RELATED: Things Hogwarts Legacy Players Might Have Missed In Slytherin's Common RoomFounded by Salazar Slytherin, this particularly snakey house has a very bad reputation throughout Harry Potter. It's even been considered the evil house. The reasons for how other houses perceive them are complicated.
Slytherin doesn't mean evil! Some Slytherins have avoided becoming the worst of the worst. The question of what makes a Slytherin not fully evil essentially amounts to whether they embraced wizard fascism or not, either by following Lord Voldemort or pursuing purist policies in government.
Although there are strengths to every house, Hufflepuff house in particular often comes up short. While the other houses seem cool and invite a certain allure, Hufflepuff is a little different. Often considered the least desirable of all the sorting options, here are some reasons why Hufflepuff house is the worst.
Worst: Lucius Malfoy
Lucius Malfoy is pretty clearly a bad person, but he's a perfect example of how banal cruelty and evilness can be. Lucius likes to control, humiliate, and cause people pain, but he's also too weak and self-absorbed to really become one of the evil "greats," so to speak.
Severus Snape, Horace Slughorn, Andromeda Tonks, Narcissa Malfoy and Regulus Black were all Slytherin heroes in their own way, if you think about it. And Merlin – as in, yes, King Arthur's advisor and the most famous wizard in history – was a Slytherin.
In the Chamber itself, we see a large statue of a wizard, which Harry presumes is Salazar Slytherin. We also meet Tom Riddle, who is, as it turns out, the heir of Slytherin.
Unfortunately, Slytherin has constantly been associated with evil witches and wizards. Most of this negativity surrounding Slytherin came because of the rise of Lord Voldemort and his followers, the Death Eaters.
Once again, the narrative takes time to paint even Slytherins who don't fight for Lord Voldemort as selfish, self-serving, and cowardly. This makes their house an easy target for feelings of ill-will from characters within the series and even from fans. Hence, the reputation that Slytherin has of being evil as a whole.
Slytherins have a fear of failure since their cunning mentalities encourage them to be perfect at all times. Repeated failures are what people of the house are really afraid of, though, because it opens up the possibility for them to consider that they might be weak in some way.
Gryffindor's often thought of as the best house, as it's the focus of Harry's time at Hogwarts. Hufflepuff is stereotyped as a house for pushovers and Ravenclaw for bookworms. Finally, Slytherin is thought of as the 'evil' house.
Gryffindor. Gryffindor house is where you would find the pluckiest and most daring students (there's a reason the house symbol is the brave lion). The house colours are scarlet and gold, the common room lies up in Gryffindor Tower and the Head of House is Professor Minerva McGonagall.
The game introduced the new Gryffindor Keeper Ron Weasley and was won by Gryffindor, meaning that Gryffindor had continued to defeat Slytherin in every game since Harry Potter joined the team in 1991.
Slytherins and Hufflepuffs share a bond that is nothing short of being platonic soulmates. Hufflepuffs are the only ones patient enough to really get to know someone without any judgment. Since Slytherins are often on edge, they truly appreciate the safe space that Hufflepuffs create.
Hufflepuffs. Hufflepuffs are the opposite of Slytherins because they are eager to build a consensus that everyone can live with.
The popularity of Slytherin house may be because many fans simply don't buy into the idea that the Slytherins are nothing but a rotten bunch. Instead, they may be misunderstood students with values that are often skewed to seem worse than they really are.
This ambition and drive makes Slytherins pretty single-minded in their pursuits – from Horace Slughorn trying to make friends with the great and good of the wizarding world to Voldemort trying to take it over, they definitely do not give up easily.
The traits that get you placed into Slytherin are ambition, resourcefulness, determination, and cleverness. An association with villainous characters and elitism has given Slytherin the reputation of being an evil house. Hogwarts houses, however, no longer signify just a fictional construct in a beloved series.
Slytherin is also the best house due to their house quality: ambition. With this trait, Slytherin people make sure that they stay alive unlike their counterparts in Gryffindor. Gryffindor's characteristic is bravery. Bravery might not seem terrible, but it is possible to be too brave (which countless Gryffindors are).
It's pretty obvious: J.K. Rowling is a Slytherin. According to the Harry Potter Wiki, a Slytherin is known to embody the following characteristics: ambition, shrewdness, cunning, strong leadership, and achievement-orientedness. "They also have highly developed senses of self-preservation.
You should always be proud of your house. It's the choices we make that determines who we are. Just because you have been sorted into Slytherin, doesn't mean you will be a bad person. You should not be ashamed at all!!!! in fact, you should feel special and proud, you know what happened one day?
Dumbledore did not hate Slytherins, after all, he befriended some of his most outstanding members, and trusted Snape with his life. However, he didn't seem as fond of them as he was of Gryffindor, or better said, of Harry.
Moaning Myrtle
Born in the late 1920s to Muggle parents, Myrtle Warren started her Hogwarts life in the early 1940s, where she was sorted into Ravenclaw.
Harry Potter came very close to being sorted into Slytherin before he persuaded the Hat to sort him into Gryffindor. Yet the spectre of Slytherin haunted him for some time afterwards, becoming particularly potent in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, when he was rumoured to be the heir of Slytherin.
Neither of them is Slytherin's heir. Although, as Dumbledore says, Harry's ability to speak Parseltongue is a skill accidentally transferred by Slytherin's actual heir, Voldemort, when he tried to kill Harry as a baby. So perhaps this is one myth with a bit of truth to it.