J.K. Rowling clearly intended Slytherin House to play the role of antagonist to the heros of the story, Harry and his friends, who are all in Gryffindor. She depicts Slytherin in unflattering terms every chance she gets. For example, Flint, the captain of the Slytherin quidditch team, "had a look of trollish cunning." Pansy Parkinson is described as "a hard-faced Slytherin girl." Draco Malfoy, who is Harry's enemy since a face-off on the first train ride to Hogwarts, spends much of his time going out of his way to taunt Harry and other Gryffindors who are only minding their own business. It is easy to forget that their emnity began when Draco was introducing himself and "Ron gave a slight cough which might have been hiding a snigger." This led to Draco insulting Ron and offering Harry friendship which would exclude Ron and Harry refusing to take Draco's hand. Professor Snape is shown being flagrantly unfair to Gryffindors. Hagrid warns us in the very beginning, "There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one." We receive many hints that many Slytherins are still blatent Death Eaters or at least on their side. Draco Malfoy is on record of warning Harry to be more "polite" or end up like his parents. In the last book he even taunts Harry that he is on the wrong side. At the final feast of the term, when everyone is giving Harry a standing ovation for his heroism in fighting Lord Voldemort, "Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and many of the other Slytherins ... remained defiantly in their seats, their goblets untouched." The very founder of the house, Salazar Slytherin, built the Chamber of Secrets to be opened by his heir in order to kill "mudbloods," wizards and witches whose parents were muggles. Lee Jordan says, "The Heir of Slytherin, the monster of Slytherin - why don't they just chuck all the Slytherins out?" The members of the other three houses distrust Slytherin and long to see them defeated in the contest for the House Cup.

 Inspite of all this, the house of slytherin has inspired a small but passionately loyal group of supporters. Professor Snape is the cause for many people's interest in Slytherin. His complexity, depth and mystery have captured the imagination of many Harry Potter fans. A smaller group of fans have rallied around Draco Malfoy. A still smaller group are into Voldemort and the Death Eaters. And some just love the mystique of Slytherin as a whole. What does Slytherin have that can't be found in the other three houses? If Ravenclaws are smart and Gryffindors are brave and Hufflepuffs are loyal and hard-working, what is Slytherin's special quality? Ambition? Cunning? Or does it go deeper than that?

 In my opinion, the four houses correspond to the four elements, earth, air, fire and water (which, in turn, correspond to the four directions, four seasons, etc.). Gryffindor is obviously Fire, South, Summer, the three firey signs of the Zodiac, Aries, Leo and Saggitarius. They are the courageous ones, the swashbucklers, the adventurous, the impulsive. Ravenclaw corresponds to Air, East, Spring, the signs of Gemini, Libra and Aquarius. They are most involved in the mind, ideas, thoughts, concepts. Hufflepuff corresponds to Earth, North, Winter, and the signs Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn. They are the earthly ones, honest, steadfast and loyal. They have no guile and do things the hard way, building things in actual physical manifestation. That leaves Slytherin with Water, West, Autumn and Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces. They are the most subtle house whose motives are shrouded in mystery. Water is very mystical and intuitive. It is a beautiful element. But one can see how, even in it's negative form, Slytherin bears the characteristics of Water. Subtle, indirect, deep and sometimes underhanded, Water can take the form of ice, rain, steam, a rushing stream, the mighty ocean or a deadly potion.

Clearly, all four elements are needed for the sake of completeness. A witches circle cannot ignore one of the four directions and neither can a magical school. Of the four houses, Slytherin is the most often
misunderstood and feared.

 Since we need all the elements and therefore all the elements are "positive" on a fundamental level and, since a certain number of young wizards every year is going to be Slytherins at heart, it behooves Hogwarts to let us be who we are. As Goethe said in Faust, in the "Prologue in Heaven," Mephistopheles serves his divine purpose by spurring on mankind, giving him problems to overcome. "Man is continually striving, and, striving, he must err." It is through our striving and even our errors that we achieve wisdom. And nobody strives more than the Slytherin.

 Besides the subtlety, the cunning and the ambition of Slytherin, a large part of Slytherin's mystique is the darkness, the sense of forbidden territories, even evil. The serpent is traditionally feared in the West. But where fear is, attraction also lurks. Western civilization is highly dualistic in separating "good" and "evil." We must be good at all cost and condemn evil. But good and evil are both part of the universe and are within everyone. The more we repress and estrange the parts of ourselves that we fear, the more dangerous,
threatening and, yes, glamorous it becomes.

 If Slytherin is part of the whole school, it is, perhaps, analogous to the Jungian shadow, the part of our psyche that we have trouble acknowledging. But refusal to acknowledge our shadow deprives us of vital energy. The shadow has something we need and so may it be with Slytherin. As Matthew Fox said, the "very act of entering darkness, to befriend it, becomes a profoundly healing event."

 The wholeness of Hogwarts, either online or in the books, requires the participation of all four houses. Slytherin, already having qualities that are hard to understand, is laboring under the additional burden of having been made the "bad" house in the books. But, without us, Hogwarts could not be whole. And without our qualities, neither would the human psyche.