Slytherin

If you look at Hogwarts from the outside, you can see and point out the locations of the three great Houses. Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff, all are visible to the naked eye. You have to get inside Hogwarts, however, to see Slytherin.

Beneath the ground floor of the school are mazes of underground tunnels. The Potions classroom is the closest actual room to the castle. Someone who did not know their way could wander in the caverns their whole lives and never figure out where they were. They may not even go anywhere at all, for the passages intersect one another. The uniform stone walls make it difficult to tell if you're going in circles. Only those who know the way will ever find it.

My name is Blaise Zabini. I am a Slytherin attending my sixth year at Hogwarts. Among my peers are some of the names that are destined for history books someday - Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Ernie Macmillan, Terry Boot, and, of course, the Boy-Who-Lived, Harry Potter.

Our common room is gorgeous. It's very long, with a slightly low stone ceiling. Crystal green lamps hang from it. There's always a fire burning in the fireplace, and the mantelpiece above it is incredibly elaborate. In front of the fire are green chairs, high backed (we can't trust each other behind our backs) but very comfortable. Some days I just sit down in front of the fire with a good book and snuggle into the seemingly three-walled chair. I know I'm not the only one. In fact, I am at this very moment sitting in one of those chairs, with this parchment in front of me.

I don't know who you are, or what House you are from. All I ask is for you not to throw this away the moment you see that it was written by a Slytherin.

Slytherin does not deserve the bad reputation it has been given since the rise of Voldemort. Yes, I say his name openly. As Professor Dumbledore says, "fear or a name increases fear of a thing itself.'

I am not a junior Death Eater. In fact, I support Albus Dumbledore and the side of the Light. If any of my fellow Slytherins ever found this, I could be dead quite soon. You see, most of them are, in fact, Voldemort supporters.

Ever since it became well-known that Voldemort was a Slytherin, less and less people wanted to be part of his House. But many of the students who are, today, in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw should have been Sorted into Slytherin.

Every Slytherin knows the name of Weasley. Draco Malfoy, the Prince of Slytherin, speaks of them enough. He mocks them for being Gryffindors. However, many of them, especially the ones I knew, should have come to us.

Percy Weasley. Ambitious, intelligent, willing to give up his family to get ahead at his job (Ron Weasley talks too loudly to NOT be overheard). He would have done well with us. Though he now lacks the cunning, we would have instilled it into him had he spent seven years in the Serpent's Nest rather than the Lion's Den.

Fred and George Weasley. Had they spent their years here, they would have been even better pranksters than they were upon leaving us. They had the trickery, the cunning, the intelligence, and the ambition to get in. They knew what had to be done when it had to be done. And they would have been such a credit to our Quidditch team - it's every Captain's dream to have a pair of twins as their Beaters (since they often seem to share one mind, the only thing better would be a set of triplets as Chasers).

Even Ronald could have been one of us. He seems to resent his family, how their poorness lowers the status of their family. He wants to stand out from his family, to be greater than all of them. Slytherin could have been great for him.

Miss Ginerva Weasley. My insight to the Gryffindor Tower. After Fudge had finally accepted the fact that Voldemort had returned, I knew it would only be a matter of time before the school as a whole began looking upon us with disdain. So I did something that no other Slytherin would have done, because I was the only one who didn't want that to happen. I sent letters to members of other Houses - Terry Boot, Ginny Weasley, and Zacharias Smith. I purposefully picked out the three who were closest to my age, and had the most acceptable qualities, by Slytherin standards. Boot was a Ravenclaw, the most liked house of Slytherin, as well as intelligent and a Prefect. Smith was a cynical, sarcastic youth who was liked by the most accepting of our House. But my choice in Ginerva startled even me for a second. Why not Granger, the most intelligent? It was more than the fact that Granger was Muggleborn and Ginny was pureblood.

Those of you that think that the knowledge of Ginny's incident with the Dark Lord in her first year is known only to a select few Gryffindors are solely mistaken. Any student can find out many things, as long as they can be quiet and listen closely. Ginny Weasley had intrigued me for the longest time. The Hat took a very long time to Sort her until it finally placed her in Gryffindor. Now I know that it may have been Riddle's influence on her that confused the Hat, but it may not have been solely due to Voldemort. Ginny is a bright girl, pureblooded and determined. She is cunning in her own way, and probably could have done well in Slytherin. She is also open and accepting, and would be the most likely to talk to a Slytherin, even though it is plain to everyone that I am no friend of Malfoy.

