Slytherin gets a bad rap. And I get it.

I mean, we spend the entirety of the Harry Potter novels celebrating Gryffindor since that's the house our main trio hails from. Also, Draco Malfoy is a Slytherin and he and his friends make Harry's life as difficult as possible for seven whole books. That's hard to forgive. To be quite honest, the main people who love Slytherin are fanfiction authors and people who wanna bone Tom Felton.

But the mainstream Harry Potter narrative erases the Slytherins who didn't even know Draco Malfoy like that. The ones who weren't even trying to be included in this whole war nonsense. It ignores the Slytherins who came before and after Harry Potter's time at Hogwarts, those who weren't participants in a culture that celebrated blood purity. What about the poor Slytherins? The kind Slytherins?

Allow me to clear up some Slytherin misconceptions and prove that Slytherin is, in fact, the best house.

15 We only think we hate Slytherins because Gryffindors said so.

Harry Potter is only 11 years old when Hagrid tells him that wizards who go bad are often Slytherins. And he believes him, even though Hagrid is frequently wrong (Aragog, anyone?). Later, Harry meets Ron Weasley, who reaffirms this anti-Slytherin propaganda and convinces him to settle for literally any other house.

In the same way that Republicans and Democrats often make sweeping generalizations about each other, I think Gryffindors just love talking smack about Slytherin (and vice versa). It's the thing to do. Meanwhile, you never catch Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff coming at each other.

Maybe if we weren't introduced to bitter Gryffindors at the beginning of Harry Potter, we'd think positively about Slytherin house.

14 Harry Potter is lowkey a Slytherin.

The sorting hat places Harry in Slytherin but our hero thinks he knows better in his first week as a wizard. And we're talking 1991, before Google and school websites could give him an unbiased understanding of house characteristics. So he's heard the term Slytherin maybe three times, and feels confident making a decision that will affect him for the next seven years.

He even double checks a year later and the sorting hat is like, "yup, I stand by my decision." I don't know when we started unquestionably trusting the judgment of preteen boys, but I think that means the savior of the entire wizarding world is technically a Slytherin. Which would suggest that greatness and Slytherin go hand in hand.

13 Snape was highkey a Slytherin.

We spend 80% of the Harry Potter experience hating Snape but it turns out there's nobody doper than him. He assists Dumbledore in the quest to stop Voldemort, he protects Lily Potter's only son (even though she marries his high school bully), and all with barely any recognition. He even positions himself close to the Dark Lord to get insider information for the Order of the Phoenix.

If our idea of Slytherin is that it's full of wizards who go dark, we're just ignoring that some of the key players in the second war (and in the general wizarding world) were Slytherins. And it totally goes against all of the Gryffindors who act like Slytherin breeds bad wizards.

12 Merlin was also a Slytherin.

Okay, this is the last powerful wizard I'll discuss but he gives a different level of credibility to Slytherin house. Merlin is the most famous wizard in history. His face is on a chocolate frog card and he probably studied under Salazar Slytherin himself. In addition to all of that, he was incredibly compassionate to Muggles. Not in a performative way. Not like he simply preferred not to cause them harm. Merlin was one of few wizards in history who selflessly loved muggles.

He founded the Order of Merlin, which was a pro-muggle organization. The Order specifically sought to help muggles, promote muggle rights, and created rules against using magic on them. He just wanted muggles and wizards to live peacefully. This is interesting to note since everyone thinks Slytherins are always anti-muggle and pro-purebloods. It proves that Slytherin housed some kindhearted wizards, not just the powerful.

11 Other houses had some awful wizards, too.

I don't know how the "bad wizard" rap never extended to other houses. Like, I think Peter Pettigrew is up there with Lucius Malfoy, and he's a Gryffindor. Plus, he was a total punk and an annoying people pleaser. Without Peter Pettigrew, we could've avoided the entire second wizarding war.

Then there's Quirinus Quirrell, who tried to steal the Sorcerer's stone in Harry's first year but ultimately failed to contribute to Voldemort's comeback. He was still down with killing an eleven-year-old boy, though, which speaks for itself. He tried multiple times and he was a Ravenclaw.

This fact, paired with examples like Merlin, Snape, and Harry, prove that good and evil are not traits that belong specifically to a house. They belong to individual wizards.

10 Slytherins were brave AF, even though they rarely get credit for it.

 

Besides Merlin, Harry, and Snape, we had a bunch of brave wizards hailing from Slytherin. During the final battle of the second war, everyone underestimated Horace Slughorn. They thought he ran away from Hogwarts because he was terrified but he ended up grabbing reinforcements at and coming back to defend the castle. He took down a few dark wizards, too, like a boss.

Then there's Regulus Black. Sure, he had a bumpy start. He was a Death Eater so he had some pretty messed up ideologies. On the flip side, he was always kind to  Sirius even as the rest of the Black family hated him for being a "blood traitor" so I suspect there was lowkey goodness in him. Regulus finally realized that the Dark Lord was crazy, managed to locate and destroy one of his horcruxes, and ultimately died trying to stop him. There's nothing braver than looking death in the eye to save the rest of the world.

But of course, everyone says Gryffindors are the brave ones.

9 Slytherins get shit done.

 

The sorting hat literally says, "those cunning folk use any means to achieve their ends." Traditionally, Slytherins are smart and ambitious. While it's often described in a negative context, what it really means is that they go after their goals. Sure, they're schemers, but they do what they gotta do. And as I've already discussed, they're deviousness doesn't necessarily equate to evilness. Who isn't devious sometimes?

