do you ever think about how unfair life at Hogwarts was for 1st year Slytherins.
small, defenseless, terrified children who are coming into Hogwarts for the first time, surrounded by people they don’t know and magic they’ve never seen, undergoing a Sorting they’ve only heard rumors about. They’re booed when the Hat (there’s a hat??? there’s a voice in their heads??) calls out “Slytherin!” and even before then, hear the rumors about the House that spawns dark wizards and evil magic. on the train they hear people chattering about the goodness, the bravery of gryffindors, the intelligence of ravenclaws, the kindness of hufflepuffs. they hear about the wickedness and the hateful ambition of slytherins (as if ambition were a thing to be feared, that ambition was something wicked and wrong)
for the first months, they’re surrounded by hostility – upperclassmen wearing scarlet, navy, yellow shooting them dirty looks and intimidating them with size and petty pranks. any attempts to reach out and befriend their peers is met with distrust and falsehood. at every turn, they are met with side glances and whispers.
even teachers side against them. they are blamed for instigating fights (they were only trying to protect themselves!) and where another student would have been reprimanded for forgetting assignments, they are sent to detention. teachers like hagrid, who, though kindhearted and good, still wholeheartedly believe that a house is capable of spawning nothing but evil.
do you ever think about how unfair it is to 1st year slytherins, who are blamed and hated for who they are? that the idea of a teacher favoring them is met with outrage, when other teachers consistently are biased against them? they are rebuffed when they try to befriend others, and they are blamed when they seek comfort amongst their housemates.
is it any wonder that slytherins leave hogwarts with a “fuck you” attitude and no respect for the notion of house unity?