Question about Slytherin house for Harry Potter fans?
I’m not sure I’d say JK Rowling herself is biased against Slytherin… rather, I think her purpose was to stress that nearly everyone at Hogwarts was biased against them… from the students, all the way up to the headmaster. In some ways, it’s a self-fullfilling prophecy. Everyone expects them to be bad seeds, so it’s not especially surprising when some of them find their way into that very role. It was no coincidence that Peter Pettigrew, probably the worst traitor in the series, was in Gryffindor, and not Slytherin. JKR did that on purpose to drive home the point that sometimes a stereotype is just a stereotype. When you spend all your time watching the “bad guys” you might end up getting stabbed in the back by someone you consider a friend. It’s also no coincidence that in the end, Draco didn’t turn out to be nearly as bad as his two thugs, Crabbe and Goyle… nor that Snape (the very definition of a Slytherin) was one of the series’ biggest heroes.
