In The End
Slytherins.
Always attributed to acts of random hatred and violence, always starting fights, always the bane of existence at Hogwarts. Gryffindor versus Slytherin, the biggest rivalry Hogwarts had ever known. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, not so much. But the other two melted in with Gryffindor, uniting in a mutual hate against the Slytherins.
Well. The dear Gryffindors were hardly perfect.
What about that time Gregory Goyle had been hit by a random jinx that caused his toenails to start growing so long they burst from his shoe? True, no jinx had been yelled but that Harry Potter was wearing the smuggest grin ever seen.
And then that time dear Harry chucked a firecracker into a Slytherin cauldron, making Swelling Solution explode all over mostly Slytherins?
Or when Harry Potter, hero, Chosen One, had cut Draco Malfoy open across the chest?
What about the time perfect Hermione Granger had punched Draco in the jaw?
Or when Dumbledore gave Gryffindor just enough points to beat Slytherin, giving Neville Longbottom points for something no other teacher would have even given a second glance?
And they called Professor Snape biased.
Slytherins would always be hated, just by being sorted into a House because of their ambition. Maybe it did turn out the most dark wizards – but then again, couldn't that be expected when the whole school united against them? Slytherin had to put up walls, put up barriers. Else wise, they'd never survive. Sure, Draco, Gregory and Vincent had dressed up as dementors to try to scare Potter. It wasn't like it did anything.
Yes, most Slytherins were biased against Mudbloods and blood traitors. But did they group a whole House as one because of one single person in it? No. Was it such a sin to want to keep generations of magic alive, to want to keep a proud wizarding tradition alive? It wasn't like the rest of the wizards were that fond of Muggles, and to grow up like one then claim to have magic was…wrong.
It was a pity, really. The wizards were separated from the rest of the world. Then they hated each other within itself, from Mudbloods to blood traitors to Slytherins, the wizarding world was torn apart at the seams. All those preformed prejudices, all the cuts in the fabric of the wizarding community, and everyone acts so surprised when someone comes along and tears the fabric up all together.
Voldemort didn't destroy the wizarding world. The wizarding world has been fighting a never ending civil war for generations. The wizarding world was destroying itself.
Voldemort just helped it along.
And then there was that stain to the Slytherin name, Voldemort. They act as though there had never been bad wizards from the other houses. Slytherin just was the unlucky ones to have the man who would help the wizarding world collapse among itself. Besides, his views were respectable, even if his actions weren't so much so.
It was going to happen in the end. Might as well align yourself with the winning side before you get hurt.
"We Slytherins are brave, yes, but we are not stupid. For Instance, given the choice, we will always choose to save our own necks…"
Why waste energy on heroics, if in the end, you were lying in a corpse and the person or people you save hugged their family, giving the smallest corner of their hearts and mind to their savior, to completely disappear whenever overwhelmed.
Yes, Slytherins would choose to save their own necks. But only because their necks were worth so, so much.
Let the Gryffindors jump off cliffs for their friends. The Slytherins would smirk in the background, knowing one thing that kept them going. They won in the end.
Yes. They won in the end.