Perhaps I was lucky in my choice of Ginny rather than Hermione. Had I chosen Hermione, Ronald would have known very soon. It's quite disgusting, how the two of them are all over each other. Then again, it took them long enough to realize their feelings for each other. It's been clear to me since at least second year. Ginny is intelligent enough to keep secrets from everyone, including her nosy brother who is so anti-Slytherin.

The truth about Slytherin is that we are not all like Malfoy or Voldemort. The greatest Aurors, the best Ministers of Magic, the most famous wizards of the past, many of them have been Slytherins. Yes, Salazar Slytherin did not want Muggleborns to be part of his House. However, anyone who studies proper history - wizarding or Muggle - knows that during the period of time during which Hogwarts was founded, the attitude of Muggles towards wizards was terrible. This was the period of time known as the Witch Hunts, when many people, wizard and Muggle, were being killed because they were suspected of being witches. He was concerned for the safety of our kind. Any Muggleborn, or the parents of that Muggleborn, could have easily given Hogwarts and its inhabitants to the faggots (and by faggots, I mean the bundles of sticks burnt at the stake, not the silly American term for homosexual men).

So I contacted these three, these representatives of their Houses. I greeted them, as one wizard to another, as an equal. I explained to them what I was doing, and that I wanted them to know that not all Slytherins were minions of Voldemort. The responses I got varied.

Boot was friendly, but cautious. He asked me why I had just contacted him, and not earlier. He stated that he respected my choice, but he wanted to know what ulterior motive I had. Smith wanted proof. He wanted to know exactly why he should talk to me, and wanted to know why I contact him instead of another Hufflepuff.

Ginny surprised me by exceeding my expectations for her response. She didn't trust me immediately, and like the other two, needed proof. But we became pen pals quickly. She was quite sneaky - it was her suggestion that I not sign my name as 'Blaise Zabini' or mention the fact that I was a Slytherin in my letters at all anymore, lest her family discover our correspondence. We quickly figured out a code to write in, masking what we really were saying. Soon we discovered all that we had in common, like our similar love of Tolkein.

What, you didn't think that all wizards had absolutely no knowledge of the Muggle world? Tolkein is one of the wizarding world's favorite fantasy authors, Muggle or not.

But anyway, I'm getting off topic again. Ginny and I became fast friends. One of the first things I asked her for was the truth about her first year. She was surprised I knew as much as I did, but she told me. She really opened up to me. I see her quite often around the castle, and we even sometimes do prefect rounds together. (Tracey Davis and I replaced Malfoy and Parkinson as prefects this year. Professor Snape told us that it was a unanimous decision by all the teachers, including him, to replace the two of them.) I can see how she's blossomed, from a little first-year possessed by Voldemort with a crush on Harry Potter. She's become a beautiful young lady, intelligent as a Ravenclaw, loyal as a Hufflepuff, cunning as a Slytherin, yet still in her heart she is Gryffindor.

I hope that all of you reading this will understand my motives. I just wanted the world to know that Slytherin is not as bad as many make it out to be. We are no different from any of you. Some of us have just gotten our ideals a bit confused. Even the self-appointed Prince and Princess of Slytherin (Malfoy and Parkinson) are as far away from the quintessential Slytherin as you can get and still be Slytherin.

Would it surprise you to know that Alastor Moody was a Slytherin? He was, in fact, Head Boy during his final year at Hogwarts, and now he's one of the greatest Aurors. It is Moody, not Riddle, who truly defines our House. He is cunning, intelligent, retains information, thinks before acting, seeks revenge, and suspicious of everything. He has become slightly paranoid, but he does have the right.

Whoever you are, reading this, I just want you to know the truth behind Slytherin House - and furthermore, how I come to draw the conclusions I've drawn. That's why I've included the information about Ginny - so that you know where I got most of my information from.

To the history books of the future, my name may be forgotten. However, I hope that even if you reading this have never heard my name before, that you have now gleaned a more positive attitude towards Slytherin House. If you wish to share this, please do.

May your generation live a life of peace, devoid of darkness and with no need for a hero the likes of Harry Potter. Should you ever have need for one, may s/he come to you quickly. Remember to always look beyond what you have been taught, and never accept anything for exactly what it seems to be.

For that, in truth, is the essence of Slytherin.