The Social Realities of Slytherin

Trying to write down my bizarre little Alan Rickman dream last night, and I got completely sidetracked by thoughts of pro-Slytherin writers.

There's this tiny little contingent out there that has taken the idea of a very class-conscious House, and turned the Slytherins into something so very completely different from the other three houses. The example I'm thinking of was a saga set in Slytherin during Dumbledore's tenure as a student at Hogwarts, and his younger brother was sorted as Slytherin. I wish I could remember the URL, but it sort of fades in with all the other Fiction Alley stories I've read in the last couple of months. It's a rather extreme case, with the Head of House asking a student for a detailed analysis of the consequences of his actions in befriending Dumbledore's, younger, muggle-born brother. Other stories I've seen take the same sort of idea, where the Slytherins are regimented and disciplined so much more than the other houses.

And really. Good grief! They're just kids!

I'll grant Slytherins with a certain degree of awareness of rank and class, given the ambitious nature of the house, but regimented? Disciplined? These are seething balls of hormones between the ages of 11 and 18. The younger members of the house haven't completely gotten over the inherent selfishness of little children, and the older members are trying to out-do each other in the traditional high school mating dance. Add in a house that encourages ambition and you've got *less* of a chance of an organized status within the house.

You're more likely to see that sort of thing in Hufflepuff, which values (and likely, rewards) hard work.

I've got a friend who works in Washington DC for a Senator. She's not an ambitious person, and hearing all of the back-biting and in-fighting and juvenile status-conscious crap she deals with makes me think that Slytherin (and the Ministry) is going to be much the same way.

So. I'll read those sorts of stories with an amused suspension of disbelief, but lurking in my hindbrain is a little snicker at the unlikeliness of it all.

Dark Wizards and Witches, Buffy-style

We hear from Ron Weasley (a biased observer at best) that every single Dark Wizard came from Slytherin. Makes sense, yes, the Darkest desires coming from the house of Ambition? I'll grant a large percentage to Slytherin, but that's still limited to the Dark Wizards who attended Hogwarts in the last millennia or so. And I think I've come up with a lovely counter-example:

Cordelia Chase. Tell me in the first season of Buffy she's not a Slytherin. Rich, class/status-conscious, ambitious for fame and glory, and completely oblivious to the scurrying peons beneath her notice. Remind you of Draco, perchance?

Willow Rosenberg. Complete nerd, the epitome of a Ravenclaw in study habits and social graces. You could perhaps argue her into Hufflepuff or Gryffindor, but certainly not Slytherin.

And which one turned to Dark Magic and nearly caused an apocalypse?

Another example of a Ravenclaw/Gryffindor turned to Dark Magic (but not neccessarily classified as a Dark Wizard) would be Wesley. He starts off as such a Percy... and I think I just broke my brain trying to picture Percy all scruffy and growly fucking Lilah up against a wall.

Avoidance tactics

The guy who usually covers Harborview needed to get some things done at the U, so my boss asked me to come over here to the pit of hell (tower of hell?) for the morning.

I've already pulled out my earplugs and actually used them. (for all of fifteen minutes, until N came up to ask me a question.)

I only remembered it as I was heading out the door this morning (despite writing it down on my calendar) and if I'd remembered last night, I would seriously have considered seeing the 7am show of the Matrix with my brother. I could have watched it, wandered into work an hour or so late (not that anyone would have noticed, as it's a) Harborview and b) not my regular day. Alas. I'm thinking at this point I'll just wait for a Saturday morning/matinee at the Cinerama, and maybe finally see what the big deal is with the theatre.

I love my brother, but I'll admit to more than a little relief when he and Lucy have gone and cleared their stuff from the living room. I was just getting into a morning routine of yoga when she arrived, and it'll be nice to recover from the explosion of climbing and hiking gear that's been cluttering the downstairs. Dru will be back in a month, job-hunting after his climb, but job-hunting's a little less gear-intensive (dry-cleaning his good suit instead of washing his down sleeping bag in the tub) and he's offered to help cover utilities while holed up in the tiny room in the basement.

I've been a little more hermit-ish, the last week especially. The house isn't really big enough for five, and Ali's been a dear, spending so much time with Nevada. The weekend was lovely, with a little bit of gaming and corn chowder over at Nemo's, and a whole afternoon in the sun on Sunday. Ah. Sun. The next few days aren't looking good, but I can hope for glints of gold hiding in the grey.

My personal email is piling up. I have a nasty habit of letting it sit over the weekend, and this Monday I didn't have time to breathe, Tuesday is my new Monday with the morning tech meeting and then setting off at a sprint to take care of things that people at the U expected me to do Monday while I was at Harborview. Ick. Add in today doing half/half duty, and the week is just fucked over a table without lube. Whee!

Purge

Lovely. I've managed to delete all the spam and other crap I'm not going to read out of my email. (Which is a prelude to actually reading it.) Almost half. Lord, that's just depressing.

Soon to scoot to the U and work my tail off for the afternoon.

Ahh! Hail!

I got hailed on! It was sunny right before I finished up my emails (sorry - work-related) and headed out - I get outside just as it starts hailing! In May! On my head! And then, by the time the shuttle reaches the U? No more rain! Ah! The injustice of it all!

FYI: Article in the P-I

Dru mentioned this article in the local paper about fanfic. Heavy Harry Potter mention, but it's probably the most visible of the fandoms the author ran into.