They're the movers, the pushers, the creators, and the masterminds. They also like to keep other ambitious people in their circles, so they'll always motivate their friends to go after what they want. This makes them a great support system and they're definitely the people you want to grab a drink at Hogsmeade with to celebrate a job well done.

8 Slytherins are rulebreakers.

Slytherins have always treated the rules like a suggestion. This was something Salazar Slytherin prized in his students and the house has maintained that tradition of misbehavior ever since. Interestingly, that's the main part of Harry Potter's character that led to him saving the world or whatever.

In his first year, when the rule was to stay out of the third floor corridor, Harry made sure to spend a large chunk of time there. Same goes for the forbidden forest, the girls' bathroom, Hogsmeade before he had permission, etc. There isn't a single year that Harry didn't break a rule and it was all to stop the Dark Lord from destroying everything.

Since ultimately, Harry opted for Gryffindor, we can focus on actual Slytherins too. Like Andromeda Tonks, who ignored the rules of her family to marry a muggleborn, or Snape, who lied to Headmistress Umbridge when she demanded truth serum from him.

Slytherins know that it's healthy to break rules sometimes and they're even better people because of it.

7 They're survivors.

Self-preservation is important to Slytherin house. While this is often described as cowardice, I'll chalk that up to another example of Gryffindor propaganda. Phineas Nigellus said it best: "We Slytherins are brave, yes, but not stupid. For instance, when given the choice, we will always choose to save our own necks."

Slytherins are just trying to do whatever possible to live. That's only a negative if you value great self-sacrifice and recklessness, which sounds like a Gryffindor trait if you ask me. Maybe they're more inclined to weigh their options and they're not into unnecessary risk but before Harry Potter those were good things.

6 They love to win.

 

Slytherins are into achievements so they're competitive AF. Maybe that's why they're the sorest losers you'll ever meet, although if you had the kind of luck they did once Harry Potter got to Hogwarts, you'd be sore too.

Remember when Draco stole Harry's rememberall and lured him into a pseudo-Quidditch match? Yeah, they're always up for a challenge.

Slytherins might not always win but they sure give it their best shot and that's what's awesome about them. You'll want these people on your Quidditch team (or any team for that matter). And since they're always playing to win, they often do.

5 They're natural leaders.

 

Slytherins love power. Whether that means Prefect, Head Boy, or starting their own company, they will always find a way to be the ones on top. Sure, they do it to push their own agenda but they can't help it! Slytherins legitimately think their ideas are the best so they want to convince as many other people as possible. They think it's a public service. And nobody complained when Merlin was leading the Muggle rights movement!

Even if you consider Voldemort, he was a bad dude but an influential leader. He seized control of the whole wizarding world, meaning a better Slytherin would have exerted that authority in the opposite direction. Iconic.

4 They're loyal to the right people.

 

The Death Eaters were a loyal bunch. They were evil, yes, but loyal. And many of them were Slytherins. It comes from a natural respect for other people in power, as long as that power meshes with their own ideals of course. Perhaps it played itself out in the worst possible way with Team Voldemort, but then there were Slytherins like Snape who risked everything for Dumbledore.

With that in mind, Slytherins are not going to follow just any powerful person. They won't follow anyone blindly. Instead, they're going to ally themselves with leaders who are making the changes they want to see. They're going to hold that person accountable and like Regulus Black, they're not afraid to jump ship.

3 They're sneaky.

 

Slytherins are supposed to be super devious and sneaky but I don't think that's a bad thing. When you take into consideration that Snape was a triple agent for years, it's clear that sneakiness on the side of good is necessary and important. Like, nobody criticizes James Bond for it and I bet he would've made a great Slytherin.

Being sneaky or devious really just means that Slytherins are quick on their feet and willing to think outside of the box. They bend the rules to fit their needs and they don't have an angel on their shoulder telling them to be afraid of that. Plus, they're convincing liars. When Narcissa tells the Dark Lord that Harry Potter is dead, she's literally looking the most powerful wizard she knows in the eye and giving him her best lie. And he buys it, so she must be good.

2 They have the strongest minds.

Slytherins love their privacy. And while there are many wizards, like Voldemort himself, who can see into other people's minds, it's mostly Slytherins who can protect themselves from such attacks. This skill is called Occlumency.

It's crazy that Slytherins are so good at it because it's not even taught in school. It's hard, few people know how to do it, and it requires mental and emotional discipline. Harry had to take private lessons for it and was honestly never good (so maybe he does in fact belong in Gryffindor).

Occlumency is achieved by clearing the mind and suppressing your thoughts and emotions. So perhaps Slytherins are good at it because they don't like to wear their emotions on their sleeve. Or maybe it comes from a chronic fear of letting others in. Either way, some Slytherins who slay occlumency are Bellatrix Lestrange, Severus Snape, and Draco Malfoy.

1 Slytherins learn from their experiences.

 

For some reason, being snakelike is only associated with being sinister. Which Slytherins totally are sometimes, don't get me wrong, but they're also the most fluid people you'll ever meet. And that's important too because when you think of the way snakes shed their old skins, you'll understand how Slytherins can grow out of past identities in the same way. They're adaptable so they're willing to take any situation and learn from it, they're willing to shift and respect change.

Slytherin growth is most obvious when you view the culture as a whole. The house was created by Salazar Slytherin, who promoted blood purity to the max. He passed those beliefs down and though it's been hard to separate them from the house, Slytherins are finally unlearning harmful attitudes against muggles and muggleborn wizards. Even Draco Malfoy refuses to raise his children in that culture of hatred.