consisted of a few Slytherin "friends", while many future Death Eaters were mainly from Slytherin. At the Battle of Hogwarts, very few Slytherins fought. They chose to leave the school before it began.
Heads of House[]
- Horace Slughorn - Potions Professor. Unknown - 1981, then 1997 - unknown.
- Severus Snape - Potions Professor, Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, Head of House by September 1991 until 1997.
Known members[]
| Name | Time of Attendance | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Phineas Nigellus Black | c. 1858 - c. 1865 | |
| Horace Slughorn | Potions Professor and Head of House who engaged with Voldemort in a duel. | |
| Tom Riddle | 1938 - 1945 | Leader of the Death Eaters, Heir of Slytherin who opened the Chamber of Secrets, started the First Wizarding War and the Second Wizarding War, killed at the Battle of Hogwarts. |
| Avery | c. Late 1930s - early 1940s | Contemporary of Tom Riddle. |
| Nott | ||
| Mulciber | ||
| Rodolphus Lestrange | c. mid-20th century | Death Eater and husband of Bellatrix Lestrange locked up in Azkaban for the torture of Frank and Alice Longbottom, escaped in 1995. |
| Rabastan Lestrange | Death Eater, brother of Rodulphus and brother-in-law of Bellatrix, locked up in Azkaban for the same crime of Rodolphus and escaped with him. | |
| Bellatrix Lestrange | 1962 or 1963 - 1969 or 1970 | Death Eater, wife of Rodolphus, second in command of Voldemort, locked up in Azkaban for the same crime of Rodolphus and escaped with him, before being killed at the Battle of Hogwarts. |
| Andromeda Tonks | bt. 1963 and 1965 - 1970 or 1972 | Abandoned the idea of pure-blood superiority and married Muggle-born, Ted Tonks. |
| Narcissa Malfoy | 1965 or 1966 - 1972 or 1973 | The younger sister of Bellatrix and Andromeda, married Death Eater Lucius Malfoy, lied to Voldemort about the death of Harry Potter at the Battle of Hogwarts in order to find her only child, Draco Malfoy. |
| Lucius Malfoy | 1965 - 1972 | Death Eater and husband of Narcissa Malfoy, father of Draco Malfoy who fell out of favour with Voldemort. Later abandoned the Death Eaters at the Battle of Hogwarts in order to find Draco. |
| Avery | c. 1970s | |
| Mulciber | ||
| Evan Rosier | ||
| Wilkes | ||
| Severus Snape | 1971 - 1978 | Potions Professor, then Head of House, Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, and eventually Headteacher. Death Eater who abandoned loyalty for them in order to be a double spy for the Order of the Phoenix, killed by Voldemort at the Battle of Hogwarts in an effort to win the loyalty of the Elder Wand. |
| Regulus Black | c. 1972 or 1979 | Abandoned loyalty to the Death Eaters and attempted to find Voldemort's Horcruxes before being killed in pursuit of Slytherin's Locket. |
| Terence Higgs | bt. 1985 and 1990 - 1991 and 1997 | Seeker for Slytherin during the 1991-1992 school year. |
| Marcus Flint | 1985 - 1994 | |
| Bole | 1988 - 1995 | |
| Derrick | ||
| Miles Bletchley | 1989 or 1990 - 1996 or 1997 | Keeper for Slytherin during the 1991-1992, 1993-1994 and 1995-1996 school year. |
| Montague | 1989 - 1996 | |
| Adrian Pucey | ||
| C. Warrington | ||
| Urquhart | Between 1990 and 1995 - 1996 and 2002 | |
| Vaisey | ||
| Draco Malfoy | Seeker for the Slytherin Quidditch Team from 1992 - 1996. Later made to be a Death Eater and tasked with killing Albus Dumbledore which he failed. Changed mind about being a Death Eater and abandoned them at the Battle of Hogwarts. | |
| Gregory Goyle | ||
| Vincent Crabbe | ||
| Pansy Parkinson | ||
| Millicent Bulstrode | ||
| Tracey Davis | ||
| Theodore Nott | ||
| Daphne Greengrass | ||
| Blaise Zabini | ||
| Harper | 1992 - 1999 | |
| Astoria Greengrass | 1993 - 2000 | |
| Baddock | 1994 - 2001 | |
| Graham Pritchard |
Notes and sources[]
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 5
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 12
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 9
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 23
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 16
- ↑ These students would have graduated in 1998, but the seventh and final year of education was taken over by Voldemort and the Death Eaters, and at the end of the year the Battle of Hogwarts took place. The offer was made for students to come back and take the year again, but it's unknown whether any of these pupils accepted.